Glug, glug, glug

Pete Wells, the guy who notoriously hates food bloggers, is now the Dining & Wine editor at the Noo Yawk Times. Cornichon, who wasn't indicted (in fact, escaped mention enitrely) is thus inclined to be charitable, despite, well, problems in several recent items.

Wells's latest article, a melancholy piece underappreciated cocktail of his own invention, only serves to reinforce Seattle's place in the cocktail universe. (Leaving aside, for a moment, that NYT editors almost never introduce their own bylines into the paper, let alone to discuss their own creative effots.) Prominently featured in the text, headlined in the accompanying photos, is none other than Seattle's cocktail king, Ryan Magarian. Good to see our guys recognized as authorities.

And what else has Wells been up to? Hey, why not ask the Eastern European correspondent for the Times to write on local drinking habits? Response: a nutball article titled "Vodka World Shaken, and Stirred, by Fruit Spirits."

As usual, cooler heads prevailed in Seattle, where drinks guru Robert Hess hangs out. "I'm all for clear definition, delineation, and celebration of quality spirits, but this vodka debate just doesn't quite cut it for me." His email to Cornichon continues:

It's fine to look at "modern" vodkas and say that they are "traditionally" made from grain, with some of the ones that are pretending to be "premium" made from potatoes. But looking back through history (as this article does a decent, but incomplete, job of) vodka has historically been made from anything. In fact, vodka was "traditionally" a catch-all phrase for anything that was a distilled spirit... what we refer to as modern vodka, is more properly referred to as "white vodka". It refers to the clarity and quality of the distillation as opposed to what it was distilled from. Anything went back in those days, and grain was the cheapest and most plentiful product, and so that's what they would often use, but didn't feel constrained to it."

Then there's the "sommelier shortage" (another one of those "the editor dreamed this up, so we'd better find some examples" surveys) claims, without justification, that restaurant patrons "...from Seattle to San Francisco are feeling the dismaying effects of a sommelier shortage." Hey, if I were the editor, I'd ask for stories about the opposite: wine lists written by distributors, wine lists with exorbitant prices, wine lists with two dozen California chardonnays and cabs, and did I mention extortionist pricing?

Off the wagon, meantime, the Newspaper of Record weighs in on the fact that ocean-caugh fish aren't "organic." (What planet do these people live on? "Organic" hasn't had anything to do with food for years; it's a political term, literally.) The illustration: a fish-farming operation on Bainbridge Island. And, while we're at it, only a newbie bureau chief like Bill Yardley could sell a soggy story about rainy Seattle.

One more thing: sadly, to access the Noo Yawk effing Times's content, you have to effing "register." Something you'll never have to do to read, ahem, effing Cor-Nee-Shawn.

Off to Italy, we are now, camera & laptop in hand. We'll be hamming it up in Parma on our fist stop, and will be posting as often as wi-fi conditions permit. Footnote: In the poll on Local Wine Events, Cornichon is by far the most popular non-commercial blog. Thanks for your support!

Posted by Ronald Holden at November 29, 2006 6:55 AM