Drama... That’s a funny word. In case you didn’t notice, there was quite a bit

Drama... That’s a funny word. In case you didn’t notice, there was quite a bit of tongue-in-cheekness in my three previous posts regarding this subject.

Anyway, if I do try that Pavie, it will be on somebody else’s dime, I assure you. One of the New Year’s resolutions that I am only belatedly taking up is not shelling out my own hard-earned cash for stuff I even remotely suspect could turn out to be crap.

Luckily, American merchants have this odd little penchant for putting ";shelf-talkers"; next to many of the wines they offer. These ";shelf-talkers"; tell you the score and a condensed version of the tasting note offered by this or that critic.

If I see a ";shelf-talker"; bearing the phrases ";The Wine Advocate,"; ";Wine Spectator,"; ";Wine Enthusiast"; or ";Wine & Spirits,"; it’s my cue to stay the hell away from the shelf in question. In fact, the only ";shelf-talkers"; that work as enticements for me are the new ones bearing the imprint ";Burghound.com."; Now, Allen Meadows, that’s a guy who knows what he’s talking about.

That it may be ";the putatively inevitable ";way things are going,"; ";or ";the way the pendulum swings,"; or ";the way the cookie crumbles,"; or some other such cliché is no excuse for remaining quiet in the face of the triumph of vlgarity... I could, like I’ve said before, pull a Des Esseintes and retire to enjoy the remainder of the good things I already own. But it’s better to fight.

M.