South Africa’s emergent Swartland wine scene nested somewhere near the center of my cultural and intellectual wine curiosity ever since tasting a bottle of Sadie Family Vineyards’ Palladius more than a year ago. Understanding why Swartland consolidates a disproportionate share of the most interesting and compelling wines South Africa has to offer became a personal mission […]
Connecting South African Wine, Culture, and Topography
Slowly pushing south and west towards the Cape’s Swartland region, South Africa’s wine footprint is again coming into focus trekking from Limpopo Province’s bush down to the Port Elizabeth-to-Plettenberg coastline and mountains. Along that path, a couple of broad and large tastings combined with a host of resort wine list experiences to reinforce two general […]
2009 Bielsa Vinas Viejas Garnacha Is Not Pizza Wine
A member of our Boston blind tasting group, Rich Schnitzlen, recently re-merchandised 70% of the inventory that fills my town’s wine shop. The fact that we have only one store of any kind in the entire town, and its proprietors added the wine shop last year following a town vote allowing the sale of alcohol makes it […]
South Africa Wine Immersion, My Way
I will be swirling, tasting, and spitting in South Africa over the next couple of weeks. While I enjoy some elements of organized wine travel with groups of fellow wine geeks and writers, this trip is with family and friends on my own time and dime. Having spent 30 years in media, organized wine immersion […]
WineBid.com: Reliable Platform for Buying and Selling Wine
If my first WineBid auction experiment stirred your curiosity, then you will be interested to know the sale closed out successfully with 18 of my 19 consigned bottles selling at, or slightly above, reserve pricing. Only one bottle remains unsold. As suspected, a large slice of bidders and buyers came from Hong Kong and around Asia. As you will […]
Tempranillo Shows Range and Value in Rioja
Last month the Vibrant Rioja US tour rolled east from San Francisco to New York. Its campaign organizers staged grand tastings in both cities coupled with two smaller, invitation-only tasting seminars designed to showcase the widest possible range of Tempranillo treatment and expression. It was fun showing up in my Big Apple home town, birthplace […]
WineBid Auction Kickoff: Guilt Turns Impatient
The wines I put up for sale with WineBid have been away from home for 13 days, so it’s fair time for an update. I am finally at peace with the decision now that I’ve beaten back the guilt and fully digested the possibility of never seeing those bottles again. That’s the point, I guess; […]
The Guilt in Selling Fine Wine
I am in the process of selling wine for the first time; not a lot, just some. But as a novice seller I am unsure whether I am going about this in the right way, or even if I should be selling any wine at all. Besides that tidy basket of anxiety, it’s terribly emotional […]
Top Three Wines of May: Loire Valley and Niagara, Ontario
May’s “Top Three Wines” headline does not contain a typo. The reference to Ontario, Canada is purposeful. As a matter of fact, southern Ontario’s wine region (41°-44°) finds itself in a close latitudinal relationship with the Loire Valley (46°-47°), home turf for May’s other top wines. A couple of this month’s finishers are certain discoveries, […]
Controversy Corked: 2005 Joly Coulee de Serrant Savennieres
It’s a controversy I won’t take sides with and instead hope to convince you of its senselessness. Never mind the plethora of world class, fairly priced, old world wines anchoring my enthusiasm for the Loire Valley. Instead, let’s focus on magicians like Foucalt, Huet, and Joly that are flooding my deepening vortex of Loire fanaticism […]
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