I know, I know, this is a wine blog, a place to get an opinion about wine, but I want to put my opinion in perspective: wine opinions are of two natures (at least for the purpose of this post), there are those who go to school to be an "Expert" or sommelier, and they deserve great consideration, but even they will sometimes let you down, so you look for those experts (Provided you either want one, need one, or like the reflections or comparisons they provide) who will HONESTLY guide you with good and wise wine purchases. The other option is the "Band-of-Brothers" option which includes blogs that are similar to personal journals (Which is the option of this blog)
Why Wine-ing about birds?
I love birds, always have.
I took this picture over thirty five years ago.
Now to my point via my story.
Why Wine-ing about birds?
I love birds, always have.
I took this picture over thirty five years ago.
Now to my point via my story.
One spring day when I was eight years old I was in the woods in the back yard, I guess boys still leave their video-games and play and explore outside, when I saw what was (To me) a new bird, in fact there were several of them; they were a beautiful shade of cerulean blue, frosty white (Solidly on the breast with streaks almost everywhere else), black and with a touch of lemon yellow on the crown of their heads and the rump of their backs. I got very close to them, maybe my size had something to do with that. I say "new" because my "Bird-guide" book was for little children and was hopelessly incomplete, but it did identify American robins and Bald eagles. Later I learned the taxonomic approach to identifying birds and found the colloquial name to be "Myrtle warbler", now known as Yellow-rumped warbler.
The more (I spent almost 55 years watching birds) time I spent watching and studying birds the more I realized it was my experience of them that mattered more than the details; listening to the sweet gentle spring sonata of the Slate-colored junco, the whimsical chimes of the Winter wren, beholding the sheer arrogance of the steel-blue mother Goshawk as she mythically swam through the dense mixed forest melting her attack and stealing away with Ruffed grouse, Gray squirrel, or even a crow to feed her young.
I'm not one to put feathers under microscopes, but rather still young at heart and watching the acrobatics of the Barn swallow; do we need ornithologists that use microscopes? Yes!
Now, for the wine: I'm no sommelier (Yes, we need sommeliers), but what I am is one who has a new love of wine, and I'm trying to look at each wine as "NEW"; is it beautiful, what personality does it have, is it gentle, does it sing like the junco or is it just a caw, caw. Whether this is important or spitting against a Northeaster is neither here nor there, but it is my way of sharing the common-thing about us, and if my observations are helpful to especially New Hampshire wine lovers, then I'm as glad as when I found the first Cerulean warble seen in NH in 20 years, and Dennis from Maine came with his parabolic microphone and recorded it; his pleasure and the pleasure of several others was a great delight for me as we shared this together, and wine is best enjoyed together as well.
For the dog lovers out there, I love them too.
Copyright 2011 Dennis Tsiorbas. All rights reserved
I'm not a somm, either, but I AM a dog lover. I have 3, all of whom were rescued. I love mutts the most. Now that I think about it, that's more or less the case with several things in my life -- even wine. I looooooove blends, particularly red ones. Ok, I'll stop there or else it could get ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAbout being an "expert"...I don't really consider myself an expert on wine. Sure, I know more than the average person, but I'm constantly humbled anytime I walk into work, a tasting, etc. And you know what? I kind of like it that way because I realize that I'm still teachable. As for anything I write about wine, it's simple. If it inspires me to write (which means I like it quite a bit) & if I have the magical combination of time & energy, I do. If someone gets something out of it, cool. If not, then I amused myself for the time being. =P
Claire, so glad we're in this together. I'm hoping to do a series of wine blends in the future. I understand the dog rescue thing, and am sad to see so many suffering animals, so many suffering people too. The whole world is groaning, me too. Time for "Big, big red".
ReplyDeleteDennis, great post. Cerulean is one of my favorite colors and I never had any inkling there was a bird of the same name and color! And as for that photo of the mother bird and her young, one of my absolute all-time favorite photos. Would die for a copy of the photo you have on your wall of that picture. Immaculate photography and timing.
ReplyDeleteWine is in the eye of the beholder. It is a beautiful thing meant to be enjoyed differently by different people. I find your journal approach much friendlier than the standard straight-up wine review.
If you're talking about big red wine, I'm about 2/3 through a 2004 Anderson's Conn Valley Cab from Napa. It's lovely.
ReplyDeleteI really, really love red blends (provided, of course, that it's a well-made one)...I look forward to your much more disciplined posts!
Wow,it's now May 4, 2012 and I'm not waiting for the Mayan End (http://news.discovery.com/space/the-2012-mayan-calendar-doomsday-date-might-be-wrong.html), but always aware that today will be the end for someone, many someones all over the world. Not the subject of my reply.
ReplyDeleteThe subject is my post revisited. The other day I heard this wine expert say anyone writing about wine should be trained. What! Who is he to tell me or anyone else that they should go through his order-of-things, his self-righteous regimen to experience and comment on wine? Who is he to to set himself up on a hill declaring that he is the Wine Buddha or one of them? So, a small child cannot SEE the world without having his eyes trained; the wonder of it all, the world, the wine, is only for those steeped in conformity? This is one of the top ten Bloggers in the world (He wants to keep it that way you upstarts)has gotten maybe 1 or 2 views from me in three years, and now I know why I had an instinctive aversion to his blog. Sensationalizing the End of the world or your wine place in it, is a terrible thing to do, it is presumption, perversion, and pretense.