Morsi Out! Wine Re-education Time!

china_politart-3WEBThe military-aided popular ouster of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood is a defeat for hard-line movements everywhere. We have lived through many such popular movements that eventually converted to turgid repressive regimes in our brief lives: Castro’s popular uprising that liberated a nation only to create a dictatorship, Mao’s war machine that forever changed a thousands of years old culture only to install a new regimented national regime, and our own views of Santa Barbara County wines. The popular focus in that county has been on the Santa Rita Hills which is a relatively new region founded by winemaking ingenue/savant Richard Sanford who favors low alcohol Pinot Noir wines made in an Old World style was quickly upended by more successful winemakers who favor high alcohol Pinot Noirs that taste like New World Syrahs. There is much more there which we tend to forget. It is time to re-assess. (more…)

GREAT Summer Prospects & SUPER Online Vendors

wine angel

U20s abound. We are proud to point out thebestofwines saw the trophy-wine-bubble bursting urrlllyy on. Way ahead of the trend…a trend not set as deep, perhaps, as current real estate prices. When will our multi-million dollar homes and those fat home equity credit lines come back? Only when $350 Napa Cabernets become hard to acquire. Right now they are simply hard to find. Try China [ed. “wine angels” are supposedly the hot ticket in Beijing and Shanghai]. In the meantime the thoughtful oenophile can sample from a slew of retailers’ bargain bins PLUS the gemstone picks by some very savvy online/email vendors. Here are three we like [ed. with thanks to alert tBoW team taster Krisses!] (more…)