Look Ma, I’m a Locapour!
Posted by Neil Brody Miller on April 30, 2010
A locapour is someone committed to drinking locally produced wine, just as a locavore’s commitment is to consume locally grown foods. I’ve apparently been a locapour for some time now, according to the definition, but first came across the term a couple of days ago in a friend’s Facebook post, and again today in The Washington Post.
The word locapour seems to have been recently minted, a Google search turned up a bunch of pieces from this past January that use or discuss the term. The earliest usage I found dates to 2008 or 2009, in a wine review titled “The virtues and pleasures of being a ‘locapour,’” by Beppi Crosariol, a wine writer for the Ontario, Canada newspaper The Globe and Mail.
The reason I’m writing, however, is not to advocate adding yet another trendy buzzword to our crowded cultural lexicon, but to publicize a very interesting opinion piece on “DrinkLocalWine.com 2010 and locavore hypocrisy,” in today’s Washington Post. Written by Dave MacIntrye, author of the blog Dave McIntyre’s WineLine and wine columnist for the Post, the article takes Washington DC restaurateurs to task for thoughtlessly pouring non-local wines alongside their heavily promoted locavore menus. It’s a good piece, as applicable to Central New York as the Mid-Atlantic States – maybe more applicable, given the comparative development of Finger Lakes and MD/VA winemaking – and worth a read.
Comments
3 Responses to “Look Ma, I’m a Locapour!”Leave a comment, and if you'd like your own picture to show up next to your comments, go get a gravatar!
The problem with being a committed locapour in Chicago is that you’d be confined to excellent wines and spirits, but have no variety in wine. Could this be in the same problem that restaurateurs feel in DC? – Tim
Hi Tim,
No, I don’t think so. Virginia wines have been getting a lot of attention recently, there are Virginia wine websites and promotional organizations. Dave McIntyre’s piece in today’s Washington Post suggests that things are similar with Maryland wineries. So DC restaurateurs can’t use the state of VA/MD winemaking as an excuse. The problem goes deeper, and is more widespread that DC. Most CNY restaurants, even places committed to sourcing local food and supporting local food producers, have the same cheap imports and brand name CA wineries on their wine lists as everyone else.
And there are plenty of wineries in the great upper Midwest, look for wineries in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and report back if you find anything worth writing about!
I think I misunderstood your point in my first reply, which is about the variety of wines you would drink rather than the quality of local, Midwestern wines available to you. One of the definitions of locapour I found in the Goggle search suggested that a locapour commit to stocking 1/3 of their household wine supply with locally produced wines. That should get around any concern with lack of variety. Plus, if Midwest winemaking is similar to the Finger Lakes region, winemakers are experimenting with a local of older American varietals, French-American hybrids, and newly developed varietals, as well as with the better known vinifera varietals, so here in the Finger Lakes there is actually quite a bit of variety.