Farther along
A year has passed since my article “From the ground up” appeared in C-VILLE’s annual food issue.
Once upon a vine
Chef Craig Hartman stands in front of a row of large double doors that are opened to the outside and through which rows of grapevines are visible,
Shallow ground
Journey Through Hallowed Ground, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving and celebrating historical land and sites from Pennsylvania through Virginia, including a lot of Albemarle County, had a nice little present for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors at the September 3 meeting. The group presented the supes with a special JTHG commemorative bottle of Chardonnay [...]
Everything you know is wrong
In my continuing quest to help my readers become obnoxious wine know- it-alls, thereby hastening my own obsolescence, I hereby present some common vinous misconceptions.
Blind faith
Bottle Shock is a new movie about the so-called Judgment of Paris, a 1976 blind tasting that pitted then unknown California wines against the best of Gaul.
One hundred pilgrims
Friday, 7:30am. As I walk to the gas station to buy toothpaste, I get a taste of what it is that brought me here. Everywhere I look there are pine trees, tall, deep green and swaying gently in the wind. Outside my hotel window and lining every road, they move like some verdant choir, under [...]
Going postal
I was recently in the Post Office mailing some wine-related mail, when the postal worker behind the counter stopped me and said, “Hey, you might be able to help me.” After looking him in the eye and finding no discernable signs of psychosis, I smiled and asked what he needed. “How do you guys,” he [...]
The night drags on
You look fabulous, bitches! But oh, what must be done to get there. A lot of male flesh squeeeeezed into one, two, maybe even three pairs of pantyhose creating a smooth, shiny, Barbie Doll-like lower half, while the top is padded into existence and cleavage painted on. Some serious face time with the mirror, cigarettes [...]
The bong show
One of the best things about using drugs is how it broadens your cultural horizons. As C-VILLE’s Drug Correspondent, I feel proud to have purchased drugs in many far-flung, sketchy places from all sorts of wretched individuals. How can I forget the sticky paranoia of Mexican beaches, the murderous nights in San Francisco’s Tenderloin? Kokie’s, [...]
Dr. Wine, Medicine Woman
Last year’s winner of the National Women’s Wine Competition sits across from me bouncing her 8-week-old daughter on her lap.
Wine's blood
There is a certain type of wine drinker who thinks of himself (it is often, but not always, a man) as being above drinking pink wine.
Blunt truth: marijuana dealers are people you already know
He isn’t nervous yet, because there isn’t any reason to be. Is there? Nothing in the car. Nothing in his pockets. Expired tags. Just popped into the office to grab something, his wallet with his ID left at home. A cop asks him to step out of the car, please, sir. Another officer says he smells [...]
The art of war
Gordon Emery didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life until he was 20 years old and started practicing Kung Fu …
Searching for Harvey Wallbanger
A man cannot live on fermented grape juice alone. Sometimes he needs something a bit more serious.
Test vineyard
Row 3 of the Norton Block is a mess, a tangled mat of vines, each shoot sending out tiny tendrils that wrap around their neighbors, tying the whole canopy together like some kind of mutant, kudzu Chia-beast.
Albemarle GOP welcomes Prince William anti-immigrant politician
Featured speaker at this morning’s monthly Albemarle GOP meeting at the Golden Corral was Corey Stewart, Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, who was introduced by Christian Schoenewald, the head of the Albemarle Republican party, as a “future leader of the Commonwealth.†According to Schoenewald, illegal immigration is a “growing concern†in Albemarle, and Stewart, one of the architects behind Prince William’s tough new immigration laws, was here to actively push those same policies in our area.
Outside names city among 20 groovy places to live
It just gets harder and harder to come up with an excuse to leave this town. Outside Magazine’s August 2008 issue lists Charlottesville as one of the 20 best cities in the country to “enjoy outdoor livingâ€, along with Crested Butte, CO, Oxford MI, and Washington D.C.
Hemicellulase, cultured yeast and GoFerm
Nowadays, everybody’s talking transparency, especially when it comes to what they put in their bodies. Wine has largely resisted this analysis, because most of us still envision winemaking as a romantic, pastoral endeavor—bottled grapes and sunshine, straight from the vines to you.
State criminalizes salvia, nobody notices
At midnight July 1, Salvia Divinorum, the mind altering Mexican plant whose use by teenagers has been sweeping the nation (or so says some media), officially became illegal, giving some Virginians out there a cool, new, felony-level, drug-using past. Last March, Governor Tim Kaine signed into law HB21, the Virginia bill criminalizing the drug. Since [...]
Polyface owner purchases meat-processing plant
Now, some of what he wants to do is legal. Joel and Teresa Salatin, owners of Polyface Farm, the Virginia farm whose grass-fed beef was made famous in the book Omnivore’s Dilemma, have purchased Harrisonburg Wholesale Meat Co., they announced in a news release last night. The Salatins, along with business partner Joe Cloud, will keep the 70-year-old meat business alive as a USDA-approved processing plant for local, grass-fed pork and beef.
Alleged SARA embezzler faces other felony charges
NBC 29.com is reporting that Damon Watson is now facing a felony embezzlement charge and a felony credit card fraud charge in Albemarle County, to go with the three felony embezzlement charges he has already racked up in the city of Charlottesville. 26-year-old Watson is accused of embezzling between $10,000 and $20,000 from the Sexual Assault Resource Agency.
The Merlot-ness of Merlot
“All things are numbers,” the Greek philosopher Pythagoras said, and in the wine world this often feels horribly true. Having recently returned from being a judge at the 17th annual State Fair of Virginia wine competition, I find myself thinking about the philosophy of wine tasting.
No reports of massive, final smoke-outs as salvia is legally banned today
At midnight last night, Salvia Divinorum, the mind altering Mexican plant whose use by teenagers has been sweeping the nation (if you believe the alarmed media), officially became illegal, giving some of you out there a cool, new, felony-level, drug-using past. Last March, Gov. Tim Kaine signed into law HB21, the Virginia bill criminalizing the drug.
Polo is my life
Crozet is gettin’ right fancy these days. A few years ago, the town was crawling with movie stars, and now the urban sprawl is getting so bad, it won’t be long before it’s all freeways, road rage, and smog-enhanced sunsets. With at least four wineries in the immediate vicinity, the Californication of Crozet seems to [...]
Wine before milk
Bartholomew Broadbent’s father, Michael, is considered the world’s foremost authority on old wines, and as founder (in 1966) of the wine department at London auction house Christie’s, he’s probably seen more old and rare wine than almost anyone alive. As one might expect, Bartholomew Broadbent was introduced to wine at an early age, but just [...]