Wine Crush, Knowledge, and Beauty

Tweet Two favorite wine writers recently teased at the distinction between sensual wine discovery and accumulated wine knowledge. Their words fanned a flame first kindled by my earliest wine crush back in the mid eighties. Not the press and juice kind of crush. I mean the ten-year-old-kiddie-kind-of-crush; when just the thought of that special “someone” [...]

Palate Press Uncorks Swartland Revolution

Tweet Earlier this summer (winter in South Africa’s Swartland wine growing subregion) I had the chance to mix it up with the drivers of the Swartland Revolution; the winemakers.  Ever since I began to comprehend the unusually high authenticity and quality levels of the upstart region’s wines, I started sharing information about individual pieces of [...]

The Wine and Food Culture Divide

Tweet I’ll admit to spending more time than it’s probably worth thinking about nuances in wine and food culture.  For example, I ponder how obvious it is that most of us Americans act with righteous self confidence buying, ordering, and cooking the foodstuffs and ingredients we prefer. We’ll ask questions freely when shopping or ordering [...]

South Africa Wine Immersion, My Way

Tweet I will be swirling, tasting, and spitting in South Africa over the next couple of weeks.  While I enjoy some elements of organized wine travel with groups of fellow wine geeks and writers, this trip is with family and friends on my own time and dime.  Having spent 30 years in media, organized wine [...]

WineBid Auction Kickoff: Guilt Turns Impatient

Tweet The wines I put up for sale with WineBid have been away from home for 13 days, so it’s fair time for an update.  I am finally at peace with the decision now that I’ve beaten back the guilt and fully digested the possibility of never seeing those bottles again. That’s the point, I [...]

The Guilt in Selling Fine Wine

Tweet I am in the process of selling wine for the first time; not a lot, just some.  But as a novice seller I am unsure whether I am going about this in the right way, or even if I should be selling any wine at all. Besides that tidy basket of anxiety, it’s terribly [...]

Top Three Wines of April: Alsace, Rhone, and Loire

Tweet With a clean sweep of “Top Wines of April”, I am reminded that if I could only drink wines from one country for the rest of my life, it would be France. These April winners prove that despite a weakened dollar and skyrocketing prices for in-demand Bordeaux, Burgundy, and top Rhones, it’s still entirely [...]

Second Vintage in the Bottle: Another Year of WineZag

Tweet Today marks two years of WineZag and that’s a pretty long time in blog years, I think.  For me, the end of both of those blogging years forced unavoidable reflection and moments of reconsideration for the massive time commitment dedicated to transferring wine experiences into keystrokes.  Truth be told, WineZag is so intertwined in [...]

Does Stony Hill Produce Age Worthy California Chardonnay?

Tweet My last bottles of 1990, 1991, 1993, and 1997 Stony Hill Chardonnay comprised a short vertical flight preceding two blind flights of 2007 Cabernets that sixteen members of our Boston tasting group recently slurped, swallowed, and spit their way through.  I purchased the wines on release back in the 90′s and one bottle from [...]

Top Three Wines of January: Spain and Bordeaux

Tweet Anointing three top January wines cast a cloudy challenge on WineZag’s monthly ritual.  The first thirty-one days of this new year provided ample opportunity to taste a surfeit of over-the-top wines that unavoidably skew the aggregate three bottle price skyward, approaching $450. Plaguing fact of wine enthusiasm: Great wine can be expensive and detours are [...]

Next Page »