Classic Reds for 06/13/2023
A century ago, many of the finest French red wines were known to improve after they had been aged for a decade or more in a cool cellar. The main reason was that the wines were basically undrinkable...
View ArticleTasting Room Etiquette for 06/27/2023
The episode was unnerving and was avoidable had there been someone around with the sensibility to solve the problem.It occurred in a winery tasting room I was visiting a few years ago. And I can...
View ArticleHow Sweet It Is! for 07/11/2023
The wine shop clerk told me the wine was very dry, but when I took my purchase home and pulled the cork, I found it to be too sweet for me.Yet again, I learned that taking the advice of wine store...
View ArticleThe Greatness of Sauvignon Blanc for 07/18/2023
Chardonnay continues to be the most popular white wine in the United States, representing roughly one out of every five bottles of white wine sold in this country, and it's been this popular for...
View ArticleWine Terminology for 07/25/2023
Beets, new-mown grass, sage, olives, gardenia, petroleum, strawberries. These are just some of the hundreds of terms we use to describe wines. Some are easy to understand, some are obscure, and some...
View ArticleBargain Wine Shopping for 08/08/2023
We've all faced this same dilemma: staring at a retail wine shop wall of wine bottles that carry labels without one that's recognizable.The prices mostly seem reasonable, but we don't know enough to...
View ArticleCold Reds for 08/22/2023
It has been a while since I saw a winemaker as upset as Peter Mathis was last week during a luncheon we had at a cafe that had no air conditioning.Peter has been involved in winemaking for decades...
View ArticleHeavy Bottles for 08/29/2023
One of the worst trends in winemaking over the last 25 years is the ever-greater use of ultraheavy bottles in which to market wine.It is an odious fashion statement because it serves only one purpose:...
View ArticleCafe Wine for 09/12/2023
Travelers to the French countryside, notably on country roads, often see cafe signs that advertise all-inclusive luncheons at reasonable prices and the signs frequently say "vin compris."Such meals...
View ArticleSauvignon Blanc Is Hot for 09/26/2023
In spite of the fact that there is so much wine in the world that wineries everywhere don't know what to do with it, one grape variety seems to be in such high demand that grape prices are rising, and...
View ArticleBeaujolais Nouveau for 10/03/2023
Decades ago, if you said "Beaujolais nouveau" in a crowded theater, you might create a panic: Half the people would be rushing to get some, while the other half would be running to get away from...
View ArticleEuro Versus Cali for 10/10/2023
California wine is basically all about sunlight and softness; most European wines are all about clouds and crispness.Though it's infinitely more complicated than this, these two statements could well...
View ArticleBig Bottles for 10/18/2023
One of my worst days as a wine writer came about 10 years ago when I tried to lift a 12-bottle box of wine and heard something in my back that didn't sound very good. It also was painful. The resulting...
View ArticleSweet Red Wines for 10/24/2023
All things change, and many of the changes may be seen only in retrospect.Some issues are in structural elements of society that once were this way and now are that way. Sexual mores have certainly...
View ArticleZinfatuated for 10/31/2023
Clumsy, foppish, lugubrious, doleful, gloom-imposing.These are just a few of the terms that I had either used or thought of when writing about zinfandel in the late 1990s, a somber time for anybody who...
View ArticleMerlot for 11/07/2023
The film "Sideways," which was released exactly 19 years ago (October 2004), shows its absurdist antihero, Miles Raymond, trashing the merlot grape variety and the wines it makes.The film is intended,...
View ArticleWine and Food Diversity for 11/14/2023
True wine lovers adore diversity in their wines as much as they love diversity in their foods.Yet the wines we see offered to us in retail shops and restaurants are dwindling in variety. I believe...
View ArticleSparkling Wine for 11/21/2023
It's one of the world's great wine paradoxes: a delicate, subtle, food-oriented wine calling for introspection most often is used to toast horse and auto race victories, weddings, New Year's Eve and...
View ArticleGo Light for 11/28/2023
As we approach a series of holidays that call for celebratory beverages, most of which will include alcohol in one form or another, the risk of overindulgence often is ignored.In the quest to find...
View ArticleBeaujolais for 12/06/2023
One of the world's forgotten wines, but a delightful diversion, is Beaujolais nouveau — that frivolous red wine that is almost like white wine with color.For decades, Beaujolais in all its forms has...
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