The Wine Curmudgeon

Update: The Wine Curmudgeon's Guide to Cheap Wine

We’re about one-third through the funding period, and not quite one-third funded. How can you help? Click this link or the widget in the upper left corner of the blog. That will take you to the Kickstarter site, where you can pledge as little as $25 to help publish the book -- and get a copy, too.

The reception around the cyber-ether has been terrific. Said The Dallas Morning News: "... Jeff is one of our most trusted local voices on wine. I love his curmudgeonly style. But behind that gruff posturing, he knows exactly what he’s talking about." I did an interview with Lynn Krielow at iWineRadio, and she was just as nice.

Plus this. And this. And even this. As one backer wrote to her friends, "This is going to be the best way to get the word out to everyone about how wine should really be appreciated."

Finally, because there has been some confusion about Kickstarter and how it works, a quick Q and A:

• What happens if you don’t get enough money through Kickstarter? I probably won't be able to write the book. Kickstarter is all or nothing; if I don’t raise the $8,000, I don’t get any money.

• How does this pledge thing work? You pledge money, and you’re billed through your Amazon account (because, of course, everyone has an Amazon account in the 21st century). If I don’t raise the $8,000, then you aren’t billed.

• What’s with the premiums? It’s just like public television. Pledge a certain amount and get a gift. If you pledge $25, you get a copy of the ebook and a copy of the second edition of the ebook when it comes out. That’s a fine deal, since the ebook will cost $9.95. Plus, there are pledge levels up to $500, with premiums that are even better (hint, hint).

• So all I’m doing is buying the book before publication? Exactly. How painful is that, given that everyone reading this will buy the book anyway?

Wine of the week: Faustino 2010

Rioja – red wine made with the tempranillo grape from the Rioja region of Spain – has long been one of the world’s great wine values. The simplest Riojas, called crianza, are everyday wines that usually deliver tremendous quality for $10. That more of us don’t know about them is one of the many things that make the Wine Curmudgeon so cranky.

Bodegas Faustino, which has been making wine in Spain for 150 years, has long been known for its wines with Roman numerals – Faustino I, Faustino V, and Faustino VII. This Faustino ($10, purchased, 13%) is part of its “modern reds” line – a term that usually makes me run screaming into the night, hinting as it does of merlot blended into the mix, winemaking alchemy to produce sweet fruit, and lots of fake oak.

Happily, this “modern red” is terrific basic Rioja, with everything as it should be. Look for cherry fruit, bright acidity, earthiness and that wonderfully funky Rioja aroma. The only thing that seemed modern about it was better winemaking – no off flavors or smells, which can sometimes happen with old-style Rioja.

You can serve this with almost anything except a white cream sauce, which is one of the great strengths of Rioja. It’s especially fine with bean dishes.

Writing is easy

Garry Trudeau, though a cartoonist, understands this writing thing. It's especially applicable during Cheap Wine Book Month. We're one-quarter of the way toward getting The Wine Curmudgeon's Guide to Cheap Wine funded through Kickstarter, and I'll have a longer update on Thursday.

How can you join the fun? Click on the link above or the widget in the upper left. That will take you to the Kickstarter site, where you can pledge as little as $25 -- and get a copy of the ebook, too. Hopefully, we can get the book funded before the deadline, so I can focus on Trudeau's four times a day bit. The other thing to keep in mind? If the book isn't funded through Kickstarter, I probably won't be able to do it.

 

Winebits 266: Winery start-ups, Mega Purple, beer-wine hybrids

• Money doesn’t matter: Only two percent of people starting wineries do so to make money, says a new study of winery startups conducted by a University of Missouri researcher. That’s an amazing figure, even for those of us laugh at the “How to make a million in the wine business” joke. The study found that 30 percent of started a winery, because they loved wine, 22 percent wanted to improve their quality of life, 19 percent wanted to farm, and 10 percent did so because of a sense of community. The other interesting number: The number of wineries in the U.S. has quadrupled in the past decade.

• Truth in labeling: Yet another reason why we need better ingredient labels on wine bottles – a wine additive called Mega Purple, which is grape juice concentrate used to darken the wine’s color without adding flavor or aroma. This post from Blog Your Wine is fascinating; Mega Purple, apparently, is common in $10 pinot noir, where it’s used to make the wine look more wine-like. My favorite bit? That Mega Purple is made from rubired and royalty grapes. Yes, that’s an excuse to use the Wine-Grape Glossary.

• Mix and match: If craft beer isn’t trendy enough for you, how about craft beer made with wine? Or, dare I say, bwine? Shanken News Daily reports that brewers see a chance to lure consumers to craft beer with the hybrids, which have been developed over the past couple of years. The best known may be Blue Moon Vintage Blonde, produced by a unit of beer multi-national MillerCoors and that includes juice from chardonnay grapes. These bwines, notes the story, are not only popular with craft beer drinkers, but with women wine drinkers.

What a blast

 

Because, frankly, we sometimes take wine much too seriously. (Video courtesy of avguru10 via YouTube.)

Mini-reviews 44: Knez, Leese-Fitch, Camelot, Paul Blanck

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month

• Knez Pinot Noir 2010 ($30, sample): California red was OK as far as it went, but not very interesting. The various parts were there – pinot smokiness and some black fruit – but something was missing.

• Leese-Fitch Sauvignon Blanc 2011 ($12, sample): A stunning grocery store white that I’d drink again -- just 13 percent alcohol and almost no fruit at all (for a California wine, anyway). Lots of grassiness on the aroma and an almost flinty finish.

• Camelot Chardonnay NV ($7, sample): Lots and lots of fake oak, though it does taste like California chardonnay if you like lots and lots of fake oak.

• Domaine Paul Blanck Riesling 2011 ($18, sample): Disappointing, especially considering how much I enjoy Alsace riesling. Too sweet for the alcohol level, and though it had the requisite amounts of petrol on the nose and soft, ripe white fruit, seemed out of balance.

Anthony J. Hawkins and the Wine Grape Glossary

The Wine Grape Glossary, perhaps the most important wine reference tool on the Internet, was compiled by someone who did it to learn how to use a computer and to teach himself basic programming.

Thank you, Anthony J. Hawkins.

“That’s one reason why it’s so simple,” says the 83-year-old Hawkins, retired from the ceramics department at Alfred University in western New York state. “I didn’t want to put in any bells and whistles because I didn’t want it to be too complicated.”

More, after the jump – including why Hawkins had to give up work on the project and how he’d like someone to take it over: