07 May 2004

Noble Rot An interesting review in The Economist of a new, and unflattering book on the wines and wine people of Bordeaux. Sample: Its thesis is summarised by its title. In winemaking the term “noble rot” is used to describe how white grapes are allowed to rot on the vine as part of the process of making the highly prized sweet white wines of Sauternes. But for Mr Echikson it is also a description of the social and winemaking traditions of Bordeaux. His argument, in essence, is that the most famous chateaux of Bordeaux, based mainly on the left bank of the Gironde river, are often complacent and snobbish traditionalists who trade off their names. By contrast, a new group of producers, based on the right bank, is now making wines that are often superior to those of the left bank. These garagistes—so named because they often work out of a garage—have succeeded by dint of hard work and an openness to innovation. At times the book's characters are a little too obviously typecast as “goodies” or “baddies”. The goodies are working-class Frenchmen who live on the right bank and whose cause is promoted by democratic Americans, who can see through the mystique of old Europe. (The book has a distinctly post-September 11th feel.) The baddies are the snobs of the left bank, in alliance with lazy and corrupt British wine critics. The chief goodie is Robert Parker, an American wine critic who has promoted many garagistes. “Noble Rot” does a fine job of examining the Parker phenomenon and showing how a single critic has developed such extraordinary influence. But at times Mr Echikson's portrait of Mr Parker slides into hagiography. Still, while Mr Echikson does not disguise his likes and dislikes, he is also too honest a reporter to leave out difficult facts and dissenting opinions. He gives a full account of the controversy over the great Mr Parker's alleged conflicts of interest. More interestingly, he also airs the opinions of those who believe that Mr Parker's influence has been destructive rather than liberating. One such is Jean-Pierre Moueix, who as owner of Château Petrus, the most highly prized wine on the right bank, might be expected to be sympathetic to Mr Parker and the garagistes. Not so. The boss of Petrus fears that Mr Parker is discouraging finesse and refinement in favour of wines that are so powerful and alcoholic that they are more black than red. “He wants to lead us down a path to destruction,” says Mr Moueix mournfully. Fortunately, both Bordeaux and the world of wine are big enough to include fans of the Parker-school such as Mr Echikson as well as traditionalists like Mr Moueix and the aristos of the left bank. Wine appreciation, after all, is a matter of taste. Count me among those who believe that the influence of Robert Parker, fine writer and prodigious taster that he is, has not been all positive.  Too many people slavishly follow his ratings, not realising that he is oversimplifying an enormously complex, perhaps the most complex and subtle wine genre in the world, a wine that changes and develops in the bottle over many years, and that he is imposing his own, perhaps idiosyncratic tastes on those who unthinkingly accept his ratings.   2:28:26 PM    comment []

The End of Friends Many articles marking the final episode of the long-running series.  Don't know what my family will do without it, the girls have grown up with the gang.  It seems the jaded Salon writers did not appreciate the program.  The NYT in a slightly more analytical piece, points out that with both Friends and Frasier finishing tonight, it is the end of something bigger: Viewers grieving over the end of "Friends" and "Frasier" are not just bidding farewell to their favorite sitcoms, they are mourning the genre itself, and that may well justify some hoopla and hyperbole. MORE:  Friends-ly philosophizing from SLATE, and mornning-after coverage from The Guardian.  For completeness, there was a preview in TIME a week ago. 2:30:16 AM    comment []

Cyprus (slightly after the fact) As widely forecast, the Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan Plan, while the Turkish Cypriots enthusiastically accepted it, thus reversing the normal position of the last three decades.  Without wanting to get involved in the niceties (it is all very complicated for an outsider), this seems to suggest that the compromise was maybe weighted too much to the Turkish side?  And maybe the artificial deadline of the May 1 entry of the Greek Cypriot state into the EU was a little ambitious, given the change of government in both Cyprus and Greece after the plan was announced? Anyway, the Greek side entered the EU under a cloud of disapproval and criticism, while the Turkish Cypriots were immediately rewarded.  I want to point here to a few thoughtful articles in the Athens News, a review of missed opportunities by editor John Psaropoulos, before and after comment by Mark Dragoumis, and detailed before and after reporting by George Gilson. Finally, The Economist's initial response confirms the belief that the Cypriots missed an historic opportunity, while the print edition a few days later looks ahead.    2:19:57 AM    comment []

Sporting Blog One of the byproducts of my reading this morning was a pointer to Ubersportingpundit, a weblog entirely devoted to sport.  Needless to say, I subscribed immediately.  One of the first things I read related to the ugly implosion of Zimbabwean cricket, which bothers me too, with a pointer here: The Zimbabwean cricket team (like Zimbabwe itself) is now a racially and politically polarised shambles: Zimbabwean cricket will reach meltdown this morning when 15 rebel players and their lawyer draft a letter rejecting the board's offer of mediation and renewing their boycott. This time they will walk out for good. "This will hopefully be our final letter," one of the rebels said. "We'll probably be set free in about 14 days when they fire us." The Zimbabwe Cricket Union will be forced to pick Test sides from the willing but hopelessly inexperienced young players who crashed and burned to a 5-0 one-day series defeat against Sri Lanka. So what have these "rebels" been rebelling about. Well, their problem is that the Zimbabwe cricket team is now being selected, not by people who know their cricket, but by people who know their Robert Mugabe. Read it all, and follow the links.  Just another sad story from a very sad country. And, in the latest news, the Zimbabwe 2nd XI, in tumbling to 199 all out, allowed Murali to take 6 for 43 and equal Courtney Walsh as world's greatest wicket taker.  Shane Warne gets his chance later in the year to match or exceed this achievement against the same deprived opposition.  Unlikely that England's bowlers will get the same chance to improve their averages and ratings since their tour is in doubt. 1:39:29 AM    comment []

Those Bombs and The Olympics I awoke early yesterday to find the headline item on CNN was that three bombs had been exploded before dawn outside Kallithea police station, not far from our Athens apartment.  Not surprisingly, this was headline news all day, being 100 days before the Opening Ceremony, and following much speculation and coverage about security for the Athens Olympics.  Exquisite timing for anyone who would want to embarrass the Greek government and security authorities, and attract international coverage. The event was reported very differently in Greece and abroad - the best way of highlighting this is to point to the front page story, editorial and comment in today's English edition of Kathimerini (published with the International Herald Tribune). Very humorous, but typical of the sceptical and sneering international attitude towards the Greek Games, was this link I found on Tim Blair's blog this morning.  It is actually very amusing, particularly some of the comments.  Tim's economical comment was classic: "It's Finished!".   Ah, I wish it were so.  No chance of grass, trees or flowers around Olympic venues, I'm afraid.  More like bare soil, building rubble, and plastic litter - as I said recently, what a waste of a great opportunity. UPDATE: Still with Kathimerini, it appears that the Greek authorities are mounting a major PR effort to counter some of the negative perceptions; very necessary but far too late in my opinion.  So, we have Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni, an impressive, dignified and fluent speaker in several languages, setting out on a worldwide tour, first stop Paris.  She should be a good ambassador.  I found her speech, in excellent English, French and Greek at the ceremony welcoming the Olympic Flame to Athens a few weeks back, to be most impressive.  Then, Public Order Minister Voulgarakis, apparently an-ex Greek Navy commando himself, has been in Washington for consultations the last few days, and had a lengthy appearance on CNN yesterday evening.  Finally, Spyros Kapralis, the government's top Olympic official assured the world that Athens will be ready on time.  All very convincing stuff.  I'm sure, personally, that Athens will be ready (or ready enough), and will deliver a stunning Games that will surprise all the critics.  Anyone who has visited Greece will agree that it presents a perpetually unfinished appearance, but the Greeks with their infectious spirit and Joie de Vivre overcome that and make you have a good time anyway. Then of course, you have articles like this, from this morning's Guardian.  No doubt John O'Farrell is a noted humourist, and had the lefty British elite giggling over their morning tea or gin and tonic, but I found his piece to be patronising, snobbish and a touch racist; very unpleasant, not to mention factually inaccurate - for example, the Olympic Village is virtually complete, and looks very good, from what I have seen on TV.  Stupid Pommy Prick! One of the biggest concerns has been how athletes and spectators will get around in Athens' notoriously chaotic traffic.  Well, apart from the fact that most Athenians will have left town, as they do every August, the authorities have come up with an extremely effective and simple solution:  simple ban the locals from all major arterial routes for the duration of the Games. Finally, here is another summary of the state of play.       1:16:11 AM    comment []

Freddie's Beach Bar is Open for Summer 2004 Our season has started, and while the weather is not great (some rain, incredibly strong winds yesterday and very patchy today), the people are beginning to come into the bar, and we're off and running.  If only it were like this all summer - very few people, very laid back and slow, lots of conversation. But come July and August, it will be frantic again, people queueing for tables, Greek visitors being difficult and disruptive, staff getting frazzled and exhausted.  Ah well, we've got to take the good with the bad, I suppose. Therefore, blogging will be sparse and sporadic from now on - apologies to all of my devoted readers.  In the meanwhile, there are a couple of things I read recently that need to be recorded here, see the next few entries. 12:40:35 AM    comment []