Today's enlightening Washington Post wine column

Some natural winemakers have an aversion to sulfur, but see no problem in leaving out entire pallettes of wine to cook in the hot sun all day before sending them to America. There are lazy practices that have nothing to do with anything "natural."
 
What? Laziness isn't natural? (Or anti-Americanism, since we're talking about Frenchies?)

More seriously: expos time, Mr. Cartwright.
 
I searched and searched for page 2 of this article, but apparently it has not been written yet.
 
Not a bad overview of the subject overall and props to you, Nicholas, for a pithy quote. There are a few points that I'd take issue with, but compared to some of the knee-jerk reactions ("unwashed hippies in open-top sandals" anyone?) I've seen, this article is at least thoughtful and somewhat balanced.

Mark Lipton
 
Strange piece. It appears to be masquerading as an article, but, in fact, seems to be an editorial. And who cares what he thinks?
 
In contrast to Asimov's column in the Times, the WP column is largely an excuse for reviewing a category of wines. Although the reviews weren't given here, he gave decent reviews and, more importantly, information on how to find the wine in the area, not always easy to do with Dressner wines. The column is written for foodies who want to buy a bottle of wine, basically, and should be taken accordingly.

The abysmally low level of DC wine knowledge may be taken from the fact that Cole, Maureen, occasionally Bob Semon and I are the DC posters to this bored. You may aptly generalize from that.
 
"Enologists at UC-Davis set the standard of what wine should be, and they defined it by identifying faults and how to correct them," said Nicolas Mestre of Williams Corner Wine. "That approach has no pleasure in it."

I know this bit of folklore has a long history, but a) is it even true, and b) do people really think there is no role for science in wine making?
 
That's the frustrating thing about DC --- it's hard to find interesting wines sometimes.

Pepiere is surprisingly difficult to track down. I hear people joke on this bored about Clos des Briords being sold at gas stations and I can't find it in wine shops. Then again, Chidaine seems to be sold everywhere and I can find Texier Cote du Rhones in a bodega that sells Slim Jims.

I also noticed that, in DC, Do Ferreiro and D. Ventura are fairly easy to find, yet I can't find the txakolinas [sic?] that De Maison imports.

At least I can buy Foreau without having to walk farther than 10 minutes from my building. Things are getting better, slowly.

Though I wish the Muscadet selection in DC was better.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

The abysmally low level of DC wine knowledge may be taken from the fact that Cole, Maureen, occasionally Bob Semon and I are the DC posters to this bored. You may aptly generalize from that.

Ahem.

Not that I post much or appreciably enhance DC's profile when it comes to knowledge of wine (or anything else).

Yule (see above) also lives in DC.

Yule, you're right that many of these wines are difficult to find in DC, but the good news is that Cork Market has a couple of txakolinas, including Ameztoi, which may also be found at Bassin's.
 
I apologize to Doug and Yule for having left them off the list of DC posters. I leave it to others to decide whether my generalization still holds, though I would argue that the low level of wine journalism our presence in the area supports would seem to provide further evidence of a low estimate of knowledge.
 
originally posted by VLM:
DC
is a very tradition bound market. A Sancerre and Medoc kind of place.

It really is. Go to any of the well-regarded wine stores, and you see shelves filled with Bordeaux and California Cab, and usually only a smattering of everything else.

I wouldn't even call it a Sancerre place. The Loire selections are very small, including Sancerre.
 
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