Archive for the ‘Readings’ Category
Doesn’t That Sound Appetizing?
June 7th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
From the pre-Prohibition anti-alcohol tract Wine and the Word, which argued that wine in Biblical times was something different than wine as it is known in the modern world: Sugar is a product of life, stored up in the living grain or living grape. The grain separated from the straw, and the grape from the [...]
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Bug or Feature?
May 3rd, 2010 by Tom Johnson
In 1892, the American Board of State Viticultural Commissioners published a detailed guide to tasting and classifying wine. Professor Giacomo Grazzi-Soncini, Director of the Royal School of Viticulture in Alba, Italy, wrote Wine: Classification, Wine Tasting, Qualities and Defects so that American wine makers and consumers would have a common reference with which to anchor their [...]
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Wine and the Origins of the Social Kiss
March 31st, 2010 by Tom Johnson
In 1824, the admirably named Samuel Morewood published An Essay on the Inventions and Customs of Both Ancients and Moderns in the Use of Inebriating Liquors. In it, he theorized that the seemingly friendly social kiss had originated in ancient Rome as an inquisition rather than greeting: It was in these times of simplicity that women [...]
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One Vintage
March 23rd, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Among the egregious sins of modernism – along with creative hubris and flat roofs in rainy climates – there is efficiency. Modern art, the modern home, the modern city, the modern world are pictures of efficiency, every inch, every movement, every second planned and plotted so that quantifiable value is extracted from every thing. The [...]
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One More Big Plan Gone Awry
March 19th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
In 1885, writing in Macmillan’s magazine, British diplomat and cockeyed idealist R. E. MacNaghten proposed an “alteration in the drink traffic” in England. MacNaghten suggested illegalizing for-profit bars, and replacing them with drinking establishments where… …the profits which would probably accrue from such a system should be devoted, first, to increasing the comfort of the place, and secondly to [...]
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When the World Met American Wines
January 29th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
In 1873, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria hosted the Vienna Universal Exhibition. The exhibition attracted nations from all over the world to display their agricultural and industrial products. Franz Josef himself directed that among the products that should be gathered was wine. By the time the Exhibition opened, 20,000 wines had been submitted to be [...]
Tags: History, wine
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Do This Kind of Thing Today and Somebody’d Call the Cops
December 17th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
Legendary writer Gerald Asher, in his book On Wine, explained that “only fools take their pleasures frivolously.” Demonstrating his seriousness about pleasure, he assembled an exercise in matching sweet wines with dessert designed to find perfect combinations for future, non-frivolous consumption: So, on my first idle Sunday afternoon, in a spirit of inquiry, I assembled [...]
Tags: food, wine, wine and food matching
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Wine Writing of the Day
December 2nd, 2009 by Tom Johnson
James Suckling in the current Wine Spectator: Drinking great old wine is one of the most exciting experiences a wine lover can have. Opening and decanting a mature bottle of Bordeaux, California Cabernet, Vintage Port or anything else great is like letting a genie out of its lamp. It can grant every wish a wine [...]
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Our Hard-Drinking Founding Fathers
September 22nd, 2009 by Tom Johnson
The Wine Commonsewer, quoting The Joy of Drinking, notes the bar tab for a celebratory night out at the end of the Constitutional Convention: …in 1787, two days before their work was done, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention adjourned to a tavern for some rest, and according to the bill they drank 54 [...]
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Book Review: When the Rivers Ran Red
September 3rd, 2009 by Tom Johnson
The story of Prohibition in Napa and Sonoma counties is fascinating. It’s the story of a healthy and productive culture of family-owned wineries that is stamped out by political forces far away, and that comes back after Prohibition in a different and significantly diminished form. When the Rivers Ran Red promises, as the subtitle explains, [...]
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