Drinks Are On Me

Master of Wine Sandy Block announced he’ll be teaching a History Of Wine course at Boston University in the fall.

Block said, “Understanding wine is impossible without knowing its rich and varied history. This course provides a survey of significant developments in the production, distribution, consumption and cultural uses of grape-based alcoholic beverages in the West. Topics include the role wine has played in the economy and culture of civilizations from the ancient Near East all the way through to its global impact in the 21st Century. We will focus in particular on wine as a religious symbol and a consumer beverage in the modern world.”

Block said the class will meet on Mondays from 6-9pm beginning on September 12. Class will have a makeup meeting on Tuesday, October 13 for the missed Labor Day class. This is a four credit course, and the tuition is $2,800. There are no prerequisites. To register, call 617-353-9852 and leave a message.

Drinks are on me!

Rock bands don’t often sing wine-related songs.

But Washington state-based band Death Cab For Cutie’s “Grapevine Fires” is a true story that recalls the 2007 wildfires in California that destroyed 1,500 homes, burned 500,000 acres of land, killed nine people, and injured 85 others including at least 61 firefighters. The emotive story reflects the autobiographical lyrics of lead singer Ben Gibbons Gibbard who was caught in the horrific wildfires and witnessed the tragedy firsthand.

The grapevine in the title refers not to literal vines of grapes, but to the Grapevine freeway in California. Shortly after the incident, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported, “Three months after smoke from wildfires carpeted California’s vineyards, some winemakers in the thick of harvest are reporting grapes giving off unusual odors that may be signs of smoke taint.”

Watch this poignant video and check out the lyrics below.

When the wind picked up, the fire spread
And the grapevine seemed left for dead
And the northern sky looked like the end of days
The end of days

The wake-up call to a rented room
Sounded like an alarm of impending doom
To warn us it’s only a matter of time
Before we all burn

We bought some wine and some paper cups
Near your daughter’s school when we picked her up
And drove to a cemetery on a hill
On a hill

And we watched the plumes paint the sky gray
As she laughed and danced through the field of graves
There I knew it would be alright
That everything would be alright
Would be alright

And the news reports on the radio said it was getting worse
As the ocean air fanned the flames
But I couldn’t think of anywhere I would’ve rather been
To watch it all burn away, to burn away
To burn away

The firemen worked in double shifts
With prayers for rain on their lips
And they knew it was only a matter of time

Drinks are on me!

As I mentioned before, Robert Parker and Gary Vaynerchuk have nothing on Shizuku Kanzaki.

The influence of the wine world’s most famous critic and its l’enfant terrible both pale in comparison to the fictional star of a Japanese comic book. Despite Parker’s 60,000+ readers and Vaynerchuk’s now 90,000+ viewers, entire 20,000-bottle shipments of Burgundy sell out within hours in Tokyo if Kanzaki so much as looks at a glass.

Despite his two-dimensional limitations, the hero of “Kami no Shizuku” (”The Drops Of The Gods”) has become a more significant influence than his more three-dimensional flesh-and-blood brethren. According to The Times Of London:

“The sales records of Japan’s largest wine merchants have been smashed because, in a single frame of comic, the hero has uttered a dreamy sigh over a 2006 New Zealand Riesling or closed his eyes in appreciation of a Saint-Aubin Premier Cru.”

Roughly half a million people read Kanzaki’s adventures every week in Japan, though the manga remains relatively unknown in the United States. It’s time to change that! Below are scans of the FOURTH issue, translated to English. You can also click over to Flickr to see the pages larger. I’ll publish the fifth issue soon. Enjoy!

If you like this, don’t forget to Digg it.

Drinks are on me!

Special note: Read each of these pages right to left!

Sure, I’ve published lots of little lists of wine people to follow on Twitter. Consider this THE essential list. If you don’t follow these people on Twitter, you simply don’t have your finger on the pulse.

Twitter use has exploded recently and every sector has experienced phenomenal growth – including the wine industry. Here’s a mixed 12-pack of the most-essential winos to follow on Twitter. It’s important to note that all of these are real people – not automated bots.

1. @garyvee – Gary Vaynerchuk is the undisputed heavyweight champion of wine and new media. It’s Gary’s wine world – we’re just living in it.

2. @billdaley – Bill Daley writes about food and wine for the Chicago Tribune. He’s one of the few old media types who seems to get new media.

3. @binendswine – Craig Drollett created Twitter Taste Live, an online Twitter platform uniting wine drinkers around the world for virtual tastings.

4. @winecast – Tim Elliott and crew create a consistently entertaining and enlightening wine audio podcast. The choicest tidbits end up on Twitter.

5. @pmabray – Paul Mabray and his company VinTank unleashed a wine social media white paper. Hopefully they’ll focus on wine bloggers next.

6. @ryanopaz and @gabriellaopaz – A twofer: Ryan and Gabriella Opaz are American expatriots living in Spain. Together they are a wonderful pair of international wine ambassadors.

7. @1winedude – Joe Roberts is smart, often clever, funny, unusually insightful, and always interesting to read.

8. @eljefetwisted – Jeff Stai is the owner and wine maker at Twisted Oak Winery in California. What’s not to like about his weird rubber chicken fetish?

9. @lenndevours – Forget California, Oregon, and Washington State wines. Lenn Thompson is on a mission to showcase the wines of New York State.

10. @kevinzraly – Kevin Zraly wrote the “Windows On The World Complete Wine Course,” considered by many to be THE wine book.

11. @sonadora – Megan Kenney is a government minion by day, wine blogger by night, and a great read all day long.

12. @dalecruse – Without being too self serving, I’m on a crusade to help people find the best wine information and trusted voices on Twitter.

Drinks are on me!

I’ve got a few things I’d like to draw attention to, so let’s do a little something different and do a bit of a link roundup.

First, I’m proud to be Maggie Battista’s first victim volunteer for Fridge Fridays, a new site she’s launched dedicated to the contents of foodie’s fridges. I might be more of a wino than a foodie, but I’m still excited to be part of the weekly fun.

Top Chef Season Five winner (and friend of this site) Stephanie Izard has signed a cookbook deal. We’re super proud of her and can’t wait to read it.

Lastly, it looks like we’ve got a new 6.25% alcohol tax here in Massachusetts. To paraphrase my pal comedian Jim Norton, “It stinks and I don’t like it!”

Drinks are on me!

I’m back. Did you miss me? Did you even notice I was even gone?

No matter. I am back and proud to announce I have earned a full scholarship to the upcoming Wine Bloggers’ Conference in Napa and Sonoma, Cal., in July. Yes, from July 24-26 I will be rubbing elbows and clinking glasses with my peers. Can’t wait!

Also, I am continuing to showcase the top wine people on Twitter but am changing how I doing it. Instead of posts in the main content area of this blog, you will notice lists of winos on Twitter in the sidebar. If you subscribe to my feed (you DO subscribe to my feed, right?) you’ll continue getting lists of the freshest Twitter-based wine people.

Now let’s get this party started again!

Drinks are on me!