7 posts tagged “stock wine photography”

Some new shots... all colors, vignetting, & effects created in-camera:

...but I play one on TV in this newsletter:

Thanks to Stefan Klein (known as spxChrome at iStockphoto) who received this newsletter in the mail from a Mississippi restaurant and recognized me snubbing a glass of bad red. (the photo is available in my portfolio at iStockphoto).

The article, by writer Natalie MacClean, is pretty funny. I've quoted an excerpt below but you can find the full text at the bottom of this page on her site.

"The wine snob is a rare bird. His natural habitat is marked with mature Bordeaux and Burgundy. He is best approached from a distance, lest you disturb his decanting ritual. Note the way he holds his glass at the base while swirling the wine to the top rim. See how he displays his verbal plumage in the presence of cult cabernet.

Not all wine snobs are alike; there are several subspecies. Consider borus nonshutuputus. After listening to the dinner conversation for a few minutes, he will establish territory by contradicting the next-most-knowledgeable person present. When nosing the wine, he will scent not only the region and winery, but also what the vintner and his wife were arguing about on the day the grapes were harvested.

Borus technotalkatus is a related species, but note the difference in vocabulary. Just as mating calls distinguish many bird species, technotalkatus emits at regular intervals sounds such as "malolactic fermentation," "carbonic masceration" and "light carbonation."

Collectorosa completeca owns every great bottle from every great vintage. His most frequently heard call is, "I own that wine too." Any reference to France will cause him to pounce on the opportunity of telling his château story, including the nickname of the winemaker..."  read more on Natalie's site.

Do you have a dedicated wine cellar? Do you manage it well?

I wish I could answer yes to both, but I can't.

My "cellar" consists of nothing more than a cheap pine rack from Ikea in a dark, cool corner of the basement, where I store the daily drinkers and accumulate special bottles that will only be opened on the right occasion.

I don't manage it well at all.

The problem I have is that I never seem to find the right occasion to open those special bottles. When friends come over to dine, they usually show up with a nice bottle in hand, so we open that. Usual weeknight dinners are often rushed or interrupted by our fussy baby - not exactly ideal circumstances to be savoring a fine wine - and the midweek meals themselves, while usually healthy and tasty, are also usually simple and unrefined and rarely deserving of a truly great wine.

As each holiday season approaches, I swear I'm going to open this or that special bottle on Christmas Day or New Years Eve, but the whirlwhind from Thanksgiving to New Years is so exhausting that come the day, I'm feeling so fatigued that I worry I won't truly appreciate the bottle for all it's worth.

So there they sit, month after month, year after year, on the lower shelves of my rack, while above them younger cheaper bottles come and go with clock-like regularity. Occasionally their ranks grow as a new bottle of special wine is acquired, but unfortunately my wine budget is small enough that new acquisitions are rare, and it makes me hesitate to actually open those really good, expensive bottles.

Okay, wine is supposed to age. But many wines aren't supposed to age this much.

So stupidly, sadly, I've got extremely good wines that I've been saving for "just the right occasion" for so long that they are almost certainly past their prime. Wines I tasted, years back, that I just had to possess - and then have never enjoyed. Nice bottles that were received as gifts that I would never have splurged on myself, that I don't even know if they're spectactular or not...but in my mind they are.  

Well, maybe there is some value in that? Maybe, for a wine enthusiast who, like me, is on a low budget, the pleasure is simply the anticipation of enjoying that extra fine bottle on just the right occasion...knowing that sitting down there in my "cellar" is my proud little collection - a collections I'll no longer have if I actually drink it.

Hmm. On second thought, no, that's just not right either.

I'm going to open them, and drink them. Very soon. Fairly soon. Really.

Just as soon as the right occasion comes up.

My latest addition to the iStock collection:

With the flowing wine softly blurred and indistinct,
it's kind of a departure from my usual approach to pour shots.