Forget the ECB–the big business news of the day is that the parent company of SkyMall has filed for bankruptcy! Yes, the catalogue found “in the seat back in front of you” that peddled bizarre but somehow captivating objects is on a ground stop that may really be interminable. SkyMall loved pets–everything you never thought
Q&A: Jean-Marc Roulot
I met up with Jean-Marc Roulot recently. Not only does he make the excellent wines at Domaine Guy Roulot in Meursault but he has pursued a parallel acting career, with 52 credits to his name including Haute Cuisine (fire it up on Netflix during this blizzard). In case you missed it, you can check out the Q&A I did with him over on wine-searcher
Tasting note: “bitter clown tears”
This tasting note is no doubt better than the wine! But, oddly, I bet it actually helped sales of the wine (assuming people read it). It wouldn’t surprise me if there were a store out there somewhere that posted only mockeries or send-ups of tasting notes. Would resonate well with the youngs. If anyone lacks creativity but wants to get start
Cold water on the “red wine myth”?
Researchers have poured cold sauvignon blanc on the idea that red wine is good for your health. Eegad, it was all a chimera! The new study, published in the British Medical Journal, makes a methodological point: previous studies looking at the effect of red wine an health had grouped respondents into drinkers and non-drinkers. But, they find using
Contents under pressure (Champagne)
During the recent week-long episode of “deflate-gate,” another dad at a youth basketball game leaned over and asked me, “How do you feel about the important matters of our day, such as Tom Brady’s balls?” Frankly, I hadn’t heard so much talk about pounds per square inch since the last sparkling wine seminar I at
The drought files: Calera edition
Drought has been wreaking havoc on all of California, including the wine industry. Producers have varied their responses to it, with some irrigating as much as they still can and others calling for “dry farming.” Yesterday, Josh Jensen (right) of Calera Wine told a packed seminar at the In Pursuit of Balance tasting in New York about his approach.
File under classy: Southern wine reps taunt former supplier
Wine made Page Six! This should be good, right? The NY director of sales and the district manager at Southern Wine & Spirits (SWS), one of the country’s behemoth wine and spirits distributors, hold the honor. According to the NY Post, they lost Laurent-Perrier champagnes from their portfolio. So they decided to go to a night club, The Hus
Eataly: a lot of pasta
Fast Company has a piece on Eataly, the enormous and enormously successful (grocery) store with restaurants inside it. For those who haven’t been, the stores have an innovative concept that harkens back to an olde tyme market with different vendors for fish, meat, and pasta, interspersed with fresh fruit and vegetables, dried pasta and olive
Spaetburgunder: German for pinot noir
Germany has the third largest amount of pinot noir planted, trailing only France and the United States. In fact their total acreage eclipses both Australia and New Zealand’s pinot noir plantings combined. (The local name for the grape is Spätburgunder.) Such is a factoid that I learned yesterday at ProWein, the annual wine trade megashow in Düssel