The Roman god Bacchus as imagined by Carvaggio

The tick of the calendar from one year into the next is always a time for looking back and looking forward with a bit more self awareness and anticipation than we usually experience.  I’ve already looked back.  Now is the time to look forward.  You can expect posts:

• related to my book
• relaying my tasting notes
• about my frustration with tasting notes
• about California wine related news
• about the “natural wine” or “slow wine” movement and wines
• continuations in the series of recommended wine drives through Gold Country
• and a new, intermittent series of brief interviews with wine makers, wine writers and others in the industry.

Let me expand on a few of these topics so you can get a better idea about what to expect.

Pour Me Another Related Posts

My book, Pour Me Another, has been in print for 6 months now.  I am already looking forward to updating it in early 2013.  What does that mean for this blog?  It means that I’ll be traveling the Gold Country back roads revisiting wineries, tasting their new wines, and searching out new wineries and tasting their wares as well.  Expect updates about wineries already in the book as well as posts about new wineries.

I’m also going to be expanding the book to include Gold Country wineries in Calavaras County.  (Remember, I’m exploring the world of wine one region at a time.) My travels to Calavaras will begin in February and continue throughout 2012.  So expect posts about Calavaras County and the wineries in that region.

Tasting Notes and My Frustrations With Same

Lets face it, wine is an elusive subject to capture in language.  It’s like sex that way.  You know what you like, you know when it’s good, but when you try to translate that into language, it either sounds like poetry or porn, neither of which is right or accurate.  –Yours Truely

I took Eric Asimov’s challenge to the Wine Blogger’s Conference to try to go a year writing about wine without using tasting notes very seriously.  I share his frustrations with tasting notes in general.  But the reality is that wine drinkers want to know what you thought about a wine and get some idea about what to expect when they pop the cork on a bottle.

As a wine drinker and wine writer, I need some way to remember the wines I’ve tried.  (I tasted over 2000 different wines in the course of researching Pour Me Another.)  I will continue writing tasting notes, but will try some experiments along the way and will probably write more than once about how frustrating it can be trying to translate the sensory experience into language that is both useful and evocative of the actual experience.

Talking to People Who Know Wine

When you get into wine, you find that it is a vast and deep subject about which you know very little.  The more wine you drink and the more you think about wine, the more you learn about it.  The more you learn the more you realize that you seem to know even less.

As a wine writer this can be a source of inspiration, motivation and frustration.  So I have reached out to other more experienced people in the world of wine and will be interviewing them.  I have several interviews with wine makers that I’ll be publishing here in the next few weeks.  I am hoping to continue the series of interviews with other wine makers, wine writers and other’s from the world of wine.

Is Dave A Wine-o?

The reality is that I do not live the so called “wine life-style”.  Wine is not a life-style, it is a beverage.  I love wine.  I love exploring the world of wine.  I love sharing what I discover and learn.  But, dirty little secret here, I am not popping a cork on a new bottle of wine every day.

When we are on the road, I’m usually the designated driver, so I often don’t imbibe, or limit myself to one glass.  I could probably sustain a blog simply on all the awful liquids being passed off as lemonade and iced tea in Bay Area restaurants.  I really like creme soda and root beer and haven’t met a cocktail I didn’t like.  And I drink lots and lots of water.

My second wine book Wine 101, will be completed shortly and published not long after that.  It is an introduction to wine and wine tasting for those who feel too intimidated to go into a wine bar, wine shop or tasting room.  My third book will be about Urban Wineries, it will be finished sometime later this year and published shortly after that.  I’ve got lots of wine to taste, people to interview and writing to do.  I can’t do that with buzz on.

I doubt I count as a wine-o.  I am a wine enthusiast.  I love finding good wines.  I love exploring the back roads of California in my quest to find interesting wines and wineries.  I love popping into a good wine store and finding something new and different.  In 2012 I will continue sharing those discoveries and lessons with you!

Cheers!