According to today's New York Times:
Thomas Friedman, the star columnist, returned a $75,000 speaking fee after accepting it from a California government agency in violation of a Times guideline. Maureen Dowd, another star columnist, was roughed up on the Internet for using a paragraph from a blogger without attribution. And Edmund Andrews, an economics writer, began promoting a memoir describing how he took out subprime mortgages he couldn't possibly repay even as he covered the subprime mess — including efforts to help homeowners in danger of default, like him.
The Times has a strict policy that everything that goes into the paper follows strict standards. This is an expensive policy but it guarantees journalistic independence, not just proclamations about journalist ethics.
Robert Parker has also written about his journalist ethics for the Wine Advocate. Apparently, the Wine Advocate is divided between two groups. First, there is Robert Parker the owner who will not accept trips, junkets or any form of bribery.
There is now a second category at the Wine Advocate called independent contractors who are expected to be rigorously independent but who can accept money for trips and hospitality. Mr. Parker writes: I do permit these writers to accept free airline travel and related but limited hospitality, but only for the purposes of education involving geography, geology, and lay of the vineyards in their areas of responsibility, or to speak at wine conferences.
What is fuzzy about the distinction between these two categories is that Parker used to write the Wine Advocate by himself. Then, he added Pierre Rovani, who I believe followed the same ethics standards at Parker. Now that he has a larger staff, he is making the ethics somewhat looser. Jay Miller has gone on government tours in South America and Australia, as did Mark Squires in Israel and Greece. A paid tour is money in the pocket, pure and simple.
I'm truly disappointed that Mr. Parker decided to not demand the same ethical standards of the Wine Advocate staff that he demands of himself. "Independent Contractors" is a legal and tax category, Parker is the publisher who determines the policies. I hope he reconsiders.
Perhaps The New York Times could call their writers "independent contractors" employed by the Ochs-Sulzberger trust. This way they could avoid a lot of expense and let the independent contractors have fun. The current policy at the Times is:
Staff members may not accept free or discounted transportation and lodging except where special circumstances give little or no choice. Such special cases include certain military or scientific expeditions and other trips for which alternative arrangements would be impractical — for example, an interview aboard a corporate jet where there is no benefit other than the interview. Journalists should consult responsible newsroom managers in advance when special circumstances arise.
But what would Ralph Nader have thought of a New York Times staff on junkets? Yes, everyone can argue that their journal or their newsletter or their blog does not have the financial resources of The Times. But maintaining journalistic ethics is as important for the lonely freelancer and blogger as it is for large organizations. With so much information now available on the web, don't writers owe the public an honest point of view, free of bribery and monetary corruption?
Since then, all I can think about is Vine Connections.
My apologies, I incorrectly called them Vineyard Connections in an earlier post.
I don't get it. Since the company is about Sake and Argentine wines, why call it Vine Connections? What exactly is the connection between Sake and Argentine wines? Is there a connection? Why don't they call the company Alcohol Connections, which would allow them to get into the lucrative artisan beer market?
How come everyone who works for Vine Connections looks like a new hire at Michael Skurnik wines (not to say there is anything wrong with that)? Do the salespeople get discounts at Urban Outfitters?
I also don't understand the logo. It looks like the Viet Cong logo. I think it is insensitive of Vine Connections, to call itself the VC, particularly today on Memorial Day.
What's next? A wine importer call NLF?
Hopefully, I will sleep off my Vine Connections obsession tonight and go back to Dr. Barbara Hirsch, the Great Neck endocrinolist, and my brother, Ira "Chakra" Dressner.
Who are the people behind the innovative Vine Connections, the people who brought together Sake and Malbec for the first time in importing history? Captain Tumor Man will be featuring some of the movers and shakers of this exciting company this week.
We've already profiled one of the owners. But how about Lisa Johnson, the marketing director who makes it all work?
In yet another marketing coup for the Vine Connection, famous importers of sake and Malbec, the Wine Advocate has awarded on of their wines 95 points.
Dr. Jay Miller writes:
Dense purple-colored, it offers a splendid nose of pain grille, mineral, spice box, black cherry, and blackberry liqueur. This leads to a full-bodied, opulent wine with gobs of savory fruit, outstanding balance, and serious aging potential. Give it 4-6 years in the cellar and drink it from 2012 to 2030. There are only 400 3-packs of this phenomenal effort.
Opulent with gobs will do it every time. I just picked up a 3 pack for $300.00
How is it possible that Savio Soares and I had never met?
Ed Lehrman, one of the founders, has a rich and varied background:
After graduation, I headed to the Big Apple full of promise and short on skills and experience. What could I do but hang out, sell wine, and earn meager wages at New York's premier wine shop, Sherry-Lehmann. After a short stint selling wine wholesale, and in a bid for a more self-supporting wine lifestyle, I made my way to the west coast to earn my MBA at UCLA before moving to San Francisco to work as Kendall-Jackson Winery's first Marketing Manager. As I tired of endless workdays and off-dry Chardonnay, I eventually joined Seagram Classics in Rutherford as a Marketing Manager overseeing Champagne Mumm, Barton et Guestier, and Castello d'Albola wines. Learned a lot for sure, but the corporate wine gig was not for me.
I met a guy at a coffee shop on 1st Avenue today who had 47% of his portfolio with Bernie Madoff. He ordered a salami omelette with home fries and a large orange juice.
I've been reading Hannah Arendt's Eichman in Jerusalem and the similarities between Eichman and Madoff are striking.
If Bernie Madoff does not exist, everything is permitted.
I haven't been able to find a good cheese danish in years.
I can't even find a good picture of a cheese danish!
Anyone showing up at my office with a delicious cheese danish will receive a free bottle of Thierry Puzelat's Pétillant Naturel, assuming that the State Liquor Authority approves the transaction.
My thanks in advance.
I turned into Professor Irwin Corey last night.
As the professor, I took a team of talented bloggers on a tour of Long Island's premium wineries.
I woke up terrorized out of my mind at 3:52 in the morning, screaming something about the how the Graves section of Bordeaux is also composed of sandy soils and makes world class Merlot.
My wife had to apply cold towels for 20 minutes to lower my fever.
Here's a picture of Jules, Alyce and me right after the ceremony.
I always wanted to go to Angor Wat. I wanted to go to Ho Chi Minh City. I'd like to visit Montréal three or four times a year. I'd like to buy a Brompton Folding Bicycle. In fact, I'd just like to ride a bicycle again.
I may not be doing these things in the future and I accept my new life. People are being evicted from their homes, are losing their jobs, their security nets and things could be far worse for me. At least, Louis/Dressner is solvent without Ponzi schemes to sell labels to Gallo or some other evil outfit. Not only that, we're making vast sums of money even though I have far less hair that famed vintner Charles Smith who just received 100 Points for some wine I'm sure I would find undrinkable! In fact, I have no hair at all!
One other dream I have always had is to read Tostoy's War and Peace. I've tried twice and never gotten past 134 pages. At this point, the book is simply too heavy and the type too small for me to have any hope of ever reading the novel.
So, what the hell, I decided to buy a Kindle 2 e-book with the money I'm saving by not going to Angor Wat. Frankly, I like it. I'm walking around with War and Peace, the Idiot, Notes from the Underground and several other novels I've always wanted to read. Yes, I prefer real books, yes I prefer the tactile feel and sensation of touching and turning a page. I also love good typography. But I have my limitations these days and the Kindle 2 works well right now for me.
Some dreams can still be touched. I'm 11% into War and Peace (the page count on the Kindle is confusing) and enjoying Tolstoy. My last MRI shows my tumor to be stable and I should be able to make it through the next 89%. I hope.
Frankly, even I was shocked! I always think that Dr Vino and then LennDevours are the top sites.
The Wall Street Journal Magazine Picks their Favorite Wine Web Sites
We have good wines. Some people consider us Guideposts or Lamposts or something like that.
We do not distribute wine in Georgia and Ohio. Consumers contact us from those states as do stores. Are you up to the challenge?
If so, write us at info@louisdressner.com
Many years ago, my Beacon of Light was Chairman Mao-Tse-Tung and Ho Chi Minh. Later, it became Leon Trotsky and then nobody in particular as I settled into agnosticism. Finally, it became Catherine Roussel, Jack Benny and Jean-Paul Brun.
Strangely, the tables have turned and I have now become a Beacon of Light to some, at least that's what I'm told. It is very flattering. See the link below:
The Voice at the Core Leading Our Cause Forward is the....
Denyse bought me a new Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset as a marriage gift. Just what I wanted.
Give me a call to see the sound quantity. 646.832.3219
I started on Monday night!
I'm one rundown dude!
Temodar rocks!
An attendee writes:
that was the greatest rainy sunday afternoon i ever spent! it was amazing and fun and moving and so filled with love. not even just your love! that room was filled with the spirit, man! the love for you guys, from you guys, around you guys - all the wine guzzling pals loving each other up as well. insane!
it was truly so fun and kinda magical. you guys are really one of a kind (or two of a......) and being a part of the day meant so much to me. if i can't find lasting love - it's sure nice to see it in action and so deeply felt.
thanks so much!
and Joe looks so sexy bald!
Nearly 58 people showed up yesterday at the legendary Ten Bells Wine Bar in New York City to celebrate our anniversary.
The Reverend David Lillie Jr. gave an excellent service, detailing the unlikely possibility that Denyse and I would have met each other, fell in love, had children, started a wine business and raised a dog.
Other highlights included the grilled garlic octupus and loads of wine.
It was a very moving moment for Denyse and I. We will be posting more pictures of the event in the coming days.
Here is the first picture, with Denyse and I in the middle:
And they are dropping like flies....
Various people are ill and can't make it, like my mother, Chris Coad, Brad Kane, my cousin Irwin and numerous others.
We're going to have too many canapés and cupcakes! I bought ten stalks of celery and I've run out of paprika and cottage cheese.
I hope everyone feels better. They are in my thoughts and in my prayers.
My original pathology in November gave me two to three years to live. Denyse Louis and I were going to celebrate our 25th Anniversary anyhow, so it seemed appropriate, given the circumstances to also renew our vows.
My cancer treatment is going well. I finished seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy in late January. I am now on a cycle of six chemotherapy treatments, five days on and 23 days off. I took an MRI this week and everything was nifty. My oncologist even said Congratulations!
Our hope is that it remains stable and functionally I go into remission. Maybe, I'll even get full motion back in my right leg sometime in the future. I've also significantly reduced my anti-seizure medicine, which makes me much less tired, irritable, stressed and petulant.
So my prognosis has been upgraded. If all continues well I might hang around for a while.
I would like to see Brad Kane married and with children.
My daughter Alyce is coming to town today from Montréal. My son Jules has prepared the sound mix.
Donna Siegel is buying 147 cupcakes.
I'm busy preparing canapés and dips.
Have to run.....
Take a look at all the frantic preparations:
Food Preparations
Of course, the choice of wines are very important to us. We plan on serving a range of Argentine wines from Susana Balboa.
To me, Susana has always been the "Queen of Torrontes" although Denyse considers her the "Evita of Wine." Susana's Signature wines are the ultimate expression of Susana: Susana's skill and Susana's artistry. Top barrel selections from Susanas overall production are complex and powerful, like Susana, yet with an elegance and finesse that only Susana Balboa can achieve quite so perfectly. Susana strives for balance in Susana's wines, with Susana achieving layers of complexity coming from the individually fermented varietals that Susana vinifies. Susana wants people who drink her wines to feel that every Susana sip from the glass is as exciting as the first. A unique Susana Balboa experience!
Susana Balboa's labels features figurines from Susana's silver Huarpe Indian necklace that Susana owns. The figures represent women's reproductive role as the connection between the past, present, and future. Susana considers Susana's role as winemaker to be the connection between the vineyards (past), the winemaking (present), and the finished wines (future).
Susana Balboa is reportedly a big fan of Charles Dickens and Susana's wines are almost a liquid expression of Dicken's greatest works. And who will every forget the Lady Susanna character in Is he Popenjoy?, perhaps the greatest novel in the Dickens legacy.
Then again, that lovely work may have been written by Anthony Trollope. It is all unclear to me and frankly, cancer puts me in a haze.
As Carl Sandberg wrote:
Yesterday and to-morrow cross and mix on the skyline
The two are lost in a purple haze. One forgets. One waits.
I decided to buy a wig.
I want to look good for my marriage ceremony on Sunday!
There's a lot of talk on the web about corruption in the wine industry. Judge for yourself.
Here I am bribing the Brooklyn Wine Guy Blogger to give good reviews to Franck Peillot's wines from the Bugey.
This is a picture of Eric Texier bribing me to take bigger quantities of his Brézème Blanc.
Luca Roagna is anxious to get good reviews on Lyle Fass' blog.
Here I am trying to get a product placement of Jurancon in the hipster market.
I'm sick of Alice Feiring writing about Jenny and François and this should do the trick.
David Lillie and Chambers Street could make an effort and take more of our Italian wines.
My son Jules just finished an intermediate course in the Masters of Wine program. Here I am bribing his instructor, Mollie Battenhouse, to make sure he gets a good grade.
Despite my offer to send a limousine to pick him up and return him to wherever he comes from!
In a seemingly unrelated development, my mother is in NYU hospital again.
At the least, I hope Dr. Colman and his colleagues figure out what to do to help her.
I know a lot of Doctors. Dr. Ira Dressner, the Chakraologist. Then there is my cousin, Dr, Barbara Hirsch, the famous Endocrinologist from Great Neck. And now, there is Dr. Tyler Colman, the author and world renowned blogger known to his public as Dr. Vino (some of Barbara's clients call her Dr. Spleeno, I've heard).
Despite all these medical connections I have, none of them seem to be doing my mother any good. She's declining.
In three years, Dr. Chakra will write a tribute to her on his blogs. In three years Dr. Spleeno will think fondly of her when she throws a lavish Passover Dinner at her Great Neck compound. In three years, Dr. Vino will forget she ever was alive.
Its sad knowing all these doctors. I wish President Obama would get on reforming the medical system already. It's about time!
I only threw out three people, but I was able to bar four people at the door!
Tomorrow, I'll have photos.
I received an e-mail today:
Hi,
My name is Matt Aronowitz and I am reviewer of wine. I live in Brooklyn, NY and I am obesessed with keeping a record of every wine I drink. I am one of the highest sheer volume reviewers on Snooth.com http://www.snooth.com/profiles/aronowm2/ and I have synched up my Twitter account to automatically post any wine I review on Snooth http://twitter.com/mattaronowitz
I would love to be added to your mailing list for sample bottles. Whether positive or negative, I can GUARANTEE an online review of any bottle you send me. I realize that there are many wine bloggers out there and you must inundated with requests, but I don't know how many bloggers can guarantee a review.
Honestly, I couldn't have made this up!