Michael Franz

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: Welcome to #SommChat everyone! Tell your friends to join us to learn from #WineWriter, Educator and #Consultant Michael Franz @Micahel_Franz!

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: We’d like to introduce you to @Michael_Franz #SommChat

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat Hello Everyone...Very much looking forward to my first Somm chat, now in about half an hour...please join in!

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz How and when did you first get interested in #Wine? #SommChat

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: As an impoverished graduate student. Quickly developed tastes I couldn't afford, so had to use what writing chops I had to bluff my way into a column slot at The Washington Times, and was then hired within 8 months by Washington Post...Lucky!!

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz How often do you taste #wine for reviews? Do you have a limit before reaching palate fatigue?

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: Just finished a project to re-fresh the list at D.C.'s The Hamilton...and worked through 1,200 in 11 nights. That number of about 120 or so is what I feel I can do without fading. Of course, some of those just get eliminated quickly...others need more attention.

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz Do you write reviews for both #professionals and #consumers? If so, what are the differeneces between the style of the 2 reviews? #SommChat

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: That's a VERY good question! Certainly these are appreciably different audiences with different interests, but I really try to straddle the line to provide background quickly to get newbies up to speed, but then head straight to what makes the wine distinctive and worthy...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: ...so that even experts on a region can know that the wine is deserving of their attention, and perhaps purchase for trade purposes #SommChat

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz How many years have you participated @TEXSOM and what so you think are the biggest benefits for attendees? #SommChat

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat This would have been about my 6th from which I returned yesterday, and all of them have been terrific. The caliber of speaker is simply without parallel among conferences, but that's not all...the sponsors' wines are likewise at the very top of the pyramid...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...and there's one more thing: The aspiring trade professionals are an important part too...they contribute a sharpness of interest and an energy that makes TEXSOM unique; it is an intense learning environment as much as one devoted to dispensing info

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz Do you have any special things you do to help reduce palate fatigue? Food? Exercise? ???

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat That's a good question, and the answer depends somewhat on the type of wine involved. With whites, I really just punctuate the tastings with mineral water...nothing else is needed. I've got a naturally high tolerance for acid, so really don't need anything else...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat Reds ...especially full-bodied, tannic ones are another story. Tannins literally, physically sediment onto one's tongue (sorry if TMI!), and that needs to be dealt with to be fair to wines that follow. The thing is, tasting a wine immediately after a..

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...nibble of cheese lends an ADVANTAGE to the wine that follows. So, when things really start to get pasty after a long lineup, and I'm starting to hit the wall, I take a TINY nibble of sliced cheese before each taste, after 85 or so CABS, for eg

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz How many #wines do you think you taste a year? Can you share your process to taste and evaluate #wines? #SommChat

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat A little over 9,000 each year. Sometimes a few more if my wonderful client (Clyde's Restaurant Group in DC) opens a new location or re-freshes a restaurant's list, as this year. The process is always to taste by peer group, meaning, both price and type

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz have you seen any major differences between national and international #wine competitions? What do you do if you and another Judge assigned have a huge variation in your analysis?

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat. This is a very welcome question, and a perceptive one. I'd say that the judging methodology differences between competitions is the biggest variable, rather than the tasting preferences/sensibilities of the judges by country of origin...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...but there is some of both, and some overlap too. E.G., the level of professionalism in Australia and New Zealand is toweringly impressive, the methodology entirely admirable, and yet...the atmosphere relaxed and enjoyable just because of the friendly people.

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: I didn’t get to attend @TEXSOM this year. What seminar did you lead and what was the big takeaway? Did you attend other seminars that you thought were outstanding and what was the take-away for you in those? Thx @Michael_Franz

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat My seminar was a panel discussion on, "Does a Region Need a Signature?" Very interesting questions formerly used on the MW exam. We kicked the questions around a lot, without reaching a consensus, and indeed there was a somewhat heated argument!...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...and I must confess that I was among those who dispensed some hear. I was concerned that some fellow panelists were confusing regional attributes with a "signature," taking us off track by counting too many characteristics (variety, climate, method) as signatures...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...and effectively dissolving our question rather than solving it (because, if anything can pass for a signature, then every region has one, and there's no real "need" or problem in the first place). Other seminars? very good ones...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...including "Masters of Wine are Thinking About Burgundy," with Mary Margaret McCamic (man, she was impressive) and Anthony Moss and Charles Curtis (also impressive, but my first time hearing Mary Margaret). All whites, discerningly discussed, and awesome wines...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...plenty of other highlights too, but I worry about throwing those who couldn't attend into a Mid-Week Depression!

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: Is there a special type of cheese you NIBBLE on and if not are there any cheeses you would avoid @Michael_Franz ?

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat Thank you...brilliant! Yes, I try to find relatively low-flavor cheese, because what actually buffers tannin is the dietary fat, and I want as neutral a "delivery vehicle" for the fat as possible, so that the cheese's flavor doesn't impact my perception of the wine...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...The Cheese doesn't need to be entirely flavorless, though boring domestic Meunster serves the purpose well (BTW...super flavorful Alsace Meunster is NOT the same thing!). But one need not get exotic...thin sliced American will do just fine! ...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...one last thing, if I can get all the way through everything I need to taste without resorting to cheese at all, that's my preference. Hitting water harder and harder to achieve that is best, but sometimes (e.g., 110 Bordeaux), pastiness just needs addressing!

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: .@Michael_Franz @WineReviewOnlin is the #worlds most viewed #wine publications, How often do you #write for them and how are the subjects selected to #write about? #SommChat

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat Thanks for the question! I'm the editor of the site, so I'm on it every week, though often from behind the other contributions. Helped found it in 2005, led the Post to do that, and we're still running strong, at roughly 1 million unique viewers per year..

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...My column runs every 4th week (see you next Wednesday, when we refresh each week), and I contribute reviews many but not al weeks. I write mostly on what excites me from tastings, or my travels. As for the other contributors...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...our model has always been simple: Hire respected writers and tasters, and let them pursue their own mojo wherever it takes them. We NEVER publish a review that doesn't include the writer's name, and we're totally open to publishing conflicting reviews

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz Read a little about your work in the academic world. What are some of your fav classes to teach and are they for professionals or consumers?

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat I teach wine classes for Jay Youmans MW at Capital Wine School, and those are a blast. In the academic world, I teach Political Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland, specializing on political violence and fanaticism (terrorism and ideological mass murder)...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...and as you might imagine, it is good to have a few glasses at the end of the day after that! I also teach Machiavelli, Warfare and Human Nature, and separate courses on Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Not so much blood in those...except Machiavelli!

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: After having tasted so many #wines in your career, do you ever blind taste and if you do, any techniques you use to help identify blind @Michael_Franz

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat That's a great question, and let me say this: Despite all those wines over many years, tasting blind is--if anything--MORE important to me now. I worry about developing auto-suggestion preconceptions about wines based on settled notions of their quality...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...and that can cause bad errors, and unfairness too. What if the winemaker changed? What if there have been new investments in the vineyard or winery? That why I spend a LOT of time judging, so that I can see lots of wines blind. Also, during consulting projects...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ... I'll have my (lovely and helpful) wife bad and shuffle wines for me. Just did that with all the non-vintage Bruts for the project for DC's The Hamilton. I don't know anybody who isn't susceptible to preconceptions, and believe we should ALL go blind!

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz How long have you been a #wine consultant? Can you tell us how you started in this part of your career and what is your main consulting focus today? #SommChat

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat Thank you for the question. I've ben consulting since 1999, and believe it or not, almost all for one client...Clyde's restaurant Group, with 12 restaurants selling $15 million just one wine annually. I got started because they asked me to help, along with my friend..

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChar ...and award-winning wine book author) Paul Lukacs, and thank heavens, my wonderful editor at The Washington Post, Jeanne McManus, got approval from the Post's Managing Editor. I work mostly on rigorous wine selection for the restaurants, plus some ...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...staff training, which I love, and general strategy. Clyde's was voted one of DC's 10 best employers, and they've been great to me for NINETEEN YEARS, which must be some sort of record

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: Are there any #wine regions that U have not visited that you would like to visit? What are the top 3 #wine regions you drink for pleasure and not for work? Has that changed over time @Michael_Franz

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat yes, I've never been to Madeira, or Georgia, and would love to go. Have been fortunate to make more than 100 trips to Europe and another 27 south of the Equator, but I still learn every time, and am eagerly anticipating South Africa within a month...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat I guess the best measure of what I drink for pleasure is what we actually buy ("We" being me and my wife, Sally Swift, Managing Producer of Public Radio's "The Splendid Table), and that's Champagne, northern Rhone Reds, and Burgundy...white and red

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: @Michael_Franz What advice do you have for ppl interested in getting into #wine #writing? #SommChat

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat This is tough...though you probably don't need me to tell you that! My blind-ass luck isn't transferrable, but you know, hard work is. My advice is to get started...almost anywhere...and publish without any pride wherever you can get somebody to put up some of your...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...writing about wine. You need to have things to show to others to claw up the pyramid, so just WRITE, and then circulate, and keep trying without getting discouraged. The web has opened a lot of new avenues, so though it is harder than ever to...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...get paid well, it is as easy as ever to get eyeballs on your writing. And before you hit it big (as I hope you will), please just think of wine writing as an end in itself, a way to express your love for our favorite beverage, and ...

Michael Franz @Michael_Franz: #SommChat ...a way to appreciate beauty and reward excellence in the work of other through your praise for outstanding wines

KeeperCollection @KeeperColl: Time to wrap up! Hope you enjoyed this hour of #wine talk with @Michael_Franz #WineWednesday #SommChat