95% of wines are consumed within a week of purchase. It’s a fact, but is it vinous genocide? I had a conversation with a notable wine educator the other night who said he preferred young wines and can only recall tasting eight older wines that were worth the wait or more enjoyable to drink older […]
Value Discovery: 2006 Hecht & Bannier Minervois at Flyte
It’s a rarity, but I found myself in Nashville, TN last week. With business entertainment very much on the agenda, I searched for one solid restaurant with a decent wine list and found myself at Flyte World Dining and Wine drinking ($18 ***1/2) 2006 Hecht & Bannier Minervois. This Languedoc-Roussillon stole my attention, and that’s saying a lot […]
A Tribute To Grace Tops Wine Blogger Conference Wines
On a weekend in Charlottesville, VA with scores of domestic and international wine pouring sponsors, ballroom wine fests, fleets of buses covering area wineries, half a dozen restaurant wine lists, and countless treasured bottles transported by wine bloggers from their personal cellars, I had the prettiest and most compelling wine poured for me by Hardy […]
High Quality $30 Oregon Pinot & Raymond Usseglio Deal
I guess I’m thankful Tower Wine & Spirits is located in my new “transitional” Atlanta neighborhood near where Piedmont meets Cheshire Bridge. While I live in Boston, I have been spending a lot of time working in Atlanta and it made sense to skip the hotel scene and just get an apartment. With lots of open evenings […]
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 […]
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 […]
Sur Lie and Bottle Aged Muscadet in May
Years ago on a bright seventy degree afternoon, moments after tying off our boat in the Camargue’s picturesque Marseillan port, I fell in love with Muscadet and its Melon de Bourgogne grape lounging in a simple oyster restaurant’s tiny outdoor courtyard. It was a magical few hours. I was taken by the wine’s satiating freshness, crisp acidity, […]
Case For Tasting Bordeaux, Barolo, and California Syrah
Tasting wine in peer groups always feels clinically informative, digging around for distinguishing nuances against identical backgrounds of grape variety, vintage, or appellation. It trains my palate and sharpens a vocabulary of descriptors. Tasting a potpourri of unrelated wines from completely different vintages, continents, countries, and varieties can be as discerning in different ways. I […]
Kitchen A Trattoria BYOB and 2009 Domaine la Garrigue
Eventually you find Kitchen A Trattoria discretely tucked away off a main street in St. James, Long Island. Worth the momentary measure of driving confusion, the restaurant delivers a top BYOB opportunity to pair Long Island’s most impeccably crafted, mouth watering, rustic Italian fare with your cellar’s treasures. Hundreds of miles from my own wine cellar, […]
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