M. Senegor

The wine world can be categorized and subcategorized in numerous ways, by geography, appellation, varietals and more. One overall, fundamental distinction is that between the Old World versus New.The Old World is where wine has been made since time immemorial, most notably, but not restricted to, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. These are areas where winemaking tradition has been passed on for countless generations. The New World is comprised of all that was discovered after the great explorations of the Renaissance, including us in the U.S.A., South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and more. These are regions that do[...]

Last night I visited an old friend, the bottle you see above, Francois Berthau's Chambolle-Musigny. It was served to me by a new friend who invited us to her house for dinner.The wine, a 2007 vintage, still had the same qualities I remember as the 1980's and 1990's vintages I tasted ages ago, elegant, silky, as fruit-forward as Burgundy can get, well balanced.  It also had a clean nose, those earthy, barnyard, fertilizer noses of old having nowadays been cleansed. It tasted good alone and with salmon. The experience made me sorry that I no longer buy or drink Burgundy.Burgundy[...]

Do you have a store you love to hate? I do.Recently a friend texted me and asked if I buy wine at Costco. I don't.Well, there was this one time, I must shamefully admit, that I did buy a couple of bottles of Dom Perignon champagne there, because it was cheap. I have been known to deride this label as one for pimps and whores, and mindless jocks.But then it wasn't for me. It was a gift.My brother who lives near Kirkland, WA, a suburb of Seattle, loves everything Costco. Not only is his pantry full of Costco products but[...]

I like my white wine chilly. It is crispier, fruitier that way, less thick, less buttery. At home this is no problem. At restaurants it has unpredictable consequences. This past weekend we experienced a brand new one.When I pop the request for chill, most waiters or sommeliers place the wine bottle in some kind of cooling device, a tableside bucket of ice water, a tabletop cylindrical cooler or some variant thereof. Some however,  take the bottle elsewhere, to a central "chilling station". When this happens, watch out!Some high end restaurants keep all bottles in central serving stations, chilled or unchilled.[...]

"LaToya Jackson drinks a lot of white wine," said Jerrus about one his regulars at Fig & Olive, a swank West Hollywood restaurant. "She usually comes in with two other chicks and the three of them pound five bottles of white wine together."A local Stockton kid with youthful, infectious enthusiasm about wine, Jerrus Roxas is a graduate of our Friday night wine group, now a professional sommelier in Los Angeles. He recently re-visited his old haunts, still at home at Wine Wizard's, still amazed at the quality of bottles that appear in our blind tasting, especially Bordeaux. He was a[...]

There is a tired old joke about a tourist lost in upper Manhattan who asks, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" A local New Yorker answers, "practice, practice, practice." I can say something similar to wine tasters who want to achieve a certain level of acquaintance with the subject, "taste, taste, taste."A case in point.In  a recent blind tasting I took a smell and  sip  of a wine and I proclaimed, "2007 Vacqueras." Others around the table did the same and a discussion ensued, entertaining various guesses. When unveiled, it was indeed 2007 Vacqueras. A homerun!Impressed, my mates asked,[...]