So I then want to know, what do you think of dying your wines with Megapurple? Probably don't like it, but centuries wines have been died with “megapurple” without the brand name: Alicante Bouschet – Used to dye wines that were too light.

Or Chapitalization? Without that we have a huge chunk of “classic wines” tossed out of what we can choose to drink.

Or maybe your right on the disclosure point. I mean Vermouth, is highly manipulated, and a legitimate style of wine, that we drink often. Though it's blended with herbs to add flavors, so would wines blended with artificial flavors qualify as Vermouths?

Complicated questions

Winemakers can do what they want with their grapes, I've got no argument with that. The problem is that winemakers are not required to “fairly disclose” the manufacturing process involved in creating these wines. To me, there is something philosophically wrong with using tricks like reverse osmosis and micro oxygenation to tamper with the wine. If the wine label was required to list the ingredients as well as the processes that went into the final product, that might provide clues as to the real nature of a bottle. We, the consumer would ultimately benefit. One would hope so.

I also truly value “creativity, ingenuity, innovation and independent thought”. It would be my contention that the slavish attention to creating wines to satisfy one man's palette, generating Parker points to increase sales volume is not demonstative of these adjectives. It is the efforts of those artisans who respect the traditional methods and seek to improve upon them through natural means that are the true innovators.

Let the debate continue!

As for an Opaz book, Ryan has been pushing me to start the first page, but we'll see. With so many projects sitting on our desks currently, the Intro may have to wait a few years yet

Personally I think that, so long as its fairly disclosed, winmakers should be allowed to use what they want to craft the wine that they want. If a consumer wants a wine thats organic / biodynamic / actually tastes of terroir, then they can go seek that out.

I am against the trend to “Franken-wines” or the “global style” or whatever one chooses to call the ridiculous attempts to satisfy the palate of ONE MAN. Let's go back to basics, especially in the US, and first figure out what grapes should be planted where. Some of that is being done, but as vineyard acreage continues to expand, the idea of terroir is being sacrificed to the artificial machinations of the UC Davis educated winemakers.

Sorry for the rant, and yes, my comments are off the top generalizations. This is one topic that definitely gets me going. Once again, let's go back to the basics. . . earth, sun, rain and the innate skill of the producer, from planting in the right place to the final product.

Finally, I do recommend Alice Feiring's latest book, even to those of you who are Parker fans. Her take no prisoner mentality and commitment are refreshing, and, in the small world of wine writing, quite courageous.

Reading her book really makes me look forward to first Opaz book.