My little dog Woody has a big dog hatred for the postman. I have that same deep contempt for the food and wine media – often getting the urge to snarl and pee all over their stories – preferably while they are sitting at their laptops. There was an article on Slate a week or…
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Joe Dressner, the rough around the edges, individualistic, free thinking wine importer, died on Saturday at the age of 60 due to brain cancer. I only met Joe Dressner a few times. My only real personal connection was when a few years ago my company partnered with him and co-hosted a wine event here in Portland…
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I enjoy the New York Times Travel section. It’s not my favorite part of the paper, but it ranks higher than the sports section, style section, weddings and obituaries. The Times featured 36 Hours in Portland Ore. today – for the umpteenth time. I’m sure that’s good for the local economy. But these “36 Hours” features on…
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A new trend is developing as a number of restaurants around the United States and Europe are considering closing their doors due to the difficulty involved in trying to compete with Portland, Oregon as the new center of the food universe. Restaurants that have tried to copy the Pacific NW food scene are finding it…
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“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” *Bertrand Russell – See: Dunning-Krugar effect Reading about wine on the internet is uninspiring. I am convinced that in the end, there is very little value in what is on the web regarding wine that hasn’t already…
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I just returned from The Dallas Morning News and TexSom Wine Competition which is held around this time every year in Texas. I have had the good fortune to be one of the judges at this event for the last 5 or 6 years. It is always an outstanding affair and this is mainly due to the efforts of…
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Can anyone tell me how to acquire my City of Portland Bicyclist Moral Superiority Certificate? I have already passed my mandatory Oregon State Self Righteous Indignation test and I am wondering what the next step is. The city lowered the required minimum number of corporate sponsors on my spandex riding uniform to 650 – so…
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These days, there is nothing that can suck the life more quickly and more completely out of wine for me than having to sit and taste in a room full of sommeliers, wine writers, and wine bloggers. We really are a bunch of bloviating blow hards. Merry Christmas Gee – do I sound cranky? If…
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I still like this cartoon that we used last year for our Thanksgiving newsletter. That’s probably a bad sign, because I tend to like the same bad jokes over and over – like Republicans and Democrats or taking food and wine pairing for Thanksgiving seriously. These are the weeks when we are inundated with newspaper…
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Guy du Vin issued the following press release today. We are very proud of the work we have done for Nel Centro. It has been a privilege to work with Chef/Owner Dave Machado for as many years as we have. One of the things I love most about working with Dave is his deep sense…
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