Rebel Rose

Ah hah! Thanks. We were posting at the same time.

It's not a philosophical abyss at all. Simply a matter of understanding the realities of reporting. I used to work as a newspaper reporter, although not in food. My editor's standards were high when it came to facts and interviews, a standard I try to uphold when I do freelance writing. However, many reporters are not well-trained, do not have caring and excellent editors, suffer from avalanching deadlines, and are grossly underpaid for their effort. They bang out interviews as fast as they can, and yes, they get things wrong and they mis-quote, sometimes with damaging effect. It's a fact of life. If you are interviewed, you must always be careful of what you say, and be very clear. Ask to approve any quotes attributed to you. Food reporters and writers are not evil, and they don't have an agenda to make a fool out of anyone, they're just in a hurry to get something to press and to make it good. Reporters that can't get the facts right and piss people off don't last long in this highly competitive field. Magazines have longer lead times and spend much more time crafting and checking articles. Weekly columnists generally have more time, as well. I've been misquoted at least twice in the past year. Once in a 2 page article in the food section of a small newspaper in which my cookbook was being featured. The writer was a birdbrain and misquoted me all over the place, but none of it was damaging. (Only drawback--the two-page article with big photos of me grilling gorgonzola-stuffed portabellas ended right over a large box listing all the health dept. findings for the week--rats, bugs, filth, etc. Thanks, guys. ) The other time was right after our 6.5 earthquake. I told a reporter we'd lost 100 gals. of wine, and the report went out over the AP that we'd lost 100 barrels!!! It was even reported in Spain! Aargh. We received pity calls for weeks from other vintners offering to give us barrels. And wine! Which was very sweet of them, but I was constantly explaining that we did not lose that much, and we're really fine, thank you. And finally to steer it all back on topic, this all relates back to the lot of a food writer's life--would he get a better story if he's recognized, or incognito? I vote for recognized. If a writer's work has gained him that level of recognition, he should be moving into deeper levels of food reporting and not playing silly games in order to see what's served to him. Leave that to the up and coming writers.

Whew. When my firends get in a snit I just suck hard on my straw and order another drink. So, have we learned anything here? Or is it still an open issue--cloak or no cloak? (Of course every food writer needs a dagger, otherwise how do you cut the steak.) Bill, can you tell us more about what editors look for in food reporting, particularly at a newspaper? I assume it varies by region and readership. Do editors want strictly a local angle or do they also look for pieces they can leverage into national distribution? Do you get extra brownie points for pieces with national appeal? What's your lead time? Or would this be better as a whole new thread? I think you're right in that many people here may not understand the environment of food writers and editors, and the insight would be interesting.

Yes, although it may sound odd to some, keeping it in the fridge is the best way to keep it fresh. If you have a VacuVin or Private Preserve I usually recommend using one of those in combination with chilling. A few years ago the wine trade newsmag Wine Business Monthly conducted its own 'freshness' trials, and found that simply chilling the wine in a fridge worked better than any other open-bottle system. Chilling slows down the bouncing oxygen molecules that interact with the wine and cause oxidation spoilage. VacuVin was second best, as I dimly recall, and they warned that the nitrogen in Private Preserve gas spray breaks down so quickly that it needs to be reapplied daily to keep a wine fresh--hardly a good investment. I also recommend pouring yourself a scosh of your chilled port and letting the glass come up to cool room temperature, rather than waiting for the whole bottle to warm up.

If there are any food writers listening , I would like to put in my two cents. I believe I am not alone. Well, maybe. I only enjoy food "journalism" and not food or restaurant "review." Reviews are boring, boring, boring. And generally untrustworthy, whether or not the review-er was made. There's the whole perception issue, the mutual level of existential backslapping, the creative posturing. Blech. I separate writers into food reporters and social scene reviewers. I'm sorry, maybe that's harsh, but that's always been my reaction. I know that people look to reviewers for guidance to great eating experiences, but that's where I would prefer journalism to review. After all, you can eat the most fabulous five-inch-high prosciutto gelato in a melon coulee with a mint/fig leaf balanced on a wire, but if you're getting divorced, it will all taste like sauerkraut. Give me a snappy insight into the background and wherefores of a restaurant, the creative urge, and the challenges, and I am much more likely to visit the restaurant and see for myself what's going on. If a short review of a meal is included, all to the good, but make it short! for me. I want action. I want telltale gestures that convey personality far more than words. (Chews on pencils, taps fingers impatiently, runsover/bumps into coworkers while spazzing around the kitchen) I want to feel like I've stepped into the restaurant, not into someone's intellectualization of the mastication process. Thank you very much for listening. ::smack smack:: ::cheek cheek:: ::love ya::

Greetings to our index of Conversations with special guests in the wine forum. We will be providing links to our online chats with guests from around the world. Please check the eGullet Calendar for upcoming Conversations, and plan to join us! Each Conversation lasts for approximately one week. During the Conversation, please feel free to join in and ask questions--it will make our guest feel welcome! When the guest departs, the Conversation will be closed, but a link is provided here so that you can review and enjoy the Conversation. If you have any questions, or suggestions for future guests, please let us know! A Conversation With . . . Stuart Devine, Villa Maria Estate, New Zealand Mel Knox, on oak and the art of cooperage

Stuart, thank you again for sharing your insights of the NZ wine scene with us! I particularly enjoyed the weather input. Cyclones. Amazing. I will definitely be watching out for the Cloudy Bay and Clifford Bay sauv blancs!

I have a feeling you will find the right moment for that Piper very soon. I'm guessing two years would be a bit long. However, if you have reason to celebrate with a good bottle of bubbly, I also suspect you do have friends willing to drink it. They just may not be the ones you expected. Better start thinking about apps. Congratulations! on . . . whatever.

While this photo essay cannot compare with Lucy's coverage of the Salon des Vignerons, the 2004 vintage is winding down here with the onset of autumnal rains. Which brings us once again to the local argument over which beer is the best crush fuel. As everyone in this business knows, it takes a lot of good beer to make great wine. Below, syrah at Dover Canyon is poised to hit the crusher during September's harvest action. Harvest was fast and furious this year, with fruit coming in all at once from a number of vineyards. No time to rest, but we are very pleased with the balance, pigment and aromas of all the lots we brought in. Beer of choice: homebrew lager or Michelob Ultra. This report just in from Mat Garretson at Garretson Wine Co.: "Happy to report we just pressed the last of our 130 tons yesterday before the big rains. The harvest looks very nice...albeit 30% below normal. I'm VERY encouraged by what I'm seeing (and smelling AND tasting) from this year's harvest. The pH/acid balance is incredible. I think we'll have a very nice year." "As to beer, we've always been a "Cooper's-powered winery". Our beverage of choice has been Cooper's Australian ales and stouts. How bad is our addiction? So bad that this year's harvest tee boasted a GWC rendition of the Cooper's label on the front (graphics attached), with a bottle of stout on the back with the proclimation, "It takes a lot of these to make one bottle of our wine". Hope you enjoy!" Dan Kleck, formerly of Long Island, now owns Silverstone Winery in Paso Robles. He reports that Pacifico was the cellar beer, and this is his only 'action foto' from the 2004 harvest. We hope that more reports will be trickling in soon.

herbacidal, either you just don't like it, or you've never had it fresh and properly cooked! Either way, I'm dismayed. For those of you who love abalone like I do, Hoppe's 901 in Cayucos and Windows on the Water in Morro Bay both make stellar ab app's. WW's is pounded out and served in a crunchy filigree pastry, just barely wrapped like lace around the meat.

I never thought about that. Are they like salmon? Snails seem pretty placid. Happy, even. They don't seem to crave a lot of exercise, although they do have very strong, uh, foot muscles. Is there a podiatrist in the house?

Welcome to our index of previously published Wine 101 topics. We hope you find these discussions informative and entertaining. These are still open topics, so feel free to post questions or comments in these threads at any time. Thank you for visiting us in the wine forum! Wine 101: A New Year in the Vineyard Wine 101: Harvest, the Magic of Crush Wine 101: Sulfites: Nothing to Sneeze at! Wine 101: Tannin Wine 101: Disgusting Things in Wine Wine 101: Starting a Wine Collection Wine 101: Cork Dorks vs. Wine Geeks Wine 101: The Art & Angst of Winemaking Wine 101: BYO and Corkage Wine 101: The Wine List Wine 101: Starting a Collection Wine 101: Sparkling Wine The 2004 Wine Blog The 2005 Wine Blog

I recently had the pleasure of touring our local abalone farm. It was fascinating! I've wondered why restaurant portions are so small, when local oldtimers talk about abalone steaks and abalone burgers. Well, an abalone grows one inch a year for the first four years, and after that, it grows only about 1/4 of an inch a year. Since it's not commercially viable to keep them growing for thirty years, they are sold at 4 to 7 years of age. In addition to the decimation of California abalone populations by overfishing, otters, and general depletion, the local farm had a horrendous time getting started. Listening to their manager tell the story, I didn't know whether to laugh or shake my head in pity. I apologize for not having pictures, but the visit was a surprise, and I didn't have my camera with me. First, they tried growing the snails in open seawater pools at the base of the cliff. But an all-time low tide, combined with heavy rains, flooded the pools with fresh water. And so they all died. Then, they built graduated boxes at the top of the cliff with seawater pumped up and over them. But in a heavy storm, the power went out and the generator overheated, and there was no way to keep the seawater moving and aerated. And so they died. Then they put in a bank of six generators, all phased to come on at different times, and they pulse oxygen through the pumped water instead of running it continuously to preserve use of the generators. In the meantime, they built a clever kelpcutter from a crane taken from an old aircraft carrier, attached it to a fishing boat, and began harvesting bales of kelp from channel island kelp beds. But then a super-stormy autumn prevented the boat from going out, and tore apart the kelp beds. Although small, the snails are voracious feeders. Without fresh food, they all died. So then they bought some old cement milk and wine tanks, filled them with seawater, and they drop the kelp bales into the tanks, which are nestled between a small bay and a hill, to keep the kelp fresh for long term storage. But then they were informed that you now need a permit to harvest kelp, and all the available permits were given to SoCal firms of one sort or another (who else needs kelp?) and they would have to wait six months. Without any kelp at all, the snails starved, and then they died. Now, these snails happily live out their short four- to seven-year lives in bubbling boxes and containers of one type or another, and they are fed a diet of algae, kelp, and . . . After considerable experimentation, the owners created their own cereal-and-seaweed feed. They extrude it into strings with a pasta machine, and bake it in the oven. It's lightweight and floats, just the way abalone like it. I also learned Japanese customers prefer the smaller size abalone, and barbecue (sorry, grill) them in their shells. Live snails are couriered to Japan overnight, wrapped in wet seaweed. The next time I order abalone, I am going to take tiny, tiny bites and savor every one.

People who turn up their noses at "sweet wine," but will consume cheesecake, creme brulee and chocolate after dinner.

Nicely said! If you'd been in our tasting room on the day I had a fever, the wine attendant called in sick, we were slammed to the walls with people, and my new puppy (left) jumped up on a woman's black jeans and got mud on her after my signicanto promised to keep her in the house (dog, not woman)--you would never return. I had to clamp my jaws together to keep them from chattering, hold myself up at the bar, and my usual softly spoken "what would you like to try next?" came out as, "Next!" "You!" "Well?" I expect restaurant reviewers to give me a "sense" of the place--not an over-adjectival review of a single dinner.

Lucy, thank you for taking the time to do this! The beautiful photos really bring the excitement of the fair into the Gullet.

Q1: Stuart, I see on the web that in 2003, about 76,000 tons were crushed in all of NZ. Does that equal about 4.5 million cases a year? How much of that is available for export? (I want to be first in line for some of that Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc.) Q2: What kind of barrel program does Villa Maria subscribe to?

Now that's the only kind of dining review I like to read! (Sissy adjectives and obscure references bore me to tears, or make me want to gag.)

Good morning, everyone: Here are Stuart's first three replies. They were accidentally sent as messages instead of posted here. HI The difference between Stelvin and screw cap is age, screw cap is Stelvin but over the years they have improved it's ability to work as a closure. The big diference is the Stelvin wad which is what the wine contacts at the top inside of the bottle. This stops the wine leaking and keeps it air tight. Now Asparagus? to us Kiwi's that usually means the wine has reach it's time and is starting to go past it's best, unless we are talking about different smells , I like to say more green pepper or cut grass or gooseberry?? STU Riesling the worst grape to eat in a vineyard but one of the best to drink in one! The difference is we are truly maritime so heat units are always lower than places like Aussie and we have very little continental influence like Australia and Germany. This usualy means Riesling is one of the last to harvest and it some times only beats the last leaves before Autumn. This allows the grape to increase in intensity with flavour and even out in ripness as it is a big yielder. There fore care is needed to keep the yields under 6 kilo/vine, some where arround 4 ton/acre. Flavour is more Lime rather than lemonade (Aussie)? mainly dry finish with a little added residual to bring out the natural pear and peach flavours. Sorry but what are those red socks in the corner? What a BIG question. Weather threat is easy. We are always worried especially during harvest about cyclones as they come from the north/west, the tropics and they are usually vey wet. They either go down the west coast of NZ or east coast of Australia, so with all our vineyards on the east coast of NZ we are happy when they go the west direction. This is where our milk industry is based so they enjoy it to some degree also. These cyclones hit the tip of NZ and go either way and from there we watch them Very carefully if they go east, in 1987 we had 25> inches hit us during vintage!! We can get up to 10 cyclones per year but they seem to be shared between the two land masses. Vintage is when we do not want these patterns hitting us. In 2004 this was also the case but they hit in Feb and caused very little damage as March and April were bone dry. Usually great weather follows these patterns. STU

Stuart, welcome--and thank you for answering our questions. For those of us who have not yet been to NZ, can you describe the climate, soils, and terrain? What is your diurnal swing during the growing season? And what, would you say, is the greatest weather threat to NZ vineyards?

I am duly chastised. Nebraska came to mind actually because I have just finished reading Isn't It Romantic? which features a Nebraska winemaker with a Cornhuskers fetish as one of the most delightful characters. And his wine is good.

Need a last minute Halloween costume? Chick magnet Wear black and attach peeps all over yourself. (Added bonus: girls 'll be nibblin' on you all night!)

Gak. Caroyln, that is nasty. Best story so far, I think. I think it does. In fact, for that very reason we privately call it a 'filter fee.' We seldom actually collect it, but it's posted on our tasting list, and it tends to filter out the cowboys, bachelorette parties, etc. We can enact it at any time if we feel the day is getting out of hand. I also allow only 2 limousine companies on the property, and no buses. Oh, speaking of scary, I just remembered this story (seems I have a few), related to me by the hospitality manager at Meridian. The staff at Meridian had a taster that was really pretty weird. His behavior wasn't agitated, but his babblings didn't always make sense and his language was borderline Tourette's. Other tasters were backing away, so he started focusing on the staff and he weirded them out so much that it was the one, and only, time they pressed the secret security button under the counter. Later the police reported back that the guy was relatively harmless, but was an escapee from Atascadero State Hospital. (Model for Pescadero St. Hosp. in Terminator II.) Edited for spelling, which is probably still not right.

Lat night I ran into Jon Priest, who was Ken Volk's cellarmaster at Wild Horse for many years, and that reminded me of the time we were pouring for Wild Horse at the Monterey Wine Festival. The festival staff provided two clear plastic pitchers--one for water, one for dumping. Why pitchers? I dunno. And people don't only dump their extra wine into the dump pitcher--at a formal trade tasting like this, many spit, so there are swirling streams of thick saliva in the dump. We were both busy answering questions, so I didn't see this happen, but Jon told me later that a well-dressed gentleman came up to the table and pouring the rose' colored swill in his glass, swirled, sniffed, and tasted. Then he walked over to his female companion, guided her to the table, and poured some in her glass and they walked away. "Jon!" I exclaimed in horror. "Why didn't you stop them?" Jon shrugged. "What was I supposed to do?" he replied. "Run after them shouting, 'Sir, you're drinking our swill?' "

Although it's true that many wine lists are simple and unimaginative, those lists will still have the reliable standbys, and it's very difficult, actually, to order a terrible bottle of wine in a restaurant. (Unless it's, like, Papa Segreto's unemployed son-in-law's production of Nebraska sangiovese.) So if you are not really wine knowledgeable, why not ask the servers if they have a recommendation, consider it, and then accept their suggestion or explore another choice? Wine drinking is not rocket science. The basic rules of wine pairing are also enough to get you comfortably through most meals. It's unlikely that even a wine novice will order sauvignon blanc with steak, or syrah with sole. In the event that you don't understand the list or the wine labels, simply ask the server what the wine is like. If they don't know, ask them to ask the chef for his recommendation. There is, however, a situation that some may encounter when ordering a fine wine by the glass, and I learned this first hand. At a lunch with friends, I ordered a glass of Bernardus chardonnay, and enjoyed it so much I ordered another one. The second glass was distinctly different and inferior. I asked the server about it, but she swore it was the same wine. But it was clearly not, nor was it corked or due to bottle variation. Later, another friend who has worked as a server for years explained to me that in some restaurants, management tells staff to substitute house wines on subsequent orders, while charging for the original wine. According to my friend, some restaurants speficially target women on this practice on the assumption that they don't know enough about wine to spot the difference. And this happened at a fine restaurant that I had always trusted. Now, I always ask that the wine be poured at the table. Problem solved.