LOCAL BLOG DEDICATED TO UPPING YOUR WINE SAVVY.

Here’s something new to do this new year: up your wine savvy.  The place to do this is online at San Diego Wine Guru, a San Diego-based super blog that is professional, informative and written in plain English for the pro or newbie wine buff.  It’s the brainchild of Tom Gable, a native Californian, who has been writing about wine for more than 40 years. He gained an early interest during his tenure as business editor of the San Diego Evening Tribune in the 1970s when he began covering the evolution of the California wine industry as new investments poured in and wine quality improved.

Soon, his weekly wine column was syndicated through Copley News Service to more than 400 newspapers. He also contributed frequently to travel, wine (Wine Spectator) and inflight publications (United, Delta) before moving into a full-time career in public relations (www.nstpr.com). He continues to cover wine as contributing wine writer for San Diego Magazine and writes about wine, food and travel for magazines, newspapers and various blogs.

Tom has judged at major wine competitions in the U.S. and traveled extensively in the winemaking areas of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Africa, South America, Mexico and New Zealand. He is a member of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, Society of Wine Educators and other wine organizations.

Recently, Tom attended the annual SommCon conference in San Diego, which provided sommelier-level education and training of wine professionals and serious enthusiasts.  There were 50 sessions led by experts.  A key theme: the pursuit of creating and enjoying wines that have a sense of place, with personalities and distinctive characteristics, versus high-alcohol, one-dimensional fruit bombs that could be from anywhere.

Here are two recent San Diego Wine Guru posts offering wine insights from the SommCom experience:

--Burgundy Wines—Hunting for Quality in Less Famous Appellations.

--Syrah Smackdown: Appreciating a Sense of Place and Personality.