Neither this wine nor pasta sauce are regulars on our table. The 2009 Houillon Overnoy Poulsard came via Louis/Dressner from the Jura, specifically Pupillin, where Emmanuel Houillon assumed winemaking duties at Pierre Overnoy’s tiny estate. The pasta sauce relied on “cheater” duck broth and a prosciutto “heel”. The entire meal including prep, cooking, uncorking, decanting, […]
2011 Beaujolais: Your Third Wake-Up Call
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 […]
Blind Wine Tasting and Coke
During the final week of every “old” year I head to the same, sun scorched lazy Puerto Rico beach to give my peripatetic brain enough space to subconsciously prioritize and ponder only the most important issues. Blind wine tasting made the cut this year, triggered by some catch up reading of Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Blink. If […]
90 Plus Cellars Tasting Produces Nameless Pleasure
In every blind tasting there is secret hope for fresh discovery and the eradication of closely held biases like perpetually ignored regions, varieties, producers, or vintages. While the blind tasting experience is completely unrelated to luxurious enjoyment of wine with a meal, they serve as uniquely productive platforms for continuing wine education. Recently, I shared […]
Pair Wine With Children Not Food
It is easy to turn your back on wine media around Thanksgiving. Hundreds of wine and food writers boldly recommend thousands of wines to pair with millions of holiday ingredient and flavor tapestries. It all looks as delusional as amusement park revelers wagering on spinning arcade lottery wheels; the odds say your instincts for picking […]
90+ Cellars Wines and Paul Bloom Pleasure Theory
Are wines that enthusiasts buy, drink, and derive pleasure from somehow linked to what they know about their origin, craftsmanship, and history? According to Yale Professor Paul Bloom’s TED talk, while it should be just as possible to enjoy a wine of unknown source and origin, it simply isn’t. The following is a really enjoyable and fascinating […]
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 […]
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