Scientist discovers way to pre-score Bordeaux 2011 vintage
A French scientist has determined a way to evaluate the quality of the next Bordeaux vintage–vintage 2011, that is. Jacques Meganote, a researcher at INRA in Bordeaux, has collected samples from the tendrils the vines in the region have shot out already this year. Using a complex blend of mass spectronomy, DNA analysis, carbon dating,...
Wines that growl
Remember the “Fill ‘er up” wine from a tank? Sadly, there have been no US entrants to this space in the scant six months since we posted despite a lot of interest. However, the NY Times recently observed that the Community Tap in Greenville, SC (photo, above) is offering wine-to-go as wine “growlers” akin to...
Sexy wine writing, green wine, wine century, Rhys – sipped & spit
SIPPED: the life of a wine writer! Ray Isle, the brightest star of wine TV, writes a terrific “week in the life…” essay for NY mag. Oh, man, do I want to be a wine writer when I grow up! GUSHED: American pinot Mike Steinberger rhapsodizes over the pinot noir from Rhys Vineyards, calling them...
Should critics embargo Bordeaux 2010 scores? #jancis
Jancis Robinson floated a novel idea on her website last week: what if critics, who descend on Bordeaux shortly to taste 2010 barrel samples, withheld their scores until the Bordeaux trade had finished their pre-sale campaign (known as en primeur)? The logic is that high scores for what is already an extremely hyped vintage would...
Lubricating the wheels of policy
What drives policymaking that affects wine consumers? Thanks to opensecrets.org, we get a glimpse into how the sausage like HR 1161 gets made. Spot the consumer groups on the list! via WII
Further discussion of the political coloring of beer and wine ...
Drink sake night — but I don’t know sake!
It’s “drink sake night” tonight, and since I have other plans, I hopped on it last evening. I figured it was the least I could do after suggesting you try a sake last week to help out the brewers hit by the earthquake and tsunami. It was a fun challenge because I don’t know much...
BREAKING: Jay-Z profits from Armand de Brignac!
In an extensive waste of the journalism world’s precious resources, Zack O’Malley Greenburg has uncovered what we have known since 2006: Armand de Brignac is mediocre Champagne at best and Jay-Z profits from it! Greenburg has a chapter of his forthcoming book on Jay-Z published in The Atlantic (although, mysteriously, it has been removed from...
Who’s the loser in The Great Pinot Switcheroo?
Raj Parr is the wine director at Michael Mina’s restaurants and a partner at RN74, a Burgundy-centered restaurant in San Francisco. When RN74 opened a couple of years ago, Parr drew attention by saying that he wouldn’t carry pinot noirs or chardonnays over 14% alcohol. So, as we mentioned earlier, it was interesting that Adam...
Counterfeits, smashing, slashing, chugging — sipped & spit
SIPPED and SMASHED: Lafite empties After tasting older vintages of collectible wines before an auction, the bottles are routinely smashed. Why? An empty bottle of Lafite 1982 fetches $1,500. [CNN] SIPPED: counterfeit bottle William Koch, the billionaire wine collector, bought a bottle of 1870 Lafite from a Christie’s auction for $4,200, discovered it was fake,...
HR 1161: the threat to wine shipping, Part II
Last year, a rag-tag coalition introduced a piece of legislation that threatened wine shipments. It’s not even Halloween but the scary news is that, like Poltergeist II, this horror show is baaaaaack. Now known officially as HR 1161, and unofficially as the Wholesaler Protection Act, the bill seeks to restrict legal challenges to the interstate...
Gary Vee unplugs from Wine Library
Wine Library TV has kicked the Jets bucket! After 1,000 episodes of Wine Library TV (I had a good time with him on episode #771), Gary Vaynerchuk has decided to hang up his signature Jets bucket. Well, sort of. Many of his fans had wondered if one day Gary might leave the wine world entirely...
Helping Japan, with sake and support
My wife and I were in Tokyo on September 11, 2001, preparing to come home the next day. Needless to say, our return was delayed. During that extra time in Japan, so many locals expressed their sympathy and condolences to us for what had happened in the US. The tragedy in Japan over the past...
