Got my latest TastingPanel magazine today, one of the lamest wine magazines around. It will be interesting if they can do anything w/ TheSommJournal or if they'll run it into the ground.
I always, though, read thru the magazine for the yucks and all the pics of hot chicks and cool dudes, a category of folks I'd love to join someday in the future. But I did glean a few nuggests of information from this issue:
1. There was a review of a ValleyOfTheMoon PinotBlanc (91 pts). This is a wnry I'd pretty much blown off since it was purchased by the Hecks/Korbel some yrs ago. It is now owned by DanZepponi & TonyStewart. Dan is the son of GinoZepponi, one of the founders of ZD Wnry. An aerospace engineer over in Sacramento who made some terrific wines in the early days of ZD, a guy I followed from the very start and liked immensely.
2. Gallo has out an ApothicRed LmtdRelease Dark (89 pts, $14). Anybody tried this wine yet?? It's interesting to me because it's a blend of PetiteSirah/Teroldego, and CabSauvg. I had no idea that Gallo had Teroldego planted. Seems like a perfect waste to me.
3. In every issue of TP that I can recall, they always have an interview w/ some Somm in some restaurant. This issue had WineSeller&Brasserie owner LoriParker, from down in SanDiego. A restaurant I've eaten several times over the (many) yrs and really liked. These articles always include some gushing/florid prose extolling the virtues of the Vinturi Wine Aerator. This one was a bit more over-the-top than most. I presume Vinturi must pay big $$'s for these florid endorsements. Lori was particularly gushing in describing her praise for the first time she used the Vinturi. It particularly "opened it up" because it was in a customers cabin at a high altitude and we learn from Lori that "in high altitudes...the thin air tightens the wine". Something I didn't know and certain there's a lot of good/high-level physics behind that statement. At 8,000' altitude, guess I'd better buy me one of them-there Vinturis so I can finally, after 42 yrs, start to enjoy my wine here in LosAlamos.
Tom