Terry Theise has no axe to grind about Washington wine
Terry Theise expressed concern about Crosscut writer Harris Meyer's choice in today's story to highlight Theise's opinion on Washington Reislings, which isn't favorable. Here are excerpts from an e-mail exchange between Meyer and Theise:
Theise:
I might not have led with the negative. There's no point in gratuitous dissing. But, toothpaste is out of the tube, and I'll deal with the consequences.
Meyer:
Terry, I just want to make sure you're not saying what I quoted you as saying is inaccurate. Accuracy is the main thing. It is accurate, right? For my readers in Washington, your implied critique of Washington wine was the newsiest element and I needed to include that. Hope you understand. BTW, I greatly enjoyed reading through your catalog writings. Thanks much.
Theise:
You quoted me accurately. What you chose to emphasize (for reasons I won't dispute) will make me less willing to be candid with the next guy. The average reader will probably conclude I have an axe to grind with WA-Rieslings, and IMO this distorts the relative importance of what to me is an incidental opinion by making a headline out of it. Feel free to print these words as a follow-up if you wish. Otherwise, like I said, I'm a big boy and will take the medicine.
Comments:
Posted Thu, Aug 14, 4:05 p.m. inappropriate
Riesling nearly 40 years later: One of the few times I've voluntarily sipped a glass of any type of Riesling was when an unnamed lawyer who I worked for at a large unnamed Seattle law firm gave me a gift of Blue Nun Riesling along with the best-selling book, Everything you always wanted to know about sex *but were afraid to ask. Not exactly the most office-correct birthday gift to give to a college student, but that was 1970 and the duet of presents was somewhat of a reflection of where I went to school: Seattle University. Plus, that was still the era when male lawyers asked their female secretaries to do such ridiculous things as drop off their laundry, pick up their photos and wash their golf balls. Think Mad Men. Well, I drank the wine and skimmed the book and now I think it's time to try some Rieslings again. I'll start with Washington's.
Posted Thu, Aug 14, 4:57 p.m. inappropriate
RE: iesling nearly 40 years later: Blue Nun?!?! That's the Boone's Farm of German wines. Bletch!
Posted Thu, Aug 14, 5:54 p.m. inappropriate
Sue Frause
Posted Thu, Aug 14, 10:57 p.m. inappropriate
It would be a shame if Thiese were to be "less willing to be candid with the next guy": I hadn't heard of Thiese before the article ran (no oenophile I) and he neither came off as negative nor did I think he was a crusader against riesling. Perhaps he is worried about his reputation in the wine community, but I didn't see much in the article to be worried about.
Posted Fri, Aug 15, 2:03 p.m. inappropriate
I can't see what the dither is about: Everyone is entitled the their opinion, and everyone is entitled to mine.
First off I support Washingrton wines, in fact I'm proud of our wine production. I must write as a man who loves fine wine, our Reislings are our weakest wine line. Our winery's take perfectly good reisling fruit and ruin it by making it into diluted semi-sweet grandmother type tank wine. I belive, if made in the Alsation dry style and marketed properly as low alcohol (reisling usuaslly is) as a summer beverage, then educate the public that reislings are interesting wines that can stand alone or with any summer food (BBQ brats, ribs, salmon) we would not be having this controversy. That's what I think.