Wine

"I am not drinking any fucking Merlot."With that one line uttered by Miles, the Paul Giamatti  character in the movie Sideways (2004) the domestic merlot market, until then thriving, collapsed. At the time I was already an Old World wine follower, puzzled by the popularity of merlot among hipsters. I wasn't too sad to see this varietal sink. Since then I have not drank any domestic merlot.Well, it's been more than a decade. Merlot remains in the basement for many, pinot noir, also mentioned in the same movie, nowadays the hip varietal since. So when one of my wine groups[...]

An old friend just passed away. Etoile Restaurant in Yountville is no more.  It was Domaine Chandon's elite restaurant for decades, a pioneer in Napa Valley fine dining when the area was still a rural backwater. I had various personal memories at Etoile, an early foray into Napa dining, a first date with my second wife, numerous commemorative visits thereafter.When the storied champagne house Moet et Chandon decided upon an American outpost, they went all out and included a fancy restaurant in its grounds, a rarity then with wineries, as it is now. Etoile opened in 1973. Initially under chef[...]

I live within the Lodi appellation of California but rarely visit its wineries or drink its wines. Still, it is impossible to avoid news and trends in the appellation. I ran into Markus Niggli, winemaker for Borra vineyards, at a Christmas party, and  asked him if he had observed any change in client tastes over a decade at his job. Markus,  tall and handsome, still youthfully exuberant, was friendly and frank."Well," he said, "they are beginning to get used to acid."Markus has been making some very interesting, innovative wines, in particular a white blend of Kerner, Riesling and Bacchus varietals [...]

I thought I might end what's been the best year for my wine blog with a champagne edition as we prepare to celebrate the eve of the new year, the greatest occasion for the drink. Hopefully my readers will enjoy the little known tidbits below, as I did discovering them. Many thanks to my cousin Bienvenida Amir for her tip on the wonderful book by Tilar Mazzeo entitled The Widow Cliquot, a biography of the grande dame of champagne. It was also a good history of the bubbly.Everything about champagne, the light, delicate, crisp and bubbly wine screams sexy.It was[...]

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[...]