Pinots Are Like Peaches

If you’re lucky, there are some aspects of your job that you love.  For me, it is traveling from winery to winery – long days on the road discovering new producers and great wines.  During half the year, this task brings along a side benefit you might not immediately think of – an ample supply of farmer’s markets and roadside fruit stands.

I seek these out, and schedule visits around them.  As a lover of good food and wine, such healthy meal alternatives helps prevent undue waist expansion ("waisting away in quarter-pounderville").  I also like to support small farmers whose passion for their food rivals that of my most fervid winegrowers. 

Devotees of fresh produce can measure the passing of the seasons by observing a farmer’s changing array of produce, and right now is my favorite time of year – peach season!  I’m a huge peach fan, which is no easy thing.  It takes fortitude.  Perseverance.  A willingness to be disappointed, over and over, until finally rewarded with that one, rare peach – perfectly ripe with ample, chin-dribbling juice…

Those fortunate enough to live in a state with great produce may experience peachy perfection several times each season.  For those outside these blessed zones, perfection may be found only once every few years.

Sadly, many people find peaches to be dry and pithy.  Like the ones my wife bought for $7/pound at Balducci’s ("Not just a grocery store").  A transplanted California native, she knew good peach.  But in New York her bagful of huge, gourmet peaches were so pithy and mealy she found them more satisfying as flying objects when, after biting into one after another and finding each equally lacking, she relieved her frustration by hurling them against the wall of her shower.  Expensive catharsis.

Pinot Passion
Being a peach fan is great training for becoming a collector of Pinot Noir.  Those familiar with the grape know it provides the most exhilarating wine experience imaginable, and know they must taste a surprising amount of Vin Ordinaire before finding pinot perfection. 

And while we do a commendable job of selecting pinots for our store and subscriber shipments, not everyone’s palate favors the same style, and some experimentation is still required.  Those with true Pinot Passion enjoy this hunt.

For the rest, there’s always Merlot.

Dave Chambers, Wine Merchant
Dave@SidewaysWineClub.com

P.S. If you like what you just read I’d be humbly indebted were you to invest another five seconds to help me keep it going.  Vote for my blog as one of your favorites.  Many thanks!  ~Dave