Letters

Wines & Vines, Dec, 2000

"...I was mystified..."

Editor:

As a former wine consultant from the Boston area, I take a particular interest in wine and publications.

I recently came across your April 2000 issue and wine notes column in particular.

As a person of African-American descent, and an extreme minority in the world of wine, not to mention society, I was mystified by your "home-spun" references.

Let's start with the most obvious: referring to the '94 Simi Reserve Chardonnay.

"It's creamy, and not to (sic) cotton pickin' oaky".

You might think that in the year 2000, people, especially the so-called sophisticated wine media would be more aware in their choice of words to describe anything.

Cotton picking?

Are you talking about niggers who worked as slaves, against their will in the South? Unpaid, abused, beaten, mistreated and hanged? While my ancestors picked cotton yours wore the clothing produced by their labor and thought nothing about it. Who edits your manuscript? Strom Thurman? (sic).

More stupidity?

"and it was clear from the get-go, that this was a WINE, dammit"...GET-GO?!

"It's available, bub"... BUB? Did you mean BUBBA?!! Bubba drinks beer, not wine.

Here's a tidy 12-percenter"!? PERCENTER?

"and its got great legs, as in viscosity"... you have to explain this to industry people? Who IS your audience? Bubba from Arkansas?

"so put that in your Bordeaux pipe, old boy, and smoke it"... what have YOU been smoking Philip?

"writers of various stripes use a plethora of words to describe wine, (understatement!) some of which confuse me"... confuse YOU? Plethora? You think bubba understands PLETHORA? Who does your ghost-writing. Some pierced tattooed "young adult"?

"Try this with that old bachelor staple, mac and cheese, or fried chicken"... It was inevitable that the old dumb bachelor line might come up... the guy who can't cook except from a package. And loves fried chicken. Like all niggers do. Right Mr. Hairing? (It's Hiaring.) Well, I'm a bachelor, black, hate mac & cheese and fried chicken. I guess that screws up your dumb analogy, doesn't it?

And last but not the least worst: and monumentally insensitive: referring to "multiple appellation designate":

"I fondly remember how the late Peter Jurgens butchered this one at Wine Institute meetings at Palm Springs". Not many "cotton pickers there, Mr. Hiaring? But lots of cotton wearers!

I wonder how the family of the late Mr. Jurgens might feel if they read your above reference? Maybe Mr. Jurgens was not so verbally adroit as you. Or in such command of the English language. Shame on you.

It is appalling to think that in the year 2000 people like you get away with writing such garbage. But again, what can we expect from your sophisticated audience?

Yours Truly,

/s/John Flaherty

Santa Rosa, Calif.

malacca@pacific.net

(Ok, who's the prankster?-Ed.)