Go ahead and excuse yourself if just the mere thought of Beaujolais’ currently released 2011 vintage does not generate anticipation nor enthusiasm. Burgundy’s neighboring Beaujolais region developed its regional brand through decades of proliferating simple, thin, early released, confection tinged quaffing juice as Nouveau Beaujolais. While Nouveau raged with palates willing to overlook queer and immature […]
Three Top California Cabernets and Taste Buds
Thirty five of us climbed a stairway to our balcony seating perched above Cole’s Chop House’s main dining room in downtown Napa. The wine service table was crowded with a military style line up of thirty bottles of three different California Cabernets; an admittedly and deliberately ignored wine category since a self-imposed hard stop in […]
Kathryn Kennedy and California Wine
Much of the criticism aimed at California wines’ big style and bulging price tags is routinely sidestepped in old world wine producing regions. Although the extent of this is up for debate…history, subsidy, tradition, terroir, appellation controls, experience, and older vineyards form layers of insulation that restrain old world vignerons from the temptations of market […]
Baudry Chinon Crowns Cabernet Franc
Do not feel bad for Cabernet Franc. Humbly earning the majority of its notoriety in a supporting Bordeaux role, it lays tucked underneath Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominant blends in the land of regal growths. Moving west in search of greater opportunity, Cabernet Franc is planted and bottled all by its lonesome self from Long […]
Damien Lorieux Tuffeaux Bourgueil: Really $15?
The hunt for great wine is an incessant indulgence. Through one series after another of holy grail-like expeditions, once hidden wines are excavated and brought to new light in never ending streams of prized byproducts via diligent wine reconnaissance. As the years unfurl, the hunt shifts away from low hanging Bordeaux, Rhone Valley, Piedmont, and […]
Blind Tasting 2010 French Wine Values
Six bottles of 2010 southern French red wines told the story. With the low yield, long hang time, high quality vintage examples selling for $17 and under at retail, the story wanted to be good. All of the wines were without flaw, dark purple, full of fruit, round, rich, and without any hard edges to make them […]
Blind Tasting 1998 Chateauneuf du Pape
Early critical accounts pegged the 1998 Chateauneuf du Pape vintage as monumental. Grenache and Syrah flourished under favorable growing conditions. Yet, decade old tasting memories bulged from powerful, tight, and stubborn bottles expressing convincing cellar potential. Could a dozen year term of lingering dark, cool rest unveil beauty beneath youthful armor? With this in mind, […]
Alessio Planeta, Sicily, and Frappato
Alessio Planeta is amiable, direct, and very Sicilian. That’s all immediately apparent. As his story unfolds, he bares an even more adventurous lining. He is one of Planeta Wines‘ family shepherds; opening wineries and tending vineyards like explorers criss-crossing Sicily’s southern slice of the Italian peninsula. Forget the easier approach of vineyard and fruit contracts […]
Bordeaux Wine Cellar ROI
Bordeaux dominates my cellar inventory of wines preceding the 1995 vintage. That is nothing more than a happy fact of life for collectors with the advantage of early access to these wines prior to mind numbing price escalation. Last week at a 2000 Bordeaux tasting dinner I attended, one of the younger participants who works in […]
Pretty Cerasuolo And Ugly Halibut Ravioli
It is apparently fine to drink pretty wine with ugly food. Combining **** $30 2008 Cos Cerasuolo di Vittoria with home made halibut ravioli proved that out. Just back from Alaska with sixty pounds of halibut and lingcod fillets in tow, the flavorful white fish has been figuring into meal after meal. As deliciously addictive as fish […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
- 13
- Next Page »