William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Cork Art for the Community! Michigan Artist Scott Gundersen has been in town creating a cork mural of Dr. Charles (Chas) Nagel. Last month, Dr. Nagel was posthumously inducted into the Washington Wine Hall of Fame at the Legends of Washington Wine gala held at the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center . It makes my heart sing to see art being encouraged and funded in my home town. Especially wine art! Today, at the Richland Farmers Market , I spoke briefly with Scott while he was nearing completion of his 100 hours work of art. There is a lot of preparation for this type of art, especially those many nails hammered into the back of his wood "canvas." When I saw him this morning, he had about 10 hours of labor left to complete the portrait of Dr. Nagel. Detail assembling cork mosaic. You can see Scott working on this project tonight and tomorrow. He will be at the Southridge Sports & Events Complex in Kennewick, Washington 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm. Scott works ...

"How can we expect outsiders to understand that we have the best barbecue in the country when we can't even agree among ourselves what good barbecue is?"  Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue - page 44. They take barbecue seriously in North Carolina, east vs. west, vinegar or ketchup, tradition vs. innovation. I see some parallel divisions in the wine industry. Have wine closures come to symbolize another split in winemaking tradition vs. innovation? That of natural cork vs. synthetic cork? photo: Nomacorc facility in Zebulon, North Carolina.

Finding fault with a glass cork Regular readers know that I avoid negative comments about wines and wineries. I feel that there are already plenty of negative opinions out there, so I don’t need to add my voice to them. Characteristically, I focus on the wines I like and my positive wine experiences. Today however, I feel compelled to share a negative experience. Glass on Glass Stopper (glass cork) Four years ago I wrote about wine closure technologies ( Seeking Closure ). In the article I discuss the merits and failures of natural cork, synthetic cork, screw caps, boxed wine and the newer technology of glass cork (glass-on-glass stopper). At the time I had only seen a glass cork once, and felt unqualified to express an opinion. Well that’s changed; I definitely have an opinion on glass closures. History of the glass-on-glass stopper The "glass-on-glass" stopper was introduced in 2004. Two brands I am aware of are, Vino Seal and Vino-Lok. Most of the online informati...

Which wine closure system do you think will dominate the wine industry? Do you like natural cork or do you think screwcaps are the way to go? What is your opinion on synthetic cork? If you are like me, you've had this discussion many times. The issue of closure is not as simple as you may think. With a variety of options for closing a bottle of wine, it is natural to have biased opinions about which technology is best. This is no simple topic to discuss. Much chemistry is involved and I'm no chemist. We'll take a look at the type of closures currently in use and I'll express some biased opinions about them. Real Cork: We're talking oak cork here, fresh, woody, clean, renewable, wonderful cork. Natural cork is the traditional method for closing a bottle of wine. It protects and seals and even allows some air and moisture to pass. Natural cork is something I've grown fond of. I enjoy the ritual of opening a bottle of wine, especially when I have specta...