Clark,
Thanks for coming here (once again) to share your knowledge with us on WB. Truth be told, all the blathering/bloviating
around here on Monktown attourneys gets a little tedious. I hope our discussions here will be on a much higher intellectual plane.
We actually met yrs ago when you spent several hrs w/ me at Vinovation explaining RO and when your MOx work was starting
to take off. That’s when many of the wine geeks were ready to tar&feather you for what you were doing to Calif wine w/ RO.
You made a believer out of me. You’d have to have an incredible memory for irrelevant trivia to remember that visit, though.
Your book is one of the best wine books I’ve read in a number of yrs (along w/ JonBonne’s). It’s like Amerine&Roessler, every time
I read it, I pick up a few more nuggets of information. I’m in the middle of my 2’nd read now. Wish I could understand it more. Alas, I’m
not a chemist (although I do play one on DancingWithTheStars).
One of the things I particularly like about the book is that it’s an honest attempt to bridge the gap betwixt academe/enologists and
us mere wine geeks. There is really not much of this being done. (Many) yrs ago, when I was trying to read a lot of the enology literature,
I did a visit at Davis w/ VernSingleton. He patiently spent almost 2 hrs w/ me answering many of what (to him) were my dumb questions. He was
(or is? I believe Vern is still alive) a true gentleman (as I’m sure you’re aware) and a very class act.
A few other points:
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You do hang out w/ a pretty diverse set of characters. RandallGrahm/RandyDunn/MichaelHavens/GideonBeinstock…some of whom are sorta
considered on the fringes. That’s one of the things I thought was important…that maybe academics can actually learn something from some of those folks.
I, of course, am including you as an academic…though you seem to have your foot in both camps. -
“Postmodern winemaking”: That is a term I presume coined?? What has surprised me is that there doesn’t seem to be much embracing of that term amongst people
in the wine industry, nor in the wine geek community, for that matter. Only reference I can recall to its usage was in an interview w/ PaulDraper in which he contrasted
his “pre-industrial winemaking”, as used at Ridge, with, tossing out the term “postmodern winemaking”. But he didn’t ellaborate much on that latter term. Truth be told,
the winemaking at Ridge is pretty high tech (they even once tried RO, they use Leo’s Enologix services to a limited degree) and the image they project of artisinal winemaking
as practiced yrs ago is a bit of a facade. I’ve not talked to Paul in over a yr, but I would be very interested in his (and John’s & Eric’s) take on your book. Better yet,
what I would really like to see is you & Paul sit down together and talk about winemaking philosophy, in front of a bunch of wine geeks. “Talk”, not debate, as I’m sure
the discussion would be very cordial and there would be no fireworks involved, the two of you being the consummate gentlemen. DarrelCorti could moderate the
discussion. Jeez…I’d pay big $$$'s to see that discussion. Think about making that happen in some venue. Seriously. -
“Soulfull wines”: OK…this is a term you used throughout your book, but one I’m trying to wrap my arms around. I suppose it’s like
minerality (though I’m not quite sure I understand fully your use of that term), or phenolic, or pornography; something that’s easy to
recognize but damnably difficult to define. Would you be so kind to provide a list of a few wines that you regard as particularly “soulfull”??
Would you also give them scores on the 100-pt “soulfull” scale as well. Would you call some/most of TonyCoturri’s wines “soulfull”? -
I believe you were offering us in the WB community some of your wines for sale? I’d love to try them. Can you direct me to that source to buy them??
Have they ever been tried in Monktown?? And???
Again, thanks for coming around here to WB and engaging us, Clark. I’ve got more questions to ask in additional threads.
Tom