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Vulcano Vini Veri Erupts!

The Real Wine Attack has been transformed to Vulcano Vini Veri tonight as 5 Italian winemakers arrived in Seattle.

Several Italians are stuck in Italy and a large group of French wine makers are hoping against hope to get here for our Monday tasting. Or to be in San Francisco for our Tuesday tasting. Or New York for our Thursday tasting.

The tastings will go on and Volcanic Ash be damned! Airports are blocked, vignerons are sleeping on airport floors all over Western Europe and we have no idea what will happen over the next few days.

Will Franck Peillot get here? Eric Texier? Marc Ollivier?

Marc Ollivier slept last night on the floor of the Clermont-Ferrand airport trying to get a flight to Milan to connect in Miami to a New York Connection for Seattle. Unfortunately, the Milan to Miami segment was cancelled.

Franck Peillot drove to the Montpellier Airport (since Lyon was closed) to get a flight to Madrid, then Dallas Ft-Worth and finally Houston. He missed the Montpellier flight by 15 minutes on account of a tractor-trailer accident near Nimes which delayed traffic.

Eric Texier drove off on Thursday morning and his wife, parents and children have no idea where he might be.

The worst case scenario is that we will hire actors and I will alternate between dressing up as François Pinon and then dressing up as Thierry Puzelat.

But the tasting will go on! No volcanic ash can stop this movement!

Remember what Jules Chauvet said:

Il n'y a pas d'affaires comme les vins nature-business comme aucun d'affaires que je sais

Tout y est attrayante, tout ce qui permettra la circulation

Nulle part vous ce sentiment heureux quand vous volez que l'arc supplémentaire

Il n'y a pas des gens comme de montrer aux vignerons, ils sourient quand ils sont faibles

Même avec une cuvée raté que vous savez fois, vous pouvez être bloqués dans le froid

Mais vous n'auriez pas le changer pour un sac d'or, nous allons continuer avec le Real Wine Show!


take the train to the plane

would be the real new york solution.
I could pretend to be a French winemaker! I've done it before!!! I've even been accused of it!
**

Joe Dressner - Captain Tumor Man!


Hi, I'm Joe Dressner the famous wine importer and I have brain cancer!

I already have a wine blog and frankly wine is such a luxury business that I hate to mix my cancer problems with my wine observations. I think it would be a general downer for the lifestyle crowd out there.

Furthermore, we in the wine trade always claim there are tremendous health benefits to drinking wine. I've already had cardiovascular bypass surgery over eight years ago and now I got a tumor aggressively rattling in my brain. My colleagues in the glamorous wine industry want me to keep it quiet.

So, I've started this wonderful new blog to discuss wine, brain tumors, my life and to give you hot tips on handling the cancer stricken around you. There will also be practical wine/radiation pairings when I start radiation therapy and chemotherapy next week.

Having brain cancer means I might both physically and intellectually decline. So, I will be using this blog as a venue to pursue petty vendettas against relatives, acquaintances and people in the wine trade.

I might also lose touch with reality and say things that are not true or are only half true. The important thing is to have fun and enjoy this rare and precious time in my life.

One of my pet vendettas is my cousin Dr. Barbara Hirsch. Dr. Barbara Hirsch is a very important Great Neck Endocrinologist, who was raised and nurtured by my parents. Dr. Hirsch waited until my father was near death and my mother was suffering from a rare neuromuscular disorder, to write them a seven page letter denouncing them for being horrible to her for the entirety of her life! Despite my concerns, Dr. Hirsch still refuses to apologize.

Last night, I drank a beautiful bottle of Bourgueil Clos Sénéchal 2005 from Pierre Breton. It was sublime and reminded me that I used to be healthy. Not only that, the vineyard used to be there before I existed. It exists independently of my having cancer and will continue to exist. You ought to buy some.

August 2009 Postscript: Not only does it exist independently of my cancer, it also exists independently of Louis/Dressner Selections. After 18 years, they have dumped us for Kermit Lynch. Oh well. At least I'm alive!