Welcome to A Southern Man's Guide to WIne

Yeah, I know it's my third post and I'm just now getting around to the "welcome message", but that's how I roll.  So here goes...

Welcome to A Southern Man's Guide to Wine.  Wine is not synonymous with Southern culture, but it should be.  Sure, you hear about homemade, native-fruit swill in plenty o' country songs, but that's not what I'm talking about.  Good wine has a place here...and for some reason it's not always at the table.

For a culture as obsessed with food as ours is, wine should be an everyday thing, woven into the fabric of Southern life.  It is often a perfect accompaniment to our food, or vice versa, yet our exposure to good, food-friendly wine is limited.  California Zinfandel is excellent with gumbo.  Chardonnay and fried chicken are made for each other.  Sauvignon Blanc and raw oysters should be pro forma.  For some reason, you don't find these, let alone more creative, pairings at nary a restaurant or dinner party here in the Dirty South. Why is that?

But I'll tell you why Southerners should appreciate fine wine...and demand more of it.  We respect craftsmanship, beauty, and sense of place.  We love a good value, too.  Southerners also appreciate "real", and there is nothing more real than when a vineyard speaks through a wine...or when a winemaker sits down with you to pour his latest release....or when you have that first sip of fine wine.  So, why doesn't wine have a more prominent place here?

Finding answers, or rather, solutions to this dilemma is what this site is all about.  I want to expose others to fine wine, and all that goes into it, as well as show how it fits into every day life in the South.  Good, even great, wine is here.  You just have to look for it.

So, please join me as we taste through new wines and explore new (or old) ways to incorporate it into Southern culture.  Let me know what you think...