Dr Vino’s wine blog

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I am an op-ed contributor to the New York Times today urging wine producers to upgrade the quality of wine available in boxes. If you’re new to the site, welcome and feel free to explore the site including wine picks. Also, consider subscribing to the site feed or get caught up on my joint research on the carbon footprint of wine.

Overall, I’m disappointed with the quality of box wine here in the U.S. But the time for good box wine has come for environmental as well as economic reasons as I argue in the piece.

There are some rays of hope in the box wine landscape. Unfortunately, the $40, 3-liter D-Tour wine, made by Dominique Lafon of Burgundy and imported by Daniel Johnnes, wine director at Daniel Boulud’s restaurants, has been temporarily withdrawn from the market (search for this wine). However, the Cuvee de Pena, an old vine grenache from the French side of the Pyrenees, is still available (find this wine). And the newest and brightest star is the $11 unoaked, organically grown malbec called Yellow + Blue sold in a 1-liter TetraPak (not bag-in-box; find this wine). There’s also the Bandit from California (find this wine).

So what do you say about boxed wine? Have your say in the latest poll! And hit the comments with your preferred box selections.

Related: “Drink outside the box” NYT
“An open letter to Jorge Ordonez” [Dr. V]
“How I gave up bottled water and lived to tell the tale” [Dr. V]
Drinking box rosé in the south of France
The excellent image is by Grady McFerrin and ran with the story.

SUNY Stony Brook, Center for Food, Wine and Culture, will be having an international wine conference next week entitled “The Art of Balance: Cool Climate/Maritime Wines in a Global Context.”

The interesting lineup of speakers includes New York winemakers such as Eric Fry and Thomas Laszlo, NYC somm/wine soothsayer Paul Grieco, and winemakers from Friuli Venezia-Giulia, the Rheingau, Rías Baixas, The Loire, Bordeaux, and Santa Rita Hills. Check the site for the full line-up.

There will also be a tasting on Tuesday night with wines from 75 wineries and it’s possible to just attend this portion of the two day festivities. The whole event will be a good opportunity to taste the NY wines compared to other wines and discuss potential directions for New York wines. If I were in town, I’d be there!

August 5 & 6, SUNY Stony Brook Southampton.

If you’ve never picked up a copy of Wine & Spirits magazine, the current issue (that landed in my mailbox on Saturday) provides a lot of bang for six bucks. The special issue, “Rebels that rock the best in the world of wine,” has great articles about natural winemakers around the world, profiles of 10 wine revolutionaries, best new American vineyards and wineries, four escapes to wine country USA, and some best dishes in restaurants. Contributors include David Wondrich, Fiona Morrison, Alice Feiring as well as the usual great staff.

I also contributed a story on “innovations in wine retail,” which came out well on a two-page spread, complete with time line.

But if you can’t wait to get two the newsstand, you can take a sneak peak at two of the revolutionaries on the Wine & Spirits website. Paul Grieco of Terroir and Hearth in NYC (see our Q&A with Paul) interviews internet retailer phenom Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library. Then they turn the tables and Gary interviews Paul. No swirling or spitting in the video–and no Jets dump bucket.

I’ll be heading back to the James Beard awards this year, not as a nominee, but as a blogger! Make that a live blogger!

Yes, my beat is not only wine but also cocktails. This will take me first to a pre-show on the red carpet (which doesn’t show wine stains!). Then into the awards with breaking coverage (not glasses) of winners. Then on to the dinner where I’ve been assigned to the VIP section where I’ll have to ask co-host and “Sex and the City” star Kim Cattrall if she only likes pinot from magnum. Daniel Johnnes (wine director at all of Daniel Boulud’s restaurants) will be heading a team of sommeliers pouring during the dinner. I’m even covering a cocktail lounge there so I’ll see what’s shaking–and what’s straight up.

It won’t be on this site, sadly, so surf on over to the official site on Sunday starting at 6 PM. Available now, you can see a list of the nominees, including wine and spirits books, best wine service and wine & spirits professional of the year. What do you think is Kim Cattrall’s favorite wine? I’ll have to ask her.

If only Hillary Clinton had known–there’s wine in Kentucky! She could have put down the shot of Crown Royal and picked up a glass of Kentucky cab to fraternize with the locals.

In a story this morning on “Marketplace” from American Public Radio (on NPR), the “dulcet tones” (as a reader wrote in) of Dr. Vino contributed a couple of quick comments to a story the decline of tobacco and the rise of Kentucky wine.

Listen here.

“You’re hired!” Those may not be the words that many people hear from The Donald. But I did.

OK, not from him personally. But the editor at the newly reborn TRUMP magazine. I contributed two wine stories to the current issue, which, as you can see, does NOT have The Donald on the cover! Take that, Oprah!

Although I originally took the assignment to satisfy my inner bling, I actually wrote a story about (wine) travel in the Loire based on our family vacation last summer, tasting wines at the legendary Domaine Huet and storming some of the castles. The other story is about Crushpad, a custom winery in downtown San Francisco.

You can pick up a copy of the magazine at any Trump property, or city with a Trump property such as New York City, Chicago, Palm Beach, Dubai and Atlantic City.

Web 2.0. How many have heard that already? It’s borderline cliche.

Anyway, I’ve taken the plunge on three social networking sites. Be my friend, follow me, or whatever their jargon is. Here are the sites:

1. Twitter. Be my friend. I can’t decide if this is a revolution in micro-blogging or a complete waste of time. So far I’ve learned various things such as: one woman was PMSing, another guy hates his job, another guy just finished 18 holes of golf, somebody else is at the farmers’ market (BREAKING!), and yet another guy is pinging his DNS server or some such. I have revealed trivialities as well such as my confusion thinking New York State cider was different from mere apple juice. OK, I’m probably not doing the best sales pitch and, indeed, I’m kind of undecided about the whole thing. Be my friend and convince me of its virtues! One beauty of Twitter is obvious since all postings are limited to 140 characters: Blowhards not allowed.

2. StumbleUpon. Be my friend. SU is sort of the Russian roulette of web surfing–except without the guns and death. Sign up for it, select some preferences, and SU generates new websites for you to explore at random every time you click “Stumble!” Or you can explore what your friends like, which may be safer and more rewarding.

3. Open Wine Consortium. Be my friend. OK, not as catchy a name as Facebook. But it is like a Facebook for wine geeks. Post comments on your friends’ walls and join the various networks to discuss aspects of wine, particularly issues of interest to wine bloggers and those in the trade. There was even a brief discussion (now, oddly, closed) about the logistics of a possible wine bloggers conference later this year. Join the fray.

Mrs. Vino is having a bountiful harvest so far this year–and it’s only March! Over the weekend, we got the best Easter present in the form of a baby boy, our second. So if my blogging is somewhat intermittent, consider it a parental leave.

But Mrs. Vino’s (re)productivity doesn’t stop with babies. The fifth book in her series of children’s books has just been published: Eco Babies Wear Green. Just in time for Earth Day!

I mentioned my forthcoming book earlier in the week in a post and there have been some very supportive and enthusiastic comments and emails! Thanks so much! Also a little bit of confusion, which I have no doubt created, so I thought I would clarify things.

I have the very good fortune of having two wine books coming out this year! The first, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink will be published on July 1 by the University of California Press. In it, I trace the story of wine in France and America through the lens of wine politics–struggles against nature and society, where lines get drawn, how wines get made. Man versus man, man versus nature all that good stuff. There’s even a part where Britney goes crazy and shaves her head–oh wait, that’s not in there but I thought I’d mention it here in an effort to sell more copies.

Above you can see the cover art in all of its glory! I’d venture to say that I have the first ever wine book cover to be graced by a bottle in a brown paper bag. Covers matter, obviously, since buyers often judge books by them–and especially now since Borders will be displaying more of them face out.

There was a great essay in the Times on why it takes so long to get a book on the shelves if you’re not familiar with the book publishing process. One peril discussed in that article is having a book come out in the second half of a presidential election year. Even though it’s not a wine drinker’s guide to politics, it’s perhaps fortunate for me that this book on wine politics also happens to be coming out in a presidential election year!

The second book is the one that I finished writing last month when I gave you a head fake and said I was going to take a break from blogging and then didn’t. More details to follow on this one. But since the first book won’t tell you which wine to have with dinner the second one will–and more!–since it is Dr. Vino’s Guide to Wine. The publisher on that one is Simon & Schuster. It’s due out in November.

Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink (Amazon; UC Press)

This excellent New Yorker article examines the phenomenon of measuring carbon emissions. The author, Michael Spector, mentions the study on the carbon footprint of wine that I wrote with Pablo Paster. And we were THIS close to a mention! Roll the tape:

Last year, a study of the carbon cost of the global wine trade found that it is actually more “green” for New Yorkers to drink wine from Bordeaux, which is shipped by sea, than wine from California, sent by truck. That is largely because shipping wine is mostly shipping glass. The study found that “the efficiencies of shipping drive a ‘green line’ all the way to Columbus, Ohio, the point where a wine from Bordeaux and Napa has the same carbon intensity.”

It’s good the research is getting out there! The WSJ blog Environmental Capital also mentioned it here and the New York based authors were delighted to raise a glass of Bordeaux to the finding. Foreign Policy also mentioned it in passing this time around but actually did mention it before.

Anyway, if this has made you thirsty for more on the topic, check out a summary of our research findings, my op-ed in the NYT suggesting a local drink, and be sure to come to the March 18 free talk and tasting benefiting The Nature Conservancy! Hope to see you there!