Public service requires some personal sacrifice, but this is extreme: forcing a man to keep bottles and bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pape all to himself, instead of reaping sure glory in the Highlandtown winemaking competition.
Such is the sad fate of Steve Fogleman, who became chairman of the Baltimore liquor board yesterday, and in so doing, gave up his chance to be crowned East Baltimore's most prestigious home vintner.
Fogleman's new job doesn't explicitly prevent him from entering the competition, part of Sunday's Highlandtown Wine Festival.
But the lawyer/politician - he ran unsuccessfully against State's Attorney Pat Jessamy last year and was appointed to the liquor board by her chief nemesis, Gov. Martin O'Malley (Connection?) - figured he'd better bow out. The reason: At least one of the judges is a bar owner, who might find it a tad awkward to tell the guy regulating her pub that his wine is plonk.
"I just decided I would just drink my wine instead of compete with it," Fogleman said.
And that's not really such a problem, since the pre-mashed French grapes he bought and bottled a year ago have matured quite nicely in the basement of his Canton rowhouse.
"It's super drinkable," he said.
We'll have to take his word for it.
Now, beer -- that's another story
At least Fogleman has other outlets for alcohol-related glory. First, there's cleaning up the liquor board.
"We're going to have transparency and consistency control this expletive liquor board," Fogleman told me, in a nod to the Tommy Bromwell RICO tapes. (For the record: Fogleman really did say "expletive," not some word I had to bleep out.)
And then there's the Sam Adams homebrew contest. Fogleman intends to enter his Belgian Triple. The winner's beer will be sold commercially nationwide.
Sam Adams doesn't call it the LongShot Homebrew contest for nothing. But Fogleman has beaten long Sam Adams odds before. He won the company's national beer-tasting contest in 2005, making him the Boston Beer Co.'s sole, official "consumer taster."
That job, which recently concluded, entitled him to taste the company's experimental brews.
She had a bad day, and she's not talking about it
Sheila Dixon just had the rottenest day of her mayoralty, and she doesn't want to talk about it. She let this much slip at a press event Wednesday.
