Bogus Gold

I've been neglecting the wine-side of the blog lately. That's more to my chagrin than any of yours, because wine is a relaxing and fun hobby for me. Politics - which far more people want to read about - makes me tense, occasionally angry, and generally anxious.

Anyway, here are a few wine snapshots to boost the spirits (bad pun intended) around here:

A recent offering from The Red Wine Haiku Review:

147)The Little Penguin Pinot Noir 2004 (Australia)
Poor Mr. Pinot
They went and cut out his brain
Now he just smiles

I've had that wine and that is a perfect description.

For the upside of Pinot Noir, here is a Fermentation post on the Top 2005 Pinot Noirs (and, yes, a value list is included alongside the "cost is no object" list).

One of my favorite results of the movie Sideways has been the surge in interest in Pinot Noir, resulting in a lot more bottlings becoming available locally. I can't speak for the top of the list, but I know I've seen 4 of the 5 "value" labels around here recently.

Getting away from Pinot Noir, here's an excerpt from an interesting letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle by Alder "Vinography" Yarrow regarding California's proposal to name Zinfandel their Official State Wine Grape:

I want to talk about something much more serious: the impact on the California wine business when Zinfandel grapes become illegal to pick, just like our state flower, the California poppy. ...

What happens when we catch the first California grizzly raiding Zinfandel vineyards? The idea of the state animal eating the state wine grape while crushing the state flower underfoot as the state butterfly flits about in horror is too much for me, and certainly too much of a moral quagmire for this state to contemplate enabling.

The horror.