Bartender Fail: A good bartender, waitperson or sommelier knows that he’s not doing the customers “a favor” to serve them, but that they’re doing him a favor by being there. That but for the customers, he would have no job. And in today’s economy, especially, there are 10 people just waiting to take his job.
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Another Wine Byte 7: You Say Meritage…
So many people want to put an implied French pronunciation on the word “Meritage.” And it’s always fun when it’s someone acting like a know-it-all. What many don’t know is that the word “Meritage” is a word used to distinguish that are made in the style of red Bordeaux but without infringing on that region’s legally protected designation of origin.
Continue readingPlease Don’t Spill Burgundy on My Brassiere
Given that the TSA has decided we can no longer carry on liquids over 3 ounces and they must fit into one little quart-sized bag and we tend to have enough hair care products to max that out, what are we to do if we find some fabulous wine that we want to enjoy at a later date, in the comfort of our own home?
Continue readingThe Grapes of Rant: Wine Blog Awards are Corked
It is apparent that Tom Wark knows and loves wine, is a serious and passionate blogger, and has a sincere desire to help and advance other bloggers. That said, for the second year in a row Tom has horribly botched the American Wine Blog Awards. The categories are narrow and then further limited by restrictions, yet the standard for what constitutes a blog is exceptionally broad. This is a terrible formula for giving awards that should be about promoting and advancing the diverse wine blogging community. Instead of being about recognizing the hard, unpaid effort that so many bloggers put into their labors of love, and the exceptional ability and skill of so many unsung writers that make up the real blogging community, the ones that seeks to push the envelope, these awards seem to be geared for recognizing the already recognized.
Continue readingToasting my Father, Six Months After Ike
We went down to Kemah today to buy some seafood to go with a white wine we planned to drink for Open That Bottle Night and Twitter Taste Live. I’d heard it was bad. Hurricane Ike. Direct hit. I hadn’t gone anywhere near there in the daylight since the storm because I just didn’t want to see all the devastation. But since it’d been nearly six months, we thought perhaps our favorite place “Rose’s Seafood” would be open.
Continue readingCan a Pretty Bottle Improve Plonk?
Can Pretty Improve Plonk? Now while the attractiveness of the wine maker or the person pouring the wine might not, on its own, make one more inclined to give the wine a positive review, I think it might cause the taster to want to rate the wine more highly. Or for someone who prides himself on being completely unbiased towards a wine from a good-looking wine maker, that he might want to judge a wine more harshly when poured by a young, attractive pourer with very little wine knowledge to impart.
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To Hell with States’ Rights! – Part I
There are a number of states that make it next to impossible for a consumer to get wine direct-shipped to her. Most of these laws effectively protect the three-tiered system, that takes wine from the winery, to the distributor, to the retail establishment. And I would argue that there is a pretty strong lobby that seeks protectionism for its state-run wineries, and its distribution system.
Continue readingWine, Writing and a Woman Named Lucinda
Despite being blessed with so much, I had lost “it”, and it was not coming back. The hole that it left was further eroded and grew like a sinkhole by seeing the country that I love attacked and then horribly botch everything that followed. Without straying too far into the political, I saw the American Dream seemingly following my music into the past. I love food and wine and writing about them. I love helping people become better at cooking, or encouraging them to try something new. I love the idea that I might be helping the neophyte wine drinker to enjoy it even more. Who knows? Maybe they think they lost it too, and I could be giving them what they need to be filled up some too.
Continue readingSocial Media, MOM2.0SUMMIT & Wine!
Social Media is not new. What is new, however, is the almost frenetic way the business community is jumping on the social media bandwagon to establish, build, market and sell its “brand” by gathering what really amounts to a huge electronic Rolodex of prospects and targets. Where the disconnect lies; and what successful businesses have known all along, it that the success of your venture depends on the relationships you build, not just the contacts you make and names you collect. And sometimes wine makes it easier!
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