Weekly Wine Quiz: The Wild West Factor
Welcome to the Weekly Wine Quiz! Based on feedback from ever-so-vocal-and-intelligent peeps like you, I do not supply the quiz answer directly in the post – you will need to tune back in later in the comments sectionfor the answer. I’m still on the road and just returning this week from Australia, so once again...
What’s In A Name, Anyway? (Recent Releases From Steven Mirassou’s Not-Quite-Family-Named Brands)
After six generations of pressing grapes in California, the Mirassou family has only one son left who owns a wine brand: Steven Mirassou. But he can’t legally use his own name on his bottles, despite the fact that Mirassou’s have been making wine since the mid-1800s, probably longer than any other CA winemaking family. He...
When The World’s Greatest Foodie Took On Wine
Mary Frances Kennedy (M.F.K.) Fisher shuffled off the mortal coil twenty years ago this Summer. Twenty years on after her departure, her status has not change a single jot: Fisher’s still the greatest food writer who has ever lived. Don’t believe me? Try out the latest collection of some of her work, Musings On Wine...
Monday Mini Wine Reviews Round-Up For May 14, 2012
So, like what is this stuff, anyway? I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine sample tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible. Below is a wrap-up of the twitter reviews...
Weekly Wine Quiz: State Of (Grape) Affairs
Welcome to the Weekly Wine Quiz! Based on feedback from ever-so-vocal-and-intelligent peeps like you, I do not supply the quiz answer directly in the post – you will need to tune back in later in the comments section for the answer. I’m still on the road this week in Australia, so once again I ask...
Winners Of The DLW 2012 Colorado Wine Taste-Off (And Why CO Wine Might Already Have World-Class Potential)
The conclusion of the recent 2012 Drink Local Wine Conference in Denver was a “taste-off” competition of sorts in which twenty-plus Colorado wine producers each poured two of their offerings, with the media and attendees voting on which of those offerings were the “best” on hand (technically, one producer wasn’t pouring wine, in terms of...
Interviewing Winemakers, Old Vines, And… Alpacas
So it’s not just you – I really have been popping up all over the place lately. In what was an odd but fun (there’s a fitting life summary, actually…) stretch for me, I was interviewed several times over the past several days, twice for radio (on WBAL’s The Sipping Point and The Wine Crush...
Why Do Local Wine And Local Food Hate Each Other? (A Late Dispatch From DLW 2012)
As you know… I live in Tuscaaaaaaaaaaaaaany… Oh, wait, that’s some other guy who critiques wines and makes videos. Let’s try this again… As some of you know, I was in Colorado recently, touring the Western Slopes wine regions of Grand Valley and (the really high elevation of) West Elks, and finishing up by attending...
Monday Mini Wine Reviews Round-Up For May 7, 2012
So, like what is this stuff, anyway? I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine sample tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible. Below is a wrap-up of the twitter reviews...
Weekly Wine Quiz: Scuppers The Wine? (And Bound For Oz!)
Welcome to the Weekly Wine Quiz! Based on feedback from ever-so-vocal-and-intelligent peeps like you, I do not supply the quiz answer directly in the post – you will need to tune back in later in the comments section for the answer. Blah, blah, blah – you know all this already… Now, this week I’m off...
In Pursuit Of (And Catching) Balance With Raj Parr’s Sandhi Wines in NYC
With the In Pursuit Of Balance tasting (which recently hit NYC), co-creators Parr and Jasmine Hirsch (of Hirsch Vineyards) have brought together some of the most exciting – and highest quality – producers of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in California (many of which hail from the West Sonoma Coast, where those wines are rapidly reaching...
Why Rating Wine Is Bad Science