Wine-Searcher.com Turns Joys of Wine Shopping into Risky Anonymity

If wine-searcher.com has its way, their claim and grip on wine market transparency will replace the joyful pleasures of physical wine browsing and shopping.  Wine enthusiasts will be relegated to replaying memories of crouching dusty floors and scavenging Sam’s (Chicago wino history) original North Avenue location’s end bins for discoveries and deals.  No longer will [...]

Connecting Intellectual and Palate Learning: Tasting Two Sakes and California Cabernet

An insatiable hunger for discovery and wine education is rewarded every time I taste wines in peer groups.  Without the chance to examine lots of wines every day over an extended period, even frequent tastings of one wine per sitting lays down hurdles to thorough assessment most easily cleared via contextual, side-by-side tastings.   The most [...]

Uncovering Boston BYOB and Wine Berserkers

Late edit and FYI:  Disappointingly, Mark Squires unfriended me on Facebook minutes after publishing this post here and sharing the link on Facebook.  To Mark Squires:  Sorry if you were offended by anything I have mentioned here, it was not my intention.  Please refriend me on Facebook, I enjoy the information you share there.
Open [...]

Zalto: Wine Glasses for the Cosmic Connoisseur

Somewhere in between making wine and storing wine, service plays THE crucial supporting role in a wine’s performance. Mistakes in temperature, aeration, and glassware can foul things up as easily as contaminated or cooked cork can. Conversely,  it is not secret that great glassware can pump up a tasting experience like sluggers on steroids.  That [...]

Bottle Age Challenge: 1985 Lynch Bages vs. 1985 Chateau Montelena

I opened two $20 wines, one from Napa Valley and one from Bordeaux’s Paulliac appellation, for a few remaining tasters hanging around after our challenging 2007 Southern Rhone tasting. Don’t let the retail values throw you; price tags are acquisition costs for the 1985 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon and the 1985 Lynch Bages that I [...]

Open Offer to Taste My (Malcolm's) 1982 Vieux Chateau Certan

I consider myself “wine fortunate”, acquiring wine and friends over the years that fuel hedonistic and intellectual wine passions.  One of those friends is Malcolm.  I don’t see Malcolm regularly, yet each year for the last 15 we manage to find opportunities to get really silly and drink ridiculously excellent wine together.  It was great to see [...]

Putting Simple Wines to Tests of Age and Environment

Ever wonder what would happen subjecting simple wines, intended for immediate drinking pleasure, to extended aging terms in unsuitable environments?  It’s a risky wager and not a fully recommended strategy, even with careful wine selection and pristine cellaring conditions.  While vinous curiosity has driven some oddball aging decisions in the hopes of padding my stash with more bottles showing advanced flavor and aroma nuances, (you can read more about when wine is ready to drink in this post at Palate [...]

A Case for Avoiding the Wine Rating Mousetrap

Leave it up to an expert on randomness and a statistician turned winemaker to make an astonishing case that wine ratings are inconsistent and unreliable.  The debate on ratings value has been legitimately extended by a couple of primary and secondary research studies presented by Robert Hodgson in the Journal of Wine Economics.  Hodgson’s work and conversations with a few high profile wine critics [...]

Bang for the Buck: Magically Transforming Moulin-a-Vent

I purchased a reasonable amount of mixed 2003 Cru Beaujolais by Georges Duboeuf on release since the vintage appeared to be of historic quality and the best wines could be had in the usual $15-$20 value range.  They were enjoyably rich and round with the great depth of fruit that was a signpost to the vintage’s outstanding conditions.  These wines were consumed [...]

New York Wine Experience; Part II

A general assembly gathering of some of the nation’s most rabid fans side by side with an impressive line up of the world’s elite group of makers, negociants, and sellers of fine wine kicked off a day of informative tasting and recognition for outstanding performance this past Friday at the Wine Spectator’s New York Wine Experience.
Following on the [...]

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