Wine

Grilled Saratoga lamb chops for dinner, my favorite. Instead of the usual Southern Rhone reds I drink with these, I decided to open the wine you see on the left, 2003 Reserve de la Comtesse, a lower level product from the folks who make the much loved and very expensive Pichon Lalande. While I love the latter, I have never warmed up to their lesser offering in past tastings. Thus already prejudiced, I took a sip before dinner, and I thought "oh, crap." It tasted too lean and acidic. I wanted a fuller wine.So I opened the bottle to the right,[...]

The great ascent of Northern California wine, which began in the 1970's after decades of post-Prohibition stagnation, occurred emulating France. Domestic Chardonnay, currently ubiquitous and  mundane  was inspired by white Burgundy, and Cabarnet Sauvignon by Bordeaux. Nowadays these varietals come in divergent styles and prices. How well do they hold up against their French counterparts? In general they don't. One can say that California has come of age and demonstrates its own expression, its own terroir and style. Critics complain that many California wines are "commercial" copycats of each other, sloppily made and overpriced. Leaving style aside, when it comes to[...]

Last week we hosted some friends in San Francisco and found ourselves having lunch at Chez Papa, a French Bistro at Potrero Hill. Our guest Mark was handed a wine list which he briefly perused, and he then looked at me. "Let's order a Chinon", he said, "that is a great lunch wine, don't you think?" I courteously nodded my approval, and successfully concealed my surprise at his choice. The episode made me think about wine for lunch, if it should happen much, and what's most appropriate for this occasion. I am not much of a daytime drinker. My work[...]

Yesterday was an important landmark in the history of my wine collection. I opened the above bottle, a 3 liter Schug Pinot Noir, circa 2003. I have bought several such large format bottles and, as I complained in prior blogs, I have not found any occasion to open them. The bottle has a special history. In 2006, when I bought it, I was in Yountville for a business retreat, and it happened to be during a special "Winter in Carneros" event, where one can register, pay a fee and for two days go winery hopping in the region. We did[...]

"Oregon is like syphilis", I said the other day. The comment caused raised eyebrows. We were at our weekly Friday night tasting which involves sampling concealed bottles brought randomly by group members, the tasting devoid of any theme, and trying to guess what the wines are. After playing this game for over a decade, and most in our group have well trained palates, guessing varietals becomes fairly easy. Locales and vintages are harder.Many in our wine group are doctors, but not all. Doctors regularly engage in differential diagnostic thinking when evaluating a disease. The patient presents with certain clues, symptoms, physical[...]

Yesterday, while tasting a 2008 Cotes du Rhone I mentioned to a novice fellow taster that this was a not so good year. "2002 and 2008 were bad years in the Southern Rhone", I said. He soon whipped out his iPhone and double checked my proclamation with a free app he had installed from Wine Spectator. A few taps and he nodded with approval and looked back up at me, obviously impressed. "84 and 86 ratings for those years. You were right", he said. I did not consider myself much of a genius, for after all from 1998 to 2010,[...]