wine(explored) by wine(accessorized)

The weekend reader wraps up the week’s best blog posts and news stories and suggests relevant articles and stories for coming events.

The Oatmeal – This week’s reader isn’t quite as irreverent as last week’s. We’re going to be touching on a couple serious notes. Don’t worry, though, the Oatmeal is here to temper the gravity with a comic titled “20 Things Worth Knowing About Beer.”
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/beer

Suburban Wino – This post really got me thinking about wine pairings. We all know the classic pairings with steak, pasta, seafood, etc… but what about Super Bowl fare? Joe takes the opportunity of an enormous spread of “man food” to wax analytical about the science of pairing wine with everything from clams to chicken wings. He also plays a little didgeridoo.
http://www.suburbanwino.com/2010/02/aussie-rules-football.html

The New York Times – In case you haven’t heard, E & J Gallo was recently victim to a massive case of wine fraud. Their suppliers were passing off cheaper varietals as Pinot Noir, and those responsible have officially been found guilty. You can read all about the case developments in their article with the dazzling headline “Fraud in Wine Sent to U.S. from France.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/business/global/19wine.html

DrinkNectar- One of the issues that strikes a nerve with me is the horrid treatment wine gets at restaurants. Ridiculous prices, poor selection, awful presentation… it’s an industry-wide problem. Josh over at DrinkNectar wrote an incredible piece on basically every gripe there is to have with these issues, and the conversation in the comments has brought in a wide variety of perspectives, even from restaurant owners.
http://drinknectar.com/2010/02/18/wine-ripped-off-and-ticked-off/

The New York Times – I hate to reference them twice in one post, but they knocked this out of the park. There’s been some focus on the detrimental effects of climate change on winemaking, and indeed they even touch on this in this article, but there are areas that would benefit from a little global warming. If current climate models are accurate, we could be seeing an influx of fine English wine in the future.

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/02/18/18climatewire-climate-change-seen-bringing-bonanza-for-engl-6578.html

Have a great weekend, everyone!