Women Wine Critics Board

Cultivating a Life

Susan Sokol Blosser's account of building a life in the Dundee Hills of Oregon speaks to me on many levels--as a woman working in the wine industry, a woman working with her husband, a woman running her own business, and a mother. Susan turns her trials into triumphs and exercises a sense of humor along the way. From the Great Goose Experiment to the day her tearful son rides his bike all the way to school by himself, this is a story that will transport you into "The Life" of owning a vineyard and winery, with a judicial salting of reality and romance.

In At Home in the Vineyard: Cultivating a Winery, an Industry, and a Life, Susan talks about their wild card decision to plant a vineyard in Oregon in the 1970's.  But it's also the story of a young, idealistic bride who has been groomed to "please" her husband and family.  Said bride is confronted with unhappy investors, disgruntled family members, distributor ennui, divorce, and disastrous vintages.  But along the way she collects some overly affectionate geese, useless peacocks, a three-legged cat, and some loyal staff members. 

By the end of the book, we see a woman who can confidently drive a vineyard tractor with her baby daughter strapped in beside her, navigate the corridors of politics, travel widely in support of her brand and her region, and take the reins as owner and CEO of her own company. 

If you dream of someday owning your own vineyard or winery, this autobiography should be part of your literary quest.  If you are a single, working mother you will resonate to young Alex' cry when he says, "Mom, why can't you stay at home and be a real mother like Wilma?"   But most of all, I was impressed by Susan Sokol Blosser's willingness to lay her heart on the table, to pour her sorrow, joy and fears into a glass.  It's one thing to critique a winegrower's wines.  Susan is offering her heart.

NYT Times Article on Wine and Pregnancy

Those of you who enjoyed Daniel Rogov's thought-provoking piece on Wine and Pregnancy, will also want to read this week's New York Times  article, The Weighty Responsibility of Drinking for Two.

(This post is closed to comments, but please feel free to leave opinions and comments in the Wine and Pregnancy discussion thread.)

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Follow up:  As of December 1, The Weighty Responsibility of Drinking for Two is on the NYT top 5 "Most Emailed" list.

Also, Daniel Rogov, author of Wine and Pregnancy, Lies that Women are Told is now working on an article about the different ways that men and women perceive and evaluate wine.  Stay tuned for another stimulating discussion sparked by an excellent wine writer.

--Mary Baker, editor, Women Wine Critics Board

Red, White and Drunk All Over

This week we are joined by award-winning wine writer Natalie MacLean, who has just published her first book, Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. Natalie joins us below for a Q&A session about her book, and if you have any questions for Natalie, please post them here!

From the book cover:

Natalie tastes sensuous pinot noir in the ancient cellars of Burgundy while discovering the mysterious tenets of biodynamic viticulture from such colorful characters as the tiny, ferocious Lalou Bize-Leroy, part-owner of France's acclaimed Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. She pulls on sturdy boots to help with the grape harvest at California’s Bonny Doon Vineyards—and gets to the root of the anti-establishment philosophy of winemaker Randall Grahm, notorious for his experimental wine techniques, love for unfashionable grapes, and fondness for naming his wines "Cardinal Zin," "Heart Has its Rieslings," and "Big House Red" (whose grapes are grown just down the road from one of California’s state prisons).

Natalie takes a job as undercover sommelier at a five-star French restaurant, spends a day helping customers in a high-end New York wine shop, wades into a famous feud between Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson, two of the world’s best-known critics and, back home, invites friends over for a casual wine tasting. Along the way she teaches us—painlessly and often hilariously—how to face a telephone directory-sized wine list without fear, what questions to ask to get exactly the wine you are looking, what those scores out of 100 really mean, and how properly to expectorate (it’s best to start out in the shower!)

At the 2003 World Food Media Awards in Australia, Natalie was named the World's Best Drink Writer. The competition received more than 1,000 entries. Natalie has also won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards for her writing, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award, in memory of one of America's greatest food writers. Natalie has also won an unprecedented five Bert Greene Awards for excellence in food journalism, presented by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, four awards from the American Association of Food Journalists, four from the North American Travel Writers Association and three honorable mentions at the National Magazine Awards. Natalie’s e-newsletter is read by 50,000 wine lovers in 36 countries and was twice named one of the three best food and wine newsletters at the James Beard awards.

Wine Adventure: Breaking New Ground in Bringing Wine Information to Women

This week we are joined by Michele Ostrove, editor-in-chief of Wine Adventure magazine.  Michele discusses the concepts behind the creation of Wine Adventure, and her plans for the future.  Feel free to join in discussion about Wine Adventure by clicking the 'Comment' link below.

Wine Adventure, the first wine magazine for women, merges food, travel and style through the universal connection of wine. It’s all about enjoying the wine lifestyle and encouraging women to explore and learn in a friendly, approachable way. Each issue features wine country travel destinations, both far-flung and close to home; entertaining and lifestyle ideas; food and wine pairings; wine trends and know-how; interviews with personalities connected to wine; wine picks from an array of experts and much more – delivered in a fun, highly readable format.

We created Wine Adventure to meet a need that had not been previously addressed by wine publications – to speak directly to women with articles specifically of interest to them. It’s been my experience that average women wine drinkers (and I’m not talking about sommelier candidates here!) aren’t particularly interested in grape-growing conditions, terroir, winemakers’ philosophies, how many points a wine is rated or how many bottles they have in their cellar. They just want to enjoy wine with friends and lovers as part of an overall lifestyle, and discover new labels and varietals. Our goal was to make Wine Adventure a vehicle for expanding readers’ wine horizons in creative and fun ways. For example, we’ve got a new department called The Sensual Side, which is about wine’s role in seduction. I’m pretty sure that’s a topic that’s never been broached in a wine magazine before!

Chauvinism and Wine Tasting — Sex Role Misunderstandings

Contributed by Daniel Rogov, wine writer

There are two popular wine-related beliefs making the rounds these days, both of which deserve to be put to rest because they are nothing more than pure and unadulterated nonsense. The first of these would have us believe that men are better qualified to taste wine than women and the second that some wines are more appropriate for men and others for women.

At least since the 1950's, it has been well demonstrated that the ability to taste wines (or for that matter any other food or beverage) is determined entirely by the number of taste buds on the tongues and the density of scent receptors in the nostrils. Thirty years passed with no major research into the question of taste but starting in the mid 1990's, largely because major food producers were interested in determining to whom to direct their advertising campaigns, interest in the subject revived in Europe and North America several major research studies were undertaken. At Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Grenoble biologists came up with two sets of findings. The first, that had been more or less known by people in the food and wine industry for a hundred or more years, was that people fall into three broad categories—non-tasters, normal tasters and super-tasters, that is to say, people with limited ability, normal ability and extra-ordinary ability to discern the flavors and aromas in foods and beverages.

What amazed the researchers (who were mostly males) and the wine-tasting public (especially the male chauvinists among that group) was the second finding—that nearly 80 percent of super-tasters are women and not men.

Casting Calls for "The Wine Makers"

Producers of "The Wine Makers," a PBS reality series to be filmed in the wine country of Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo, will start casting for the show next month.

Set to premier in spring 2007, "The Wine Makers" follows six men and women as they compete for a chance to create and launch their own wine label. All of the contestants will be wine enthusiasts who want to start winemaking careers.

The first casting call will be during the Paso Robles 2006 Grand Tasting Tour on Feb. 1 in Atlanta's Fox Theatre. The event attracts vintners, the media and consumers and showcases wines from 25 wineries in the Paso Robles American viticulture area.

Additional casting calls are scheduled in Dallas, Austin, Texas, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

The series is a joint effort of Doc City Production producers Kevin Whelan and JJ Levine, and South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV). Whelan is the producer of PBS shows such as "Wine 101" and "Tales From the Vineyard," a wine-and-travel program. Levine has developed television series and films for Tri-Star Pictures, Columbia Television, The Walt Disney Co. and Turner Network Television.

Principal photography for the series will be shot in San Luis Obispo County starting in September. For any information regarding casting, e-mail the producers at casting@doccitytv.com

Wine and Pregnancy – Lies That Women Are Told

Editor's note: Please feel free to contribute comments and opinions on this article. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the comment screen. Only 50 replies are shown per page, starting with the first comment received. Hit the "more comments" link to read our entire public commentary. All comments are read and approved before posting. All opinions are welcome, but comments must contribute to moving the discussion forward and indicate that the reader has in fact read the article and commentaries. Profanity, personal insults and bizarre claims are not allowed. ________________________________________________________ Contributed by Daniel Rogov, wine writer

Since 1990 every bottle of wine, beer and spirits sold in the United States has carried the warning that "according to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects." If that has not been enough to add to the anxiety of women already concerned about their own health and the health of their fetuses, hundreds of newspaper articles and television talk shows have been devoted to convincing women that if they have even a single drink during their pregnancy that there is a chance that their baby will be born deformed, addicted to alcohol or retarded.

It seems, however, as if the American government, medical authorities and media have not been telling American women the entire truth. Although the official message is "don't drink at all during pregnancy", a great deal of recent research and a re-examination of the alcohol-pregnancy issue show that there is no conclusive evidence to demonstrate that moderate drinking during pregnancy can harm the fetus.