Somewhere in between making wine and storing wine, service plays THE crucial supporting role in a wine’s performance. Mistakes in temperature, aeration, and glassware can foul things up as easily as contaminated or cooked cork can. Conversely, it is not secret that great glassware can pump up a tasting experience like sluggers on steroids. That […]
Happy Birthday WineZag
Today, WineZag cheers for its first birthday and one full year of steady wine writing to celebrate 25 years of wine appreciation. The place that fine wine, human experience, and written perspective intersect has turned into a personally sacred way point along an unending path to deeper appreciation of wine as a lifestyle component and the […]
Chenin Heaven from Vouvray’s Bernard Fouquet and Domaine des Aubuisieres’ 2008 Les Girardieres
Bernard Fouquet is an accomplished and quality Vouvray producer, focused on Chenin Blanc across 25 hectares and and seven vineyards that make up Domaine des Aubuisieres’ fruit sources. All of unique character and terroir, they split into two primary soil types including clay/limestone or clay/flint. His portfolio includes soil specific blends and vineyard specific bottlings. On […]
Wired for 1990 Chateau Latour
In the event you birthed a child in 1990, got married that year, or are secure in your belief that spending slightly under $700 a bottle can represent a really fine wine deal, then you will want to make sure you check out Wired for Wine at 10:00am on Monday, May 3. They will be […]
Stop H.R. 5034 and a New Dark Age for Wine Consumers and Retailers
The very recent introduction of H.R. 5034 into the House of Representatives is no less a bad dream for wine drinkers and retailers than a resurrection of the Berlin Wall would be for East Germans or a rekindling of Mao’s Cultural Revolution might represent for China’s citizens. The bill essentially awards blanket validity to State laws, without […]
Languedoc Tasting: Expressive Wines and Multiple Styles
Some things about the Languedoc just don’t seem very French at all. Frontier lands, Spanish culinary influence, Gypsy lore, uncontrolled wine production, and more. In a recent visit to the edge of the region’s northwest Mediterannean shoreline, Camargue, we reveled in almost unlimited sightings of wild white horse and pink flamingo from the comfort of […]
Menton: Reaching For the Stars (Michelin?) from Boston’s Fort Point
Menton’s team would be discovering and learning in only their third week of service, and we would be celebrating a full and exact 25 years of marriage; an intriguing juxtaposition of experience. Still, I decided to ring up Eli Feldman, Director of Operations at Barbara Lynch Gruppo, to squeeze into their newest project for our […]
Sherry Tasting: A Fortified Wine Spectrum and Two Shining Stars
There are no Sherry tastings to be found in a twenty-plus-year search of tasting events lingering historically in my personal Outlook calendar. That was until this past weekend when I had the chance to taste a full range of styles at a Dale Cruse hosted Sherry and Tapas onslaught including Fino, Manzanilla, Oloroso, Amontillado, […]
Wine Helping to Save Angel Island
I am not sure where Vino Moda is heading over the long haul, but while they are focused on a wine event to help save Angel Island, they have my attention. If you have never been to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, and there is any danger of it being closed to visitors, I […]
Clos de la Roilette: Age Worthy Gamay from Fleurie
An Easter ham dinner set the legitimate stage for tasting one of several newly acquired bottles of Coudert’s 2008 Clos de la Roilette from Louis/Dressner Selections. Tinged with intrigue and mystery, the vineyard was originally classified Moulin-a-Vent before Fleurie was declared into existence back in the ’20s, causing an angered owner to spite France’s wine market by […]