After a long time in swill purgatory, South Africa finally has established itself as a legitimate producer of quality wines. via Courier News Online

It?s been a very busy week, but after my nice catching up session with Google Reader, here are some treasures worth noting from the RSS pileup:

1) Catavino?s Rioja Report and EWBC 2008: Gabriella and Ryan over at Catavino have made a labor of love?an ambitious sort of compendium that is all things Rioja. From regional gastronomy to what else? Los vinos! You can find maps, profiles of wineries, beautiful photography and even a comprehensive explanation of Rioja labeling practices. I also found their buying guide particularly valuable and look forward to bringing it along on some shopping trips in the near future. This kind of stuff is a privilege to be able to look at when you consider other ?regional reports? published by people with a sense of entitlement to wine travel and $60+ annual subscription fees. Ryan and Gabriella are accountable for their material, actively and genuinely elicit and value readers? opinions, suggestions and evince passion for this stuff, so go ahead and bookmark them.

2) Speaking of La Rioja, check out the page for this summer?s inaugural European Wine Bloggers Conference.

3) Remember Mr. Show?s Worthington Law applied to wine? Looks like the research findings from that CalTech/Stanford study published earlier in the year have been further validated. Working Paper No, 16, published by the American Association of Wine Economists details a new study in which people generally preferred less expensive wines, unless told by researchers of course, that a wine was particularly expensive.

4) If you read Spanish and want to stay up on the latest happenings in the Mendoza wine industry, you may want to bookmark El Blog de Vinos de Argentina. I have been reading their blog for some time now and have found it more and more valuable in terms of getting an inside track on what they?re thinking in Mendoza. As an Argentine, I?ve become a bit tired of receiving my Argentine wine industry news solely from the perspective of English-language consumer magazines. In the Argentine wine-sense, I?m approaching the sort of frustration many over here are feeling with news sources like CNN and FOX?it?s unfortunately limited for my needs. I may not be alone in wanting something like this?I really feel that things would get interesting if insiders from many wine regions only generally covered by shiny-cover magazines began communicating their perspectives directly to readers in a couple of other languages.

5) I would like to issue a preliminary warning before checking out this final note...it is cringe-inducing. I caught this on an Argentine website related to wine news. You'll click on the link and notice the article is written in Spanish, but that won't deter you from making the appropriate inference...Madonna will be contracting some local producer to lovingly craft her own label of Malbec. My comments? Oh hell no. Truthfully though, the nausea actually set in when I read that the label will reportedly be named after "Evita." Whether you are a foreigner and think Evita was a great person or an Argentine who may have the courage to speak up and express a more balanced perspective for the legacy of this famous political figure, one thing's for sure, Madonna could have chosen ANY OTHER variety cultivated in ANY OTHER country. Why us, oh God why us?

One of my accounts handed me this wine review, written up by a former employee. "She wasn't all there..." they noted, and went on to say she'd find reviews online and cut and paste without actually reading them. This little gem was up for quite a while until horrified customers noted that they wouldn't buy the wine because the description was so off-putting. I, however, find it to be brilliant and would love to partake in the Ecstatic Singing Mantra whenever it transpires. So I searched for wine reviews of Jest Red online, and apparently, most of this review appeared on A Little Vino Would Be Keeno. Which is clearly now my favorite site. Ever.

"Blended from seven noble grape varietals, the nose is deeply perfumed with wild dewberries, Himalayan breeding musk, and horehound candy, while the flavors, so titillating they may only be disclosed in the Ecstatic Singing Mantra. Pair with beef, pork, pasta with red sauce, cheese or chocolate, or go wild and have it with pizza, burgers or even burritos!"

I'm not quite sure which is the best part of that - is it the Himalayan breeding musk or the pairings? It's sublime on so many levels.

Bloggerview #19
Who: Peter Liem
Blog: Besotted Ramblings and Other Drivel
Where: http://www.peterliem.com

Peter Liem is the second Wine & Spirits Magazine writer to take up blogging, beating his colleague Wolfgang Weber to the punch by a couple months. Peter's personal blog, Besotted Ramblings and Other Drivel, has a certain derogatory ring to it, but please don't let this fool you. Peter is W&S's Senior Correspondent based in Champagne, giving him a unique and insider perspective particularly on the European wine scene. I learned about Peter's Blog from Brooklyn Wine Guy who highly recommended it and I was not disappointed. Peter's Besotted Ramblings are likely the best source of information on the Champagne wine region and Champagne the product on the net. It's an education in the waiting. Peter was kind enough to agree to be Bloggerviewed.

1. When did you begin blogging and why?
I started my blog in November of 2007, mostly because I was living halfway around the world from the majority of my friends, and it was an easy way to stay connected. It?s since grown into something beyond what I anticipated, and I find that I enjoy writing it.

2 In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
I?m fortunate in that I?m based in one of the most dynamic and intriguing wine regions in the world, constantly surrounded by wine, vineyards and winemakers, and my blog allows me to develop ideas about issues and random bits of information that I encounter from day to day. My goal is to keep it mostly about champagne, but as I travel fairly regularly, I also end up writing about other things that I happen to be drinking or eating at the time.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
You mean other than its babbling incoherence and child-like grasp of HTML? Seriously, I suppose that one unique element of my blog is that among people blogging in English about champagne, I?m one of the very few who actually live in the region, and among those I?m the only journalist, as far as I know (the rest are winemakers or connected with wineries). Both of these things shape my perspective in particular ways.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
It?s been shocking, really. Each week surpasses the previous one. I don?t look at my stats a lot, mostly because I use Blogger, which doesn?t have an internal stat counter. But whenever I do, I think, ?Damn, where did all these people come from? And don?t they have anything else better to do??

5. Do you accept sample for review?
Well, most of my tasting is done at wineries, so I suppose that tasting wine "sur place" constitutes accepting samples in some way. I don?t feel any sort of conflict of interest, since I?m not actually reviewing wine, nor do I feel compelled to write about something just because someone opened a fantastically expensive or rare bottle for me. The whole point of having a personal blog is so that I can write about whatever I want to write about.

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
I don?t. At my day job I?m required to use the 100-point scale, which I like to think that I can wield competently as a professional. Personally, however, I don?t believe in numeric scoring, although I recognize the need for a system to communicate a concept of quality, if you?re going to be in the business of reviewing wine. Fortunately, my blog isn?t about reviewing wine, and it certainly isn?t about rating wine. It?s more about establishing a context in which to place the wines that I write about, creating a backdrop so that the reader is better empowered to assess these wines for himself or herself.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
It?s a sort of mental exercise, usually in the morning. I don?t like spending much more than fifteen minutes on a post ? I?ll pick a sufficiently narrow topic and try to make myself write whatever I have to say within the allotted time. As I often spend much of my day writing other things, it?s a nice change of pace to write a short, focused post on something that I?m interested in.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
I?ve done absolutely nothing to market my blog. In fact, I think the only thing I?ve ever done that could remotely be considered marketing is registering on Technorati. I must be the worst self-promoter in the entire world.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
As others have said, a blog connects you with your readers in a much more immediate way than print journalism. For one thing, you can write much more frequently, and your writing is delivered instantaneously to your audience, which offers huge advantages. When I write for print, sometimes it won?t be read until several months later, which has an impact on both how you write and what you can write about. Also, one of the most valuable things about blogging is a direct interaction with your audience, via comments, e-mails and the like, and it?s very rewarding to exchange ideas in this manner.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
I browse whenever I can, generally around the blogs that I?ve linked to on my site. I like Brooklynguy?s well-written and down-to-earth Wine & Food Blog. Dr. Vino is always a fantastic source of information, and generally a hoot to read. Wolfgang Weber?s Spume is intelligent and entertaining, not always about wine but that?s a good thing. I also like Ray Isle?s blog at Food & Wine ? he?s the best writer I?ve ever worked with, as well as an all-around great guy.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
I can?t say that I see a big impact on the industry. On wine culture, I suppose that it gets more people engaged in a dialogue about wine, whether they?re reading or writing. I think that blogs still occupy a fringe element rather than the mainstream, but their presence and influence is only going to grow.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
I would say Paris, except that I live close by and am there quite regularly, so it doesn?t feel like much of a vacation to me! I do love the city, though. For a proper vacation, I try to remove myself completely from Europe and North America, with Asia being a preferred continent to wander in.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
Cats, unquestionably. They are by far the more civilized of the two. I?ve been in too many places in the world where I?ve had to carry a pocketful of rocks to fend off canine marauders. In Vietnam, however, I exacted my revenge upon the canine race when I ate dog prepared three different ways, including a boiled paw floating in soup, nails and all. It was a very Lance Henriksen in "Dead Man"sort of moment.

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
The New Yorker. In fact, it?s become something of a ritual for me ? when I fly I almost always have both the New Yorker and Wired in my bag. One of the things I love most about flying is that it frees me of all duties and obligations, and I have absolutely nothing to do but sit there and read a magazine.

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
A Prius would be a blessing, with gas prices the way they are here in Europe. Although as my current vehicle is a Peugeot 206, I would be thrilled to drive either a Prius or a BMW. The French make many wonderful things, but automobiles are not exactly their strong suit.

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Chablis, without a doubt. I?m an old-world, old-school, cool-climate, rocks-and-minerals sort of guy. I guess I sort of have to be ? I live two hours <I>north</I> of Chablis.

17. Describe what you would have at your last meal?
I would have Kouei Furukawa, the kaiseki-trained chef of Shokkan in Tokyo?s Shibuya district, make me a multi-course extravaganza from whatever he found at the market that morning. I?d bring a ton of champagne, of course, as well as an ample supply of sake, and try out all sorts of combinations with Furukawa-san?s exquisitely elegant and refined cuisine.

18. What is Heaven Like?
Of course the champagne flows freely, and by some miracle it's all organically grown. The views are spectacular, rather like sitting out on the patio at the Ventana Inn in Big Sur. The chefs are Japanese, and the sommeliers probably are, too. And on the television, Arsenal is perpetually thrashing Manchester United, over and over again for the rest of eternity.

19. If you could invite 4 people dead or alive to your fantasy dinner party, who would they be and who would you have bring the wine?
There are many famous people living and deceased whom I might choose, but I?d have to say that my group of friends in Portland, Oregon, who all have fabulous cellars and are all complete wine dorks, will always be my favorite dining companions. Unfortunately we hardly ever get to see each other these days. There are more than four of them, but so be it.

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
Don?t use Blogger! Just kidding. I think it?s important to remember that while writing on the web allows you to be more casual and relaxed than writing in print, the rules of good writing still apply. Write with a purpose and keep your audience in mind. It doesn?t have to be Pulitzer Prize-worthy, but it ought to have a point ? writing ?I drank this last night and it was yummy? is not very useful to anybody, plus it?s boring.

Tasting notes:

Bright nose of peach and lemon

Nicely textured on the palate; fruity and acidic

Finish of citrus, melon, and lingering vanilla

This South African beauty is a steal at just $6! Well, that was the sale price. Regardless, the regular price is more like $10 which is still a good deal for a fruity, elegant, and nicely textured wine.

I could see this pairing well with a variety of dishes, and it also was delicious to drink on its own. I encourage you to seek out South African Chenin Blanc. Some wineries use the grape name Steen, however, it seems more of them are reverting back to the French name for the grape on the label. Either way, it's often great stuff at a modest price. Raise a glass!

The Award-Winning Wine:

McManis Family Vineyards 2006 Petite Sirah

Reason for Reviewing:

McManis Family Vineyards 2006 Petite...

SIPPED: Sauternes
Chicago’s foie gras ban has been repealed in a 37 - 6 vote by the City Council, overturning the 48 - 1 vote that put the ban into effect two years ago. The prices of Sauternes, the unctuous sweet wine often served as an accompaniment, just went up an additional ten percent. [Sun Times, thanks Stephen!]

SIPPED: Cork back for an encork
When a member of the Culinary Institute of American saw my cork iPhone case in February, she exclaimed that it would be the perfect product for recycling their corks! But apparently someone had other plans as the 900 corks pulled there a day will now be recycled in a new program called ReCORK America, sponsored by a cork producer to underscore the “natural” qualities of cork. But what is the carbon footprint of sending all that cork into be recycled into floor tile (and sidebars for wine blogs). Wouldn’t the CIA be better reusing them as festive holiday wreaths–or those iPhone covers?!?

SPIT: Critter labels
On the heels of our worst wine label contest comes more advice, this time from Wines & Vines. One item: a label designer Down Under has a “no critters” policy after seeing the kangaroo reinvented some “50,000 times.” [Wines & Vines] Related: ”

SPIT: Brunello di Montalcino
Not content with the FAA’s Global War On Toiletries, US federal authorities are now turning their eyes on another liquid: Brunello di Montalcino! A recent scandal has revealed blending of grapes other than sangiovese, the only one permissible under the local DOC rules in the wine. Now, as a result, the feds are threatening to block US imports of the pricey Italian wine as of June 9. ?Part of our mandate is to make sure all labels are truthful, accurate and not misleading to the American consumer,?? Mr. Resnick of the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau told Eric Asimov. Um, OK, how about starting with Korbel “California Champagne”? [NYT]

SPIT: asparagus in December
In a piece that, oddly, has not received much attention here in the US of A, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay–known for his high-end restaurants in several countries as well as cursing like, well, a chef–lays into out-of season like nobody’s bidness calling for it to be outlawed in the UK. While absolutely laudable in principal, the legislative angle may be the wrong way to achieve this policy goal. And let’s hope eating local in his case doesn’t mean eating any more horse! [BBC]

SIPPED: Wine into water
Wine & Spirits magazine will be holding two public tastings in Los Angeles and Seattle that sound like fun with good people and good wines. Since I gave up bottled water for thirty days and lived to tell the tale, I like the secondary cause too: $5 of each ticket will go to local water conservation organizations. [Wine & Spirits Hotpicks]
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