Wine thoughts for today - told you I was obsessed

I've been re-reading The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine, probably one of my favorite books on the subject of wine. Its a great book that talks about wine in a very non-snooty, approachable way. But.. it still concentrates on France and California (tho mention is made of Oregon's Pinot Noirs.)

And then there's the new movie that I saw a trailer for while waiting to see "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr.Hunter S. Thompson" (which was a great reminder of how much this world needed that man, and still does, and how pissed I am at him for being so selfish)... "Bottle Shock." Its based on a tasting that took place in Paris, in 1976, when (SPOILER ALERT) California wines won every category. The supposed "shock" of this movie is that an AMERICAN wine could outdo a FRENCH wine. Mon Dieu!

Of course, something like this had happened before, but you don't hear about it because for some reason we've all been led to believe that the American wine industry sprang full grown from the hippie enriched soil of California in the 1960's. But... in the 1873 Vienna World Exposition, a Norton wine from MISSOURI won the gold medal, and was declared "best red wine of all nations." Of course, in those days Missouri produced 48% of the nations wine, so you'd have to expect that there'd be some good stuff coming out of there.

But in came prohibition - and, well, I went on about this before. The good news is that when prohibition went down (and in Missouri that was in the 1960's), the winery that made the 1873 gold medal Norton was revived and is making Norton today - Stone Hill. I'm going to get me a couple of bottles pretty soon, and I'll let you know if I think they're still "the best wine of all nations" - or at very least if you can drink it with dinner.

Maybe next time Hollywood makes a wine movie it'll venture outside California? *sigh*