I am a huge fan of the Internet. When I’m not putting together
these columns, I make my living by writing articles for several
different publications. The World Wide Web is an enormously useful
tool in researching various and sundry topics.
I am a huge fan of the Internet. When I’m not putting together these columns, I make my living by writing articles for several different publications. The World Wide Web is an enormously useful tool in researching various and sundry topics. However, when using the ‘Net for research, it is essential that the user have a finely tuned BS detector, as there is a lot of stuff out there that purports to be the truth but is in fact, just plain old BS.
This may come as a shock to some, but the Internet was not invented by former Vice President Al Gore. And there is only one of them, contrary to what President George W. Bush implied (by his use of the plural “Internets”) in a campaign debate earlier this year. No, the Information Superhighway was the brainchild of the military, specifically the Advanced Research Projects Agency – today known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This agency was created in 1958 after the Soviets sent that pesky little Sputnik satellite over the heads of twitchy Cold War Americans. The powers that be in the Pentagon went apoplectic.
But sometimes, out of the adrenaline rush of paranoia, great things emerge. And so it was with the Internet. Today, the amount of information available on any subject with just a few keystrokes of effort is truly staggering. But again, it’s extremely important to maintain a healthy skepticism when digesting information obtained in this fashion. The uniquely American concept of a free exchange of ideas and information virtually assures that there will be those who wish to misinform and abuse the process. And so it is with wine. Just a friendly cautionary note.
Just for fun, I Googled the word “wine.” In a mere 0.57 seconds, I was rewarded with 56,100,000 results. A sampling of the first 100 references affords a snapshot of what is available for perusal.
There are some highly respected authorities in this list, and several that I have relied on for trustworthy information. These include the Wine Spectator Magazine online version, Wine Enthusiast, The New York Times, The Wine Institute, erobertparker.com, About.com, Copia.org, The American Institute of Wine and Food and SFGate.com, the Web presence of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Also in the mix are several wine-grower and -maker organizations, representing regions all over the globe: Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Washington State, New York, Oregon, Napa Valley and even Ontario, Canada.
You will also find a bunch of unrelated stuff, such as a band (a very good one, it turns out) from Miami called Iron & Wine; a promising sounding site called winehq.com that turns out to be all about running Microsoft Windows software on computers using the Linux operating system. Not something you would want to serve to your friends accompanying a fine dinner, believe me.
One of my favorites is a site called winefiles.org. This site is a dedicated wine search engine, with an emphasis on California. Type in anything – I tried “nouveau Beaujolais” – and you are rewarded with more information than you can handle; more than you ever wanted to know. The site also has a handy California wine history section.
In addition to the ‘Net itself, there are a number of organizations that send out regular newsletters related to wine. Over the years I have tried several, and found that they range from insightful to insipid, and that they usually have some kind of angle to separate you from your cash.
The only one I subscribe to now is called “The 30-second Wine Advisor.” It is produced by the folks at wineloverspage.com, another great resource. That Web site was created by a very knowledgeable and readable guy by the name of Robin Garr. I’ve added him to my list of People I’d Most Like to Taste Wine With. I’ll talk more about that list in a future column.
Truth be told, I have nicked several ideas for column subjects from the pages of the aforementioned Web sites and newsletters. I make no apologies for it. Hey, you try coming up with this stuff every week on your own.
Holiday Wine Stories
Instead of grinding out one of the usual “what-wine-goes-with-turkey” column subjects for the holidays, I thought that it might be interesting to get some stories from you, the readers.
Send to me any family traditions, interesting anecdotes, recipes, or disasters that involve wine and the holidays, and we’ll see if we can share them with a few thousand of your closest friends in an upcoming column. Remember that this is a family newspaper, so keep it clean.
If you have access to e-mail, write to me at wi******@***********ws.com. If snail mail is more your style, send it to my editor, Colleen Valles, at Lifestyles, P.O. Box 22365, Gilroy, Calif. 95021-2365.
