Nobel prize for wine

[Dr Vino]

With all the Nobel prizes announced recently, it made me wonder...what if there were a Nobel prize for wine? Of course, Alfred Nobel may have been a teetotaler for all I know but still, a wine geek can but dream.

Who would you nominate for such an honor? (Nobel grape they might call it)

[Daniel Rogov]

Wow.....great question!!!

I would nominate Ernest and Julio Gallo but because nominations can only go to living people it would be to Ernest. Whatever one thinks about Hearty Burgundy and Gallo Chablis, it was the Gallo brothers that first made Americans aware that wine could be part of the cultured and civil life. Without the development of Gallo (yes, that including both the jug wines as well as the often excellent Sonoma wines they produce), the California wine industry would have remained in its infancy. Like God, had the Gallo brothers not existed, we would have had to invent them. Without Gallo there would have been no place for the development of Mondavi, Beringer, and on and on......

More than that, because Americans started enjoying wines, Europe had no choice but to respond and one might easily credit the best developments of Languedoc and many other French wine areas as well as for the development of the industry in Australia, New Zealand and yes, even Sicily - for to a great extent it is on the American market those industries and wineries rely.

[Vinfidel]

ok guys even though we love this hobby we cannot count wine in the same level of exalt as physics, chemistry, medicine, literature , world peace

maybe instead a oscar or grammy for wine!

althought my vote would go to mondavi

[Rebel Rose]

Are former Nobel winners eligible? Dr. Cary Mullis, for discovering the polymerase chain reaction, upon which DNA identification is based, for allowing us to trace the origins of zinfandel. We also now know that the roussanne we purchased from Chequera Vineyard, and the roussanne for which Wild Horse won a best of show, is really viognier. Genetically. Although the French still insist it is roussanne, just a really, really obscure clone.

And I'm pretty sure he likes wine. And world peace.

[Daniel Rogov]

ok guys even though we love this hobby we cannot count wine in the same level of exalt as physics, chemistry, medicine, literature , world peace

Perhaps, but let us think of Beaumarchais who observed: "Every time I open a bottle of wine I stand in awe, for this is not merely a bottle of wine. I am opening 5,000 years of human civilization"

[MaxH]

even though we love this hobby we cannot count wine in the same level of exalt as physics, chemistry, medicine, literature , world peace

Perhaps, but let us think of Beaumarchais who observed: "Every time I open a bottle of wine I stand in awe, for this is not merely a bottle of wine. I am opening 5,000 years of human civilization"

Would that be Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais, of folies-du-jour fame, the one who kept getting into trouble, the one fictionalized by Feuchtwanger, who in turn is remembered bitterly among some Russian intellectuals today for helping to "sell" Stalin to the West, just as Orwell is remembered for doing the opposite? (This is from memory, and late at night too.) That Beaumarchais was, after all, a professional dramatist.

[Daniel Rogov]

Would that be Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais, of folies-du-jour fame, the one who kept getting into trouble...

Max, Hello....

Indeed. Pierre de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) was truly a man who kept getting into trouble as he was no less a dramatist/poet than a man with an enormous zest for life. Some reports indicate that he had three wives (simultaneously) and over the course of quite a few years more than 220 mistresses and who loved wining and dining with a passion of which I can only stand in awe. Thankfully, he had a more serious side and two of his plays, The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville were later made into operas, the first by Mozart and the second by Rossini.

As to out and out adventurism, at various times he served as a French spy stationed in England; sold guns to the American revolutionaries. In at least one way he was quite fortunate, for even though he was a supporter of the French Revolution he eventually ran afoul of the various tribunals but, because of his popularity with the masses instead of meeting with The Widow (the guillotine) he was merely forced into exile.

All in all, a charming man.

Edited October 25, 2005 by Daniel Rogov (log)

[docsconz]

Perhaps Stephen Spurrier who organized the famous blind tasting of the 70's that showed that non-French wines could also excel. That was a revolutionary moment in wine-drinking circles.

[Rebel Rose]

Excellent suggestion, Doc!

[Dr Vino]

Lest anyone think we were taking this too seriously, how about one wine prize for each of the existing prize categories? Here's my list:

Wine physics: the inventor of the spinning cone

Wine chemistry: Leo McCloskey, Enologix.

Medicine: well, you might think Dr Vino but alas I am a PhD, not a medical doctor...So it would have to be for wine and health generally and the winner is: the French for giving us the Mediterranean diet

Wine literature: hmm, a wine writer...Kermit Lynch? Nah, writing is not his main activity. Frank Prial actually wrote professionally about wine for three decades. But I guess in the end it would have to go to Robert Parker.

Wine peace: Jonathan Nossiter of Mondovino fame? Just kidding!! Hmm, how about Bob and Peter Mondavi for burying the hatchet? (a la Sharon - Arafat)

Wine economics: Jess Jackson? Or all those "suits" driving corporate mergers? I would give it to the Bank of America for their 1972 report that spurred investment in California vineyards.

[docsconz]

Lest anyone think we were taking this too seriously, how about one wine prize for each of the existing prize categories? Here's my list:

Wine physics: the inventor of the spinning cone

Wine chemistry: Leo McCloskey, Enologix.

Medicine: well, you might think Dr Vino but alas I am a PhD, not a medical doctor...So it would have to be for wine and health generally and the winner is: the French for giving us the Mediterranean diet

Wine literature: hmm, a wine writer...Kermit Lynch? Nah, writing is not his main activity. Frank Prial actually wrote professionally about wine for three decades. But I guess in the end it would have to go to Robert Parker.

Wine peace: Jonathan Nossiter of Mondovino fame? Just kidding!! Hmm, how about Bob and Peter Mondavi for burying the hatchet? (a la Sharon - Arafat)

Wine economics: Jess Jackson? Or all those "suits" driving corporate mergers? I would give it to the Bank of America for their 1972 report that spurred investment in California vineyards.

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These of course would be the "Noble" Prizes.