Wine

I will call her Signora Moscato.“If someone only drinks Moscato, but would like to switch to a red,” she asked, “what kind of red would make a good transition?”The question arrived via Facebook Messenger. When I pulled up a photo of the sender, sure enough, she was young. She had discovered my wine blog and was asking for advice. She was in for a big leap. I first consulted some seasoned veterans at Wine Wizard’s, provoking numerous smiles and raised eyebrows at Signora Moscato’s predicament. Before giving her advice I tried to firm up her spirits. Regardless of your first impressions, I[...]

I recently cancelled all my wine club memberships, except one. They were a waste of money, but that’s not why I did it. It was a proliferation of unopened wine bottles all over my house, wines I would never drink, that finally caused me to go clubless. Living in Northern California, so close to thousands of wineries, the temptation to join wine clubs can be hard to resist. It was often the first time charm of a new winery that caused an impulsive decision to join. If I wasn’t taken by the landscape, décor, or winery staff, it would be the[...]

It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte loved Chambertain, a wine from Burgundy, and he drank it watered down. Was Napoleon a brute, coarsely treating fine wine?Au contraire. Burgundy wines at the time were not at all fine. They were so muddy and rough that  diluting them with water was the only way to make them drinkable. What about wine chilled with ice, like hard liquor on the rocks?  Never! That’s the standard snob answer. Really?A case in point. The 2007 Jaboulet Vacqueras you see in the above picture was so highly extracted, almost tarry, and so tight, despite its nine year old[...]

“High extraction,” I said, describing an Italian wine during our Friday night tasting group. It was a 2007 Campaccio Terrabianca,  a super-Tuscan,  Sangiovese fortified with Cabernet and Merlot. The comment provoked a challenge from a member of our group, a relative newcomer with Italian roots, who took umbrage at the slight – it was indeed a slight – and asked me what exactly I meant by “high extraction”. If I perceived a fruit forward style or high concentration, then why didn’t I say so?The wine was fruit forward and concentrated, but I had meant something else. I had no answer at[...]

“Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.” Lettie Teague, wine columnist for the Wall Street Journal, recently recounted an anecdote involving her dentist who hosted two colleagues at a fancy New York restaurant. One of his guests, a self declared wine expert, ordered three bottles of Napa Cabernet worth over $1000 and let the host pick up the check. Teague’s dentist asked her if she had heard of such a thing, while inspecting her teeth.  She most certainly had, on many occasions. Would that guest have done the same if he was paying for the wine himself?Do wine[...]