My Two Favoritest Things ~ Tree Hugging and Swilling
…are at odds in the real world.
In the fog-shrouded forests of California’s remote North Coast, winemakers believe they’ve found the perfect terrain to grow the notoriously fickle pinot noir grape prized by connoisseurs.
Vineyard developers are snapping up thousands of acres of redwoods and firs in Sonoma County, with plans to clear the trees and plant the once-obscure varietal made famous by the wine-fueled road trip film “Sideways.”
Environmentalists and residents in Annapolis, a tiny town about 85 miles north of San Francisco, are trying to rein in the pinot lovers.
Damn that stoo-pid movie! Of course, I said the same thing about Martha Stewart when she started collecting yellowware kitchen bowls and had to tell everyone about it in her damn magazine. What had been $10 bowls skyrocketed to over $60 for the chipped/cracked/encrusted with 50 years of kitchen goo variety. All it takes is one knuckleheaded big mouth to ruin ‘a good thing’ for the rest of us.
This is like my worst nightmare. Sasquatch homeless for a varietal that’ll be out of favor in five years. I mean, ‘White Zinfandel’ was the ‘next big thing’ just a while ago. Gack.
Fun | Mr. Bingley | 
January 22, 2006 11:11 am
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once-obscure
Huh?
Well, considering how those knuckleheaded slimeballs acted in that movie, maybe I oughta hope it becomes obscure…
I agree with THS and Mr. B. Was pinot noir ever “obscure?” Huh?
I wasn’t a big fan of the movie. Seems like it created a legion of pinot junkies who never gave a crap if they were drinking Ripple Blanc or wine-in-a-box until they saw that movie that told them *how* to be a pinot snob.
Many pinot snobs I have encountered know nothing about other wines, except that they hate merlot. Which, of course, is what the drunk in the movie taught them.
The only good thing that came out of that movie was the return of Thomas Hayden Church, the genius who brought us Lowell Mather on “Wings.”
I’m not really a tree hugger but I don’t consider 500yr-old redwoods to be a renewable resource. To cut them down to make a few door frames that only a handful of people will ever see and to make some wine that some people might enjoy sounds a bit short-sighted to me. Grow the damn grapes somewhere else.
Old redwood can be put to some damn fine uses in musical instrument manufacture. 🙂
I suppose so, Cullen. Might even make good smoking chips for my grilled amberjack but I’ll use something else. 🙂
A good solution all around
If the trees have to go, they should be put to the best possible use.
Once again, you guys don’t like my trackbacks.
Mine, either, Cullen. I always get throttled here. Must be something we said. 🙂
(Probably because you’re both so cranky.)
I fixed it.
Pinot noir was never obscure, and only ridiculous self-important pinot snobs would think so. It was just somewhat better known as one of the three grapes used in champagne than on its own.
They don’t like ANY trackbacks. I think the hosting service is the cranky one.