Derrick Schneider has an excellent food-focused blog called "Obsession With Food." He also wrote for SFist regularly for quite a long time, most notably his still-popular SFist in the Kitchen series. So of course we were very pleased to see that he wrote an article appearing in the Wine Section of today's Chron. He writes all about "fruit wine," or wine made with fruit other than grapes....

Hip, hip, HOORAY! Hip, hip, HOORAY! Catherine Bigelow, the Chron society columnist, is back from vacation, and here with a special report on Wednesday night's SF Ballet Opening Gala! Number of people pictured: 24. Number of people pictured whom we recognize: 3 (the Shultzes and Jerry Yang, though we did also recognize Angelique Griepp's Oscar de la Renta dress from SFMike's blog). Minority count: 3 (12.5%). Getty v. Traina: Too bad Gavin's in Davos this......

As much as we love 24 Willie Mays Plaza, we Giants fans have to admit it's been a bit of a mixed blessing. Sure, it just might be one of the most beautiful places on God's green earth, but it has also meant that the image of the Giants fan- that being us- has taken a bit of a beating. For those of us who go way back to the rough and tumble Candlestick Days- when braving the drunken brawls and the frozen foggy chill of a July night was a badge of honor, this is a bit disconcerting. Now Third and King is the place to be and be seen, the stereotype of the Giants fan has gone from being that of a brawling boozer to that of a cell phone checking, laptop wielding, wine drinking Yuppie. Which is why we here at EssEfist were more than chagrined when we opened up last Thursday's Chron to find an article in the Wine Section debating the merits of the A's brand wine vs. that of the Giants. Sports teams having their own wine brand of wine? Could it GET more NoCal? Seriously, do you ever expect to open up the New York Times and find a story debating the merits of the Mets' wine vs. that of the Yankees? I think not. Would they even allow wine drinking in Wrigley or Fenway? But what really cut was the photo included in the story, that of your typical effete wine-drinking Yuppie couple watching a Giants' game from tony box seats (with pictures of boats in the background, natch) while their friend sat there "chatting" away on his cell phone. All that is missing from the photo is somebody checking their e-mail. Could they have found a more stereotypical group of people to represent Giants fans as this group? We're inclined to think that the photo was either a parody or taken by an A's fan. Seriously, this season has been hard enough....