+- WineBoard (https://www.wines.com/wineboard)
+-- Forum: GENERAL (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-100.html)
+--- Forum: For the Novice (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-2.html)
+--- Thread: Bored at Work: Wines & the NYTimes (/thread-19841.html)
- fangi - 07-12-2002
Hi Everyone,
I'm totally bored at work this Friday, so i thought i'd share this with all yous out there who, like me, want to learn about wine quickly and have fun:
Um, Frank Prial, the NYTime Wine Critic, has recently, like a month or two ago, started conducting tastings with 3 other panelists and sometimes a guest panelist. No, of course they aren't open to the public, but you can read, every other Wednesday in the NYTimes' Dining Section, the results of these tastings. Why listen to one wine critic, like Mr. Parker, Ms. Robinson, or whomever...when you can read the opinions of 4 or 5 people?
When you can't go to tastings, why not join the virtual tastings every Wednesday in the NY Times? It's a nice, more democratic way to learn about wines because you're not being bludgeoned with just one person's opinion.
Okay, well, i'm gonna go back to being bored. Just thought i'd share something that i enjoy doing,and something that's helpful for learning about wine, with all of you, who may want a fun way to learn more.
Cheers,
Brett Nicole Fangi
ps. Amanda Hesser, the only female taster, will usually write an article on the foods that can be made to compliment the wine they've just reviewed. So it's like a 2-4-1!
- Bucko - 07-12-2002
Back to the old argument about whether a single taster is better than a panel.... There is good and bad with both.
- Thomas - 07-13-2002
Bucko, this panel truly does not rate the wine; Prial just tells us what the group thought of the wines, individually, and collectively. It is an ok column, filled with lots of information about the wines in question.
My real beef with this column is Ms. Hesser's food and wine brief that follows, and I wrote an email to Prial about it. She often begins her little food-wine piece with an introductory paragraph that sometimes makes me wince; too many blanket inanities (not to mention just plain bad wine information) inherent in her attempt to warm up the reader to her advice.
[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 07-13-2002).]
- fangi - 07-14-2002
...just thought it would make nice casual wine reading for NOVICES...
What i like about it is that it demonstrates so well, how completely opposite people's opinions can be about one singular wine, prompting a novice to feel confident in his/her own opinions of wines, regardless of whether they differ from the experts!
It's simple really.
Also, the column presents certain wines at the 12 dollar range as preferable to wines tasted blindly at the 40 dollar range. I think these are the kinds of issues dealt with in this forum everyday.
Yeah, i agree it's totally basic column, but it's a decent weekly contribution to wine-education without being too serious.
I thought that's what most people would want.
eh?
-bf
ps. i should admit that i'm not entirely certain why Ms. Hesser is tasting wines with the wine guys...she's really a food critic and she's much better at that, than at writing about wine.
- Thomas - 07-15-2002
Fangi, Ms. Hesser's situation points to something in the education and in the industry that still needs to be addressed: far too many food people (and food curriculi) forget the connection between wine and food. It was only a few years ago when the Culinary Institute of America added wine courses to the education process.
I gave a few lectures at Paul Smith College, Saranac Lake, NY, to the culinary students there. The college operates a restaurant and hotel, yet there was no wine program for the students.
As a result, Ms. Hesser knows just enough about wine to be misleading in her opening comments. I suggested to Frank Prial that he either write her opening comments or he edit them for her. Prial happens to be one of the best wine writers around, provided you overlook his Francofilia and his disregard of wine and wine places that do not offer him the great trips and the expensive meals (although, he has gotten more down to earth lately).
[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 07-15-2002).]
- fangi - 07-15-2002
Hmmm, point taken.
So, did Prial respond to your email?
cheers,
bf
ps. Frank Prial IS a good writer, so is Gourmet's editor Gerald Asher whose book "Vineyard Tales" i'm currently reading.
- Thomas - 07-17-2002
I've been corresponding with Prial for years; the only time he answers is when I send accolades, which I intersperse with my jabs...
- fangi - 07-17-2002
ha ha ha ha!
[img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]
--bf
- mrdutton - 07-17-2002
Interesting discourse.
I'll try to make it a point to read the NY Times while I'm in NYC in August.