The mad, eccentric, smart, hilarious blog Elitist Review deserves more readers. Written by David Strange, an Englishman who owns up to his stints in the loony bin, it’s divided into three sections, ‘Wine,’ ‘Food,’ and ‘Drink.’ The ‘Wine’ section receives most of his attention. Strange’s tastes run toward Burgundy, Champagne, and Riesling, but he does gleefully taste wine from other regions as well. If you can catch him reviewing Bordeaux––he calls it claret in good British fashion––you are in for an acerbic treat. The man detests claret and those who make a big deal of it like nothing else on Earth.
Interspersed among the wine reviews are pathos-laden asides about anti-psychotic medications and combining them with great quantities of (fine) wine, cooking notes, mentions of ‘the partner’ (his boyfriend), and frequent references to contemporary ceramics, which Strange loves almost as much as he hates claret. Oddly, though there’s a good amount of personal information here, to this reader Strange remains something of an enigma. However, he’s recently begun adding short audio files of spoken wine reviews that help fill in the blanks. In some, perhaps unsurprisingly, Strange sounds quite tipsy.
There’s a gateway page to all of Strange’s online work at davidstrange.net where you can see a photo of the man himself clad in a red corduroy jacket. He seems to be looking down his nose at the camera, and at you. S.K.
Wow, I'm deeply flattered to have such things written about me. I feel special. Special in a good way, obviously.
I also love the descriptor: Bonkers Englishman, gonzo drinking. You know me all too well.
Posted by: David Strange | July 14, 2009 at 05:33 PM