In early 2006 the Bordeaux price-value line was breached and began its transgression towards complete collapse, erasing all justification for drinking the first growths and other similarly coveted wines that sat in my cellar for decades. Just look at the blue line to the right, representing relative fine wine price escalation compared to the major […]
Balaban’s Wine Shop and Restaurant: St. Louis’ Destination for Wine Lovers
I traveled to St. Louis steadily over the past five years and only discovered Balaban’s wine shop and restaurant on the evening celebrating the sale of our St. Louis business and the conclusion of my regular travel to the city. Had I known about the wine lover’s destination sooner, it would have been a regular […]
White Wines Of Alto Adige
Alto Adige: Part II – The Wines While the inspiring Alto Adige alpine basin landscape is undeniably alluring, confronting a flight of mid-term, bottle-aged white wines from the region’s leading cooperatives is utterly compelling. Single varietal bottlings of Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Gewurztraminer along with blended versions involving even more varietals were unanimously distinctive and serious […]
Alto Adige Wines: Enigmatic and Beautiful Italian Wine Region
Alto Adige: Part I Earlier this month I intersected a caravan of German speaking Italians visiting from their extreme Northern Italian wine producing region, Alto Adige (Ahhl-toe Ahh-deejay). I caught up with them in the midst of a three city US tour showcasing wines from their hometowns in Südtirol (the region is also known as […]
Does Stony Hill Produce Age Worthy California Chardonnay?
My last bottles of 1990, 1991, 1993, and 1997 Stony Hill Chardonnay comprised a short vertical flight preceding two blind flights of 2007 Cabernets that sixteen members of our Boston tasting group recently slurped, swallowed, and spit their way through. I purchased the wines on release back in the 90’s and one bottle from each […]
Sweet Wines: Alto Aldige Moscato Rosa and Uruguay Tannat
A pile of dessert wine (intensely jealous my UK friends get to call them pudding wines) occupies a small and lonely cellar corner. Pulling a few bottles out of their racks reminded me of the country and continental indiscrimination I apply to this wine category with bottles from Germany, France, Australia, California, South America, Italy, Portugal, and […]
Top Three Wines of February: Champagne and Valdeorras
February delivered a landslide of Champagne discovery and liquid treasures from a heretofore unknown producer in Northern Spain. The month’s top three wines represented such immense drinking pleasure that they will linger forever in my palate’s memory. Not mentioned here, and to be completely fair, is the 2005 Clos Rougeard Saumur-Champigny. This cult-like Loire Cabernet […]
Champagne Musings: A Wine of Place or Pleasure?
Recent chatter around grower produced and single vineyard Champagne is teasing intellectually vinous curiosities. I “think” most winemakers and growers in any wine region usher fruit from vine to barrel to bottle with the idea of producing pleasure inducing liquid. On a global basis, wine makers rely on vineyard or broader appellation specificity for reasons that […]
Saumur, Champagne, and a Little Giant
I have been eating and shopping for wine in New York City this past week and will share a connected vignette of a Saumur-Champigny shopping find, a transported Champagne note, and a wine friendly restaurant. This week’s quick holiday in New York, where my wine and personal roots run deepest, produced unfavorably opposite impressions on my wallet […]
Avanthia Godello and Mencia: Valdeorras Magic in a Bottle
Avanthia is a knockout, compelling young project unveiling itself in the Galician mountains of Valdeorras in Spain’s extreme northwest. I remain in awe of Avanthia’s interpretation of Mencia and Godello after discovering these wines in complete serendipitous fashion. Magic in a bottle flows from this collaboration involving Jumilla’s established Monastrell-proficient Gil family, venerable importer Jorge Ordonez, […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- …
- 32
- Next Page »