The Wine Curmudgeon

Update: A cute puppy video for the Super Bowl (and a shameless plug for the Cheap Wine Book)

Monday update: The numbers on Sunday were actually a little better than usual for the Super Bowl -- three-quarters of normal instead of to two-thirds. Maybe some of you clicked in during the blackout.

The Cheap Wine Book is 42 percent funded, but we're halfway through the process. So we have some ground to make up this week. I'm about halfway through the first chapter, and I'm working on the English-Winespeak dictionary as I go along.

Friday: Not too many of you will be visiting the blog this weekend. Super Bowl Sunday is one of the slowest days of the year, and the run-up to the game isn't much better. The number of visitors is usually about two-thirds of normal, even less than on Christmas.

So how about a shameless plug for the Cheap Wine Book, combined with a cute puppy video (courtesy of KlaireW on YouTube)? And the puppies are even wearing hats. Is that viral marketing or what?

So if you're bored on Sunday or don't care about football or want to help the book get published, visit the book's Kickstarter site after you watch the video and pledge $25. You can check out the Q&A I did about the Kickstarter process, or send me an email if you have questions; no game for me, since I'll be writing this weekend.

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?

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.

 

The Wine Curmudgeon's Guide to Cheap Wine

The Wine Curmudgeon has vowed, more than once, to never write another book. Let it be said that the horror stories you hear about publishers are true and leave it at that. And agents aren’t much better – see Raymond Chandler’s essay, “Ten Percent of Your Life.”

However, in today’s publishing world, you don’t need a publisher or an agent, so I don’t have any excuses. Hence the forthcoming publication of “The Wine Curmudgeon’s Guide to Cheap Wine,” which should be available in time for Mother’s and Father’s Day.

Look for the ebook at $9.95 and the paperback at $14.95. It will be for sale on the blog, as well as the usual Internet and digital retailers.

More, after the jump, including the video I made to promote the book on Kickstarter:

The original $10 Hall of Fame

The PDF at this link is a story called "Uncork It" that I wrote for the Southwest Spirit inflight magazine in 1999. It was the first appearance of what, today, is the $10 Hall of Fame.

How long ago was that? Randall Grahm still owned Big House wines (and I will no doubt get an email from him for bringing that up); I used the word checkbook, because we wrote checks in the 20th century; and I quoted Peter Granoff of a company called Virtual Vineyard, a predecessor to Wine.com that disappeared when the tech bubble burst.

No surprise to see Bogle on the list, of course, though I haven't seen the McGuigan in a store in years, and the Belvedere no longer exists. And how far ahead of my time was I with a regional wine and moscato?

As for the the Hogue fume and Jaja red blend: "Let us not burden our remembrances with a heaviness that's gone but distant memories," wrote Shakespeare, because those were two of the finest cheap wines ever. Versions are still around, but they're made by different companies and bear little resemblance to what they were. In fact, they gave me the idea for this story because I got tired of hearing people tell me you couldn't buy great wine for $10 when you could buy Hogue and Jaja.

The advice? As current as ever, and it's nice to be able to give credit to the people who first told me those things. And my editors at the time, Tracy Staton and Lori Stacy, deserve several waves o' the Curmudgeon's fedora. If they hadn't bought this story, who knows what I'd be doing now?

And is anyone surprised to see I was cranky about scores even then?

The 2013 $10 Hall of Fame

This was a record-setting year for the $10 Hall of Fame, with 12 wines making the cut. In some two decades of drinking cheap wine, I've never tasted so many that were so good. I came across at least one wine every week that was made me go, "Does this belong in the Hall?" That has never happened before.

Click here for the entire list, or the $10 link on the upper left of this page.

There were lots of surprises -- the Mandolin syrah from California, a French picpoul from Font-Mars (picpoul is notoriously inconsistent), and even the Rene Barbier Mediterranean Red, which took $5 wine to a place I never thought it could go. The Hall's selection process and eligibility rules are here.

We're living in the Golden Age of cheap wine, and I hope everyone who reads this understands how lucky we are to be here. It's as if Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, the Ramones, and the Beatles were all on the same bill, all in their prime, tickets were free, and we never had to go home.

2013 $10 Hall of Fame coming on Monday

The 2013 $10 Hall of Fame will post on Monday -- perhaps the most impressive group of cheap wine I've honored in the decade I've been doing this. There's more Gascon wine, a French picpoul that is stunning, some of the best Australian wine I've had in years, and even $10 California wine -- plus a mystery wine that surprised even me.

Want a sneak preview? I'll be on Olivia Wilder's Internet rado program at 8 p.m. CST on Sunday to talk about the new Hall, answer questions, and dispense cheap wine advice.