Positive notes on the Janitor!

Wine Web sites suck up hours of time. Joyfully traipsing from one click to the next, each page ticks off another five or 10 minutes. Next thing I know, it's midnight and the entire night is wasted. Well, not wasted, per se, since I did absorb tidbits along the way, but my patient pile of laundry in the closet remains undisturbed. My favorite wine sites encourage interaction -- with a database or with intelligent (ideally educated) contributors or posters, and maintain interest with constantly changing content. But how to find the ones that fit my ideal mold? Google spits out more than 235,000,000 Web sites when entering the keyword "wine," an overwhelming number that exemplifies this intimidating, snobbery-laden topic. But it's also a breeding ground for umpteen sites hawking wine and worthless hacks regurgitating inaccurate information. Nevertheless, in my midnight travels I have stumbled across some gems.

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Wineloverspage.com

Created by veteran wine writer Robin Garr, Wine Lovers Page embodies a reverent homage to the wine-obsessed. The site features hundreds of wine reviews, numerous columns and blogs from all over the Web (some talented, some not so much) -- and, for those who like to speak their mind, densely populated online discussion groups. Garr is fiercely connected to his audience and to wine trends, firmly down-to-earth and extremely knowledgeable. One of my favorite sites and recommended highly for those seeking basic wine education and those wanting to tap into their inner wine geek.

Taylor Eason

http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gy ... oid=559008

Wine Web sites suck up hours of time. Joyfully traipsing from one click to the next, each page ticks off another five or 10 minutes. Next thing I know, it's midnight and the entire night is wasted. Well, not wasted, per se, since I did absorb tidbits along the way, but my patient pile of laundry in the closet remains undisturbed. My favorite wine sites encourage interaction -- with a database or with intelligent (ideally educated) contributors or posters, and maintain interest with constantly changing content. But how to find the ones that fit my ideal mold? Google spits out more than 235,000,000 Web sites when entering the keyword "wine," an overwhelming number that exemplifies this intimidating, snobbery-laden topic. But it's also a breeding ground for umpteen sites hawking wine and worthless hacks regurgitating inaccurate information. Nevertheless, in my midnight travels I have stumbled across some gems.

Hi Bob, I'll go read the link in a minute or two, but I wanted first to stop and say hello! I know you don't come in the door here very often, but I imagine that you do lurk here often. Want to say that you are missed, by me, and I bet by many. Ok, now I'll go read the link.

Thanks, Bob. I'm not drinking much wine these days so rarely have anything to contribute. But it's still great fun to stop by and see what folks are up to. Best Bob

[James Roscoe]

I will add my hello to Mr. H's and just ask Mr. Ross to see if he can help out with the medieval grapes thread. It was made for Bob's intellectual skills!
Thank you for the heads up on the positive quotes on Mr. Garr aka"The Boss".

[Robin Garr]

Bob, let me add my own "glad to see you." That was a nice thing for Taylor to say ... he's with Creative Loafing in Atlanta, I believe, and that column was presumably run in Charlotte and a few other Southeastern cities that publish local editions of this regional alternative weekly.

Yesterday was actually a double red-letter publicity day at WineLoversPage Central, as I also got word of selection by Italian Wine Institute for a Distinguished Service Award. It looks like I'm one among a cast of hundreds, or dozens at least, but it's good to be included, particularly since it appears to be a compendium of all the "big name" wine writers, and it makes me feel good - if a bit of an impostor - to be counted among that number.

http://www.italianmade.com/vino2009/awards.honorees.cfm

Thanks, James. I did a pretty superficial job, but it was fun to run unexpectedly into a surprising word lover (and one not so suprising) on that little intellectual journey. My preliminary results are in that thread.

Congrats, Robin -- the Italian honors are always welcome. Look what Parker did in France!

Best, Bob

Congrats Robin. The only other person on the list that I have met is Burton Notarius - Premier Wines Corp., who, I believe, is Ed Draves' boss. 30 years ago he personally carried a case of '75 Lafite to my car in the parking lot.

Congrats to Robin, and good to see Bob drop by!

Congrats,Robin !

[James Roscoe]

So with the Italian award are we to call Robin the Godfather or just Dom Garr?
Congratulations Robin!!!! I can't think of anyone who deserves it more.

At one of the early HdR's, Chester Osbourne (d'Arenberg) was presenting one of his wines called "The Custodian".
BobLindquist asked a question about the wine and then complimented Chester for having the hootspah to name
one of his wines "The Janitor". Brought a big laugh from the audience and this very puzzled look from Chester
until the panel moderator explained the US usage of that term.

Congrats, Robin...nice writeup and well deserved.

Tom

At one of the early HdR's, Chester Osbourne (d'Arenberg) was presenting one of his wines called "The Custodian".
BobLindquist asked a question about the wine and then complimented Chester for having the hootspah to name
one of his wines "The Janitor". Brought a big laugh from the audience and this very puzzled look from Chester
until the panel moderator explained the US usage of that term.

Congrats, Robin...nice writeup and well deserved.

Tom

As one who also lives down under and far away, are you able to share the meaning behind the US usage of Janitor?

Mark

As one who also lives down under and far away, are you able to share the meaning behind the US usage of Janitor?

Mark

Scroll up to Robin Garr's post in this thread and look at his avatar.

As one who also lives down under and far away, are you able to share the meaning behind the US usage of Janitor?
Mark

In the US, we use the term "custodian" as one who has custody/responsibility for something. Probably the same usage as yours, Mark. We also refer to the "janitor" as one who cleams up trash and stuff in a building, often regarded as a low-level/menial job
(my janitor in my bldg is one of the best and strikes me as just as bright as any other LosAlamos guy). In order to give the janotor's job more cachet/prestige, it is politically more correct to refer to them as a custodian.
Tom