February 09, 2006

John Gilman’s new wine journal

File this under recommended reading.

I’ve never met John Gilman, but have read his writings about wine on the internet on and off for years. He’s a bit verbose, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Provided you don’t mind long paragraphs of course.

And I mean long paragraphs.

That aside, John clearly has a terrific palate and his passion for fine wine shows in his writing. While fine wine can often mean expensive wine, I’ve always been impressed by John’s attention to the lower end bottlings of top producers.

For example, I never tried the wines of Burgundy producer Joseph Roty until learning about them from John. I still haven’t tried things like Roty’s expensive Grand Crus, but I enjoy reading about them and some day will get there.

In the meantime, I’ve taken John’s advice and enjoyed a variety of Roty’s Bourgogne rouge and blanc, as well as Marsannay rouge and rosé. In fact, Pinot noir rosé doesn’t get much better than Roty’s.

So I was pleased to hear John is launching a new publication called View from the Cellar. A cursory skim of the first issue looks promising, with features on Robert Chevillon, classic Piedmont wines from 1978, other Burgundy features, and tastings of various southern Rhone wines.

View from the Cellar is available by subscription. If you email John at jbgilman@ix.netcom.com, you can get more information and perhaps a free sample of the first issue.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice article, but you didn't provide the URL. So how do you expect us to enjoy John's long paragraphs?

Vincent Fritzsche said...

Phil,

Thanks. By the way, any relation to John?

This article is rather old now, and I believe at the time the only information I had for people to follow up was to contact John directly. Hence, I provided his email address. If there's a website, by all means reply with a link. Otherwise, I understand that those interested in John's lengthy writings can access them through a subscription to Eric Levine's terrific CellarTracker wine cellar management and more platform. That's www.cellartracker.com. Just don't bring that up to the acolytes of Robert Parker, lest you enjoy trainwrecks.