bevman

I owe my interest in food & wine to Julia (well, and to Graham Kerr -- in the time before he gave up the sauce and became a lot less interesting). I had the opportunity to meet her on a couple of occasions. She was engaging and charming despite her copious years. A photographer friend took the famous photo of her hands making pasta, hovering above an egg in a flour nest. This photo, which she signed for me, hangs on my fireplace and is a centerpiece that daily reminds me of her grace.

A wide variety of Au Bon Climat wines available on-line to reciprocal states at aubonclimat.com

Although I really like Provencal rose's (and rose' champagne is a topic all its own) my world takes me to California offerings most often. Most Pinot producers try their hand at rose' but I find them a little to "tutti-frutti". I'm liking the VERDAD (sister winery to Qupe') rose of Grenache and splash of Tempranillo.

I'm just now starting to pay attention to the "Wine of the Day" feature in the online version of the WS. I just looked in the March listing and found only ONE wine out of 30 to be from the US (Macrostie). Does anyone else find it odd that this publication, born in California, has become so Caliphobic? (Globalcentric?)

I think that the problem with getting "consumers" to understand the differences is part of the problem inherent in the wine industry -- the producers seldom talk to the consumer. Advertising is NOT the norm and so the producers talk to the distributor ... the distributor to the retailer ... the retailer eventually takes the message to the consumer (if you are lucky). Add another layer in there if you are talking about restaurants. Even vintner's associations are plagued with the same game of "telephone." The message often gets garbled or lost.