(from http://www.millstonecellars.com/)
MillStone Cellars is a farmhouse cidery that crafts all oak barrel-aged dry ciders. We focus solely on the production of rustic style ciders, cysers and meads, heavily influenced by the native yeast, microbes and local growing conditions. We source all of our ingredients within 150 miles of our cidery as well as growing and foraging our own. We strive to distill and preserve all things that make our region and climate unique, presented to you in a bottle of cider.
(from http://www.ohomusic.com/bio/)
21st Century OHO continues to play locally as a trio consisting of keyboardist/vocalist, Ray Jozwiak, drummer/percussionist/vocalist, David Reeve, and guitarist/vocalist, Jay Graboski. . . Where Words Do Not Reach - a comprehensive collection of OHO instrumental music from the early 1970s through the present is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho5
OHO at
MillStone Cellars
2029 Monkton Rd
Monkton, MD 21111
Phone: (443) 895-9991
7:30PM
Friday, April 13, 2018
The current infatuation with wine and food pairings is headed down the same wrong road as wine scores. Why? Because people are genetically unique and so are their taste buds. No two people experience the same smell, the same taste — or the same wine/food pairing exactly the same way.
Because of that, it’s unreasonable to expect an individual
wine-tasting/food-pairing experience to coincide with those of a set of
expert high priests/priestesses who pronounce what is “good” and what
is not.
Struggling to find the “right” food/wine combo adds a whole ‘nother'
level of insecurity to the wine experience. And that first level of
insecurity remains as the primary obstacle to broader consumer
acceptance of wine. We’ve seen that wine has recently reached parity with beer as a preferred alcoholic beverage. There are a lot of factors associated with that as are well-studied by the Wine Market Council.
A lot has to do with rising income among America’s growing Latino
population. That follows the trend that wine consumption increases with
income and socioeconomic status.
Some of that growth also comes from Millennials who scorn experts,
tasting notes and snobbism. And more support comes from rising set of
voices such as Tim Hanni, Gary Vaynerchuk
and others who have emphasized and recognized the importance of
individual palate variations and spoken out against the elitism that
still endures as wine’s most prominent paradigm.
This elitism, this dogmatic insistence on perfect pairing has
dominated articles and posts that emphasize education, learn, education,
learn … and thus carry the unspoken message that the average wine
drinker must study, study, study. Hell, if I faced that level of strenuous effort at the market, I’d go
for a Jagged Edge IPA or a Racer 5 any day rather than turn my imbibing
experience into sweaty- palm quantum chromodynamics final exam that I
arrived for stark naked. In fact, we frequently go for a brew at our meals — especially when
we’ve gone through several days in a row when we’ve opened a highly
rated bottle of wine and found it unworthy of either the calories or
alcohol intake. Some nights we open two or three of these before heading for beer or a
reliable wine in the cellar. The average wine consumer does not have a
cellar, nor are they likely to persist in one bottle of wine after
another.
This whole emphasis on correct coupling discourages individual
experimentation and raises the perceived risk quotient … and decreases
overall enjoyment of the wine and the food.
And least we forget: constrains wine sales.
Just remember: people do not flock to musicians with perfect pitch.
If that were the case, The Fray, Green Day, Gaslight Anthem and
Matchbox 20 would be non-starters. On the other hand, they WERE
non-starters to the elite music critics. But experimenting with what
band you listen to lacks the financial penalty inherent in wine. Attacks on scores and perfect pairings are heresy. They also endanger the raison d’être
of experts. For, if scores and perfect pairings are not relevant to
average consumers, then what value do vino-gurus bring to the table? Make no mistake, there is a powerful and long-established set of
vested interests who will defend the status quo as brutally as
wholesalers attack the direct shipment of wine. But in the end, we must honor pleasure. Remember enjoyment? That’s what food and wine are about. Just drink it. Just eat it. Just enjoy it.
What
do YOU think?
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html
Also download
your
very own copy of
AMBIENCE & WINE
by Ray
Jozwiak
