Six and a half years ago, for my 30th birthday, my parents gave me my first wine cellar.  Shortly after that, a client gave me a 6 pack of a wine I had never heard of – Yarden 2001 Single Vineyard El Rom Cabernet Sauvignon.  In order to find out just what I now had in my possession, I logged in to a wine forum I had recently joined, and asked the host, a critic named Daniel Rogov, if he had tasted the wine.  Daniel quickly responded with his tasting notes, and some pleasant commentary.  Over the next few years I continued to participate in Daniel’s forum, both at its original location and where it currently exists.  I check into the forum daily, although I only post once or twice a week.  I met several friends through that forum,  enjoyed a number of exchanges with Daniel – some on the public side of the forum and some through private messaging, and was fortunate enough to gain access to some very good deals as well (like the Gan Eden Winery liquidation sale – I ordered 50 cases of wine on behalf of myself and friends). 

Daniel was always a pleasure to communicate with – tolerant, intelligent, knowledgeable, and balanced.  I found it fascinating that he could write with equal eloquence about the highest level of gourmet cooking and the simplest country fare.  He showed equal enthusiasm when describing the finest of wines and the fiery roughness of farmstand grappa. 

Recently, Daniel’s forum posts began making vague references to serious health problems.  He never clarified exactly what was going on, but he hinted strongly that he was facing something terminal.  He announced on the forum that a testimonial dinner had been arranged in his honor and extended an invitation to forum members to attend.  When a forum member posted a link to a video from the event, I watched a few minutes, and was distressed to note that Daniel’s body displayed the wasted, ravaged look of someone in advanced stages of cancer.  Three days after the video was posted, Daniel died.

Daniel was a unique character.  A self-styled curmudgeon, he adhered strictly to classical definitions of many things (i.e. wine is made from grapes and grapes alone - fermented pomegranate juice does not make pomegranate wine).  He was the greatest champion of the Israeli wine industry, and was famous for adamantly insisting that there is no contradiction between kosher and quality in wine.  Over the years, I grew to like and respect him.  Based on things that have come to light since his death, I have gained greater respect for him.  He wrote his own obituary/farewell letter to be posted on the forum on his death, in which he admitted that he knew what was happening to him but chose to focus instead on everyday pleasures and the remaining joie de vive.  Many of the members of Rogov’s Place, myself included, feel like we have lost a friend we never met.  You may not have ever known of his forum or communicated with him, but many of you have seen some of his notes or scores tagged to shelves under bottles of wine in your local wine shops.  The kosher wine industry has lost an individual who cannot be replaced by one person – it will take several people to fill his shoes.

Goodbye, Daniel.  I miss you already.

We’ve gotten this far into discussing drinking alcohol without once touching on the topic of what glass to drink out of.  And that’s odd, because I love collecting glassware.  If we are drinking multiple beverages, I have no problems using as many as 6 glasses over the course of a meal – a red wine glass, a white wine glass, a water glass, a pint glass or beer mug, a shot glass or three, and an old-fashioned glass.  There’s just something about using specific glasses for specific items – the relationship between beverage and the style/shape of the glass adds to the experience.  For a number of years after I got into college, my father and I would buy holiday gift sets in December just to collect the glasses (I still have a few of those).  Not long after I was married, because I wanted a nicer set of wine glasses, my wife bought a beautiful set of 8 cut crystal goblets – for what we then considered the substantial sum of $10 per goblet.  Years later, as I was able to buy better wines, the gold rim of these glasses became more and more noticable, until I finally decided it was time to switch.  At that point, Target Stores started carrying a line of Riedel glassware made exclusively for Target.  I had heard many good things about Riedel glassware by then, so I decided I wanted to try out the Target line.

There’s no question that the Riedel glasses are excellent, but there are a few caveats.  The Target line started out with simple red and white wine glasses, as opposed to having a Cabernet Sauvignon glass, a Merlot glass, a Chardonnay glass, a Bordeaux glass, etc…  Just having the 4 different glasses listed above is a bit too complicated even for me, which is why the Target series appealed to me – red wine, white wine, spirits, and water are sufficient for me, especially when we get to the second major caveat on the Riedels, which would be the title of this post.  You guessed it – this past weekend we broke another one.  I think that brings the total number of broken red wine glasses to 8 so far – they are so darned fragile.