Hey all,
It's Tuesday, so it's time for another guest blogger. I've really been enjoying all of my guests so far, and we still have so many interesting guests yet to come. Today I have the amazing MJ Compton on the blog. Let's learn a little about her and see what she has to say...
MJ Compton grew up near Cardiff, New York, a place best known for its giant, which inspired her to create her own fiction.
Although her 30-year career in local television included such highlights as being bitten by a lion, preempting a US President for a college basketball game, giving a three-time world champion boxer a few black eyes, a mention in the Drudge Report, and meeting her husband, MJ never lost her dream of writing her own stories.
MJ still lives in upstate New York with her husband. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and Central New York Romance Writers. Music and cooking are two of her passions, and she enjoys baseball and college basketball, but she’s primarily focused on wine . . . and writing.
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PUTTING THE “H” IN WINE
By MJ Compton
One of the great joys of my life (it doesn’t take much) is
to mock pretentious wine reviews—not all wine reviews, but those that go over
the top, the top being defined by me.
It started when I was reading a review of a New York State
Riesling and ran into the phrase “mineral clang.” I not only ran into it, I
splatted against it. First of all, wine tasting notes are based on aroma and
taste. “Clang,” the last time I checked, was an audible thing. The only sound
wine should make is when the cork pops on a bottle of sparkling.
I started paying more attention to tasting notes and
collecting the more absurd ones: freshly dug celeriac root; shoe polish; clean
river stones. I reached out to a person in the wine business and asked him
about some of these bizarre comparisons. He told me when he trained sales reps,
he would use river stones to teach the aroma. I asked: “are they clean stones
or stones from a clean river?” He laughed. He also didn’t know.
Respected wine writer Jancis Robinson recently wrote:
“…particularly true of wine reviews generated in the US, where 10 different
flavours, some of them questionable to say the least (grilled watermelon,
anyone?), identified in a single liquid is commonplace nowadays.”
I started tweeting some of the sillier notes I’ve
encountered (with editorial input from me).
· “Bright, fresh, clean
flavors of. . .shoe polish.” This inquiring mind wants to know: black or
cordovan?
· “Notes of . . . tarry
smoke . . . push through midpalate and on the finish.” Road construction? Oh,
yum!
· “peach and almond
aromas. . . with a pleasant bitter-almond quality in the finish.” Cyanide
poisoning anyone?
· “Earthy grip, dirt,
rocks, sand, gravel, all good.” Pairs perfectly with a mud pie.
· “With the concentration
of motor oil.” The Official Wine of #NASCAR?
· “Dark and brooding at
first" #GOTHIC #ROMANCE# HERO in a bottle!
You can follow my #TastingNotesTuesday on my
regular Twitter feed @comptonplations (https://twitter.com/Comptonplations)
Other Links:
Website
& Blog www.comptonplations.com
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/compton4555/
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/MJCompton/e/B00J9DFFIG/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
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You know I'm going to go start checking out wine reviews now, right? How about you? LOL If you want to learn more about MJ and her latest book, Summer Fling (see cover above) from Loose ID, you can find it on her website or go pick up a copy at http://www.loose-id.com/summer-fling.html
I'll be back on Friday with some news I think you'll all be VERY happy about!
Until next time!
Hugs,
CJ England
Follow Your Dreams
http://cjengland.com/wanderingstar/whathappensinmexico.htm
5 comments:
What a fun blog. if wine really tasted like some of the review statements I would probably never drink wine again. As it is I won't drink port because I overdid it at my Navy CPO initiation. Even thinking about drinking it brings back the taste. Cognac is another. One night aboard ship a friend of mine came back to the room we shared with two other PO1-s. He dropped his bottle on the deck. I had to get up and leave the compartment to avoid being sick. I hadn't had a drop to drink that night.
All in all I loved the blog.
Ray: glad you enjoyed the blog. I have a lot of fun with my Tasting Note Tuesday tweets.
LOL I know the feeling well, Ray. Mine was Boone's Farm Country Quencher and a night at the drive in. *shudder* I got so sick I tossed my cookies all over my boyfriend's car. Then I was so embarrassed I told him I'd moved to China. Seriously. True Story!!!!
It took Jonathon and 25 years of coaxing to start drinking wine again. I still can't handle the really sweet stuff, but I love a good dry wine now and then.
Great Blog MJ!!!!
Don't even mention Boone's Farm. Crosby Stills Nash and Young put on an outdoor concert at Old Dominion University. I had ridden my bike down from the Naval station to a pharmacy technician's house just outside Foreman Field where the concert took place. Most of the techs had a party waiting for the concert to start. By the time the gates opened we were all three sheets to the wind. We listened to some great bands. It was so hot that afternoon that the fire department was hosing people down to avoid heat stroke. The vendors were capitalizing on the heat. The were charging a dollar for a cup of ice. The feature band was several hours late.I had to leave my bike and get a ride back to the base before they even got to the stadium. Without filling up on Boone's Farm I could have seen the entire concert. Of course some funny looking cigarettes were being passed around, but that probably just caused us to stay longer.
*giggle* Ahhh, Ray...Good Times. LOL
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