And to show my deep respect for Jon, I may even read the damn thing! ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
I would rather read Jon’s work and be entertained and informed, than read technically correct prose and be put to sleep in the first paragraph.
It is not an either/or proposition, David. Mike Steinberger can do both and chew gum at the same time. Asimov can get all of the words and punctuation strung together correctly, even if his content is often less interesting than Bonne’s (or out-and-out deadly!). Hugh Johnson is nobody’s go-to guy on CA wine, to be sure, but he eclipses the likes of Asimov, Bonne’ and others as a wine writer. Cutting slack on writing standards is what got us an incoherent Bob Parker and the vacuous tasting notes of Suckling, Laube, Galloni and too many others. They all need their knuckles rapped with rulers by spinster high-school English teachers until they how to write! 
I have generally found Asimov’s writing style sleep inducing. I have not read much from Steinberger lately. I’m not even sure where he has gone.
Hmm. Looks like you could do with a little rap/wrapping yourself…
Holy shit! You are right! Are you sure that my iPad did not do that? I mean, the custom is to blame spellchecker, is it not?
It probably was spellcheck. Now if they can just come up with an autocorrect for anti-wine critic vitriol, you will be all set.
He would have to up his knowledge a lot to write about Italian wine. Maybe being on the East Coast will help him with that. And he is starting in the slow lane with the book on France. So that is good. Others, including many here, seem to like him. For me it was content and style. But maybe that is just me.
So I looked up the site. And found this. It is OK.
I doubt that even Apple can do that. Too many well-deserved words involved…
From the article:
“California is not a place without an abundance of sun and good weather. There will always be those who say it is too warm to make great wine, and it is their right to hold that opinion, but, in reality, it is an opinion about what one likes in wine and not about wine quality in a broader sense. Mr. Bonne is proud of his Euro-palate. But, California is not France, and our wines need not mimic French wine in some form of lock-step obeisance.”
I think there was a thread on this a while back.
Charlie is pretty well-know for his disdain for Jon, John. I was pretty certain he would have some words on Jon’s departure (“dancing on his grave”) and the tenor of Charlie’s
post was exactly what I expected. As for Jon’s “Euro-palate”…I think that’s much more other’s interpretation of many of the wines Jon likes.
I’m pretty sure that most folks would not view the Cabs of KathyCorrison or Snowden (two NapaVlly Cabs that Jon happens to like)
as modeled after RedBdx. At least as I recognize RedBdx. They seem pretty Calif in style to me, though not of the Colgin or Schraeder mold.
Tom
His “disdain” comes off as petty jealousy & the whole article comes of as a giant troll.
Charlie Olken and the CGCW is my go to for excellent blind (always) tasting notes. I have a great deal of respect for Charlie and I must admit I too liked Bonne’s coverage of wine like Alto Adige, and other lower alcohol wines. I never thought he was a particularly good writer though.
The Chronicle cutting back is sad but with Bonne it was inevitable? The Chronicle fumbled the ball when they hired a wine writer who seems to hate most California wines, particularly those that vary in ripeness from what is typical of France.
Bonne was the wrong person for the job and ultimately has to shoulder the blame. There is some other reason the Chronicle is cutting back? A culinary crisis in San Francisco? Poor economy, a dearth of wine buyers? No.
Bonne was an apologist with the “low alcohol is balance movement” and narrow minded. He was a step backwards, to viticulture and wine by numbers (alcohol), not totality or flavor.
Balance is not one parameter.
He is a pattern matching monkey that did more harm to California wine than anyone and it shows in what happened at the Chronicle.
Bonne doesn’t seem to understand the concept of diversity. Nor did he understand how California wines had progressed based on embracing the climate and diversity of wine styles the broad breadth of California offers.
His mentality was one size fits all and that size was based on distinguishing himself as having a “European palate.” He’s a conceited, pattern matching snob.
Sorry, I have no respect for the guy. None. Low alcohol is balance?
There’s a reason they’re shuttering the wine section. The Chronicle shot itself in the foot with Bonne. What a fiasco. Anybody else with any talent would have grown the wine section of the San Francisco Chronicle. This is San Francisco, the most affluent, dynamic and booming metropolitan economy in the world. Unbelievable!
Carry on. You can all go back to what a brilliant writer he is, but bottom line, if he was so brilliant the result at the Chronicle would have been different.
He crashed the wine section at the Chronicle. Bonne tanked it. Reading here its like congratulations are in order? He is a hero? Good riddance!
Go write about France with your tail between your legs, because you really “don’t get” California wine. It’s about diversity, not about imposing the template of a region almost 6,000 miles away.
To think I would criticize him from a whole different direction. Funny as I was kind of looking at him as having too much of a calicentric palate. And being too accepting of high alcohol, extraction and fruit. But as I said I only looked at the few of his pieces that were linked here. Maybe I misjudged him. So I guess what they need to do is replace him with a homer of epic proportions. Someone that can trumpet every wine made in Cali as great. Someone that lacks ethics and scruples. Someone that needs a house in Napa. Maybe James Suckling is the right man for the job.
I bet there are a number of winemakers who would strongly disagree with Peter. It’s very difficult (likely impossible) to be a passionate champion of every style from a region as vast as California.
And does Cali really need anyone to champion the typical style? It is far better to offer a counterpoint. There is a lesson for Cali in what went on in Australia.
Nationwide newspapers are struggling with revenues and headcount has been hugely reduced across the country; the cut maybe as simple as budgetary and saving money to redeploy elsewhere.