Featured on The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast has published a new article by yours truly. Check it out and leave some (hopefully nice) comments: The Great Cabernet Ripoff.
This is a great honor for me. The Daily Beast is published by Tina Brown, who rejected two articles of mine when she was editor of The New Yorker, and one when...
Chateau d’Yquem
No one ever said wine folks are classy. This photo, by City Paper’s David Snyder was taken at Chateau d’Yquem in Bordeaux during our annual Cru Wine Club trip. Some people are awed by the prestige of visiting a 1st Growth winery. More often than not, wine school folks will hatch a practical joke. ....
German and Austrian Wines
This just in from the department of shameless self-promotion: There are two seats left for our German and Austrian wine class next week, which promises to be a fantastic chance to taste wines you’ve likely not had before. I was in Austria last month on a spectacular wine trip, and I can honestly say that...
PA Budget and the PLCB
Talking about the PLCB – and the inane shipping laws that affect us wine-loving folk – is nothing new. Newspapers, magazines, websites, and blogs have opined and complained and ranted and spewed on this very subject for years. But let’s put the direct shipping issue aside for a moment as there is something that is...
Down Under – Wine Australia to Shift Focus Away from “Brand Champions”
What with their over-reliance on mass-marketing lower end products (damned critter wines!); and, of course, their relying heavily on those high ratings that Robert Parker so lovingly gave to those big bad-boy Shiraz’s; yep, they kinda leaned on that too. Now sales to Britain and the U.S. are down, and the dollar? That’s levelled out...
Smoke Taint
California is no stranger to wild fires. But 2008 was exceptional by all accounts. Fires swept through wine land, leaving many growers worried about “smoke taint”. And in these strained times, it has left many wineries wondering how much to publicly talk about the problem. As one insider puts it: “The worry is the old...
Cru Club Dinner
Just a quick post about last night’s Cru Club dinner at Marigold Kitchen. Great group of people showed up (as always), and we not only drank a number of exceptional wines, but enjoyed them alongside some great dishes. Wine highlights included the Olivier Leflaive 2006 Chassagne-Montrachet, Duhart-Milon 2000, Vernay Condrieu 2007, Shinn Estate 2007 Bordeaux-style...
Wine Tasting Corner: Italian Wines
Casata Monfort 2006 “Blanc de Sers” Vigneti Dolomiti IGT
Only in a region as culturally bisected as Trentino would you find a funky blend of the obscure – Wanderbara, Vernaza, Nosiola, Veltliner rosato – and the familiar – Chardonnay, Moscato. Like the region itself, the wine represents a meeting ground of Teutonic and Italian varietals.
The Monfort cantina...
Chateau D’Alzon 1949 Saint Emilion
The story behind this bottle is intriguing. Discovered in a basement in Philadelphia recently, it was part of a cache of French wines that had been cellared and apparently forgotten about 60 years ago. A great friend of the School, Miguel L, acquired the collection and brought this bottle to class last week.
Tasting Notes:
The wine...
The Transparent Company
Here is the TRUTH about the Wine School of Philadelphia: we are a school and we teach folks about wine. This apparently obvious concept was tested recently by a student of ours.
The fellow in question attended a cooking class at the school. He was shocked SHOCKED to discover that he was attending a class and...
