Yes, there is wine news related to Tuesday’s election and Barack Obama. The biggest is that the new first family apparently drinks wine. A People magazine article disclosed that the Obamas had some Kendall-Jackson chardonnay in the house. No snide comments, please, given that the White House inhabitants over the past eight years didn’t drink wine at all.
Among the other wine-related news worth noting (none of which has anything to do with the corny, wine-inspired PR that crossed my desk during the campaign):
• K-J didn’t waste any time taking advantage of its presidential popularity, sending two cases of wine to the president-elect. It included the chardonnay mentioned in the People story.
• Dave McIntyre of the Washington Post, whose regular wine column ran on Wednesday, may have had the best-read article in the history of wine writing. The Post could have sold as many as 1 million copies of its election special. It’s too bad that Dave, who is one of the Wine Curmudgeon’s cohorts in DrinkLocalWine.com, didn’t choose that day to write about regional wine.
• The food types are already floating a bunch of names for the new White House chef, among them Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and Rick Bayless, the Chicago chef who pioneered regional Mexican cuisine. My suggestion is Birmingham’s Frank Stitt, who has redefined Southern cooking at Highlands Bar & Grill. Plus, his wine list is excellent and not especially pricey, including much wine by the glass for $6.
• And, since the new president has asked Americans to give of themselves, the Wine Curmudgeon is willing to help. I’ll be more than happy to go over the White House wine list and help the new chef get rid of all the stuffy Napa and Sonoma labels in favor of new, fresh, exciting and interesting U.S. wines – and regional wines, to boot.
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