Demystifying the "Boudoir of the Grape"
Basil Fawlty may have claimed that most of his customers didn't know a "Bordeaux from a Claret" and when he did meet an enthusiastic amatuer, he proclaimed "always a pleasure to find someone who appreciates the boudoir of the grape".
He also accused his customer of "being a connoisseur" and of "drinking a lot". One of those may apply to me, but I'm not sure anyone has ever called me a connoisseur.
I asked chatGPT to build me a DALL-E map from the following prompt:
Can I please (it's always a good idea to be polite to AI, in advance of the inevitable take over) have a map of the world, with some example wine regions highlighted in something approximating the right spots - France (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Bandol), Spain (Priorat and Rioja), Italy (Tuscany, Puglia, Piedmont, Sicily), Germany (Rheinhessen and Mosel), Australia (Barossa, Clare, Margaret River, Coonawarra, Hunter Valley, Rutherglen) USA (Napa Valley, Sonoma, Willamette), Stellenbosch in South Africa and Mendoza & Cassablanca in South America.
The result of this prompt is at the top of this post.
I know I have missed an awful lot of the world's wine in that list - but I thought it would make for an interesting starting point for a cartoon style map. The hodge podge of clutter and amalgamated letters that ChatGPT returned me (as you can see) was completely useless for describing the world of wine. However, as I looked at it, I realised that this mixed and discombobulated mess was fairly well aligned with what my understanding of international wine was just a few years back.
Since then, I have been actively trying to increase my knowledge of the wine of the world - I have read books and magazines, listened to lecture series and podcasts, watched television shows, and yes, drunk more than a few bottles along the way.
I thought I would start this blog to take people along on a journey with me. I will review wines that I drink, pass on lessons (oft hard won) as I come across them and give my tips for current bargains. As an Australian, I will try to do more than reviewing this week's specials at Dan Murphy's or BWS, and they may well be subjective, but I will go on record saying I am most certainly not influenced by any commercial incentives!
