I Think we’re all Bozos in this Wine Shop

“An old wine-bibber having been smashed in a railway collision, some wine was poured upon his lips to revive him. ‘Pauillac, 1873,’ he murmured and died.”

—AMBROSE BIERCE, THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY

“Occasionally Americans know altogether too much about wine for their own good.”

—BARON ELIE DE ROTHSCHILD (ATTRIB.)

A few years back, I Conducted a Pinot Noir seminar at the Food & Wine Experience in Aspen, which is a casual, highly enjoyable three-day event mounted every summer by Food & Wine magazine, and attended mostly by the (food-and-wine-loving) general public. I had as panelists at my seminar several top winemakers who were specialists in the pinot noir grape, and our discussion was a lively one.