For the rest of you, thanks you for your thoughtful or emotional or scurrilous responses. this is what happens when a person tries to be all things to all people. Keep eating cheese toast and keep drinking whatever wine you want to with it, and consider yourself blessed. Hey, biskuit, I’m glad you mentioned the typical Willamette mossy earthy bouquet; that’s one of my touchstones for Willamette pinot noir.

Coincidentally, I made cheese toast for lunch today and with it drank a few glasses of the Jackson Estate “Vintage Widow” Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough, New Zealand, a marvel of woven delicacies and supple subtleties. About $32. Look for it.

oh, thanks, Rusty.

1. Your tastes coincide reasonably well with mine. If you like it, chances are that I will too.
2. I like the style of your writing. You are both knowledgeable and eminently readable.
3. You write about the entire spectrum, from bottles I might grab on impulse at the grocery to things I can only dream of affording one day.

It’s rather like looking at a museum collection of oil paintings; I may never own them, but I like to know that they exist, and that people exist who appreciate them and can communicate their appreciation to me. Maybe, by listening to those people, I will see some of the same qualities in something I *can* afford, and be the better for it.

Vive la cheese toast and Pinot!

Thanks goodness for good cheese (this one was a manchego) and good friends with nice wine

; )

BTW – my notes from the wine – “Wow this was nice, with some crazy grilled cheese and sriracha blue cheese tomato soup. Helpful huh? So well balanced, slightly on the fruity side of pinot with very clear, pure strawberry on the palate, set off by a typical Willamette nose with earthy moss, yes a floral rose-type scent, and just a touch of that strawberry. Pleasant lingering notes of fruit and earth.”

This is all in fun, but I do seriously believe there is an underlying disconnect between wine reviewing and the everyday wine culture that so many of us talk about as an ideal unmet.

Benito,

QPR or not, food pairing or not, the majority of Americans can barely afford to buy a $5 bottle of wine seven days a week, so if we keep talking about $45 bottles, who will we be addressing?

Are we addressing those who would drink wine at that price on a daily basis or are we addressing those who would limit their wine consumption to a bottle every so often because of the price of wine?

In either case, it does not appear like we would be creating a widespread wine culture–we might be creating a widespread backlash.

And one more thing: why is it that those of us in the wine business can’t afford to pay for a $45 bottle everyday? Seems so unfair

I mean, in a Napa bistro, wouldn’t that cheese toast cost me $45 itself?