This is a new world wine story involving Kalin Cellars. But first, a story about a new world. Dedicated wine writing felt intellectually trivial and morally inappropriate for an extended period of time. Investing 60 hours a month writing about something as indulgently luxurious as fine wine felt wrong in the context of the world around me. Today marks the conclusion […]
Kaleidoscope of Wine Styles and Jeremy Parzen
A friend of mine that sells wine in Massachusetts has told me more than once he admires my openness and flexibility for enjoying varied styles of wine. Fresh, aged, brooding, bright, acidic, chewy, earthy, fruity, dense, leesy, steel, wood, white, red, rosé, brett, sparkling…no matter. He’s right; with the caveats of passable vintage conditions, good […]
Dirty & Rowdy’s Hardy Wallace On Petite Sirah and Improvisation
While still exceptions to the rules, some California winemakers are challenging common assumptions about how Golden State wines ought to taste. Some of the movement’s chroniclers think about these wines and winemakers as “New Wave”. Prominent critics will ascribe California wines’ emerging stylistic diversity as part and parcel of a “widening and maturing of consumer tastes“. […]
Crisis in Wine Enthusiasm Averted
It has been quite some time, four weeks to be exact, since I have written here about wine. That is the longest hiatus since WineZag launched in 2009. Extended and distant third world travel, ailing elderly family, and our children’s and their friends’ return home from university have shaped the silence. More to the point, the confluence […]
Why We Taste Grower Champagne
Grower Champagnes have displaced big house wines in our Boston blind tasting group’s annual Champagne tasting lineups for the last few years. As the keeper of these lineups, I am reporting this with nagging self awareness that I may have allowed us New Englanders to become victimized by trend. If the tradition of Champagne and […]
Monday Morning Holiday Wine Quarterback
If you were one of many anxious Thanksgiving dinner hosts wading through the thousands of social media posts, hundreds of retail ads, and scores of articles or blogposts about the right wines to pair with Thanksgiving dinner, how did that work out for you? Did you get props for ultimate pairings? Was the research and […]
Ultimate Thanksgiving Wine Pairing Deconstruction Guide
There are a dozen reasons to avoid obsession and angst pairing wines with your Thanksgiving feast. The problem begins with a cornucopia of flavors and tastes from sweet to bitter to savory, spicy, and salty that roll from the holiday kitchen. While thousands of different wines will be appropriate for millions of tables and gatherings, […]
Sicilian Wine Tasting
Sicilian wine provided all the southern Italian warmth and attitude you could hope for at the kick off event of our 2013/14 Boston blind tasting series. Frappato arancini, panelle, escarole and bean soup, hand made orecchiette, and Sicilian green olive tapenade with fresh ricotta had little chance of upstaging these overly expressive wines. While the […]
Robert Parker on Napa Wine Prices
In case you missed issue #209 of the Wine Advocate, Robert Parker pinch hit (a change in role from his vertical revisits) and reviewed recent release Napa Valley wines during the post-Anthony Galloni transition phase. According to Parker, it is Part I of the single largest Wine Advocate Napa report ever produced in the history […]
Top Three Wines From Valpolicella, Loire, and Alsace
Looking backwards over a month of tasting in order to pick the Top Three Wines is an ambiguous endeavor. Imagine one full month of visiting different amusement parks every week. You climb onto one hundred different rides before picking the top three in hindsight. What’s the criteria? The most unique design? How about the rides that made […]
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