VINOGRAPHY: a wine blog
Wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world
~ Recently in Wine Reviews Category ~
2007 J. Rochioli "River Block" Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
It took me a long time in my evolution as a wine lover to truly understand the amount of money and sweat and energy that goes into building a world class winery over decades, even centuries. Many wine lovers early in their education (and in their earning power) are often flummoxed by prices for wines that start to head north of $80 or $90 per bottle. Should they pursue their love of wine long enough to really learn (and see for themselves) what kind of work goes into some of the world's best vineyards, and to taste the wine that... continue reading 
- Posted by: Alder on July 2, 2009 9:46 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
Comments (3) - 
TrackBacks (0) - 
Permalink
The Joy of Spätlese: Tasting the 2008 German and Austrian Vintage from Terry Theise
The wine world needs more people like Terry Theise, the man I call the Shakespeare of Terroir. It's so easy to get caught up in the stuffy, over-intellectualized world of wine geekery, where people endlessly debate the smallest aspects of winemaking or vintage ratings. All of us who spend enough time talking, thinking, and reading about wine get sucked into that world occasionally. But I find myself attracted to those who fall into that trap with the least regularity. As luck would have it, there are several simple cures for me readily at hand whenever I forget that wine is... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 1, 2009 11:09 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best Pinot Noir in California?: Tasting Pinot Days 2009
The Pinot Days grand tasting event, which took place yesterday at Fort Mason in San Francisco, brings together one of the largest collections of Pinot Noir producers in North America for the tasting pleasure of the public. I was interested to see whether attendance at this year's event would be noticeably lower, but if it was, I couldn't tell. The place seemed just as packed as ever, which is a good thing -- the California wine industry needs all the help it can get in this recession. So needless to say, I was in good company tasting yesterday with 3500... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 29, 2009 10:32 PM
- Filed under: Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (8) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Giacomo Conterno Barolo and Barbera: Italy's Greatest Wines?
Because of our deep history with wine, the standards by which we judge today's efforts must be placed within the context of tradition. While we can judge California Pinot Noir on its own merits, we cannot understand or evaluate it completely without reference to Burgundy, its ancestral home. Burgundy will always be the benchmark for Pinot Noir, as it has been for centuries. Just as there exist regional benchmarks for grape varieties or wine styles, there also exist some individual wine producers, and even individual wines, that manage to define the uppermost limits of quality or the epitome of a... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 27, 2009 10:07 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (2) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Denshu Hyakuyonju "140" Junmai Daiginjo, Aomori Prefecture
By W. Blake Gray One of the main characteristics of Japanese is its vagueness. Language is culture, and Japanese helps people get along in crowded, resource-poor cities by preventing hard feelings in conversation. Here's a good example of how this works: In a business meeting, everyone sits around the table vaguely feeling out each others' position until eventually everyone realizes what they're expected to say. Thus the first and only vote is almost always unanimous. Here's a more frustrating example: I think this sake is named "140" (hyakuyonju) because it's the 140th attempt at crossing Aomori's native Hanafubuki rice with... continue reading
- Posted by: Blake on June 24, 2009 9:42 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2006 Hourglass "Blueline Estate" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
There is no single recipe for greatness when it comes to Napa wine, but starting with a great plot of land can take you a long way. The only problem is, a lot of people don't necessarily know a great plot of land when they see one. Sometimes these plots of land can be hidden in plain sight until the right person comes along to notice. When Jeff Smith's father moved the family to St. Helena in 1964, he wasn't thinking about wine, he was thinking about real estate development. He was also thinking about the tiny trickle of tourists... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 17, 2009 9:55 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2006 Hall "Exzellenz" Sacrashe Vineyard Proprietary Red Wine, Rutherford, Napa
The pleasures of childhood call to us as adults. The tug of nostalgia is so great that we so often find ourselves indulging in little things that remind us of our early years, and in some cases we throw ourselves passionately into the pursuit of the things we have lost. Kathryn Hall lost the vineyard that was her childhood playground. Despite having managed the vineyard for nearly a decade, letting it go after her father's death was the right thing to do. But her memories of growing up among the grape vines in Redwood Valley, coupled with her enduring love... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 13, 2009 11:57 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Fontanella Family Wines, Napa: Inaugural Releases
When it comes to family-run wineries, I always enjoy seeing how the many different roles and responsibilities involved in a full-fledged winery are divvied up among the family. Often, the winery benefits from the luck of a child that has gone into marketing as a career, or a sibling that has gone back to school to learn about enology. The combined skills, passion, and familial bond that makes such wineries tick can sometimes make for quite a powerful operation. I don't think I've ever seen quite the combination represented by Jeff and Karen Fontanella. They're just a young couple in... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 10, 2009 10:53 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (2) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2004 Erba Mountainside Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
In Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of science fiction books, the main character has invented a science called Psychohistory for predicting the behavior of large groups of people. And by large groups, I mean the entire galaxy. Based partly in sociology, partly in history, and heavily in math, the psychohistorians have developed algorithms that can be used to figure out what big groups of people will do in any situation. I'm not so sure there isn't some sort of algorithm that we might be able to construct to figure out the kind of person (apart from trained winemakers or wine business... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 6, 2009 9:51 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Flowers Winery, Sonoma Coast: Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs
I love the places where wine grows in spite of the adversity heaped upon it by the place, the climate, and the geology. I also love the places where wine grows despite all conventional wisdom to the contrary -- the places everyone else avoided, but where visionary winegrowers and winemakers have staked their claims and bet their futures. Often times these two types of places are one in the same. Call them extreme vineyard sites. The places that most people would dismiss as infeasible for making wine, for one reason or another. Some of these places stay extreme, and the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 2, 2009 11:18 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2006 Jack Larkin Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
The allure of Napa is legendary, even clichéd. The wine country lifestyle, or whatever you want to call it, combined with the love of wine has inspired countless people to sell everything they own and head to Napa to try and live their own personal wine dream. There must be people who simply flounder and fail in these endeavors. Like many of the unfortunate, their stories never surface for most of us. We tend to only hear about those that succeed in turning their dreams into reality. Yet I continue to be astonished at just how many people seem to... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 30, 2009 10:46 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best Wine in Washington State: Notes from Taste Washington 2009
The first week of April I got the opportunity to do an "immersion" course in Washington State wine. No, this didn't involve repeatedly dunking me in a vat of wine, amusing though that would have been. Rather, it involved attending the annual Taste Washington wine festival in Seattle. I flew up to Seattle for two reasons. I was asked to give a seminar at the event, which I gladly did, focusing on wineries that made their wine in unconventional places like garages, barns, airplane hangers, fire houses, etc. But mostly I was excited for the opportunity to taste a ton... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 27, 2009 11:17 PM
- Filed under: Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (17) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Peay Vineyards, Sonoma Coast: Current Releases
As a wine reviewer who gets paid next to nothing for his work, I have the luxury of only reviewing wines that I think are worth writing about. I've got no deadlines, no quotas to fill, and no obligation to anyone. All of which means that it's always a great pleasure to say nice things about a wine or wines that I enjoy. But this is perhaps the most pleasurable kind of review I write. The review of a winery whose wines I can safely say are all spectacularly good -- so good that I will simply buy any wine... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 18, 2009 11:28 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (6) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Peacock Family Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain District, Napa
I have a hard spot in my heart for peacocks. Spending summers with my father in Sonoma County as a kid, we had a neighbor with a bunch of peacocks that would wander over towards our house and hang out in the trees nearby. Beautiful birds? Yes. But they also have an incredibly loud, piercing call that at 5:00 AM makes you wonder what peacock stew tastes like. I recently learned what Peacock wine, er, rather Peacock Family wine tastes like, and we won't hold the bird's reputation against Christopher and Betsy Peacock, because the wine they're making from their... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 16, 2009 9:33 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2003 Adagio "Premium" Malbec, Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina
Every time Spring rolls around, I find myself thinking wistfully of Argentina. I spent a wonderful three weeks there a few years ago just after the harvest eating, drinking, and generally appreciating everything about the country. Now, especially as our family budget gets tighter, I reminisce about amazing dinners for $25 and great bottles of wine for $15. So I dug through my notes a little just for nostalgia's sake and found a really nice wine that I discovered while I was there, but didn't end up writing about for some reason. I had asked the sommelier at Cabaña Las... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 5, 2009 10:38 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Outpost Wines, Napa: Current Releases
To the casual visitor or inexperienced wine lover, Napa may just be a name on a bottle, or a vision of vineyards stretched between Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. But like many wine regions, Napa is only a word on a map and an official designation for a group of winegrowing regions that, at times, seem to have little in common. The extreme variations of climate, soils, and topography among the various sections of Napa County make the subdivision of the region into separate AVA's (American Viticultural Areas) an inevitability. The variety of terroirs represented by these 14... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 3, 2009 10:59 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2007 Morgan "Metallico" Chardonnay, Monterey
It's not a huge leap from veterinary medicine to winemaking, and that leap is made even shorter when you're enrolled at UC Davis which happens to be the top school in the nation for both. Dan Lee initially thought he wanted to work with animals, but a few courses as electives during his vet school tenure were enough to convince him to immediately enroll in the Enology program as soon as he finished his undergraduate degree. While he still loves animals, Dan hasn't looked back, graduating and continuing on to become a winemaker for Jekel and Durney (now Heller... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 29, 2009 9:41 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 François Blanchard "Violoncelite" Cabernet Franc, Touraine, France
Perhaps some of the most interesting wines in the world are made by cranks, crackpots, and wackos -- iconoclasts that keep time to their own secret rhythms and make wine in ways that often make sense only to them. You might say that I'm a collector of such wines and winemakers, in the same way that young boys collect baseball cards. And today I'll add another to my growing menagerie of eccentric visionaries that make extraordinary wine. François Blanchard is a jazz musician who one day found himself the owner of his family's (somewhat decrepit) wine estate and decided that... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 25, 2009 11:04 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Tasting the Wines of Mendocino
The wine regions of California are in various states of evolution when it comes to marketing themselves as a region. The best known areas, namely Napa and Sonoma, have been long organized and motivated to promote their regions as a whole, marketing their geographies like brands, with great success. This success derives from both their maturity as wine regions, as well as the concentration of wineries (and therefore funding for such initiatives) in each. Other wine regions of California continue to evolve, of course, and are doing their best to increase their visibility and identities in the minds of wine... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 14, 2009 11:39 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (10) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The World's Best Kosher Wine?: Tasting The Covenant
The more stories I hear about how some wineries get started, the more I tend to think that by far the best way to start a wine brand is almost by accident. Ten years ago if you had told wine writer Jeff Morgan that he'd eventually be making the best (and most expensive) Kosher wine in the world, he would have probably fallen off his chair laughing. At that point, his exposure to Kosher wine consisted of the seven consecutive years he wrote (what he says was) essentially the same story on Kosher wine for the Wine Spectator. I'm not... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 9, 2009 10:20 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
1999 Washington State Cabernet: Perspectives and Tasting Notes
This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend Taste Washington, the state's annual showcase of its wines. My ratings for the more than 200 Washington wines I tasted will take some time for me to transcribe and tabulate, and will be posted here on Vinography later this week. In the meantime, however, I thought I'd share my tasting notes from one the seminars I had the opportunity to attend during the first day of the festival, a look back at some top Washington Cabernets from 10 years ago, and a comparison with their recent 2006 vintage. Moderated by Bob... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 5, 2009 11:12 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (12) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
New Cabernets from Napa
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist or an exploratory marine biologist. I had dreams of discovering lost civilizations or new species in the oceans or jungles. I never quite managed to fulfill that dream, but I have managed to channel some of that passion into the discovery of new wines. In the past few years, there has been an explosion of new wineries in Napa. Other than the market forces that made making Napa wine pretty attractive, and therefore something people wanted to try, I'm not entirely sure what might be responsible for this serious... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 2, 2009 10:42 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (16) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Merry Edwards Wines, Russian River Valley: Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs
Meredith "Merry" Edwards drives an SUV with a license plate that matches the title on her business card: Reina de Pinot. With far too few female winemakers in this country, claiming to be the Queen of Pinot might not involve much competition no matter what your real qualifications. But anyone would be hard pressed to find a woman winemaker in the Western Hemisphere that has more experience growing and making Pinot Noir than Merry Edwards. Frankly, there aren't many winemakers, men or women, that have been making Pinot in the state of California for more than thirty years. Edwards started... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 24, 2009 10:41 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (18) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best Italian Wines: Tasting Tre Bicchieri 2009
I pride myself on my broad tastes in wine. I like wine from everywhere, and don't believe I have a specific bias towards one region or another. However, each year, that claim is shaken a little bit as I emerge from what is one of the best wine tasting events held in San Francisco, The Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri tasting. For those unfamiliar with the Gambero Rosso, it is essentially an organization focused on the promotion and evaluation of Italian food and wine that each year publishes a guide by the same name. The Gambero Rosso is the Italian Wine... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 19, 2009 11:00 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (11) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2007 Burgundy: Tasting the Frederick Wildman and Sons Portfolio
The average wine drinker doesn't think much about distributors and importers. And why should she? There's not much need to interact with the folks behind the scenes who are responsible for getting wine into stores and restaurants where the public gets a chance to try them. Despite a general lack of familiarity with this whole tier of the wine industry, it should come as no surprise to most wine drinkers that there are a lot of different kinds of wine distribution companies. Just as there are different kinds of wine retailers, from the corner liquor store to the highest-end wine... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 8, 2009 10:43 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Rivers-Marie Winery, Sonoma Coast: Current Releases
The creation of a new winery is always an exciting thing, especially when it is founded with the goal of being small, conscientious, and expressive of a particular place and grape. Like turning the corner in a new neighborhood and discovering a tiny shop that sells exquisite crafts, or finding a hole in the wall restaurant that serves the perfect version of a favorite dish, tasting great wine from a recently begun boutique winery is one of my favorite experiences in the world. We hear a lot (and I certainly write a lot) about wineries or wine labels that represent... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 2, 2009 10:19 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best Cabernet In Napa: Tasting Premiere Napa Valley 2009
One of my favorite events each year involves the opportunity to sample some of the best wines that Napa produces in a given vintage. At Premiere Napa Valley, an auction that serves as the world's most expensive "bake sale" to support the efforts of the non-profit Napa Valley Vintners Association, journalists like me get a chance to sneak a taste of hundreds of unique wines that are purchased by the nation's top wine retailers at staggeringly high prices. This year, as every year, 200 member wineries each crafted a unique auction lot of wine that in most cases represents the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 25, 2009 10:17 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (1) - Permalink
Kapcsándy Family Winery, Napa: Current Releases
Napa has a way of turning modest dreams into major productions. Lou Kapcsándy and his wife Bobbie decided to retire to Napa mostly out of nostalgia for the picnics and wine tasting they used to do as a young married couple living in Sausalito. Forty years after the first of these romantic escapes, their retirement dream included only a little cottage with at most an acre or so of vines, so Lou could putter in the garage and make a barrel or two of wine from his backyard fruit. Three years after the family, including their son Louis, made the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 21, 2009 8:40 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best Zinfandel in California: Tasting ZAP 2009
In this tough economic climate, people are spending less on the discretionary side of their budgets. If you had asked me to make predictions, I would have told you that this would likely have led to fewer people attending this year's ZAP Zinfandel festival. Certainly market data are showing us that people are buying less expensive wines, and I would have thought that meant spending $69 for a chance to taste a whole lot of Zinfandel would be hard to justify. But the line snaking around the edge of the parking lot, and the crowds inside proved me entirely wrong... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 16, 2009 10:03 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (8) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Ladera Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain, Napa
I've been drinking wine for more than 30% of my life at this point, taking notes on wine for ten years, and writing this blog for five, but despite that fact, it's not exactly common for me to be able to say with certainty that I've tasted every vintage of a particular wine made by any one winery. Even those wineries whose inaugural vintages debuted since Vinography became a going concern I am generally not able to taste their wines with regularity every single year. But there are a few wineries whose wines I have been buying and tasting since... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 8, 2009 8:02 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (6) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best of Brunello: Tasting the Latest Wines from Montalcino
Anyone who doesn't fall even just a little bit in love with Tuscany the first time they visit should probably be locked away from the world. There's something magical about the place that suffuses every bit of the landscape, the food, the people, and the very air. The first time I visited with (then girlfriend) Ruth we managed to hit it perfectly at the peak of Spring -- the hills were green, the poppies in full bloom, little puffy clouds in the sky, 80 degrees... you get the picture. Makes me misty-eyed just thinking about it. While we were there,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 1, 2009 3:55 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2007 Cooper Mountain Vineyards "20th Anniversary Reserve" Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon
One of the great pleasures of wine appreciation will always be the process of tasting the wine of a single winery over a very long span of time. Tracking the products of a winery's labor over the years can be remarkably rewarding regardless of whether the experience is one of consistency, or of progress and change. I've only had the pleasure of tasting the last two vintages of wine from a little family winery in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Despite my recent introduction to Cooper Mountain Vineyards, I can almost taste the twenty years that came before this, their 20th vintage.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 29, 2009 10:36 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (6) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best 2006 Bordeaux: Tasting the Union des Grands Crus
Every Spring the wine world begins to buzz with the anticipation of tasting through the latest vintage of Bordeaux. I've never been to the En Primeurs tastings, but I would like to go sometime to see the pomp and circumstance, but not really to taste the wines. Young Bordeaux are some of the most difficult and unpleasant wines to taste in the entire universe, especially when they're not made particularly well. A tasting of the 2006 vintage a few days ago, sponsored by the Union de Grands Crus des Bordeaux, was a both a good reminder to not open any... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 26, 2009 11:30 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (9) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2004 Domaine de la Bouissiere Gigondas, France
The best known and highest quality wines of the world continue to get more expensive over time. This is a function of the increasing value of their brands, the increasing recognition of the regions they are grown in, and the rising demand for top tier wines. These price and popularity gains filter down from the most well known wines to those that are slightly less well known, producing the aggregate effect of price increases in most of the world's famous wine regions, at least for the wines that represent the upper end of the regions production. As a result, regions... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 17, 2009 10:14 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Croatian Wine: Some Tasting Notes
There are a lot of wine regions I have yet to visit in the world, and with a young child I don't think I'll be getting to many in the next few years. But now that I've ticked South Africa off the list (a list that I've never really sat down to write), the region at the top may very well be Croatia. And this was before I tasted through the recent case of Croatian wines that arrived on my doorstep. Now that I've tasted them, I'm kicking myself for not dragging myself and Ruth there while we were childless.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 13, 2009 11:03 PM
- Filed under: Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (18) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2003 Smith Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain District, Napa
There are more legends, stories, fairytales, and fables than anyone could count which all involve some guy up on a mountainside somewhere. Sometimes a hermit, sometimes a wizard, sometimes a troll -- sometimes just an old man who went to sleep under a tree for a long, long time. No matter what the story, there's always something a little different about the guy on the mountain, something that is both scary and alluring at the same time. Stu Smith might be living out yet another version of one of these tales. The fact that Stu sports a big gray and... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 10, 2009 6:23 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Kubota Manju (Junmai Daiginjo), Niigata Prefecture
When people often ask me how I "got into wine" I have a sense that they are expecting me to relate some story of a revelatory mouthful -- that one wine which struck me like a lightning bolt and sent me down the path to become the wine fanatic that I am today. Strangely, I possess no story like that about wine. I remember merely a pastiche of many special and prosaic moments with wine that have gradually led to me to the depths of my current passion. I do, however, have a story like that about how I fell... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 5, 2009 10:18 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (9) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Alfred Gratien Champagne, Epernay, France: Current Releases
The more good Champagne I have, the more it seems to me that you really get what you pay for. Unfortunately, what you have to pay for the really good stuff is out of the reach of most wine lovers, which was why I didn't like Champagne until several years after I started getting into wine. Now I love it, but only because I've been able to taste Champagnes like these. Alfred Gratien represents an interesting class of Champagne producer. When we speak of those who make Champagne, we most often talk about the Champagne "Houses" -- the massive brands... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 3, 2009 10:50 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Sparkling Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (8) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Two Hands Wine, Barossa, Australia: Current Releases
One of the things I love about the wine world is the way in which it rewards people with vision, initiative, talent, and above all, passion. I find it magical that someone can fall in love with wine, and decide that the most important thing for them to do for the rest of their lives is to make wine, and then actually make a living following that passion. Maybe the same thing happens in a lot of industries, but you just don't hear such stories about accounting. Or maybe we only ever hear about the success stories in the wine... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 24, 2008 8:45 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2007 Rosemount Estate Show Reserve Chardonnay, Mudgee, Australia
In this day and age of farmers markets, boutique stores, and micro-breweries, it's easy for the upwardly mobile wine lover to forget that there are a lot of great wines on the market that are made in quantities well north of 5000 cases. There are big wine companies that make great wine, and big wine companies that make lousy wine. And some that do both. I've had mixed luck with Rosemount Estate wines throughout the years. I've had some wines that were everything I wanted them to be, and others that sent me running for the hills. In particular I... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 22, 2008 10:33 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (13) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2002 Bressan "Special Bottling" Pinot Nero, Friuli, Italy
I'm not entirely sure why some of the best wines in the world are made by people who are more than a little crazy, but there are enough wacko winemakers out there to make it clear that the connection between great wine and reclusive eccentrics is more than mere coincidence. Even more telling are the number of these "eno savants" (to perhaps coin a phrase) that live in Friuli, in northeast Italy. Once upon a time, there was no Italy, there was only the river Isonzo, winding its way down out of the Alps towards the Adriatic sea. From the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 7, 2008 10:04 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (15) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
1996 J. Rochioli "West Block" Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
To paraphrase Shakespeare, there are wineries that are born great, those that achieve greatness, and those that have greatness thrust upon them. To explain: some fantastic wineries are started by people who are superstars already, and it hardly seems to matter what they do -- these properties are destined for success. Some top wineries seem to come from nowhere, and indeed have greatness thrust upon them, when out of the blue, their wine scores highly somewhere and they are vaulted from obscurity to fame. The majority of the best wineries in the world, however, fall into Malvolio's second category through... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on December 6, 2008 11:55 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2006 Jean-Paul Thevenet "Vielles Vignes" Morgon, Beaujolais, France
The wine industry spends a lot of time and energy fighting for the attention of global consumers. In particular, they've tried hard to market seasonally to consumers, but they just can't quite compete with the likes of Oktoberfest for beer drinkers. The best that the wine industry has been able to come up with sends even the most tolerant wine lovers running for cover every November, as the rollout of Beaujolais Nouveau reaches ever more spectacular heights of commercial bling. It would be one thing if the wine was even somewhat drinkable. But these days, what passes for Beaujolais Nouveau... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 26, 2008 10:49 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (12) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2006 Williams Selyem "Hirsch Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
We don't have a Cru classification in California (we just have mailing lists and release prices) but there are a few vineyards in the state that would most certainly be at the top of the list. Their names are well known to those wine lovers who can afford the generally expensive wines they produce, and one of them is unquestionably the Hirsch Vineyard. First planted in 1980 by farmer David Hirsch, the Hirsch Vineyard is located on the mountain ridges above the northern California town of Fort Ross at 1500 feet above the ocean surface and 3.5 miles as the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 23, 2008 9:40 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2004 E. Guigal "Chateau d'Ampuis" Côte-Rôtie, Northern Rhone, France
One of the greatest experiences that a wine lover can encounter is a wine that stops them in their tracks. I'll admit that I'm excitable in general, but there's nothing that gets me quite so giddy as a schoolboy as when I stumble across a wine that truly bowls me over. Such wines are the closest I get anymore to the emotions of that first passionate kiss in a new relationship -- they electrify me. While the world slows down to a crawl around me, all I want to do is stick my nose in the glass and inhale slowly.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 18, 2008 10:36 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best South African Wines, Part II: Cape Wine 2008 Scores
I went to South Africa to learn about South African wine, and the primary way for me to do that is to taste. So taste I did -- probably more than 500 wines by the end of the week -- spending two full days going from booth to booth at the Cape Wine 2008 expo trying to taste a wide cross section of South African wine while at the same time making sure to hit some of the producers I knew were among South Africa's best. The end result? Scores for more than 350 wines, and a very rapid education... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 16, 2008 10:11 PM
- Filed under: Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
1999 Perrier Jouet "Cuvee la Belle Epoque" Brut Champagne, Epernay, France
As some of you know, there was a time when I didn't really care for Champagne. But like so many preferences formed early in our lives, it turns out that I just hadn't had the good stuff. Unfortunately for my pocketbook, I eventually did find out what all the fuss was about, and now I enjoy it immensely. That is, as long as it is good. And good Champagne, invariably means expensive. I run the risk of coming off as snobbish, or at the very least elitist by saying this, but more so than most wines, you really get what... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 12, 2008 10:05 PM
- Filed under: Sparkling Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2006 Handley Cellars "Hein Vineyard" Pinot Blanc, Anderson Valley
California's Anderson Valley remains one of its least known and most under-appreciated wine regions. In particular I believe it to be under-appreciated for its Pinot Noir, in particular, and in some cases, its Alsatian varieties of wine. I offer a slight caveat to the latter because while Anderson Valley is certainly known for producing wines in the style and varieties of those found in Alsace, France, in my experience they are mixed in quality. But when winemakers manage to get things right, Anderson Valley can produce some stunning examples of wines that might, in the right circumstances be mistaken for... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on November 8, 2008 11:28 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2007 York Creek Vineyards Touriga Nacional Rose, Sonoma County
One of my favorite punching bags in the world is the sorry state of California rosé. For some reason, winemakers just don't seem to be able to produce the beautifully dry, crisp, tart rosés that I have come to expect from southern France, southern Italy, and northern Spain. These Mediterranean wines are the benchmark for rosé, and most American wines fall quite short. Which is why I'm so enthusiastic when I discover pink wines that are made well in this country. And when they're made of exotic grape varieties, so much the better! If you gave me three guesses as... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 28, 2008 9:59 PM
- Filed under: Pink Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (8) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Cadaretta Winery, Walla Walla, WA: Current Releases
I make it my habit to pay attention to new, small wineries. Generally that means seeking them out at public tastings, perking up my ears when I hear the names of wineries I don't know, and approaching each box of unknown wine I get on my doorstep as the potential to be something new and exciting. Generally, whatever you might like to call these efforts of mine, if they can be described as efforts, tend to be focused on California. This probably comes as no surprise to most, but that has nothing to do with my preferences, so much as... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 24, 2008 10:42 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Notes and Selections from the Wine & Spirits Top 100 Tasting
There are good public wine tastings and there are bad public wine tastings. The difference between the good ones and the bad ones can be quite dramatic. The bad ones are in crappy locations, are poorly organized, offer no food, and only mediocre wines. The good ones are, well, just the opposite -- nicely organized, well catered, and offer great wines. And the best ones? Well, they start with a red carpet and get better from there: all-you-can-eat eat oyster bars, cheeses, constantly refilled platters of hors d'oeuvres, and wines that sometimes retail for hundreds of dollars, if you can... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 20, 2008 11:00 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (6) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2006 Blackbird Vineyards "Illustration" Proprietary Red Wine, Oak Knoll District, Napa
As you likely know, I make it my business to keep my eye on new California wineries, especially in Napa and Sonoma, as much as I can given the fact that I do a lot of other things besides write about wine. Whenever possible, I like to taste the first releases from these wineries. They are not always fantastic - some are good, some show potential, and some simply need to be written off as first efforts and retried again later. That's the thing about wines, just because they're not good now, that doesn't mean they won't be later, and,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 16, 2008 10:29 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Ehlers Estate, Napa: Current Releases
Who ever heard of a non-profit winery? The first time the folks at Ehlers Estate told me they were, I laughed. But somehow it's true -- amidst the glitz and glamour of Napa, there is a small winery that feeds all its profits back into the cardiovascular research foundation that owns it. There is, of course, a story behind this most unusual of affairs. The Ehlers estate was established in 1886 by Bernard Ehlers, who erected a winery building and carved his name in the stone above the doorway. Ehlers purchased the estate for $7,000 in gold coin from an... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 15, 2008 9:55 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Sadie Family Wines, Swartland, South Africa: Current Releases
I went to South Africa to learn about its wines. This meant understanding first hand what the country's wine regions and winemakers were capable of, and by implication, how they stacked up against the rest of the world. My main activity in pursuit of this goal consisted of tasting hundreds and hundreds of wines at Cape Wine 2008, the biannual trade show of South African wine. After about 10 hours of doing nothing but tasting wines, I had learned a thing or two about South African wine, the wine regions, and the various styles of wine currently being made throughout... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 3, 2008 10:24 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best South African Wines: Tasting the 2008 Cape Winemakers Guild
During my week in South Africa, I had a lot of educational experiences that involved serious spates of tasting, but perhaps one of the most insightful involved my attendance at the Cape Winemakers Guild pre-auction tasting. South Africa sports (to my knowledge) a rather unique organization known as the Cape Winemakers Guild. Started 25 years ago by eight South African winemakers, this association has been, and continues to be, the "who's who" of the country's winemaking talent. The CWG has as its mission to simply advance South African winemaking to the highest possible levels of quality and international recognition. Membership... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on October 1, 2008 11:01 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Tasting the Red Wines of Simonsberg Ward, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa! I've come down to the Cape Winelands to dive deep into South African wine in a way that isn't possible in the United States. In most wine stores I'm lucky to find a handful of South African wines at most, and forget about restaurants, which often just have a single representative wine on their list, if anything at all. So I'm here under the imposing shadow of Table Mountain to attend Cape Wine 08, the biannual South African wine convention -- their equivalent of VinItaly or VinExpo. I'll be visiting a few wine producers,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 23, 2008 3:43 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
1996 Walter Hansel Estate Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
One of the greatest, though imminently forgivable, crimes perpetrated by a large number of even the most knowledgeable wine lovers consists of the tendency to consume great wines before they have had the opportunity to fully develop. Sometimes referred to as "infanticide," this practice varies in its levels of extremity depending on the category of wine. In my opinion, perhaps the most slighted of all categories in this respect is California Pinot Noir. While it may not have the aging potential of Burgundy (though we don't really know for sure -- no one has been making really serious Pinot Noir... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 20, 2008 1:27 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (11) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Gargiulo Vineyards "G Major Seven Study - 575 OVX Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville, Napa
There's something really cool about seeing a young winery start to hit its stride. I've only seen a few newborn calves and foals in their first moments after birth as they learn to use their spindly legs, but it's hard not to feel a sense of pride when after a few minutes, they go galloping around in circles. I was first introduced to Gargiulo Vineyards at a wine bar in San Francisco a couple of years ago. I just happened to stop by for a drink, and April Gargiulo was on hand, pouring what was then her family's second release... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 13, 2008 5:16 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (2) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Minogawa Shuzo "Koshino Omachi" Daiginjo, Niigata Prefecture
In the wine world, the grapes matter. Move past the varietal surface of wine consumption, and you'll quickly descend into a world where the qualities of a given wine (say, Russian River Pinot Noir) are discussed in terms of how Dijon clone 667 grapes do on Riparia Gloire rootstock. In the world of sake, a lot of things matter, from the water, to the yeast, to the Koji mold -- and of course, the rice. To say that rice is to sake as grapes are to wine is not entirely accurate. For instance, the primary differences in how two different... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 7, 2008 4:17 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Freeman Vineyard and Winery, Sebastopol, CA: Current Releases
Say what you want about the state of America, I know of no other place where it remains so imminently possible to realize your dreams. These days it takes a lot of money to do it, but this country is still one of the easiest places to decide that you want to achieve something, and then set out to do it. This is especially true in the wine business which, despite being a far cry from the pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps success stories that typify the American Dream, continues to support those who decide to take their strongest passions and turn them into... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on September 2, 2008 8:28 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
1997 Staglin Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford
From the late 1800's to the first half of the twentieth century California represented a land of opportunity for many. In Northern California, this potential seems to have been realized in particular by Italian immigrants who settled North of San Francisco in great numbers, founding small towns up the coast and in the inland valleys. Drive Highway 1, Highway 12, Highway 116, and the Bohemian Highway North of the city and you'll pass old barns and homesteads, country stores, and several Italian restaurants that have been operating continuously since at least the Thirties. That these fiercely determined immigrants met with... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 28, 2008 4:56 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
JC Cellars, Oakland: Current Releases
In the Silicon Valley, business incubation is quite common -- larger companies often provide financial, operations, and moral support to smaller companies that they themselves have started, or outside start-ups that they believe have a good potential for success. This practice has become so normal that some companies have established entire business models based on incubation. Incubation has also become common in the wine industry, where the costs of all the equipment and supplies required to make wine can be an extreme barrier to entry, and a source of extremely high overhead for those who do take the plunge. Just... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 24, 2008 5:00 PM
- Filed under: Pink Wine , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Kamoizumi "Summer Snow" Nigori Ginjo, Hiroshima Prefecture
Review By W. Blake Gray Stop the presses -- no, wait, this isn't printed. OK, stop the Internet -- I found an excellent nigori sake! Nigori is the White Zinfandel of sake. It's tremendously popular, particularly with people just discovering sake. It tends to be very sweet. And experts turn up their noses at it, usually with good reason. Nigori sakes are white and cloudy because they contain bits of rice that didn't complete fermentation. They have an interesting, chewy texture. What turns off sake aficionados, more than their sweetness, is their lack of complexity -- you don't get the... continue reading
- Posted by: Blake on August 21, 2008 4:31 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (2) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Tasting the Wines of San Francisco's East Bay Wineries
Wine country is now 15 minutes from downtown San Francisco, thanks to the surge in wine producers that are popping up all over the East Bay (and in San Francisco proper, too!). Oakland, Alameda, and Berkeley are now home to more than a dozen wineries that range in size from a couple of people and a couple of barrels, to some of California's most lauded wineries. A couple of years ago, these wineries got together and formed a marketing association that would help them all gain more visibility. This organization, known as the East Bay Vintners Alliance, has begun to... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 20, 2008 8:38 PM
- Filed under: Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2003 Meyer Family Cellars "Bonny's Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville
Heritage plays out in many ways in the Napa Valley. There are only a few remaining families that have been farming in the valley since Prohibition, and even those that have tenures lasting more than three decades are increasingly being supplanted by new blood or corporate interests. Some of those families that have left the valley after decades often move on to other enterprises after cashing out on their vineyard investments. However, it's tough to abandon Napa Valley once you've lived and loved there for so long. Winemaker Justin Meyer moved his family to the Anderson Valley in 1999 after... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 14, 2008 11:18 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best Pinot Noir in California?: Tasting at Pinot Days 2008
The Pinot Days event, which took place on the last weekend in June this year, brings together one of the largest collections of Pinot Noir producers in North America for the tasting pleasure of the public. It's taken me quite some time to get this report out. Such tasting reports are the most time intensive blogging that I do, especially when the organizers of events like Pinot Days don't have an electronic list of the wines that are being poured at the event. Which means I need to transcribe the hundreds of wines and scores that I record in my... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 9, 2008 9:23 PM
- Filed under: Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Hughes-Wellman Cabernet Sauvignon, St. Helena, Napa Valley
Good wine is rarely made by accident. So much can go wrong in the winemaking process that to get something that isn't complete dreck is a triumph, and those who are capable of creating fantastic wines are, despite their modesty and common protestations of "just letting nature take her course," truly talented artisans. While wines, and great wines in particular, are made with incredible forethought and planning, sometimes wine labels can spring up overnight as the result of an opportune conversation or new friendship. Such is the case with this wine, which may be the first and only vintage under... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on August 2, 2008 10:57 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (2) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Just When You Thought France Was Making Progress
No matter how bad you think you have it, there are other folks who have it worse than you. We American wine lovers like to bitch about what a royal pain it is to buy wine from out of state wineries and from internet merchants. In truth, it is a broken and corrupt system -- a perversion of the free market that enriches protectionist state governments and their wholesale lobbyists. But it's not as broken as France. Yes, this is another rant against the idiocy of the French government and their utterly astonishing tendency to ruin their own wine industry,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 31, 2008 11:23 PM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine Reviews
- Comments (9) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
La Brancaia, Chianti, Italy: Current Releases
Tuscany will always hold a special place in my heart. If not for the dreamlike quality of the rolling Chianti hills in Spring, then for the fact that it was the place I realized I was probably going to marry the woman who is now my wife, and the place she fell in love with wine (she was already in love with me, thankfully) for the first time. The red wines of Tuscany can be as frustrating as they are fantastic. Just ask anyone who's had their share of lousy, watery Chianti at neighborhood Italian restaurants in the United States.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 26, 2008 11:30 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Vérité Wines, Sonoma: Current Releases
Formulaic is an adjective that is often leveled at some of California's top boutique wines and their winemaking. As if when you finally manage to afford all the components required to make a high-end wine, that somehow you just throw them together and, "poof" you've got yourself a $300, 94 point superstar. This stereotype is especially convenient for those who can't afford to drink such wines. I should know. I still can't afford to drink such wines, and while I've learned better now, about 10 years ago I believed that the only thing special about big name wines was how... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 21, 2008 11:34 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (28) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2006 Baker Lane "Hurst Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
Some people seem to get into the wine business through sheer determination. After years of saving, scraping, dreaming and planning, vineyard or winery ownership is the fulfillment of many people's long held (if not hard earned) fantasies. And then there are those people who somehow seem destined for it -- people whose stories you hear and you think, how on Earth did you manage not to do this earlier? If Stephen Singer was going to fall into one of these categories it would most certainly be the latter. In 2003 he became the proprietor of a small winery called Baker... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 19, 2008 11:17 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Hungarian Wine on My Doorstep
After nearly five years of writing about wine on the Internet, you wouldn't believe all the things that I've been propositioned with. Of course, I get a lot of wine samples, but I also get all sorts of unsolicited e-mail offers of sample products (many of which have nothing to with wine), offers to pay me to review products or services, requests to visit various places, to have dinner with strangers, not to mention all the honest questions and requests for advice from wine lovers. One of the oddest e-mails I've ever gotten however, was an e-mail that simply read... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 16, 2008 11:57 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (17) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss, Alsace: Current Releases
The wines of Alsace are some of the most unique and distinctive in the world. They are also some of my favorites, not only because they are delicious, but also because they are made by some of France's most individualistic and headstrong vintners. Alsace has long been a place apart, both from France and Germany, each of which have laid claim over the valleys and hills that lie west of the Rhine river which currently demarcates the border between the two nations. It's easy to characterize the region as a smooth and quirky blend between the two countries, but... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on July 12, 2008 10:46 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Akitabare "Shunsetsu" Nama Honjozo, Akita Prefecture
By W. Blake Gray "Spring Snow" is a pretty good nickname for a sake because it sounds not just delicate and natural, but outright freaky when you think about it. Snowing in springtime? You don't see that often. Same for its sake namesake -- although in this case, blame not Mother Nature, but the US government. Akitabare "Shunsetsu" ("spring snow") Nama Honjozo is highly unusual because it combines a class of sake we often see in the U.S. -- nama -- with one that we don't, honjozo. Honjozo sakes are basically the same quality as junmai sakes, because at least... continue reading
- Posted by: Blake on July 8, 2008 10:30 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (0) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Italian Wine Tasting Notes From The Golden Glass 2008
These days, with a newborn, I don't get out to many large tasting events, but one I decided I shouldn't miss this year was the annual Golden Glass tasting in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. This tasting is an annual fundraiser for Slow Food USA, and has been called the best single wine tasting event in San Francisco by more than a few wine lovers I know. In addition to having a reputation for pouring a lot of great wine (mostly Italian) the Slow Food focus attracts many of the top artisan food producers and restaurants from around... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 26, 2008 10:37 PM
- Filed under: Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Veramonte "Primus" Red Wine, Casablanca Valley, Chile
It's hard to believe that in the early 1990's less than 100 acres of vineyards were planted in Chile's Casablanca valley. In little more than two decades, this region of Chile has surged in growth and popularity, and is currently producing excellent wines that generally represent fantastic values on the world market. The region is currently home to more than 10,000 acres of vineyards. Back when the grape acreage was still in the triple digits Agustin Huneeus decided that the Casablanca valley was one of Chile's most promising wine regions, and that he needed to start making wine there. Not... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 25, 2008 10:18 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (8) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Kamotsuru "Sokaku" Daiginjo, Hiroshima Prefecture
One of the fascinating and attractive things about sake breweries are their (usually) much longer and storied histories than the wineries of the western world. While there are a few wineries that have been in existence for a few hundred years, there are many more sake breweries that have been doing their thing for many hundreds, some continuously operated by a single family. Kamotsuru Shuzo may not be one of the oldest breweries in Japan, as it can only trace its history back to 1623, and really only began production under the Kamotsuru name in 1873, but it is one... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 23, 2008 11:06 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (0) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Star Lane Vineyards "Astral" Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Ynez Valley
There are those in the wine world who seek out (and often pay for) the best possible advice they can get. Winemaking and winegrowing are sciences as much as they are arts, and these days, there are plenty of experts to be had in both arenas. And then there are those in the wine world that no matter what the scientists, experts, and even their friends say, choose to follow their instincts. Call them pig-headed, call them eccentric, call them iconoclasts, there are certain people that will always walk their own paths when it comes to wine. Jim Dierberg seems... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 22, 2008 10:17 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Takasago Ginga Shizuku "Divine Droplets" Junmai Daiginjo, Hokkaido Prefecture
It is deep winter. The snows lay heavy on the mountains of northern Japan. Cedar trees hang sparkling, dusted with ice, over frozen rivers and streams. The air is crisp, even crystalline in its stillness, and the white landscape yields only the slightest muffled sounds. In the heart of this winter landscape a strange sight emerges every winter. A huge igloo, constructed entirely of ice, filled with rotund canvas bags. From these somewhat alien shapes that hang suspended from the ceiling at minus 2 degrees Centigrade, drip solitary drops of a sake unlike any other in the world. This strange... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 11, 2008 9:12 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Asahi Shuzo Dassai Niwari Sanbu "Otterfest 23" Junmai Daiginjo, Yamaguchi Prefecture
There is no real reason to attempt a comparison between sake and wine. Each are their own universe and deserve to be evaluated on their own terms. Leaving aside for a moment the radically different methods of their making, sake and wine are different enough that comparisons tend to introduce more confusion than clarity to any particular effort to make a point. Nonetheless, I continue to draw parallels between wine and sake if only to explain sake in terms that most wine lovers can understand. My latest angle at helping wine lovers make sense of sake comes in the form... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 10, 2008 10:13 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (0) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Kamoizumi "Shusen - Three Dots" Junmai, Hiroshima Prefecture
In the world of sake, perhaps even more so than the world of wine, just when you think you've figured out that things work a certain way, you stumble across an exception that completely destroys whatever sense of predictability you might have been cultivating. It's fairly safe to say that most fine sakes should be served chilled, to preserve and highlight their subtleties and delicate qualities. However, there are a specific class of higher end sakes that not only can be served at room temperature, but actually benefit from a little warmth. These sakes bear no resemblance in style (or... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 6, 2008 10:55 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Blackbird Vineyards Proprietary Red Wine, Napa
I make it my business to keep my eye on new California wineries, especially in Napa and Sonoma, as much as I can given the fact that I do a lot of other things besides write about wine. Whenever possible, I like to taste the first releases from these wineries. They are not always fantastic - some are good, some show potential, and some simply need to be written off as first efforts and retried again later. That's the thing about wines, just because they're not good now, that doesn't mean they won't be later, and, of course, vice versa.... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on June 3, 2008 11:43 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (13) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Slovenian Wine: A New Frontier for White Wine Lovers
The wine world increasingly sorts out into two camps, those who believe increasing globalization is good for the wine industry, and those who believe that it ruins everything good about wine. Never mind that it is most certainly happening and impossible to stop. Those who regularly follow my ramblings know that I think globalization is the best thing to happen to wine since someone figured out that stainless steel tanks made for good fermentations. Leaving aside all the petty and ridiculous arguments about the homogenization of wine, which I think are bollocks, I offer the simplest and most compelling reason... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 27, 2008 8:05 AM
- Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine Reviews
- Comments (10) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Movia, Slovenia: Current Releases
Visitors to the far Northeast of Italy, in the shadows of the Austrian Alps, quickly realize that they are not really in Italy, no matter what the maps say. Traveling to the east of Venice and north of Trieste puts one in the midst of a a patchwork quilt of languages, geography, and political affiliations. One town will speak perfect Italian, and you'll find risotto on every table and then a few kilometers away, another town will speak German and serve you knockwurst. Such diversity is actually quite entertaining and makes for a really interesting variety of food and, as... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 26, 2008 9:18 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2004 Chateau du Rouet "Cuvee Belle Poule" Blanc, Cotes de Provence, France
I drink wine from as many different countries as I can, as often as I can. I firmly believe that the only way I keep learning anything as a wine lover will be through continued exploration. There are times, though, when searching out new countries, grape varieties, and appellations just takes too much energy. At times like these, usually after a long week, I just want a nice meal and a good glass of wine to go with it. Like most people in these situations of part-exhaustion, I tend to stick to the predictable -- the least risky choice that... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 21, 2008 10:47 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (0) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Meteor Vineyard, Napa: Debut Releases
Barry Schuler may know a thing or two about running multi-billion dollar technology companies, but what he really wants to talk about, given the chance, is food and wine. The former CEO of AOL, Schuler often gets credited along with Steve Case (who preceded Schuler as CEO) for the company's success in the late Nineties. But while his colleagues and most of America's top technology executives were returning home at the end of their long days to comfortable suburbs near major metropolitan areas, at the end of the week Schuler was making his way back to Napa, California. Schuler may... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 11, 2008 7:24 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
1990 Trimbach "Cuvee Frederic Emile" Riesling, Alsace
I can remember a time when the word "Alsace" only brought to mind dim memories of my 5th grade class discussion on some valley that people were fighting about in one of those big wars. In those days I definitely couldn't spell Gewurztraminer, and I had only tried one or two of them. Perhaps you'd call me a late bloomer when it came to Alsatian wine, but bloom I eventually did, and now I'm a quiet, but fierce devotee of what I believe to be some of the most individualistic wines on the planet. Alsace has always been an... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 7, 2008 9:20 PM
- Filed under: Older Vintages , White Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Does Napa's Best Cabernet Live in Oakville?: A Recent Tasting
While often referred to as a single "place" when it comes to wine, Napa is hardly a single monolithic growing region. Each of its 14 established AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) lays claim to a separate identity, characterized by geology, microclimate, and different histories of production. The Oakville AVA has one of the most storied of such histories. It is home to the famed To Kalon Vineyard, purchased by H.W. Crabb in 1868, shortly after the installation of a railroad stop made the tiny village of Oakville spring to life. In 1876 Crabb's neighbor John Benson bottled his inaugural vintage of... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 4, 2008 11:08 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (2) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Piña Napa Valley "D'Adamo Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
If one were to speculate on the wine market as a savvy investor might in the small-cap stock market, the game would be the same: follow people you know with good track records. In the wine world, we'd also have to include a corollary about betting on great vineyard sites, but leaving aside the raw materials, it's clear that most good wines don't happen by accident. They're made by talented people. Finding talented people in Napa isn't hard at first. There are a lot of them, many of whom have big brand names. When they start working for a winery,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on May 2, 2008 11:48 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Mountain Wines of Napa: Tasting Notes From Altitude
We live in a world of marketing, where everyone struggles to distinguish their product from the competition and where seduction is the name of the game. Winemakers and producers seemingly must participate in this cacophony of messages in order for their wines to attract the attention of consumers. This competition for eyeballs in the store (or online), and then share of wallet (or, one might say, share of cellar) leads to an awful lot of hype. Wine labels and web sites are now chock full of all sorts of claims and phrases, leaving consumers to sort out the honest descriptions... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 26, 2008 11:25 PM
- Filed under: Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (11) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Domaine Albert Boxler Pinot Gris "Vieilles Vignes," Alsace
Like Jazz standards interpreted endlessly by masters and amateurs alike, grapes find infinite expression in the hands of winemakers around the world. These interpretations, filtered through the lens of a regions climate and geology, are often wildly different from place to place. Syrah from Paso Robles in California, the Barossa Valley in Australia, Cornas in France's Northern Rhone Valley, and Washington State's Colombia Gorge are so wildly different you might even question that they were the same grape in a blind tasting. Such variation serves to both delight and befuddle wine lovers at different turns, and can often prompt the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 21, 2008 10:58 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2003 Pulenta Estate "Gran Corte VII" Red Wine, Mendoza, Argentina
Three years ago this week I was making my way around the top restaurants of Buenos Aires, ordering too much food, too much wine, and having a grand old time. I had come to Argentina, in addition to simply relax, to find out whether or not there was anything worth drinking made out of a grape called Malbec. The answer, of course, was a resounding "yes!" I managed to figure out why some serious wine lovers (and critics alike) had begun to quietly suggest that Argentinean Malbec was going to be the Next Big Thing. This wine was NOT one... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 16, 2008 11:09 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Neal Family Vineyards, Napa: Current Releases
In some ways, if Mark Neal and his small winery, Neal Family Vineyards, didn't make fantastic wines, it would be cause for extreme concern. Neal has been working in the vineyards since the age of eight, and his family business, which was responsible for his early employment among the vines, has been managing many of Napa's finest vineyards for more than four decades. At this point, Jack Neal and Sons, which still carries the name of Mark's father, who passed away in 1994, is the single largest vineyard management company in Napa according to Neal. They manage well over 2000... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 10, 2008 10:11 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (0) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2005 Domaine de Chateau Gaillard Saumur, Loire Valley, France
The Loire Valley is perhaps one of the most underrated and unexplored (by most Americans) wine producing regions in France. So often eclipsed by the bombast of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhone, if it is known at all, the Loire tends to be known for its famous Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre. Yet the region, which is the largest white wine producing region in France, and the third largest winegrowing appellation (AOC) in the country, also produces many excellent red wines, chiefly from Cabernet Franc. The most dominating feature of the Loire Valley must be the river itself, France's longest and... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 2, 2008 9:20 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (11) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Obata Shuzo Manotsuru "Yososaku" Junmai Daiginjo, Niigata Prefecture
Sake brewing has a long and storied history in Japan, and because of the island nation's relative isolation, many breweries can trace their origins back several centuries. Such timelines make it possible to suggest with only the smallest hint of jest, that having only been founded in 1885, Obata Shuzo is a relatively new kid on the sake brewing block. Yososaku Obata opened his brewery in 1885 on an island off the western coast of Japan's Niigata prefecture. A vintage photograph of the founder shows him dressed in a western suit, with a handlebar mustache that most Italian's would... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on April 1, 2008 9:55 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2004 Ridge Vineyards "Monte Bello" Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Cruz Mountains
As Paul Draper was inducted into the Vintners Hall of Fame a couple of weeks ago in a ceremony at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, his acceptance speech offered a simple exhortation to members of the wine industry in attendance: make great wines for yourself and for no one else. His suggestion that winemakers follow their own vision instead of chasing the critics or the appeal of the masses (though he did acknowledge that selling wine is important, too) was backed up by the quite confidence of a man who has been doing that for more than... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 27, 2008 11:58 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (6) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best Grenache in California: Tasting Rhone Rangers 2008
Maybe I'm getting old, but I just didn't have the energy to taste 300 wines last weekend when the Rhone Rangers came to town. This is always one of my favorite tastings each year, as I deeply enjoy Rhone style wines in all their incarnations, from the crisp whites of Marsanne and Roussanne to the rich dark Syrahs, and everything in between. My usual approach consists of starting at one end of the hall and tasting through the wines like a bulldozer goes through a crowded square. This usually yields a great cross section of wines and lets me highlight... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 23, 2008 11:30 PM
- Filed under: Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (9) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Cooper-Garrod Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountains: Current Releases
One of the greatest joys in my life remains the feeling I get when stumbling upon a small winery whose name rings no bells, but who produces excellent wines. I don't know why this is, exactly, but it has replaced the childish joy I used to experience as a young boy when finding a small crystal on a hike, or setting a new personal record for stone skipping on a pond. Little wineries with high quality wines are like buried treasure, I guess, but these days my goal is not to hoard but to share as widely as possible. Which... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 15, 2008 7:15 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Undiscovered Wines , Wine Reviews
- Comments (9) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
1974 Charles Krug "Vintage Selection - Lot F1" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa
Do you want to know a little secret? I'm probably going to catch hell for telling you, especially from my friend Jack who served this wine to me, and who let me in on the secret in the first place. But he should know better than to tell a blogger anything. So here goes: Pre-1980 California Cabernets are some of the best buys in the wine world right now. Sure, some of them, especially pristine bottlings of reserve Beringer, BV, Heitz, or Stags' Leap wines are going for hundreds of dollars per bottle, but with a little effort you can... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 14, 2008 11:56 PM
- Filed under: Older Vintages , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Italy's Best Wines: Tasting the Tre Bicchieri Winners 2008
I pride myself on my broad tastes in wine. I like wine from everywhere, and don't believe I have a specific bias towards one region or another. However, each year, that claim is shaken a little bit as I emerge from what is one of the best wine tasting events held in San Francisco, The Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri tasting. For those unfamiliar with the Gambero Rosso, it is essentially an organization focused on the promotion and evaluation of Italian food and wine that each year publishes a guide by the same name. The Gambero Rosso is the Italian Wine... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 11, 2008 11:59 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (4) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The World's Best Burgundy? Tasting La Paulee de San Francisco
It's not every day that I get to leave a wine tasting knowing that I've probably spit out a volume of wine that would cost more than the entire contents of my own personal cellar. OK, I'm probably being slightly hyperbolic, but I did spend last Saturday tasting wines that for the most part I will never be able to afford to own. The Grand Tasting at La Paulee de San Francisco offered an opportunity to taste approximately eighty top Burgundies from recent vintages alongside food samples from some of San Francisco's top restaurants, including Coi, A16, Boulevard, La Folie,... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 6, 2008 11:20 PM
- Filed under: Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (5) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Kapcsándy Family Winery, Napa: Current Releases
Napa has a way of turning modest dreams into major productions. Lou Kapcsándy and his wife Bobbie decided to retire to Napa mostly out of nostalgia for the picnics and wine tasting they used to do as a young married couple living in Sausalito. Forty years after the first of these romantic escapes, their retirement dream included only a little cottage with at most an acre or so of vines, so Lou could putter in the garage and make a barrel or two of wine from his backyard fruit. Three years after the family, including their son Louis, made the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on March 4, 2008 7:54 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best Cabernet in Napa: Tasting Premiere Napa Valley 2008
One of my favorite events each year involves the opportunity to sample some of the best wines that Napa produces in a given vintage. At Premiere Napa Valley, an auction that serves as the world's most expensive "bake sale" to support the efforts of the non-profit Napa Valley Vintners Association, journalists like me get a chance to sneak a taste of hundreds of unique wines that are purchased by the nation's top wine retailers at staggeringly high prices. This year, as every year, 200 member wineries each crafted a unique auction lot of wine that in most cases represents the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 24, 2008 10:34 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (10) - TrackBacks (1) - Permalink
2004 Swanson Merlot, Oakville, Napa
People travel all sorts of roads to get to Napa Valley. Napa is a refuge for those who can afford to pay for their dreams (with both time and money), and is therefore a place that many choose to reincarnate themselves as winemakers or winery owners after quite storied careers elsewhere. It is also a place that some families begin new legacies for their younger generations. The Swanson family comes to wine, rather uniquely, through what some might consider the antithesis of Napa's California cuisine: frozen TV dinners. Yes, Swanson Frozen TV Dinners. If that four word phrase doesn't ring... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 14, 2008 11:28 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (7) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Spring Mountain Vineyard, Napa: Current Releases
Friends and acquaintances often ask for recommendations on where to go in Napa, and I always tailor my response to my understanding of how serious they seem about wine. The majority of such petitioners are just looking to have a bit of the "Napa experience" and so I send them to a mix of my favorite wineries on the valley floor that are easy to find, and that produce wines in various styles and price points. For those who are serious about wine, and want to spend the entire day tasting some of the best wine they can, I always... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 10, 2008 2:27 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (2) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
The Best Zinfandel in California: Tasting at ZAP 2008
I never cease to be amazed at the power of Zinfandel. At the last major Pinot Tasting in San Francisco, I thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, Pinot Noir had unseated Zinfandel as the most exciting grape for the Bay Area wine drinking public. But who was I kidding. I simply just didn't remember the extent of the reveling hordes that descend on San Francisco's Fort Mason Center for the event known as ZAP. When I emerged for a breath of fresh air from the trade and media portion of the tasting, the line to get in to the... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on February 5, 2008 9:49 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (16) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2006 Orin Swift Cellars "The Prisoner" Red Wine, Napa
I wish I knew how many wineries in Napa started as "just a guy who decided he wanted to make wine one day." There must be dozens of them. Maybe hundreds. These numbers shouldn't be allowed to devalue the effort and vision it takes to create a successful winery, but sometimes I scratch my head in bemusement at the audacity of so many people who simply decide to throw their lives into the wine business. While we don't really hear about the ones that don't make it, there are enough of them that have become wildly successful that "the guy... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 31, 2008 11:19 PM
- Filed under: Red Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (18) - TrackBacks (1) - Permalink
Tablas Creek Vineyard, Paso Robles: Current Releases
It always comes as a surprise to some American wine lovers when they hear about French wineries deciding to open up shop on American soil. I think this surprise comes not only from the historical rivalry between California and France that came to head in the 1976 Paris Tasting, but also because America is used to being in the role of colonizer, rather than the colonized. I also think that most wine lovers have the impression that the all French think of America as the land of fake wines made on soil with no terroir. Unfortunately, it is pretty easy... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 27, 2008 10:07 PM
- Filed under: Wine Reviews
- Comments (1) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
WBW#41 Roundup Has Been Posted: Friuli White Wines
The white wines of northeastern Italy have never been on the radar for most Americans. Robert Parker's Wine Advocate only began covering this area in the past year, thanks to the addition of Italian critic Antonio Galloni to his staff. Yet this area produces some of the world's finest white wines. The best of these wines are made in very small quantities and are quite expensive and difficult to get ahold of here in the U.S. but as more importers seek out the nooks and crannies of the wine world, we are slowly beginning to see more wines from Friuli... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 25, 2008 10:13 PM
- Filed under: White Wine , Wine Activities , Wine Reviews
- Comments (0) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
Kikusui Funaguchi Ichiban Shibori Honzojo, Niigata Prefecture
I'll admit it right off the bat: I'm a serious sake snob. I don't mean that in the sense that I believe my taste in aake is superior to anyone else's, only that I'm extremely picky when it comes to sake. In particular, I tend to discriminate on the basis of the class of sake. I tend to prefer ginjo and daiginjo sakes, and most often the junmai versions of these. Ginjo and daiginjo are the two top classes of sake, as measured by the degree to which the rice kernels used to make them have been milled or polished... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 23, 2008 11:33 PM
- Filed under: Sake , Wine Reviews , Wines under $20
- Comments (3) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink
2002 Vodopivec Vitovska, Friuli-Venezia Giulia IGT, Italy
In the far Northeastern corner of Italy there lies a countryside that is better defined by wine than by any geopolitical affiliation. The far eastern edge of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia winegrowing region has been a member of many countries and many empires, and by now its people are used to living in different countries every three or four decades, it seems. The one constant in this area of small picturesque valleys and numerous natural limestone caves (good for hiding from whoever your present occupiers are), has always been wine, and in particular, white wines, some of which I will unabashedly... continue reading
- Posted by: Alder on January 16, 2008 9:41 PM
- Filed under: Boutique Wines , White Wine , Wine Reviews
- Comments (14) - TrackBacks (0) - Permalink