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Vinography: A Wine Blog
Wed Dec 17 17:14:58 EST 2008
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Win Dinner for Six, Free Wine, and Vinography as Your Sommelier -

One of my greatest joys in the world is turning people on to good wine. And I love when I can do it in person. It's the season of giving, and as you know Vinography is the proud sponsor of all the wine prizes for this year's Menu for Hope charity raffle. I've made sure there are a lot of fabulous prizes to win, partly by talking generous folks in the wine industry into donating some really choice things.

But I haven't yet donated a prize myself this year. So let's change that, shall we?

My friend and fellow blogger Brett Emerson, he of In Praise of Sardines, is opening a restaurant here in San Francisco. It's called Contigo, and will be open in January 2009. Brett is a wonderful chef, and especially when it comes to the Spanish and Portuguese influenced food that he'll be featuring on Contigo's menu.

Brett's prize this year is dinner for six at his new restaurant, and my prize this year is to offer wine pairings from my cellar and my services as sommelier for the evening. That's right, you and five friends get to have a great four-course meal from what will be one of San Francisco's hottest new restaurants, and taste at least four fantastic wines from my cellar, poured by yours truly.

I'm already thinking about what cool wines I can serve, including some really old white and red Rioja, as well as an absolutely killer rosé, among other things. It will be a great time, and you can win it for as little as $10.

In order to bid on this prize, and to learn more about Contigo, please see the official prize announcement on In Praise of Sardines.

Let me know if you have any questions.

How would you like to go a luxury wine vacation all the while knowing that you're enjoying Napa luxury because you helped to feed some hungry schoolkids in Lesotho, Africa? That, my friends, is the beauty of the charity event called A Menu For Hope.

This is the fifth year of A Menu For Hope, the grassroots charity event for wine and food bloggers that started in response to the horrible Tsunamis of 2004. Last year's event raised more than $90,000 for the UN's World Food Programme, which set up a special arrangement so that 100% of the proceeds went to the people we were trying to help.

This year we're doing the same thing. Helping the same people, the same way. By holding a big-ass charity raffle, with prizes donated from bloggers all around the world.

Here at Vinography, we're hosting all the prizes donated by wine bloggers, plus some very special prizes donated by folks who look kindly on this effort. Before I tell you about the prizes on offer, however, you should know that winning a prize is as easy as making a $10 donation to our cause. Every ten bucks you donate gets you another "ticket" for the raffle. You designate which prize you want your "ticket" to go for, and then a computer program gives you that many chances to win. Donate $5000 and you've got 500 chances to win one, or many prizes.

Specific instructions for entering the raffle can be found at the bottom of this post. But let's get on with the prizes shall we? If you don't see something below that you think is worth ten bucks, then you're probably beyond hope yourself. Pay special attention to the prize codes. You'll need them when you donate.

A Wine Vacation at Meadowood Resort in the Napa Valley
Experience true Napa luxury. This prize includes a two night stay (Sunday to Thurs only) at the Meadowood Resort in St. Helena in the Napa Valley; dinner for two at the Michelin Two-Star Meadowood Restaurant; and a private Cabernet tasting in the Napa Valley with Gilles de Chambure, the wine educator at Meadowood. Located in a beautiful, two hundred-fifty acre valley, Meadowood features championship croquet lawns, seven tennis courts, a nine-hole walking golf course, hiking trails, swimming, a full-service health spa, eighty-five guest rooms, suites and cottages and wine country cuisine. Valued at over $3500. Prize code: WB01. Courtesy of Meadowood Resort.

Dinner in New York with Eric Asimov of the New York Times
Eric Asimov is the chief wine critic of The New York Times, a position he assumed in June 2004 after having covered wine with The Times' tasting panel and in his "Tastings" column for the Dining section. He's one of America's most visible wine writers, and a darn nice guy to boot. So nice, in fact, that he's willing to have dinner with someone for charity. For this prize, he'll buy dinner for one lucky wine lover somewhere on the island of Manhattan that has a great wine list. You choose the date, he chooses the restaurant, and you can talk about whatever you want, even if it isn't wine. Value: Priceless. Prize code: WB02. Courtesy of The Pour.

Blackbird Vineyards Magnum and Ma(i)sonry Tasting
Blackbird Vineyards is one of the hottest new wineries in Napa Valley, if only according to Vinography. This prize includes an etched magnum of the 2006 Illustration Red Wine and a certificate for a private tasting of the Blackbird Vineyards portfolio for four people at the newly opened Ma(i)sonry in Yountville. Ma(i)sonry is a "living gallery" event space, tasting room, and exclusive lounge in the heart of Napa Valley. Prize code: WB03. Courtesy of Blackbird Vineyards and Ma(i)sonry.

A Case of Zinfandel with Your Own Professionally Designed Custom Label.
This prize would be good enough just as a case of Brutocao Cellars Zinfandel. But you not only get a case of wine, you get this wine with your own personalized custom label on it. Whatever you want it to say, whatever you want it to look like. Value: $700. Prize code: WB05. More details at Corked: A Wine Blog.

Two World Class Gruner Veltliners and a set of World Class White Wine Glasses
This prize includes a set of six Denkart Zalto white wine glasses and the two most highly rated Gruner Veltliners in the Winemonger inventory, the 2006 and 2007 Donabaum Spitzer Point GV Smaragd Gruner Veltliner from Austria. The wines speak for themselves, but you should know about the glasses. 100% lead free and dishwasher safe, these glasses were created for the complexity and refinement of the most expressive white wines. Technical perfection is the basic principle of the Zalto Glass Manufactury. Zalto Glasses have always been produced following a tradition of using only the most highly skilled glass-blowers working with a selection of the best raw materials. The curve of the bowls are tilted at the angles of 24°, 48° and 72°, which are in accordance to the tilt angles of the Earth. This stunning glass has become the standard for many world-class tasting rooms and well-set tables. Shipping within the USA only. Value: more than $415. Prize Code: WB07. More details at
Winemonger.

Half Case of Verge Syrah, and a Tour of the Vineyard
Join VERGE Winemaker Mike Brunson for a special tour of Bradford Mountain where you will see firsthand what it means to farm on the edge of the wild. At just over 1200 feet elevation, Bradford Mountain is on the far western edge of Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County. VERGE Wine Cellars produces small lots of block specific Syrah and these organcially grown vineyards are perfect examples of what we call Fringe Vineyards. Mike Brunson has over 15 years winemaking experience and will describe the ins and outs of organic viticulture, mountain farming, and Syrah winemaking. After the hike, you'll enjoy a tasting of Syrahs from Bradford Mountain as well as a selection of other Syrahs from around the world. As a parting gift, you will also recieve 6 bottles of VERGE Wine Cellars' inaugural release, the 2006 VERGE Syrah. Value: $240. Prize code: WB08. Courtesy of Verge Cellars.

Wine Book Bonanza
There's only one thing better than drinking wine, and that's drinking wine with a nice wine book on your lap. Here's your chance to add to your library and maybe learn a thing or two in the process. Courtesy of University of California Press, pick any 5 wine books from their current list of titles. Value: approx $150. Prize Code:WB09. Courtesy of University of California Press.

Wine Travel Guide Voucher
The main raffle prize on offer from Wine Travel Guides is a gold gift subscription to Wine Travel Guides (worth £49 or approximately $75 or €60) which lasts a whole year from activation. This will give you access to all the travel guides on the site. Today there are 46 comprehensive guides to the wine regions of France. By mid-January there will be a further seven guides covering Tuscany in Italy, Rioja in Spain and Mosel in Germany. Here is your chance to plan that trip to the wine regions of Europe with expert insider advice from 15 top-class wine and travel writers.

The bonus offer: If you can meet author Wink Lorch in either the Jura or Savoie wine regions of France, she will personally drive you around the wine region for a day, meeting and tasting with some of her favourite wine growers and taking you out to lunch. Value: $80 or more. Prize Code:WB10. Courtesy of Wink Lorch.

Inaugural Vintage of Capture's Tin Cross Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc
This prize consists of a bottle from the first launch of Capture Winery's 2008 Tin Cross Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is the unprecedented, first product of the winemaking team's efforts with Tin Cross being to be released in Spring 2009. Additionally, this wine will arrive paired with an elegantly framed vision of its origin; an image of Tin Cross' upper vineyard, professionally photographed and signed by the renowned Olaf Beckman. The total package is valued at $542. Prize Code:WB14. More details at Our Wine Story.

Giant Wine Map of California
California is the second in our series of wine maps and the latest installment in our attempt to become the Edward Tufte of the wine world. The regular retail size of this map is 24 x 36 inches, however, this one will be custom printed at a giant 4 feet wide by 6 feet tall. We're finishing the artwork right now, so be the first on your block (actually on the entire planet) to have a Giant Wine Map of California. To get a better idea of the style and quality, please take a look at our map of the Iberian Peninsula. The map of California will be just as obsessively accurate, up to date and - all importantly - suitable for framing (if you can find a frame that large). This item can only be delivered to US addresses. Estimated Value: $400. Prize Code:WB12. Courtesy of DeLong Wine Moment.

Labor of Love In The South of France
Planning a trip to southern France? Why not spend a day learning what it's really like to own a vineyard or work in a winery! Depending on the time of year you visit, we could be pruning, plowing, picking grapes, bottling, making wine or even selling it. Our vineyards, located at the foot of the medieval village of Castillon du Gard in the southern Rhône valley, are the prefect place to enjoy a day of (very rewarding) manual labor. To celebrate your accomplishments we will prepare a gourmet dinner for you and your fellow workers at our house!

Locally grown products will grace the table and all courses will be paired with the best our local winemakers have to offer. We will taste wines from all around the southern Rhone, not just La Gramière, and you (the winner) will be paid for your hard work with 6 bottles of the current vintage of La Gramière. Now all that's left for you to do is plan a trip to Southern France! Prize code: WB15. Courtesy of La Gramiere.

Private Wine Blending Session
Learn how to blend wine at an intimate wine blending event for eight people at Crushpad, San Francisco's luxury custom winery. You'll have the help of one of Crushpad's resident winemakers and you'll go home with t-shirts and a wine blending kit of your own so you can try your skills at making a few bottles of wine for yourself or for friends. Value: $500. Prize code: WB16. Courtesy of Crushpad.

Port Wine Starter Set from Quevedo
If you're a lover of port wine, or think you might be, you'll enjoy this gift: A Port Wine Starter Kit made up of:
- port wine tongs
- port wine filter
- port wine decanter
- port wine cups
- dark chocolate
- a coupon for a bottle of Quevedo 2005 Vintage redeemable at the closest wine shop that carries the wine. Value: $90. Prize Code: WB17. More details at Quevedo Wine.

Custom 90 Minute Wine Seminar
Bill Wilson, the host and producer of the Wine for Newbies Podcast will offer a 90-minute live wine seminar. The winner of this prize can choose the topic(s) for this wine seminar which he'll broadcast via streaming video at a time and date of the winner's choosing. The winner can have as many people participate as he or she wants! Since the seminar will be live via the Internet, the winner can be anywhere, as long as they understand English. Prize code: WB20. Courtesy of Wine for Newbies.

A Case of Exclusive Small Production Wines from Raymond
Raymond Vineyards is a 5th generation, family-run small winery in Napa Valley. They recently started proding a series of wines known as "small lot" wines, which are made in quantities between 50 and 400 cases and are only available at the winery. This prize includes a mixed case of these new releases. Three bottles each of 2007 Small Lot Rosé of Merlot; 2005 Small Lot Red Wine; 2005 Small Lot Petite Sirah; 2005 Small Lot Meritage Red. Value $475. Prize Code: WB22. Courtesy of Raymond Vineyards.

P.S. I Love You - A Case of Petite Sirah
Jo Diaz has a thing for Petite Sirah. And so do her clients, a society of winemakers and winegrowers known as P.S. I Love You. Jo and her clients are donating a case of California Petite Sirahs for your enjoyment. Here's the list of wines included:

2005 August Briggs, Napa Valley
2006 Biale Royal Punishers, Napa Valley
2005 Clayhouse Estate, Paso Robles
2004 EOS Estate Winery, Paso Robles
2005 Foppiano Vineyards, Russian River Valley Estate
2006 Line 39, Lake County
2004 Mettler Family Vineyards, Lodi
2006 Mounts Family Winery, Dry Creek Valley
2005 Parducci "True Grit," Mendocino
2005 Pedroncelli, Dry Creek Valley
2005 Silkwood, Stanislaus County
2005 Stags' Leap Winery, Napa Valley
2006 Stanton Vineyards, Oakville
2005 Twisted Oak, Calaveras County
2005 Victor Hugo, Paso Robles
2006 Wilson Vineyards, Clarksburg

This wine can be shipped to any legal destination in the USA. Valued at over $350. Prize code: WB23. More details at Juicy Tales.

Kendall-Jackson Owl Box Adoption Gift
As part of its special relationship with the non-profit Hungry Owl Project, Kendall-Jackson is pleased to present a limited Owl Box Adoption Gift that offers an opportunity to adopt a wooden barn owl nesting box located on Kendall-Jackson's Hawkeye Mountain estate vineyards.

The Kendall-Jackson Owl Box Adoption Gift features:
- A year-long adoption of one of the 100 barn owl nesting boxes located on Kendall-Jackson's Hawkeye Mountain vineyards. A report will be sent to each adoptive box sponsor within one year to report on owl activity at the site such as the birth of baby owls.

- One bottle each of Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Highland Estates Hawkeye Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon.

- A signed, limited edition watercolor print of the Hungry Owl Project wildlife ambassador, painted by Hungry Owl Project volunteer Mary Blake.

Only 100 of these packages will be produced. Shipping available to Alaska (excluding dry areas), Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut,
Washington DC, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan,
Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New
York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas,
Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia (excluding dry areas),
Wisconsin, Wyoming. Value $500. Prize Code: WB24. Courtesy of the Kendall-Jackson Owl Project.

A Night of Wine and Food in Florence for Two with Award Winning Sommelier Services
Enjoy an evening for two persons in Florence, Tuscany in a historical Trattoria with a complete menu from "crostini" to their typical biscuits and soups and meat and eveything you can expect from a Trattoria that's been running for more than 100 years. All the food will be paired with wines personally by European Second Best Sommelier and Wine Blogger Andrea Gori (if you want him!).

Among the wines he is excited for you to taste will be the 2005 Pegasos Soldera Case Basse, the new shocking wine from Montalcino, that in Italy they all love so much but Wine Spectator continues to rate so low (70 or below) every time...

If it's impossible for the winner to get to Florence, they will ship that wine directly to the winner. So go on and donate! Value: $200. Prize Code: WB25. More details at Vino da Burde.

A Vertical of Twisted Spaniard
Twisted Oak Winery in Calaveras County, California is pleased to
contribute a special vertical of its flagship blend, The Spaniard. One
bottle each of the 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006 vintages (there was no
2003 vintage.) The Spaniard is a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano, and
Garnacha grapes grown entirely in Calaveras County at Twisted Oak
Winery. An Original Recipe Twisted Oak Rubber Chicken will of course
be included. Value is $250. Prize Code: WB26. More details at El Bloggo Torcido.

WINE RELATED PRIZES THAT ARE LISTED ELSEWHERE:
EU18: My Italians Wine Tasting in Rome with Sommelière Hande Leimer of vinoroma

AND, last but not least, you might be interested in what prize Vinography is offering this year.

* * *

HOW TO ENTER:

If you're interested in buying into the raffle, here's what you need to do:

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from above or from the master list of raffle prizes hosted at Chez Pim.

2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5 and make a donation.

3. Please specify which prize you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code. Example:

Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02. Example:

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Check back on Chez Pim on Wednesday, January 9 for the results of the raffle.

Thanks for your participation, and good luck in the raffle!

This is the official request for prize donations for the 5th Annual Menu For Hope charity raffle, sponsored by wine and food bloggers around the world.

For those who are not familiar with this initiative, it is essentially a raffle, with prizes donated by bloggers (or other kind folks who want to participate but don't have blogs). Participants post a description of their prize (or get me to post one for them if they don't have a blog) and do all they can to attract donations (which will be made made on the designated donation web site) in increments of $10. Each $10 donated becomes a ticket for the raffle, which the person donating can specify as being used towards the specific prize they want.

WHY PARTICIPATE?
In addition to supporting the UN World Food Programme, and specifically the rural school children of Lesotho, this is an opportunity to generate a large amount of traffic to your blog. Simple as that. You give to charity, the blogosphere gives you readers.

A CALL FOR PRIZE DONATIONS
The most important part of this project, of course are the prizes donated by bloggers and blog sympathizers. Which is where you come in. Last year we raised over $90,000. Who knows what we'll be able to do in this economic climate, but we're going to try our best to beat that this year.

In order to do that, however we need two things. We need great prizes donated by bloggers, and we need those bloggers to spread the word far and wide, so that lots of people want to bid on those prizes.

So I want you to consider donating a prize (whether or not you have a blog). If you're curious, here's the list of prizes donated last year.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD PRIZE?
The last thing we want to do is discourage anyone from donating a prize to this event, but we do want to make sure that your gift is fully appreciated, and helps the overall cause. There were a number of gifts last year that received only one or two bids, or didn't receive any bids at all, which was a bummer for everyone involved. There were also a number of duplicate prizes as well.

So I'd like to urge everyone participating to try to make their prize as valuable and attractive as they can, and to perhaps think beyond a copy of your favorite wine book, for instance. A good rule of thumb is to think of a prize that would get at least 20 of YOUR readers or customers to donate at least 10 bucks apiece.

The other thing I would suggest, this being the world of wine bloggers we're talking about, is that unless you are a winery or a wine retailer, and you are regularly used to shipping wine to folks in other states, that you don't donate wine as your prize. Shipping wine across state lines as an individual without a distributors license is technically illegal. So if you donate wine as your prize, or as part of your prize, make sure you know what you're doing. However, if you ARE a wine producer or distributor, then BRING IT ON. Donate a couple of mixed cases of the really good stuff. Some of the most popular prizes last year were such prizes.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
1. Think of a prize and then contact me by sending me e-mail at alder at vinography dot com or commenting on this post and leaving your e-mail address (those who have already contacted me or commented can assume I know who you are).

2. I will then assign you a prize code, which is what your readers will need in order to bid on your prize, starting December 15th when the campaign launches.

3. I will also need an image to represent your prize. It doesn't have to be an image of the actual prize, although that is preferred. I need that image in two sizes: 200x200 pixels and 75x75 pixels.

4. Please also write a paragraph describing your prize in all its juicy goodness. Sell it, baby!

5. Finally, put up a blog post on your site starting December 15th describing your prize, and linking to the full list of prizes here on Vinography (the URL will be: http://www.vinography.com/archives/2008/12/announcing_a_menu_for_hope_200.html). You'll also provide your readers with the prize code for your prize, and a link to the donation site where they will make their donation and bid for your prize.

Please also consider hosting a banner for the event.

If you are going to participate, tell me as soon as possible

If you can't think of a good prize, or if you're not inclined to do so, you can also participate by blogging about the event, hosting banners for the event on your site, or simply buying raffle tickets yourself!

I hope you will consider doing your part to support this very worthy cause this year. Watch for the initial announcement of the wine prizes tomorrow here on Vinography.

The company that hosts this blog (Dreamhost) just got themselves on the list for a stocking full of coal this Christmas. For the last 4 days I have been unable to publish new entries here on Vinography because... well, no one seems to know. What I DO know is that without receiving any notifications from them, my account was moved to a new server, my mail server failed and was not replaced, and for four days I've been trying to get technical support to help me, and all I've received is a single e-mail saying "everything looks fine to me." My ISP supposedly has a feature where you can request a callback within three hours for critical support issues. After four requests for such a callback, my phone hasn't rung once.

This situation also meant that I was not informed of any new comments posted to the blog, which means a number of you have commented and not received a response from me. I'm quite sorry about that. As many of you know, I like to respond to everyone who takes the time to comment.

There's a Bruce Cockburn song that pretty much captures my sentiments at the moment. It's entitled "If I Had a Rocket Launcher...."

Obviously, because you're reading this, the problem has been fixed (but not by me -- I haven't changed a thing). So someone at my ISP must have done something. But I STILL have not received an e-mail or any other communication from tech support.

It's enough to make you want to beat your head against the wall.

In any case, thank you for your patience. We now resume normal programming on Vinography.

Meet Michel Chasseuil. He's 67, drives a beat-up old car, never goes on vacation, and is perhaps not unlike so many aging Frenchmen of his generation. He does have one particular thing that makes him somewhat unique, and of great interest to most anyone interested in fine wine, however.

Chasseuil owns what many consider to be the greatest single wine collection in the world: 20,000 bottles of 18th, 19th and 20th century wines from the world's greatest producers, especially those in France. He started off as a serious wine enthusiast and investor, and the thrill of collecting eventually took over, leading him to amass a collection of some of the rarest and most expensive bottles of wine in existence.

But almost none of these wines will ever be tasted, if Chasseuil has his way, and he will never sell any of them. He's looking for funding to create a museum where he can house his collection for the enjoyment of wine lovers everywhere.

And that makes me sad.

There's something quite poignant, not to mention ironic, about a museum full of bottles of wine that no one will ever drink. Wine is not like jewelry, or glassware, or old coins, or art. It is created to be drunk and each bottle of wine is only meaningful if that possibility continues to exist.

I don't object to buying wine for investment purposes because when wine is bought and sold eventually some of it gets consumed. Locking it away forever seems a bit of a crime, really. Why not empty the bottles and keep them in a museum? The bottle is the only part of the wine a visitor would ever get to appreciate anyway.

Economics has created a world where wine can be treated like an treasure instead of the sustenance it was created to be. I can't fault that reality. But I can regret that someone, somewhere is never going to have a truly amazing experience that one of these bottles might offer, even if that person most assuredly would never have been me.

If we're going to worship wine, we should do it in our glasses, not from behind a glass wall. It's meant to be drunk.

Read the full story.

Ok all you wine bloggers out there, listen up. Later this week, the 5th Annual Menu For Hope campaign will be announced.

This annual charity raffle, coordinated by top food and wine bloggers around the world raised $91,188.00 last year to feed school children in Lesotho in a truly awesome display of reader generosity and blogger power.

This year's campaign will go from December 15th to December 25th.

For those who are unfamiliar with the event, you should check out the main event posting from last year, as well as my wine specific event page.

Here's how it works:

1. Bloggers (as well as other interested parties) from around the world create prizes.

2. Those prizes are described in a post on your site, and listed in aggregate on Vinography (and other sites) with a link to your page. These prizes can be stuff you make, stuff you buy, services, anything that you think someone might really want.

3. The public buy virtual raffle tickets for $10 apiece that they can "spend" on specific prizes. The more tickets they buy for a prize, the more likely they are to win.

4. In the end, we have a big drawing, someone wins your prize, and then you send it to them (at your expense), and rural, farming community kids in Lesotho get nutritious school lunches.

Why would you do this? Because it's a great way to help folks who really need it while at the same time generating a boatload of traffic to your blog. And who doesn't want both of those things around the holidays?

WHAT I NEED FROM YOU:
I need you to come up with prizes. Good ones. Things that people really, really want. Which is to say, probably not a copy of your favorite wine book or a corkscrew (unless it's a super swanky one). And not a bottle of wine, either, unless you're a winery or a retailer and you can legally ship it to whomever wins. The more personal and special the prize, the better, however. And, of course, the more valuable the prize, the better.

If you don't have anything personally that you think you can offer, maybe you know someone famous or connected who does, and you can bask in the glory of offering their product, service, or company for an evening.

So think about what you might have to offer, and if you need to, bounce ideas off me. And if you're not into providing a prize, I hope you'll consider buying raffle tickets for one.

Stay tuned for the official announcement of the event later this week with more details.

I'm not entirely sure why some of the best wines in the world are made by people who are more than a little crazy, but there are enough wacko winemakers out there to make it clear that the connection between great wine and reclusive eccentrics is more than mere coincidence.

Even more telling are the number of these "eno savants" (to perhaps coin a phrase) that live in Friuli, in northeast Italy.

Once upon a time, there was no Italy, there was only the river Isonzo, winding its way down out of the Alps towards the Adriatic sea. From the high peaks it looped and loped, laying down beds of granitic gravel to make a sloping country which sprouted many things. Protected from the harsh continental weather by the Alps, and warmed by the humid breezes off the Adriatic, this mild region naturally attracted the various nomadic people that passed through the region, some of whom knew a good thing when they saw it, and settled down.

Some of the earliest settlers of the region were likely Celtic peoples who brought with them not only the skills of cultivating grape vines, but the inventive skills of aging their wines in wooden casks, a technology which surprised and delighted the Greeks and the various other Mediterranean cultures who came to trade in the 4th century B.C.

The region that would eventually become known as Farra d'Isonzo to those who live there, passed through the hands of many an empire before it settled down into the little nook of Italy that it represents today. But throughout the centuries Friuli has always been known for two things: grapes, and people who do things their own way.

Fulvio Bressan represents the 9th generation of winemakers carrying the Bressan name and working a small plot of land in the Farra d'Isonzo since 1726. And given the way he runs his winery, you would think that he might just be channeling all 9 generations of prior expertise, with little care for how the rest of the world might make their wines.

OK, so he does make one concession to modernity, which entails fermenting his wine in stainless steel tanks which he cools with water from his well. But apart from that, Bressan is as old school as you can get, down to the fact that he seems to run the family estate nearly single-handedly.

The Bressan recipe for wine is as simple as it is maddeningly extreme. Take lots of old vines growing various indigenous varietals, as well as Pinot Noir. Dry farm them with the most extreme pruning methods possible, to the point that each vine bears only one or two clusters of fruit. Pick after personally tasting every single cluster to make sure it is ripe, then cut off only the shoulders and the most perfect clumps of berries on those clusters and throw them into the tank, leaving the rest to be made into jam or grappa.

Ferment the wine for months with only ambient yeasts after a month-long maceration period, letting the wine do its thing as long as necessary in the tanks, including malolactic fermentation after the juice has been pressed off the skins. After this secondary fermentation, the wine is transferred to 2000 liter, ancient oak casks, where it receives regular battonage (a process where the particles of yeast that settle to the bottom of the cask, known as lees, are agitated and stirred around in the wine). Fining and filtration are also eschewed.

After that, it's anyone's guess. The cellar dissolves into alchemy. Bressan regularly mixes vintages, forgets casks of wine, makes special blends never to be repeated, and generally disregards all the modern traditions of winemaking and bottling (no doubt breaking some laws in the process, but hey, this is Friuli, not Brunello). Some of the labels are handmade, some don't bear any vintage date whatsoever, and those that do are never guaranteed to be correct. The wines are released and sold when Bressan damn well pleases, and in such minute quantities (as small as 20 to 40 cases for some wines) that most people have never even heard of them.

Which doesn't bother Bressan one bit.

Tasting Notes:
Light to medium garnet in the glass, this wine has a nose of dried herbs, raspberries, woodsmoke, and dried meat. In the mouth it is gorgeously textured, smooth to the point of being otherworldly, with a mysterious concoction of cranberry, raspberry, cedar, incense, wet leaves, and leather flavors that linger for a long time. With more time and air, this wines fruit becomes more crystalline even as the sharp acids mellow to a tangy note amidst the earthy qualities. Quite distinctive, this wine is not for everyone, but those who are looking for personality will find it here in spades.

Food Pairing:
Of the things that I drank this with tonight, I thought it did best with the prosciutto and fresh burrata on warm foccacia.

Overall Score: around 9

How Much?: $37

This wine is sometimes available for purchase on the Internet.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, there are wineries that are born great, those that achieve greatness, and those that have greatness thrust upon them. To explain: some fantastic wineries are started by people who are superstars already, and it hardly seems to matter what they do -- these properties are destined for success. Some top wineries seem to come from nowhere, and indeed have greatness thrust upon them, when out of the blue, their wine scores highly somewhere and they are vaulted from obscurity to fame.

The majority of the best wineries in the world, however, fall into Malvolio's second category through their own achievement. Achievement seems perhaps not quite the correct term, however, for the amount of sweat and energy that goes into building a world class winery over decades, even centuries. Wine lovers early in their education (and in their earning power) are often flummoxed by prices for wines that start to head north of $80 or $90 per bottle. Should they pursue their love of wine long enough to really learn (and see for themselves) what kind of work goes into some of the world's best vineyards, and to taste the wine that they produce, such prices no longer seem outrageous.

Indeed, there are some wineries and vineyards in the world that seem to produce wines of such quality and consistency as to be nearly magical. In Europe, and especially France, such pieces of land are often given special designations, such as Grand Cru, to signify their quality.

There are very few plots of land in California that might be accorded Grand Cru status, should Americans decide to institute some method of classifying vineyards for quality, if only because many of California's vineyards are so relatively new. There are some very few, however, that have definitively proven their distinctiveness and quality over several decades.

Unquestionably, the first vineyard on my list would be Rochioli Vineyards in the Russian River Valley. Tucked in between Westside road and the meandering curves of the Russian River as it heads south past Healdsburg, Rochioli Vineyards produces some of the most sought after Pinot Noir in California.

Since the early part of the century, the 162 acres of flats and sloping hillsides that run down towards this particular bend in the river have been farmed by someone with the last name Rochioli. After working the land for decades, Joe Rochioli, Sr., began buying up the land, bit by bit. By the 1950's, he had been joined by his son Joe Rochioli, Jr. and together they spent several decades growing grapes that were sold to wineries throughout Sonoma County.

It wasn't until the early Seventies, however, that the farm produced Pinot Noir which it continued to sell to various wineries. Like many long-running family winegrowers, however, eventually the hankering to make their own wine started to germinate, and in 1976 Joe Jr. made a few thousand cases of Pinot Noir at one of his customers' wineries.

By the early Eighties, the Russian River Valley had clearly proven its potential for growing Burgundian varietals, and Pinot Noir in particular, and the Rochioli's saw a gradual increase in the demand for their fruit. One small winery named Williams Selyem became a particularly good customer, and the single vineyard wines they made from Rochioli fruit rapidly made their fortunes and brought Rochioli to national and international attention.

Around this time, Joe Jr.'s son Tom had grown dissatisfied with his business career and decided to return to the family business. Capitalizing on the rapidly increasing demand for the family's fruit, Tom helped transform the Rochioli ranch from a farm to a full working winery. With the help of another of their customers, Gary Farrell, the family produced its first vintage under the Rochioli brand in 1982, a 150 case production of Pinot Noir from a vineyard plot known as the West Block.

Within a few years, Tom had taken over as winemaker, a position which he continues to hold today, even as his father Joe Jr. continues to direct the management of the family's vineyards.

Producing about 13,000 cases of wine each year, Rochioli produces appellation designated wines under the Rochioli Vineyards label, and single vineyard and block-designated wines under the J. Rochioli label. These latter wines, including this West Block Pinot Noir, are available only to their mailing list customers.

Tom Rochioli's winemaking style, as well as his entire family's philosophy of wine production are based in the traditions of Burgundy, and in particular the Cote d'Or. Exacting quality standards, clonal diversity, and vineyard management techniques produce top quality fruit, which is then babied through a traditional hands-off winemaking process that attempts to manipulate the wine as little as possible through its lifecycle.

More so than almost any other Pinot Noir in California, Rochioli wines are built to age, and do so beautifully, as this wine clearly attests. I have had the pleasure of drinking bottles dating back to 1990 in the past few years, and they are holding up magnificently. Whether they have the 50+ year longevity of old world Burgundy, only time will tell, but if any Pinot Noir America will likely age in that fashion, it will most certainly be Rochioli.

Whenever possible I avoid favoritism, as I believe my life and the lives of my readers benefit from a diverse exploration and recommendation of wines. However, when it comes right down to it, I am hard pressed to think of another California wine that I care for more than Rochioli's block designated Pinot Noirs. And if I could have them all with 12 or more years of age on them? Well, as they say, just shoot me now.

Tasting Notes:
Medium blood red in the glass, with very little fading towards the rim, this wine has a mouthwatering nose of rosemary smoked meat aromas mixed with a background hum of raspberry and hibiscus. When the wine enters the mouth, it's like John Coltrane snuck up behind you and started playing -- the world slows down, and everything rings like crystal. Perfectly balanced between acid and tannin, fruit and earth, this wine sings with a delicate concoction of raspberry, leather, and the mix of herbs that the French refer to as garrigue. Like all fantastic aged Pinot Noir, those core flavors are just the beginning, however, as layers build and build headed into a long finish. This wine in particular has a gorgeous high note of tart red apple skin that hangs in the air (or is it the mind?) long after you've swallowed the wine. Drinking phenomenally well now, and likely to last at least another 10 years, and maybe more?

Food Pairing:
Good lord, who wants to eat food when you could drink wine like this? I served this wine in a still moment between courses at a recent dinner. While some people were content to pair the wine with the roasted leg of lamb we served, I found myself merely waiting for the wine to release me back into the flow of dinner, which it eventually did a few minutes after I drained the last drop from my glass.

Overall Score: between 9.5 and 10

How Much?: This wine was sold only to mailing list customers, meaning it must be bought on the secondary market. Current prices at auction are around $180.

It is possible to purchase this wine on the Internet.

Every year the Culinary Institute of America sponsors an induction of several luminaries in California wine into the Vintners Hall of Fame (which really should be called The California Wine Hall of Fame, since it includes people who are not winemakers and it is exclusively focused on people who have made an impact to the California wine industry). Despite its misnomer, since its founding in 2007, this organization has admirably sought to recognize the individuals (historical and current) that have contributed to the remarkable success of California wine.

The contenders for induction are decided upon by a nominating committee (in the way of full disclosure, I have been part of that committee since last year) and then they are put out to a vote among 45 of America's top wine journalists. Nominees fall into two categories, "General Nominees" who are still living or very recently deceased, and "Pioneers" who have passed away prior to 1989.

This year's winners, announced this morning, are:

Warren Winiarski, PhD, the founder of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars whose inaugural vintage won the famed 1976 Judgement of Paris Tasting.

Jack & Jamie Davies, who revitalized the old Schramsberg wine estate in the 60's.

Carole Meredith, PhD, whose 20 year tenure at U.C. Davis included major discoveries of the genetic origins of Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Syrah, and Zinfandel.

Jess Jackson, founder and owner of Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates.

Justin Meyer, one of the original Christian Brothers winemakers, and co-founder of Silver Oak Cellars.

Gerald Asher, the wine writer who spent more than 30 years at the helm of Gourmet's wine department.

And finally, inducted into the ranks of the Pioneers, Frederick and Jacob Beringer, also known as the Beringer Brothers, some of the first and most successful Napa wine producers.

I was overwhelmingly glad to see Jess Jackson finally make it in. I've voted for him every year, and look forward to seeing other Sonoma-based names fill up the roster that currently leans very heavily towards Napa. I was also quite pleased to see Warren Winiarski added to the roles.

On the flip side, I was completely taken aback to see Gerald Asher beat out Robert M. Parker, Jr. on this year's ballot. Floored, as a matter of fact. I don't understand how a panel of wine journalists could possibly justify the argument that Asher has had more of a positive impact on California wine in any objective sense.

Don't get me wrong, I love Asher's writing about wine, but the guy didn't do much for California wine in particular. Heck, he wasn't all that fond of it, to tell the truth. Parker on the other hand, more than any other critic or journalist has literally made the fortunes of hundreds of California winemakers, and offered a rising tide of praise that has literally lifted the entire California industry.

The only explanation I can possibly come up with is something along the lines of jealousy or petty vindictiveness among the wine writers judging. Seriously people, Gerald Asher !?!

Other misses of note include the fact that pioneering winegrower Andy Beckstoffer keeps missing out on induction by a hair, having lost by only a single vote for the second year in a row. Bonny Doon founder Randall Grahm also narrowly missed being inducted this year.

Here's a link to the official press release, for those who are interested, as well as the official web site for the Vintners Hall of Fame.

I'm an odd combination of early adopter and time starved executive. This means that I tend to know about and explore most Internet technologies as they hit the streets (and sometimes before) but I can't be bothered to really dive into them until I see a compelling reason to justify the time and effort of doing so, and more importantly until I know I have the bandwidth to use them effectively. Add to that the healthy skepticism gained from using the Internet since 1988 and living and working through the epicenter of the dot.com bust of 2000 and I'm quite cautious about where I invest my time online.

All of which explains why I'm not a member of any one of the various wine social networks, why my posts on various wine bulletin boards are still in the single digits, and why I'm only just now starting to use Twitter.

But after watching from the sidelines for a while, I have decided that Twitter is interesting enough, has critical mass, and offers me an opportunity that complements what I'm doing here on Vinography.

I'll be using it a little bit like most people use it, to post notes about what I'm up to, but they will be confined to the wine and food aspects of my life (no updates about changing the 11th diaper of the day -- you can see that on Facebook if you want). But more importantly, I'm going to use it to both broadcast my posts here on Vinography and write small snippets of stuff that wouldn't merit an individual post, but might be of interest to wired wine lovers like yourselves.

So believe me, I completely understand if the last thing you want to do is start consuming tweets, but if you're already doing so, here's one more for you to try.

Check out Vinography on Twitter.

Why do I feel like the wine media watchdog these days? Maybe the holiday spirit brings out the misinformation campaigns like no other time of the year. Or perhaps journalists are getting lazy and are scrounging for material that they can recycle out of press releases they have stuffed in the bottom drawers of their desks.

So what's the rant about? Today's piece of crap in the Telegraph, entitled "Screw Cap Wine Bottles Threaten Rare Species." The occasion for repeating this completely asinine claim that somehow if we don't stop using screwcaps all those delicate ecosystems of the cork forests will disappear appears to be an upcoming BBC documentary series that repeats the same idiotic logic.

I have no basis for alleging that this whole thing is yet another arm of the multi-pronged marketing strategy cooked up by the struggling cork manufacturers to save their asses in the face of falling demand for their product, but I will say that it is any commercial agricultural company's wet dream of a PR campaign. Let's get the environmentalists to indirectly endorse our products by suggesting that if we go out of business, the little creatures that happen to live in our fields will be in danger.

Maybe the cork companies just got lucky, but even if they had nothing to do with this story, it still stinks to high heaven.

Let's start with what a cork oak forest looks like:

Photo by Ryan Opaz of Catavino.

Not exactly pristine natural habitat, is it? Looks more like a farm, which is exactly what it is. I wonder what the place looked like before humans got the idea to start stripping the bark off the trees? I could be wrong, but I'd be willing to bet that there were a lot more wild animals in the cork forest before we started farming it.

But let's for a moment take at face value the claim that these cork forests are indeed valuable habitat for a number of creatures. It's not much of a stretch to believe such a thing, even if it were a particular species of dung beetle, let alone a beautiful creature like the Iberian Lynx. But the notion that because some animals might live in these forests, then somehow any competitive threat to the cork industry is tantamount to environmental destruction and species endangerment is utterly and completely laughable.

Here's an analogy: You have a farm, and I have a farm. I grow barley, which everyone has eaten for years. You grow wheat, which is a newfangled grain that people are just getting excited about. And I'm a bit of a sloppy farmer, so that the barley I bring to market is rotten about 6% of the time. After a few years, people are tired of getting rotten barley, they're starting to like the taste of wheat, and I'm losing money, and can't afford to till all of my fields. Did I mention that I have long haired rabbits that live in my fields? How excited would I be if an environmentalist came along and wrote an paper saying that people need to stop eating wheat because it is endangering the long haired rabbits?

This so called "species endangerment argument" against screwcaps completely ignores basic principles of economics and the fact that the whole reason that screwcaps were ever put on wine bottles in the first place was because the cork industry were supplying many people with an inferior product that ruined countless bottles of wine.

Yet somehow a bunch of scientists and reporters manage to concoct a drama that pits the screwcap wine closure industry against the poor Iberian Lynx.

And about that Iberian Lynx....It's the most endangered feline species on the planet, and the most threatened carnivore in Europe. It's so critically endangered that there were only about 100 of them left in 2005, and every single piece of the cat's current habitat, the majority of which is not even in the country of Portugal, let alone its cork forests, is protected by law. The biggest cause of death for the Iberian Lynx at the moment? Automobile collisions.

The cork industry, cork farmers, and the cork forests of the world are subject to the same laws of economics as the rest of the world. If wine drinkers no longer want their wines closed with tree bark (unlikely to happen anytime soon) then the cork industry will most certainly suffer. Farmers who now grow cork oaks will most certainly rip them out and plant other things that they can actually use to feed their families, as well they should, in the absence of any other way to do so, or any incentive from the government to encourage conservation.

It may be that, indeed, cork forests deserved to be preserved for any number of reasons, whether cultural, environmental, or even simply for civic enjoyment. This would presumably involve people and governments who care about such things deciding to spend the money to do so.

It also may be factually true that cork closures are literally better for the environment than screwcaps, from the standpoint of their total carbon footprint, amount of chemical pollutants, et cetera, but I have yet to see a definitive study on the subject. The scientific jury is still out on whether they are indeed the best closures for wines that will age a long time, though many believe this to be true (myself included).

Regardless, we should not tolerate lousy journalism and crappy environmental science that suggests to consumers that their choice of wine bottle is threatening endangered species, and that winemakers should suffer having portion of their product ruined every year... for the kitties.

If I had some extra cash laying around right now, in addition to plowing it into the stock market, I'd likely be out there buying investment grade wine, as well as wine from my favorite expensive producers.

If you're a consumer of news about the wine industry, then you understand what is going on in the wine retailing and wine auction world at the moment. On the chance that Vinography might be one of your sole sources of contact with the wine world, let me bring you up to speed: the wine market is doing what the Dow Jones Industrial Average just did for the last three months.

While the wine industry has trailed the general market malaise and the dive has not been as precipitous, things are tough right now in the world of wine. And the more expensive the wine, the tougher things are.

Champagne sales had already dropped by 25% in September and according to some sources, holiday sales are are expected to be half of what they were last year. Retail sales of high end wines are plummeting, and the wine auctions where collectors unload (and snap up) some of the world's finest wines are seeing record numbers of lots go unsold or sell for far below their estimates.

In short, just like the stock market right now. It is a serious buyer's market. I don't know a single wine retailer worth their salt that isn't in serious sale mode at the moment -- with heavy discounting going on from the bottom of their inventory to the top. In hard economic times where it's sensible to have a good cushion of cash in the bank, the last thing anyone wants to do is have too much capital tied up in inventory.

Just by way of a single example, a friend of mine forwarded me a newsletter from a New York wine store that showed the 1997 Harlan Estate Proprietary Red wine (a 100 pointer from one of CA's most stellar vintages) being offered at a discount of nearly $800. While not half-off, that's getting pretty close, and a remarkable steal for a wine that could easily be held for two years and sold for well over the pre-discount price.

And the final bonus: the strengthening dollar. Which means that apart from the sales, the cost of most imported wine has fallen considerably from the heights it was at merely 6 months ago. Direct imports are selling for a 20 to 30 percent discount off of those highs.

So if I had $10,000 laying around, I'd be likely plowing it into top Burgundies, Bordeaux First Growths, Barolos, and Napa cult Cabernets with the idea that I'd drink some in 5 or 10 years, and in 18, the rest would pay for my daughter's first year of college.

NOTE: It's a sad, sad thing that I even have to think about it, but I must make clear that the article above doesn't constitute investment advice in any way, shape, or form. I'm not a professional, and if you buy wine based on what I say and lose your hard earned savings, then you should just open the damn bottles and drown your sorrows because it won't be my fault.

The wine industry spends a lot of time and energy fighting for the attention of global consumers. In particular, they've tried hard to market seasonally to consumers, but they just can't quite compete with the likes of Oktoberfest for beer drinkers. The best that the wine industry has been able to come up with sends even the most tolerant wine lovers running for cover every November, as the rollout of Beaujolais Nouveau reaches ever more spectacular heights of commercial bling.

It would be one thing if the wine was even somewhat drinkable. But these days, what passes for Beaujolais Nouveau is, by and large, utter crap. That's just my professional opinion, of course, and no offense meant to those who enjoy a bottle of the banana and bubble gum concoction that is foisted on consumers the third Thursday in November each year.

It's sad that such wine, and the marketing hoopla that goes with it, has become so entrenched in the industry, and even sadder still that we can't come up with a better event with better wine. OK, maybe New Year's Eve and Champagne are a saving grace here.

But let's get back to Beaujolais. Because today I want to talk about the other Beaujolais -- the quiet, shy sister to the airhead that is Nouveau.

Beaujolais, is of course, a wine region that snuggles up to the southern borders of Burgundy in East-Central France. For centuries, Beaujolais was simply a neighbor of Burgundy that happened to grow more of the grape Gamay Noir than the land to the north, thanks to the grape's preference for the granitic soils of the region rather than the limestone of Burgundy. In 1395 Philip the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, ordered that all the Gamay vineyards of Burgundy be torn up, and forever banned from the region. Rather suddenly, Beaujolais became a much more unique wine region, and a safe haven for a grape that went from widespread popularity in France to nearly being unknown thanks to Ducal decree.

Beaujolais as a region produces several classifications of wine, the vast majority based on Gamay, from the wine simply labeled Beaujolais to appellation designated wine from Beaujolais Villages, or the ten "Cru" appellations of the region: Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly, Côte-de-Brouilly, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Juliénas, St-Amour, Chénas, and Chiroubles.

These latter appellations, and in particular Morgon, play host to a resistance movement that is slowly proving to a widening circle of wine lovers that the region deserves a better reputation than Nouveau is capable of supporting.

This new reputation for more serious wines is largely the work of a band of winemakers that have retrenched to more traditional Burgundian grape growing and winemaking methods. Known as the Gang of Four, these winemakers have spent the last twenty or more years making wines that are the complete opposite of Beaujolais Nouveau.

Which is to say that they are actually quite good.

Jean-Paul Thevenet is one of the Gang members (the others being Guy Breton, Jean Foilard, and Marcel Lapierre) and perhaps best embodies the "old school" qualities that these winemakers have championed in the region.

Thevenet works a plot of extremely old vines in the Morgon appellation. The average age of the vines is 70 years and they are cultivated organically and yield very little fruit. The grapes are fermented with natural yeasts and, quite remarkably, often without the addition of any sulfur dioxide (commonly used by winemakers as a preservative and to prevent bacteriological growth). After fermentation Thevenet ages the wine for six to eight months in used oak barrels that he manages to get from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. It is bottled without filtration.

Thevenet's wines, as well as the rest of his gang (and those of a number of producers that have started to follow suit in the region) represent a fundamentally different side of Beaujolais and the Gamay Noir grape. A side that frankly deserves a lot more celebration than the millions of liters delivered with fanfare every November.

Tasting Notes:
Light ruby in color, this wine has a rich, loamy nose of cassis and cranberry aromas with darker notes of fruit and earth underneath. In the mouth it is lush -- silky, smooth, and very nicely balanced with flavors that bounce between the red tart fruit of cranberry and the darker, juicier notes of cassis. The tannins are faint, nearly imperceptible, and tinged with notes of smoke and wet dirt. This wine is concentrated to a perfect degree, rich without being overpowering, and pure without being too polished. Lovely.

Food Pairing:
I'd love to drink this wine to accompany pork tenderloin with pomegranate sauce.

Overall Score: between 9 and 9.5

How Much?: $23

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

We don't have a Cru classification in California (we just have mailing lists and release prices) but there are a few vineyards in the state that would most certainly be at the top of the list. Their names are well known to those wine lovers who can afford the generally expensive wines they produce, and one of them is unquestionably the Hirsch Vineyard.

First planted in 1980 by farmer David Hirsch, the Hirsch Vineyard is located on the mountain ridges above the northern California town of Fort Ross at 1500 feet above the ocean surface and 3.5 miles as the crow flies from its crashing waves. One of the pioneers of a region known as the Extreme Sonoma Coast, this 72 acre vineyard is planted mostly with Pinot Noir which thrives above the fog line in the unique and powerful mix of sunlight and cool ocean breezes. Within several years of its planting, the vineyard was recognized as one of the top sources of Pinot Noir in the country.

Williams Selyem winery is one of the main advocates and customers of the Hirsch Vineyard, and the Pinot Noir they make from this vineyard every year is almost always one of the finest in California.

Williams Selyem was founded in 1981 by Burt Williams and Ed Selyem, two friends who started making wine together in their garage in Forestville, California in the late seventies just because they loved the stuff, wanted to drink more wine together, and loved a challenge. A few years later, what started as a hobby became an avocation, and in a few more years, a cult phenomenon. Over the course of a decade or two Williams Selyem winery played a major role in establishing Sonoma County as a premier winegrowing region, and establishing California as a world-class Pinot Noir producing region.

Surprisingly, the two didn't start with Pinot Noir as a goal. They were more excited about Zinfandel (which William Selyem still makes) but it was ultimately Pinot Noir that captured the majority of their attention, and the attention of the wider world when their 1985 Rochioli vineyard Pinot Noir was the winner at the California State fair in 1987, and the winery was simultaneously awarded the designation Winery of the Year.

At that point Williams Selyem was still just two guys in a garage, marshaling an army of friends to meticulously hand pick, hand sort, and hand crush small lots of grapes from what were at the time, relatively young but clearly very high quality vineyards. They quickly found themselves with the demand, and the capital, to invest in a proper winery.

By the early Nineties, William-Selyem had become one of Sonoma County's first cult wineries. People were waiting years to get on their mailing list, and the wines were selling out before they ever got the chance to hit retail stores. But about that time, Burt and Ed were ready for a break after nearly 20 years of winemaking, and sold the winery to its present owners, John and Kathe Dyson in 1998. While the ownership and winemaking team has changed, the demand for the wines has not.

Currently the winemaking is done by Bob Cabral, Lynn Krausmann and oenologist Adam Goodrich, with little deviation from the strictly minimalist approach taken by the founders. Even today, no mechanical pumping is ever done to the wine, nor any filtration, and the wine is aged in a mix of French oak of which about 50% is new. Babied through the entire winemaking process process, apart from a forklift and a press, nearly everything is done by hand by this small group of individuals under Cabral's careful direction.

Williams Selyem's success as a winery has afforded it the luxury of being able to make no compromises when it comes to winemaking, which includes the ability to be a bit more European about working with the wine -- the wine takes as long as it takes -- to ferment, to age, to sit in the bottle.

This particular wine was aged in 67% new oak and 37% 1-year-old oak barrels for about 16 months before being bottled unfiltered.

Tasting Notes:
Light garnet in color, this wine has an elegant nose of raspberries, cherries, and crushed herb aromas. In the mouth it is equally as elegant, even distinguished, with gorgeously textured flavors of raspberry, red apple skin, hints of citrus oil, and a woody undertone that provides a base note to the brighter flavors. Perfectly balanced, this is a beautiful rendition of Pinot Noir that gives ample time to reflect as much in its long finish.

Food Pairing:
This would beautifully accompany a nice charcoal roasted quail.

Overall Score: around 9.5

How Much?: $72 to mailing list customers, though it goes for $95 and higher in retail stores.

This wine is available for purchase on the Internet.

I read a lot of wine writing. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. And when I say read, I mean, well, I scan all the headlines, and I read a good portion of it. Magazines, newspapers, hundreds of blogs. It's overwhelming at times, and damned hard work. But I enjoy it.

Except for two particular times of year. The first is mid-summer, when everyone seems to be writing the exact same article about "Summer Sippers," white and pink wines that are as refreshing as they are delicious.

But ever so much more evil and mind-numbing than mid-summer fluff, are the wine columns that rain down like so many large flightless birds in the weeks preceding Thanksgiving. Around this time of year, if I see one more "What wine to drink with your turkey and stuffing" article, I think I'm going to puke.

Yes, I'm being dramatic. I certainly can't find fault with these wine writers all across the nation who churn out their well meaning lists year after year. Those who might not be inclined to write such boring articles are most certainly forced to do so by their editors, and if they are not, they are as likely to be entreated to do so by their readers.

The problem with crappy wine recommendation articles for Thanksgiving is not the wine writers, it's the wine drinkers who actually read them.

So listen up America. I'm proud of you -- those of you who have decided you want to drink wine with your Thanksgiving dinner. There's nothing better than enjoying wine amidst a celebration of food, family, and friends -- or whatever you choose to celebrate during this holiday. But you need to chill out about finding the right wine.

Why? Because there is no such thing.

Don't fall for all these wine writers who tell you that there is an art to pairing wine with Thanksgiving dinner. Don't believe all this talk about how difficult a meal it is to match with wine. It's all bullshit. Especially at Thanksgiving.

Most people's Thanksgiving meals, even the most modest of them, are a vast cornucopia of flavors so diverse, contrary, and strong, and people eat them in such different combinations at different times that the idea of finding "a" wine to match with the meal is a ridiculous proposition.

Yet it's amazing how people seem to believe that they need help picking a wine. Or at least that's what the tsunami of Thanksgiving wine recommendations would have you believe.

So I'm here to tell you that there are two simple choices when it comes to drinking wine at Thanksgiving. You can take one, or both approaches, and I guarantee that you will be just as happy as if you spent the time, energy, and money searching for "the perfect wines to pair with America's most diverse meal" or whatever all those articles suggest you need.

ONE: If you're having a bunch of people over, buy a few different whites, and a few different reds. It doesn't matter what kind. Yes, you read that right. Pick whatever. Whatever is in your price range, whatever looks good, stuff you haven't tried before, hell, whatever is closest to the cash register. Open them all, and let people choose which ones they want. Make sure one of the wines is something that YOU like to drink.

TWO: If you're going to be celebrating with people that you know and love, use the occasion to drink a really nice bottle of something that you've been saving for a "special occasion." The best pairing for wine is good company, and who cares if no one notices, or if Aunt Bertha insists on putting ice cubes in it? So what if cousin Andy takes a bite of candied yams, then a bite of collard greens, and polishes it off with a swig of Cabernet? And if the folks you're eating with have the knowledge or the palates to appreciate it, then so much the better.

That's it. Open a bunch of stuff, or drink something special or both. Life is too short to stress about drinking the right wine with the right food. There are no rules when it comes to food and wine pairing, no matter what anyone tells you. There are no perfect pairings for everyone, only perfect pairings for you.

So relax, experiment, but above all, enjoy your Thanksgiving and make sure it includes lots of wine.