Mr. Gutenberg, Let Me Introduce Ms. Kindle

Last week, after listening to Oprah, Ella and I decided to become part of a momentous, potentially groundshaking movement. No, I'm not talking about voting for Barack Obama.

Ella decided to buy a Kindle, the electronic book machine and electronic library.

Think about it: For 558 years, Johannes Gutenberg and his successors have been the only competitive reading game in town. Before the inventive German came along, monks for centuries were in charge of book production, one painful, beautiful letter at a time. Then, in 1450, Gutenberg invented movable type and the printing press, and practically everything that has been read since then -- except for handwritten love letters and post cards -- was first set into type and then printed. In the 1960s, the movable type part started to be phased out of the picture as offset, or electronic, type took over for hot type. But printing continues. Your morning newspapers, the copy of Saveur or Robb Report, the book you read at the beach this summer all were printed conceptually the same as Gutenberg did it. Sure, we can already read things on a computer screen, as you're reading this blog now, but lack of portability and flexibility hindered a totally electronic publication. Early electronic books were too klunky and too limited in scope.

Then came Kindle. Like hundreds of thousands of Americans, Ella -- the rapid adopter in our family -- got her first exposure to Kindle on an Oprah show, and she (and subsequently we) were bedazzled. Kindle is portable, can almost instantaneously download any of hundreds of books (including those just published) for $9.99, allowing you to store them for later or repeat reading, change fonts and type sizes, and find your place where you stopped reading any of them -- no bookmark or turndowned page corners. It can be read in any light with virtually no glare. And it can electronically access magazines and even your own computer files. Want to make notes in the margin? -- yup, Kindle can do that, too.

Of course, the Kindle people don't want you do printouts (too Gutenbergy and against their business model), and you can't share a book on one Kindle with another Kindle (oops, see corrective Comment below). Ella and I anticipate the day when I buy a Kindle, and we'll be switching our sets back and forth to read each others' downloaded books.

Some friends say they are holding off, partly out of loyalty to books and partly to wait for the technology to improve. The latter excuse sounds like one I would make, but we couldn't really think of anything that we would want in a handheld electronic library that Kindle doesn't already do. And we've done the test run. Ella's has quickly purchased and downloaded three books, including The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (above), her first.

As far as real books go....I have fondled them lovingly since infancy. I have been intoxicated by their smell, particularly the ones printed years ago in England. And I love the look of them ensemble, whether they are in the straining book cases in our library or haphazardly piled by my nightstand. We will probably end up buying more of them than we normally do just to justify our dalliance.

Still, when I get on the plane to Paris next month for a wine trip to Languedoc, odds are I will have convinced Ella to lend me her Kindle. Or will have bought one myself.

Until next time...

Roger Morris

Harvest Dinner at Mercer Estates

I have had a long fascination with the area of Washington state that lies "east of the mountains" -- a desert of slopes, hills and plateaus made green by irrigation, a land settled by families whose pioneering ancestors arrived here by wagon trains, a broad farm belt of waving grain and grazing sheep. More so than most places, there is a tradition here that blends agrarian culture, which at is simplest comes from planting seeds and working toward a harvest, and the older, basic hunting and fishing culture. Over the past quarter century, wine -- and very fine wine at that -- has been added to the mix.

On a recent visit to the Yakima Valley, I was able to experience the combination of all these threads as guest of the Hogue and the Mercer families, which earlier this year opened their new winery, Mercer Estates, in Prosser, the small farm town that is the center of activity in the region. In addition to visiting vineyards and wineries, I also went hunting with them -- pheasants in the woods and shrub-brush upland draws of Horse Heaven Hills --and fishing for steelhead trout from drift boats in the remote Klickitat River. Most of all, I was able to share two harvest dinners with the combined families, one a pheasant dinner a the home of Ron and Barbara Hogue Harle and the other a seafood fest, including steelhead trout, at the home of Mike and Dora Hogue. I also had the opportunity to spend time with Rob and Brenda Mercer and Rob's father, Bud. The game dinner was prepared by chef Frank Magana of Picazo 7Seventeen Restaurant, Prosser's one fine-dining eatery, and the seafood dinner by Anthony's in the nearby Tri-City area.

I will be working on various articles soon about the Yakima Valley and its 60 wineries and about my delightful visit with the Mercers and the Hogues of Mercer Estates.

PHOTO NOTES: From the top, Mike Hogue, grape grower and wine pioneer with Hogue Cellars; Chef Frank Magana prepares a harvest dinner using a Mercer Estates Merlot in a pheasant dish; Ron Harle and Rob Mercer with the first of six pheasants bagged earlier in the day in Horse Heaven Hills near the Mercer family vineyards; Magana's pheasant entree and Mercer Estates wines bring an active October harvest day to a beautiful close.

Until next time....

Roger Morris

Going Back to School on Wine Education

Just like the kids who every morning set off for the bus stop, wine writers have to go back to school every fall.

Oh sure, there are still things to study over the summer. Bottles keep arriving at my front door like so many textbooks -- some weighty tomes that need a lot of thought and analysis, others a quick read over dinner. And there's the occasional trip to the big city for a lunch-and-learn seminar at the DB Bistro Moderne or Per Se.

But things really heat up after Labor Day. First, we have to choose our field trips: Burgundy or the Mosel Valley or Mendoza? And the PR people who work for wine growers -- I think of them as my tutors -- always have suggestions about new things to try and new things to learn. Like Andy Rooney, they are always asking, "Have you ever thought about why...?"

Then there is this new education tool called a "webinar." In the old days, kids out in the boonies would be sent reading materials by mail, then they would turn on the radio Saturday morning to hear the lecture. With webinars, a winemaker in Chile or Australia, who could spend more money than Congress taking a plane north and still not catch up with all of us writers, merely has to set up a camera in front of a bunch of vines and lecture us via the internet.

Like a couple of weeks ago. The folks at Barossa Valley Estate make some really neat wines, especially two shirazes -- Ebenezer and E&E Black Pepper -- so the tutors set up a seminar for winemaker Stuart Bourne to talk to us via webcam from his Barossa vineyard while we sipped wine, trying not to get cracker crumbs in the keyboard.

I always do advance prep, and sometimes my friend Anthony helps with my homework. So here we are in my kitchen at 10 a.m. tasting these four wines before the noontime webinar. We immediately fall in love with the 2006 BVE E Minor Chardonnay, which has a sort of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc attitude. Next, there is the 2006 E Minor Shiraz -- lots of spicy fruit like a jazzed-up Russian River Zin. Wow!

Then we taste the 2004 vintage of Ebenezer and E&E Black Pepper, which regularly gets ratings in the 90s by the guys who write the textbooks. Eb has great, raw-meat, steaklike aromas, and Pepper has fruity balsamic and green olive notes. Both sport that trademarked Aussie fruit balminess, but neither is totally satisfying, like an apple pie with great filling but no crust. I turn on the computer to catch Stuart, but Anthony has to take off. What a guy -- helps me study even though he doesn't have to write a report!

Next day, I re-pull the corks on Eb and Pep -- education never sleeps -- then the next, then the day after -- and gradually they turn delicious. Should have decanted on that first day! But, if you study hard enough, you finally get it.

"No drinker left behind," I say.


This article appeared in slightly different form in my weekly wine column in the Delaware regional newspaper, The News Journal.


Until next time....

Roger Morris

Champagne Trail: Digging Pommery's Caves

On first-time visits, hosts always like to ask what surprised and impressed you -- two related, but yet quite different questions. This September, I was invited to visit the respected Champagne house of Pommery, which is part of the Vranken maison, which also includes the Vranken, Diamant, Charles Lafitte, and Heidsieck Monopole labels in Champagne as well as Listel table wines and Rozes port, among others.

So here is what impressed and surprised me.

1. I was impressed, but not surprised, by the wines, as I had tasted many of them before. Most wine writers never accept invitations from winegrowers we don't thoroughly respect (not that we can't be surprised), just as you wouldn't agree to spend the weekend at someone's house whom you don't like all that much. And quietly enjoying a vertical tasting of Pommery's luxury marque, Cuvee Louise, at the end of a hectic day with cellar master Thierry Gasco was certainly the wine high point of the visit.

2. I was surprised by the beauty of the Champagne landscape. I had been led to expect monotonous, rolling hills of nothing but vines -- but the narrow roads twisted and turned through lots of woods, past villages tucked into little corners of the countryside, and through vast cultivated fields that had been decreed years ago as unworthy of being prime vineyard land.

3. I was fascinated by the press houses. In addition to the big wineries that the large Champagne companies own, there are hundreds of press houses scattered among the villages and even in the vineyards. The idea is that the grape farmers, who still command most vineyard acreage, press the grapes quickly for juice purity before it goes to the winery, generally keeping a part of the production to ferment as their own house wines. I had thought these houses were surely relics of the past, superceded by refrigerated tanker trunks and neutral gases. Not so. Driving through the vineyards with Gasco, I noticed a yellow post-it note hanging from the rearview mirror of his Audi. It was his daily "do list" of 10 or so press houses he needed to visit to check harvest and production, two of which we saw. One, Lejeune Pere & Fils, was part of the grower's comfortable house in an upscale neighborhood, much like a large garage. Another, Pierre Arnoud, was a small winery opposite an ancient cemetery where a town gave way to hillside vines.

4. I loved the little city of Rheims, where Pommery and many other firms have their headquarters, with its beautiful, historic cathedral where the kings were coronated. "This is where France started," our guide said, "when Clovis converted to Christianity in the 5th Century," although the cathedral was built much later.

5. I had the best time at a luncheon at the newly rennovated Villa Demoiselle, just opened to the public, with Paul-Francois Vranken, his wife, Nathalie Vranken, and Vranken-Pommery managing director Paul Bamberger. Earlier, Nathalie took us on a delightful tour of the villa, detailing the fascinating work of dozens of craftsmen. The lunch, prepared by Chef J.J. Lange, was exquisite, and the conversation lively and free-ranging.

6. And I found the miles of caves -- Roman chalk pits connected by passageways -- under Domaine Pommery and the city to be awe-inspiring. Not only are there millions of bottles stored down here, but the caves, and the English-style castle above it, are the site of the Pommery Experience, a rotating international art exhibition sponsored by Vranken-Pommery. The current exhibit is much too diverse to explain in this short space, but imagine walking into a large room of this underground cavern and encountering the brighly lit beach scene below!

It's enough to make one call it a day and reach for a glass of Pommery Brut Royal!

Articles Update....

I've recently become Managing Editor of the electronic publication Sommelier News, the official newsletter of the International Sommelier Guild, and thus find myself selecting and editing my own articles among those of other writers. In the October issue, I examine "New Zealand's Right Bank Reds," which is about how the Gimblett Gravels area of Hawke's Bay has become home to Merlots that remind one of Bordeaux's Right Bank and Syrahs that are reminiscent of the Rhone's Right Bank.... Log onto epicurious.com and click on "article and guides - drinking" to see my recommendations for "Top 5 2005 Bordeaux for Under $50".... In my first article published in the beautifully photographed magazine, La Vie Claire, I profile Heidi Peterson Barrett , "The Queen of Napa Valley".... And, finally, in the October issue of Beverage Media, I look at what Kermit Lynch and Frugal McDougal have in common -- consumer newsletters -- in "You've Got Wine Mail."

Until next time...

Roger Morris

The Drouhins of Burgundy: All in the Family

There are undoubtedly thousands of family wineries in the world, but few are as good or as completely involved as the Drouhins of Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy. Robert Drouhin, who headed the Joseph Drouhin company for years and still participates in the daily tastings, represents the third generation of the family business, and all four of his children are actively involved in the the global wine venture today. The youngest, Frederic, is CEO of the business because his older siblings asked him to run the firm. Laurent heads American and Caribbean marketing from New York City, and Philippe looks after the estate vineyards and grape buying in the Cotes d'Or, Macon, Cote Chalonnaise, Beaujolais, Chablis -- and Oregon. Veronique, in the photo above, heads the winemaking and pioneered the family's Domaine Drouhin estate in Oregon.

I recently spent time with the family in Burgundy on assignment and will be writing more about them and Burgundy in the weeks to come.

(Oh yes, the snails in garlic butter in the photo, served for lunch at the Auberge de Cheval Noir in Beaune, paired wonderfully with the 2006 Joseph Drouhin Clos des Mouches Blanc.)


Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

There are a few of my new articles that might be of interest to you:

In the Robb Report, a piece in the September issue features the subtle charms of the 200 bottles of rare 1965 Auchentoshan lowland Scotch, while the November issue tells about the obvious charms of Orient Express' Colca Canyon resort miles away from everything in Southern Peru... In the September issue of Beverage Media, we explore the growing influence of sommeliers in the article, "Gatekeepers of the Next New Wine"... We return to Peru for a perusal of rare forms of the Pisco Sour for the September issue of The Tasting Panel... If you like your Chards naked, check out the "Top 5 Unoaked Chardonnays" and the foods and recipes to go with them at epicurious.com... the fall issue of Drinks features the attractiveness of Spain's Albarinos and other white wines... in the September edition of Sommelier News, we look at how Israeli winemakers are turning their country into a land of milk, honey -- and good wines...and, finally,if you've ever considered getting rid of that pesky grass and instead growing grapes in your backyard, pick up a copy of the October issue of the Wine Enthusiast to see how Clos LaChance is turning Silicon Valley into Grapegrowers Alley.



Until next time...

Roger Morris

Brandywine Book of Food: Coming May 2009

Paul Mikos, Associate Publisher of Cumberland House publishers, knows how to reward writers who get their copy in on time. As the the last days of July crept up on August 1, three of us were scrambling to get in the text (me), photos (Ella Morris), and recipes (Cathleen Ryan) for The Brandywine Book of Food to meet our August 1 deadline.

The book is scheduled to be published in May 2009 -- a compendium of recipes, photos, and stories about the people who produce and prepare food in the Brandywine region of northern Delaware and Southern Pennsylvania west of Philadelphia. Cumberland House was itself scrambling to assemble its spring catalog and make marketing and sales plans. The book will definitely be of high quality, both inside and out.

The restaurants whose recipes are featured and photographed and whose stories are told include Talula's Table, Domaine Hudson, Toscana, Fair Hill Inn, Harry's Seafood Grill, the Hotel du Pont, Catherine's, Simon Pearce, Sovana Bistro, Brandywine Prime, Blue Pear Bistro, Nektar, Bistro on the Brandywine, Hank's Place, and Gilmore's. Plus tales from the regional wineries and the B&B's and small inns.

Was it just a coincidence that Mikos sent us the cover mockup (above) of the book only minutes after the last recipe was e-mailed to Nashville, where Cumberland House is headquartered? I prefer to think it was a reward for our hard work and for staying on deadline.

Definitely more later....

Roger Morris

As September Approaches, A Last Marathon

It is September 2000, the first year of the new Millennium, so we no longer have to worrry about the Milennium Bug.

I am standing around with a bunch of shabbily dressed people I mostly don't know outside Chateau Beychevelle on this warm Sunday morning, blind tasting one of the property's second labels.

"There is great intensity," I say to myself after taking a sip, "and a richness of flavor with a chocolate, earthy finish." But is it the chateau's Les Brulieres or the Amiral, and what is the vintage -- 1998, 1997, 0r something older?

Can't tell, so I approximate a Gallic shrug, throw my plastic tasting cup into a trash receptacle, and clip my mini tape recorder back to my shorts. And reluctantly start running again, as we are only about six miles into our race with another 20 miles to go.

Each fall, the Marathon du Medoc -- the date of this year's edition is September 8 -- gives thousands of people the opportunity to taste 20 or so wines from the top chateaux in Pauillac, St.-Julien, and St.-Estephe, plus the opportunity to sample many typically Bordelaise foods. The catch is that you have to run for three-to-six hours through their vineyards to experience this gastro treat.

Moi, aujoud'hui, I am running what I intend to be my last marathon in the first vintage of the new century. Although I have completed six prior marathons in relatively decent times, I am now past my running prime and in only so-so shape.

But the lure of the venue and the encouragement of friends, one a foodie who is with me today, running his first marathon, kept me focused during the weeks of training and those four 20-milers in practice.

Our morning starts early along the Gironde River in the wine town of Pauillac, where there are more than 3,000 runners milling around with up-tempo music loudly blaring as it always does at races. Although there are serious marathoners participating, most people here are fun runners, many adorned in costumes. Large, bare faux buttocks seem to be the tout le rage. But remember, the French think Jerry Lewis is funny, too.

At 9:30, we are off. The first wine stop is within the city itself, a mere quarter of a mile into the race, and it is jammed. My running buddy, Glenn Bergman, and I pass it by. I note sadly that Lynch-Bages, which we see on our right as we leave town, isn't pouring today, so we push on toward St.-Julien and Beychevelle.

At that point,the course loops inland toward the northwest, the runners begin to spread out, and there is more running room. And this is good, as Nature begins calling, and runners both male and female start peeling off into the vine rows to drop their pants and do some organic enrichment of the terroir. Wine stops at Lagrange and Grand-Puy-Lacoste are properly noted into the recorder, and then we come into the courtyard at Pontet-Canet. Here, we are treated to real wine glasses, and the wine is drawn from barrels. "We would never taste in plastic glasses," a pourer sniffs. Even though this slows down the process, we are glad for the time to catch our breaths.

So far, the food has been bistro-simple -- fruit, cheese tarts, sweets -- but, after a wine stop at 14 miles on the beautiful grounds of Mouton-Rothschild, blood sausages are offered us in the streets of the village of Le Pouyalet. Against my warning, Glenn, ever the foodie, cannot resist. He asks if sweetbreads are also available.

As we cross over into St.-Estephe, the sun starts bearing down as we slog through the hilly countryside. Le Crock, Pomys, le Haye, Marquis de St.-Estephe, and Phelan-Segur now seem obstacles to overcome rather than delightful chateau wines to be sampled. With five miles to go, we are at one of my favorites, Haut- Marbuzet, but today I can barely enjoy the view.

The course heads back downhill to the river, but running downhill now seems more difficult than running uphill, so we walk for 100 yards or so. As we again reach the wide, tidal waters of the Gironde, there are raw oysters -- perhaps cooked oysters by now -- with white Bordeaux. Our plan from last night was to celebrate here with just two miles to go, but now it seems like a nauseating idea. I do grab a cup of wine with a kilometer to go, Mouton Cadet blanc, and it has never tasted more delicious and refreshing.

And ,then, there is the last flurry to the finish line back where we started, a sprint on cramping legs. I hold back, and Glenn jubilantly runs ahead. Our time is very slow as marathons go -- around 5 hours and 10 minutes -- although I do feel better when I realize there are hundreds of people still behind us. Some may be even planning to spend the night at their favorite chateaux.

Later that evening, Glenn and I, along with two other friends who ran part of the race and one who was injured during training, and our wives celebrate in the elegant Hautrive St. James in Bouillac. Glenn in euphoric, while I am merely exhausted. The waiter arrives, and we order a cold bottle of a very good Champagne.

Sorry, but we've had enough vin du Medoc for one day!

Note: I apologize for the tardiness of recent postings. My two partners and I are just finishing the manuscript, photos, and recipes for The Brandywine Book of Food, which will be published early next year by Cumberland House.

Until the next time...

Roger Morris