Wine
After a couple days judging at the International Wine Challenge, I wound down by linking up with South Africa’s Two Oceans Wines roving ambassador Liam Kelly, at London’s Frontline Club for journalists. Liam’s is a Cape Town native, about halfway through a year-long backpacking world tour which includes working in the US, teaching in Thailand, [...]
Continue reading about Three Clubs, Two Oceans and a Wine Challenge
These symbols are the keys to the new Slow Wine guide – finally published in English this month. For those of you wondering if this is related to Slow Food: yes. The Snail is the Slow Food International symbol; for Slow Wine it indicates a winery that embodies the Slow Food sensibilities including “sensorial, territorial, [...]
Continue reading about The Snail, the Bottle and the Coin: Slow Wine
When I taste wines like this, I’m reminded why we all fell in love with Merlot. Years ago, that is. Before it got stupid, before it got flabby and boring. Bordeaux’s Right Bank wines are the best examples of this. Without getting into detailed tasting notes, I can say that these wines are consistent: tasting [...]
Continue reading about Merlot: First taste of 2011 Bordeaux wines from the Right Bank
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 [...]
