CABERNET FRANC; IS THERE ANY HOPE IN AMERICA?
Someone suggested a Cabernet Franc tasting, domestic versus French. Not again! Over the years I’ve been through a few of these. They have all left [...]
PAIRING PERCEPTIONS AT SEVEN HILLS
Pairing wine with food is a world onto itself. A recent dinner at Seven Hills, a San Francisco restaurant, allowed me to rediscover some rules [...]
IS HE A WINE GUY?
“Expensive wine is a weakness we both share,” he said. He took a sip of Chardonnay from a glass he had nursed through fried calamari. [...]
A TALE OF THREE 99S
Last night, by sheer coincidence three bottles of 1999 French wines appeared in our regular Friday night blind tasting. Together they underscored an important point [...]
CLONES; BEWARE OF THE BUZZ
Watch out for a new word buzzing through the wine world: Clones!I’ve been hearing it in tasting rooms, especially those that sample Pinot Noir, from [...]
WEATHER AND WINE; LET’S KEEP IT SIMPLE
The complexity of our wine universe forces us to break it into categories to make sense of it all. Varietals and geographic regions [...]
CHATEAU MOUTON ROTHSCHILD AND ITS GRAND IMPRESARIO, BARON PHILLIPE
In our rapidly changing times, one of the amazing wonders in the wine world is the 1855 Classification of Bordeaux that has stood rock solid [...]
WEROWOCOMOCO, FRANCIS COPPOLA’S NEW NATIVE AMERICAN RESTAURANT IN SONOMA WINE COUNTRY
Francis Ford Coppola is a patient visionary. In youth he surmounted many obstacles to see projects like Godfather and Apocalypse Now into award winning, classic [...]
IDENTICAL BUT DIFFERENT TWINS, A THEORY OF RELATIVITY
(Originally posted on 12/27/2014)My friend Steve Cottrell, who has a large collection of well cellared old domestics, holds an annual Christmas open house in which [...]
FRENCH SOUL, AMERICAN SOIL; MAISON DROUHIN IN OREGON
French soul, American soil. Maison Drouhin’s catchy motto for its Oregon wines. Drouhin, better known in Burgundy as a giant winemaker and negociant, legitimized Oregon Pinot [...]