I've been out of town (in Washington, DC) for a while on some non wine related business and I have to say I really miss North Carolina. Even though I enjoy visiting friends, family, colleagues, and old haunts in DC, I remember why Jennifer and I moved to Cary...which is probably the same reason many of you moved to Cary, too.
Be that as it may, I've made a couple of visits to my friends at The Curious Grape, the wine shop where we used to buy all of our wines. I've been reminded about how active they are in wine education and wine classes for their customers, and how well they present their classes; not at all condescending or self-promotional, but very friendly and very informative...and a lot of fun.
We've been asked by many people about having basic "wine appreciation" classes, and it's something that we are researching and trying to develop. However, we could use your assistance. Let us know if you have any ideas on what type of topics you'd like to see covered in such a class/classes. Let us know if there are certain wine-growing regions you'd like to explore. Let us know if there are particular varietals you'd like to know better. Let us know if there's a particular weekday evening when such a class could be fit into your busy schedule.
Drop us an e-mail (or post your comments here) and give us some ideas, and of course we'll keep you posted through our newsletter and through this blog.
david
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Thank You
Jennifer here...filling in for David, who is out of town.
I wanted to post a giant thank-you to all of our wonderful customers this evening. We had a fantastic mega-tasting today, with 21 wines open, all being poured by four wine experts. We were amazed by the number of people who came in to enjoy this event, and our four experts all agreed about what a pleasant crowd it was. Everyone was interested in hearing about the wines, and nobody came in just to taste a bunch of free wine. There was genuine love for wine going on today, and it makes us feel so good to have such a fine group of customers coming into this shop and supporting us. Thank you all again. Today was a great day.
Jennifer
I wanted to post a giant thank-you to all of our wonderful customers this evening. We had a fantastic mega-tasting today, with 21 wines open, all being poured by four wine experts. We were amazed by the number of people who came in to enjoy this event, and our four experts all agreed about what a pleasant crowd it was. Everyone was interested in hearing about the wines, and nobody came in just to taste a bunch of free wine. There was genuine love for wine going on today, and it makes us feel so good to have such a fine group of customers coming into this shop and supporting us. Thank you all again. Today was a great day.
Jennifer
Monday, September 3, 2007
What's in a name?
I’m giving you fair warning…it’s soap box time. It’s time for me to get on my “high horse” (as my dearly sainted mother used to say) and rant.
There’s a word that I’ve never been particularly fond of, but now I hate it. That word is “connoisseur,” and I’ve come to hate that word from a couple of different perspectives.
One dictionary definition I recently read was “a person who is especially competent to pass critical judgements in an art, or in matters of taste.” Now, you and I could argue all day about who has the right to judge truly subjective endeavors such as art; however, I doubt that we’d disagree that the person who proclaims himself a connoisseur is probably the last person on earth we’d want to listen to in matters of artistic criticism. I just can’t get over the pomposity with which someone would want to hang the mantel of “connoisseur” about his shoulders. Not even the respected wine critic Robert Parker uses the word in the title of his publication; rather, he calls it “Wine Advocate.” There are also other publications whose titles humbly describe the efforts of their educated writers and editors: “Wine Enthusiast,” and “Wine Spectator.”
Personally, I would describe myself as a wine enthusiast, spectator, and advocate. I certainly enjoy wine discovery and the artistic expressions from the earth that winemakers endeavor to impart through their wines. However, there’s an interesting fad among those who view as “quirky” our avid appreciation of wines; they like to label us as “connoisseurs” in a derisive tone. Some enjoy making fun of our descriptions of the aromatics of a wine, or they enjoy making fun of our interpretations of the flavor profiles of a wine. Some even enjoy ridiculing our customers who want to spend a few dollars more for their oenological pleasures. It still amazes me how many people refuse to taste a wine on our tasting bar just because it’s a little more expensive than they usually spend. Their usual response to an expensive wine which we’ll have open is something like “I’m not a connoisseur, and no wine is worth (insert dollar amount here).” Well, a wine’s worth (whether it’s $6 or $60) come’s from a person’s enjoyment and appreciation, not from another person’s ill-informed opinion.
I won’t give an opinion about why some enjoy ridiculing the pleasures of others. Maybe I’ll just blame it on the fact that for decades, and even centuries, the appreciation of fine wine has labored under the presumption that it is the hobby of a certain class of people.
IT IS NOT. It is to be enjoyed by everyone. It may be enjoyed on the cursory level, as an easy cocktail to relieve the stress of a hard day. It may be enjoyed at a deeper level, appreciating the expressions of fruit, climate, terroir and winemaking skills.
Let’s none of us presume ourselves to be connoisseurs, and by contrast let’s none of us ridicule someone as a connoisseur if their appreciation goes deeper than ours.
Let’s be wine enthusiasts and wine enjoyers (if that’s a word).
Let’s talk about it over a glass of wine.
df
There’s a word that I’ve never been particularly fond of, but now I hate it. That word is “connoisseur,” and I’ve come to hate that word from a couple of different perspectives.
One dictionary definition I recently read was “a person who is especially competent to pass critical judgements in an art, or in matters of taste.” Now, you and I could argue all day about who has the right to judge truly subjective endeavors such as art; however, I doubt that we’d disagree that the person who proclaims himself a connoisseur is probably the last person on earth we’d want to listen to in matters of artistic criticism. I just can’t get over the pomposity with which someone would want to hang the mantel of “connoisseur” about his shoulders. Not even the respected wine critic Robert Parker uses the word in the title of his publication; rather, he calls it “Wine Advocate.” There are also other publications whose titles humbly describe the efforts of their educated writers and editors: “Wine Enthusiast,” and “Wine Spectator.”
Personally, I would describe myself as a wine enthusiast, spectator, and advocate. I certainly enjoy wine discovery and the artistic expressions from the earth that winemakers endeavor to impart through their wines. However, there’s an interesting fad among those who view as “quirky” our avid appreciation of wines; they like to label us as “connoisseurs” in a derisive tone. Some enjoy making fun of our descriptions of the aromatics of a wine, or they enjoy making fun of our interpretations of the flavor profiles of a wine. Some even enjoy ridiculing our customers who want to spend a few dollars more for their oenological pleasures. It still amazes me how many people refuse to taste a wine on our tasting bar just because it’s a little more expensive than they usually spend. Their usual response to an expensive wine which we’ll have open is something like “I’m not a connoisseur, and no wine is worth (insert dollar amount here).” Well, a wine’s worth (whether it’s $6 or $60) come’s from a person’s enjoyment and appreciation, not from another person’s ill-informed opinion.
I won’t give an opinion about why some enjoy ridiculing the pleasures of others. Maybe I’ll just blame it on the fact that for decades, and even centuries, the appreciation of fine wine has labored under the presumption that it is the hobby of a certain class of people.
IT IS NOT. It is to be enjoyed by everyone. It may be enjoyed on the cursory level, as an easy cocktail to relieve the stress of a hard day. It may be enjoyed at a deeper level, appreciating the expressions of fruit, climate, terroir and winemaking skills.
Let’s none of us presume ourselves to be connoisseurs, and by contrast let’s none of us ridicule someone as a connoisseur if their appreciation goes deeper than ours.
Let’s be wine enthusiasts and wine enjoyers (if that’s a word).
Let’s talk about it over a glass of wine.
df
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