Speaking of Hugh Johnson...

I'm reading his bood The Story of Wine and enjoying it immensely. One thing I didn't know: women in Mesopotamia and some other ancient cultures were very involved in the wine industry. The Code of Hammurabi even refers to wine merchants as being female.

The specific passages:

108: If a [woman wine-seller] does not accept [grain] according to gross weight in payment of drink, but takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into the water. (1)

109: If conspirators meet in the house of a [woman wine-seller], and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the [wine-seller] shall be put to death.

(Puts all this talk about modern women becoming powerful in the wine industry into some perspective, doesn't it?)

On a related note, here's an interesting site that provides a description of many types of ancient Roman wine. While I would love to taste the ancient stuff for curiosity's sake, it sounds like modern wine is far better!

Huge Johnson Found!

Hehehe, I know what you're thinking. But, once upon a time there was an excellent wine blogger who went by the handle "Huge Johnson" as a play on the name of a famous wine author "Hugh Johnson" and a fun poke at the huge egos that can sometimes be found in the wine world. Anyway, one day his blog just up and disappeared, and then I got busy, etc... Only now have I found his blog again, and I'm so excited. You can now read him as "St. Vini" of The Zinquisition.

He's one of the best wine bloggers out there, so what are you doing here? You should go there!

Crushed Violets???

Here I am, returning after another long spell away from this blog. This time the delay was caused by dealing with a new job - in my pursuit of work in wine, I now have a job as a bartender at a very nice restaurant with an excellent cellar and wine education program for its employees. Hooray!

Let's see, what else has happened... On one of my walks recently I picked some violets and crushed them and smelled them (all the while feeling guilt for destroying them!) Having smelled them, I can't say that I understand the smell descriptor of "crushed violets" that I read so often about wine. Which is funny, because so many other smell and flavor descriptors that as a neophyte I would never have expected in wine have been spot-on, like "mint" or "cola" or "bacon."