Guest Post on Foodie Buddha: "The Art of a Good Wine List"

Check it out! I did a guest post on a very popular Atlanta foodie site, Foodie Buddha.

Here's the link to "The Art of a Good Wine List."

Answers to the Age-Old Question: What Makes a "Good" Wine List?

by certified Sommelier Elizabeth Schneider

Enjoy and drop a comment below if you have questions/comments!

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Wine For Normal People Radio: Episode 006 Top 10 Snobby Wine Terms (Defined)

Episode 006 Top 10 Snobby Wine Terms (Defined)

You've heard them thrown around and thrown down, but do you really know what they mean? Who cares if you didn't before!? Rick of Hello Vino (the free wine app) and I define these puppies and gab about everything from the critic Robert Parker to my love of drinking dirt (ok, not really...)

1. Dusty
2. Minerality
3. Gamey
4. Tannic
5. Acidic
6. Dry (and the opposite: Sweet)
7. Sweet
8. Finish
9. Bouquet
10. Tight

The Grape of the Week: the big daddy of whites...Chardonnay. There's more to it then you think, and if you're an "ABC'er" (Anything But Chardonnay), I may convince you to take another look.

Here is the article that spurred the Robert Parker chat...although we neglected to dig into the actual news that he would no longer be reviewing California wines, which has been his sweet spot for a long, long time and shaped the way a lot of winemakers make their wines (i.e., for his palate so they can get great scores). ARTICLE

As a final request...we want topics from you. This isn't just a lame-ass one way podcast. Give us some ideas and we'll make it happen! Add a comment below and we'll do our best to pick up what you're puttin' down!

Download it from the iTunes store, click the link above, or use the player below! Thanks for listening!

Podcast Powered By Podbean

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Musings on the Horrific Social Habit of Wine Producer Name Dropping

A quickie, food for thought post today.

Because it's the holiday season, I've been out and about a ton lately. And when people find out that I'm in the wine business they often want to talk wine (or if they are a teetotaler, run away from my devil spirit...I do live in the South). If they drink wine and stick around to speak with me, 90% of the time it's a great conversation. But the other 10%...oy vey. PAINFUL at best. Why? It's a little thing I like to call 'obsessive name dropping.'

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I'm much less concerned with producers and much more interested in regions, grapes, and history of wine. Producers are important because they are the people out there creating the good stuff, but I find that most of the confusion in the wine world and most of the snobbery that goes on revolves around conversations like this:

Wine snob: "Oh, you like wine?"

Me: "Yep, love it. Drink it every night"

Wine snob: "Then you must have had [put obscure wine producer here]. I mean they got 98 points from Robert Parker. I bought a case last time I was in Sonoma. And you must also know [insert other obscure producer here]...etc., etc., etc.

Me: "Nope. But I'm sure they're great."

Wine snob: "Did you say that you're a Certified Sommelier?"

Gimme a break.

There are thousands of producers out there and I can't have tried them all. I drink adventurously and try new things all the time, but I hate when people get "Producer-y" on me. It makes me feel bad, frankly. And it leads to a confrontational situation where the person who has knowledge of a producer then tries to quiz me on everything I DO know to prove that my not knowing about their "guy" doesn't make me a wine novice or complete and utter moron, as they make it seem. Although I've passed lots of exams, taught people about wine on the blog and in the wine classes I teach, worked for large wineries, and traveled around the world to wine regions, it has no bearing once I haven't heard of this specific producer.

Maybe I'm more Burgundian in my approach. I think the land is king and that it's the producer's job to seek out the best areas and then not botch what Mother Nature gave them. It's one thing to share an exciting wine experience that you had with someone, another entirely to make people feel bad because they aren't familiar with a boutique producer from a region.

So with the holiday parties in full gear and New Year's approaching, when you strike up wine conversations please remember that all wine lovers have had different experiences. We should applaud the information we DO have and try to share our love of wine and experiences with good producers with a generous spirit, rather than participating in some ridiculous name dropping pissing match.

This is a journey through a topic that none of us will ever know everything about (that's why most of us love it so much -- constant change and learning with a great backbone of history! Who could ask for more?). Instead of trying to upstage each other, let's just try to constructively share the wealth and stop thinking someone is a moron just because they don't know or share your love of certain winemakers.

If you're feeling combative, talk politics or religion instead...at least there you won't turn anyone off of wine!

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An Interview With a Wine Snob: The Lasting Effects of Being Picked on at the Playground

Last week I was listening to NPR (I AM A HUGE NERD) and I caught an interview on this show called "The Splendid Table" with Lynne Rossetto Kasper. She was interviewing a famous wine writer, Matt Kramer, from the Wine Spectator (guide to all snootiness, self-congratulatory writing, and wine-snobbery...oops, did I say that?). I was about to run into the gym, but M.C. Ice and I had a driveway moment and stayed in my car for 6 minutes to listen to the interview.

I'm so glad I did. It's always nice to have some validation for my blog/business name...

Matt Kramer is a smart dude. He knows a butt-load about wine and he's got great ideas. But he MUST have been the kid that was picked on in the playground. I don't know how else you become such a pretentious, snobby, need-to-let-everyone-know-how-great-you-are guy. In this interview, Matt touched on a couple of things and, to my surprise, I agreed with everything he said. He's smart, he's an expert, I respect him for it. But the way he expressed his ideas just made my blood boil and my teeth gnash.

For example...

Matt talks about the polarization in the wine industry -- how it's divided into two camps these days. Of course, because everyone will understand these terms without explanation (NOT!), he calls these camps: "The Wines of Fear" and "The Wines of Conviction." I mean, that's great writing, no? You get it right away, right? Um, not so much. I feel like I'm listening to a political ad. He must of consulted with Obama's speech writer.

In plain English, the dude was saying
Wines of Fear = Big Corporate Wines that Try to Appeal to Lots of People to Move Wine/Make Cash and


Wines of Conviction = Little Producers that Love Making Wine and Hope Someone Buys It

I know we all like pithy catch-phrases, but c'mon. Isn't wine a vast, complex, and confusing enough topic? Must we layer on these meaningless, bullshit phrases rather than saying what we mean? In this instance, it's a simple enough concept. There are huge conglomerates that make kind of soul-less wine (but they also sometimes make great stuff too, BTW) and then there are little wineries that make kick-ass wine that we want to support when we can. Most of us do both, and we know the difference.

My problem is not with the idea -- it's patently true. I see it all the more clearly, especially because I worked for a monstrous winery and felt many of the wines were homogenized and tasted similar to each other because "the suits" were pandering to the common denominator in the market. My problem is the pretense and this need to label everything with 'winespeak' in over-annunciated diction that turns so many people OFF to wine. There is absolutely no normalcy in those labels or way of speaking. It's an exercise in superiority and condescension.

Further, this guy really has been living under a rock for a long time and living the good life. He chortles (yes, chortles) at the fact that he served an $8 Spanish Cava (sparking wine, awesome!) at his "not exactly low-rent" dinner party (he had to slip that in so we know he was hob-knobbing) and that his guests adored it. Don't the rest of us know that we can get great wines for $8? That's what this blog is mainly about! Why is he laughing that he "got-away" with serving an $8 bottle? He should probably be embarrassed that it was better than the $90 bottle he served later on!

I feel bad panning on the guy -- after all, he's someone's son, someone's friend, maybe someone's husband. So I'd like to say I'm using him as kind of a symbol. Like so many in the wine industry, he's really intelligent and makes great points, but my issue with him and people like him is that wine HAS democratized. It's not his and his "high-rent" buddies' game anymore, yet his affect, his manner, his condescension remind me of all the things that bug me about the wine industry. Everyone's a snot from time to time, but in the world of wine, there's no need to create this off-putting, snide, exclusionary way of speak and being -- Normal People don't need it and we shouldn't take it...not that I have an opinion on the matter.

Please listen to the interview and let me know what you think. Readmore »»

Quick musings on wine blogs and wine books...

As you all know, I've packed in the day job and decided to pursue wine as a full time career -- doing consulting and pursuing my true love, wine education.

Today, I've been doing a lot of research and background reading, as I try to get my materials together on the types of tastings I'll do with people, and I figured something out.

Most wine writing falls into 2 camps -- it's either high level for dorks, or it's all about demystifying wine and dumbing it down. Many people who write on wine claim that they are not wine snobs and that they make wine simple. But you know what? I think they make it too simple.

Here's the deal: don't we all drink wine, in part, because there's a mystique about it? You may love the taste (I know I do), but don't you also love the fact that it's hard to figure out and that you don't know that much about it, even if you think you know a lot? Let's face it -- everyone in the wine industry could do a better job of organizing wine aisles, writing better descriptors on the bottle, and making it easier to find stuff, but don't we normal people appreciate the selection and the fact that you actually need to take your time to evaluate what you want? Isn't the nuance and the adventure of choice in wine enjoyable?

Personally, I think it's ok that wine is mysterious and that it's hard to figure out. If it wasn't, it would be like shopping for or drinking milk.

Is there a need to be a snot-nose jerk about it? No, but that goes for anything in your life. If people could just be normal about wine and treat it like the complex yet interesting, cool, many-splendor'd beverage it is, I think we'd all be better off. Readmore »»