If you were riding with me cruising around the Internet, you would most likely feel like a passenger in a car driven by Stevie Wonder. No offense to Stevie Wonder, but I don't think I would want to be riding shotgun with him at the wheel. Suffice it to say, I'm like one of those people with the bumper sticker, "I stop at yard sales" or "I brake for squirrels". Simply put, when something catches my attention, I go there. This practice often takes me off course into unknown territories. However, sometimes it takes me to sites or blogs that I am familiar with the subject matter, and that brings me to today's topic.
I found a site promoting a "kit" that helps one learn more about the vast aromas inherent in particular wines.
Interesting, I thought as I clicked through all the pages on the site. The kit is very comprehensive as it guides the user around all the aromas that can or should be prevalent in certain wines. Here is the link to their site http://www.aromaster.com/.
Please don't read too much into this. I think this is a wonderful tool to help people gain a better understanding of everything the wine world has to offer. The concern I have is that it might be too complicated for the everyday consumer of wine. In fact, this is a tool I used back in my days as a full-time wine consultant. It was my job, and my responsibility, to be educated on all this. The average consumer doesn't share this burden. Notice I called it a "burden". Yeah, it was a tough job, but somebody had to do it!
Anyway, I could go on forever about this, but I want to make one simple point. There are only two ways of describing a wine, and this applies to all wines, whether a consumer, amateur or professional. Those are, "I like it" or "I don't like it". Enjoying wine is a very subjective experience. One should not feel compelled to "like" a wine simply because someone else does. Moreover, when in the presence of one of those "geeky-know it alls", you shouldn't feel ashamed or inadequate just because you can't smell the "stewed strawberry and earthy, forest floor" aromas that the geek is proudly smelling. Again, either you like it, or you don't. It is that simple. If the geek happens to ask you if you are "picking up" the same aromas, just tell him that you never had your nose pressed against a forest floor, and you're not sure what he is talking about.
Enjoy wine, but enjoy the ones YOU like, explore the wine world at your leisure, and reduce your thoughts about wine to the two ways I mentioned. You like it, or you don't, period...!!!
FG
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
The Fermented Gourmet: A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Work Today
The Fermented Gourmet: A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Work Today: "As a product of the '80s, I am a big fan of Cheers. So, hopefully you'll remember some Normisms. These aren't to be confused wit..."
A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Work Today
As a product of the '80s, I am a big fan of Cheers. So, hopefully you'll remember some Normisms. These aren't to be confused with Clavinisms, Sammyisms, Coachisms or Woodyisms. However, one Normism I remember quite well is his response when asked what he wanted as he headed for his barstool. He said, "Well, I'll need something to do before my second beer, so how about a first beer?" This is the sort of thing that goes through my mind on a regular basis. So let me connect the dots as to how I arrived at this.
As most of you know, or hopefully know, I am working on a cookbook to demonstrate the many uses of our wine and beer jellies. So, naturally I am always thinking about it when engaged in otherwise mindless activity, such as driving. Most of the work on my book is complete, and I just have to tidy it up and work the kinks out of a few recipes. Well, working the kinks out of recipes requires time in the kitchen, not behind the wheel. Therefore, I was in the perfect position to "think" about what I still needed to do. I don't know about you, but when I think, there is no linear process or straight line to my resulting conclusions. My process resembles more of a road map with streets and highways curving and bending in all sorts of directions before arriving at a particular destination. Insert Charlie Sheen joke here regarding my brain.
Anyway, my thoughts actually turned into a completely new idea. A new concept for a different book, which would be my second book. The problem remains though, I am still not finished my first book. So, finally, and hopefully, you can see how I ended up thinking about Norm and Cheers this morning. I need something to do before my second book, so I guess I'll have to finish my first book.
Since I am capable of multi-tasking, I do have the ability to still "think" about my second book AND finish my first book. I am actually considering using an open forum with user-generated content in addition to my own. Moreover, due to the fact that my new concept will recognize the "subjectivity" of food, I want to engage artists from other genres. I am one who definitely believes that cooking IS a form of art. Therefore, I will be very interested in the thoughts of my fellow "artists" for my second book. For the moment though, I think I'll just finish my first book.
FG
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As most of you know, or hopefully know, I am working on a cookbook to demonstrate the many uses of our wine and beer jellies. So, naturally I am always thinking about it when engaged in otherwise mindless activity, such as driving. Most of the work on my book is complete, and I just have to tidy it up and work the kinks out of a few recipes. Well, working the kinks out of recipes requires time in the kitchen, not behind the wheel. Therefore, I was in the perfect position to "think" about what I still needed to do. I don't know about you, but when I think, there is no linear process or straight line to my resulting conclusions. My process resembles more of a road map with streets and highways curving and bending in all sorts of directions before arriving at a particular destination. Insert Charlie Sheen joke here regarding my brain.
Anyway, my thoughts actually turned into a completely new idea. A new concept for a different book, which would be my second book. The problem remains though, I am still not finished my first book. So, finally, and hopefully, you can see how I ended up thinking about Norm and Cheers this morning. I need something to do before my second book, so I guess I'll have to finish my first book.
Since I am capable of multi-tasking, I do have the ability to still "think" about my second book AND finish my first book. I am actually considering using an open forum with user-generated content in addition to my own. Moreover, due to the fact that my new concept will recognize the "subjectivity" of food, I want to engage artists from other genres. I am one who definitely believes that cooking IS a form of art. Therefore, I will be very interested in the thoughts of my fellow "artists" for my second book. For the moment though, I think I'll just finish my first book.
FG
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