Wine
PORT PORT PORT. Friday January 27, 2012 is International Port Day. Have a bottle somewhere in the cellar? Always wanted to try port? Here’s your big opportunity. Sip and tweet #PortDay And yes, you CAN have it with chocolate.
Stay Away: that was the first message I got from Chateau La Nerthe in the Southern Rhone area of France — in Chateauneuf du Pape, to be precise. On a wine trip there some years ago, it was clearly painful for them to have a few journalists admitted to this prestige domaine. We were supposed [...]
Continue reading about Stay Away. Now Come Back. Chateau La Nerthe
On a cold winter night in New England, we warmed up at the historic home of Argentine natives Vera and Carlos, with Carlos’ empanadas accompanied by Malbec Rosés. Carlos made low fat empanadas, which some people (son Marcel) quibbled with – though the rest of us were pleased, given the amount of holiday cookies we’d [...]
For some time, whenever anyone asks me for a really good Merlot recommendation, I’ve been saying “Bordeaux.” Too often, US Merlot wines are lacking…well… almost everything except fruitiness. I want a Merlot that tastes like well-made wine. That IS a well-made wine. And you have to go way up in price if you want to [...]
I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before that this was lacking. Well, problem solved: the new Guide to the Wines of France is out in English. It’s by top wine critics Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve, who have both been prominent in their field for several decades. They have published this volume [...]
Continue reading about Finally, a book about French wines by French wine experts – in English!
For me, it’s fascinating to see a wineglass, a decanter, a wine bottle that sat on a dining table hundreds of years ago. It might be plain and thick and unevenly shaped. It might be thin and delicate and rimmed with gold. At the Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York, I was fascinated [...]
Climate project and wine guru Pancho Campo suggested this week that we might want to go back to the olden days of wine commerce. In order to avoid the tremendous amount of emissions caused by transporting crates of heavy wine bottles, we might want to return to the time when wine was shipped in bulk [...]
I wonder if this is true elsewhere? Apparently, recession mentality bottomed out for NYC fine dining customers in the 4th quarter of 2009. Now diners are not afraid to show off anymore, if they have money. Last week, Wine + Spirits’ Joshua Greene moderated a panel with top NYC restaurant sommeliers Levi Dalton of Alto, [...]
So the cute little “mini-barrel” of Red Truck wine arrives. It’s green because it’s 4 bottles in 1 container. It’s red because it’s 2007 California red wine. We tried it last night. I also happened to have a bottle of the 2002 on hand and the two vintages tasted remarkably similar, another 5 years in [...]
Before you freak, let me just tell you my theory: you can’t be a great biodynamic wine maker unless you are a great winemaker. If you’re a great wine maker, going biodynamic* can add a whole other dimension to your wines. More aromatics, more flavor components, subtle structural and finishing elements. I saw this again [...]
