Champagne News
This time of year there are a load of trade tastings, and even if like me, you only go to a few of them, you hear things. Some Champagne news to share with you, some of it I can directly confirm, some rumor:Frank Pascal's wines are now available in the...
Episode 1,000
Gary Vaynerchuk has finally made it to episode 1,000 of Wine Library TV! It’s been an amazing ride since that day in February 2006, with great guests, amazing (and sometimes awful) wines, as well as a lot of Jets talk. Today, the main focus is a huge thank you to all the Vayniacs who helped...
Jenny and François, Spring 2011
I stopped into the Jenny and François spring portfolio tasting the other day to taste some of the new releases. Check out their new website, by the way - it's a million times better now. Jenny and François is no longer a small portfolio of natural wi...
Mardi Gras, Gumbo & Bubbles
I’ve always wanted to go to a Mardi Gras celebration. The beads, the parades, the music, the copious amounts of alcohol consumed. I mean, doesn’t that sound like fun? What if you threw in Mardi Gras at an American theme park? Like say, Univ...
Champagne – Some Last Tidbits
Some odds and ends to wrap up my recent trip to Champagne:First of all, I was wrong when I said that Peter Liem hasn't yet written about single-vineyard wines in Champagne. He wrote an article that appeared in the San Fransisco Chronicle a few years ba...
Dompas, Dom Pérignon… Dombeya
In the Old South Africa, Black people were forced to carry passes, colloquially known as dompas (stupid pass) as part of influx control, a cornerstone of the Apartheid political system. In the empowered New South Africa, dompas have been superseded by...
Visiting Champagne Salon in Le Mesnil-Sur-Oger
My final visit of the Champagne trip was also one of the grandest, a visit to Champagne Salon. It was getting dark when we arrived but Export Director Jean-Baptiste (Tista) Cristini walked us out the back of the house and into a vineyard called Le Jard...
So, It’s Valentine’s Day …
… and you don’t have a really long time — like, about six hours — to decide (and buy) what you’re going to offer to your sweetheart — of whatever persuasion, genre, gender, age, nationality — in terms of vinous pleasure at whatever kind of festivity you have planned tonight, whether full-fledged romantic dinner, discreet...
Hung up on Classification, Champagne Style
I think that the lines that distinguish grower Champagne from big house Champagne are too rigidly drawn. If a producer farms their own grapes and makes wine from those grapes, we say that they are making grower Champagne. If a producer like Francis Bou...
Visiting Champagne Marie-Noëlle Ledru in Ambonnay
It was 5 pm and getting dark, and it was raining when we parked in front of Marie-Noëlle Ledru's house in Ambonnay.We had already made two visits that day and honestly, I was looking forward to relaxing, eating dinner, drinking some wine. Tired, cold,...
Louis Roederer 2003 Blanc de Blancs Champagne Review by Billy
Nose: sharp citrus, dry mild yeast and soft vanilla spiked caramel on the nose with minerally (lavender ?) hintsPalate: Extremely fine bubbles that float as jewels then saunter then gather at the top of the flute, trumpet or champagne glass. Dry with ...
A Trend Toward Single-Vineyard Wine in Champagne?
The hills of Champagne, as in Burgundy, are divided into many individually named vineyards, some containing more than one lieu-dit, or named parcel. In Burgundy the decision was made a long time ago to bottle the wines from each vineyard separately, an...
