A Tribute To Grace Tops Wine Blogger Conference Wines

On a weekend in Charlottesville, VA with scores of  domestic and international wine pouring sponsors, ballroom wine fests, fleets of buses covering area wineries, half a dozen restaurant wine lists, and countless treasured bottles transported by wine bloggers from their personal cellars, I had the prettiest and most compelling wine poured for me by Hardy [...]

Swartland Perspective By David Sadie

While he shares what is arguably the most popular surname inside the Swartland, South Africa winemaking cadre, David Sadie is busying himself in Tulbagh without any family relation to the other Swartland Sadie, building a reputation all his own.  I met up with David in a quest to understand why Swartland is surfacing as the dominant [...]

Peeking In On Winemakers in Swartland, South Africa

South Africa’s emergent Swartland wine scene nested somewhere near the center of my cultural and intellectual wine curiosity ever since tasting a bottle of Sadie Family Vineyards’ Palladius more than a year ago. Understanding why Swartland consolidates a disproportionate share of the most interesting and compelling wines South Africa has to offer became a personal mission [...]

Controversy Corked: 2005 Joly Coulee de Serrant Savennieres

It’s a controversy I won’t take sides with and instead hope to convince you of its senselessness. Never mind the plethora of world class, fairly priced, old world wines anchoring my enthusiasm for the Loire Valley. Instead, let’s focus on magicians like Foucalt, Huet, and Joly that are flooding my deepening vortex of Loire fanaticism [...]

Olivier B Cotes du Ventoux Winery Rescued By Bloggers

A wine story rightfully deserving its own screenplay has unfolded in the Cotes du Ventoux. Scripted by French wine bloggers leveraging the social web, then serially turbocharged by social media’s influence on traditional media, the Olivier B Winery has apparently been rescued from the edge of wine making extinction.  Any film highlighting this southeastern Rhone wine producer’s story [...]

Does Stony Hill Produce Age Worthy California Chardonnay?

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 each [...]

Avanthia Godello and Mencia: Valdeorras Magic in a Bottle

Avanthia is a knockout, compelling young project unveiling itself in the Galician mountains of Valdeorras in Spain’s extreme northwest. I remain in awe of Avanthia’s interpretation of Mencia and Godello after discovering these wines in complete serendipitous fashion. Magic in a bottle flows from this collaboration involving Jumilla’s established Monastrell-proficient Gil family, venerable importer Jorge Ordonez, [...]

2009 Clos de la Roilette Cuvee Tardive: Holiday Gift From Top Vintage

My brain flushed with a recognizably joyous sensation opening a newly arrived case of 2009 Clos de la Roilette Cuvee Tardive.  I made a mental note about how the flow of wines from a reportedly great new vintage like 2009 in Beaujolais, where nature’s growing season appears to have supported more consistently reliable fruit and [...]

Lopez de Heredia Wines Showcase Unique Style and Age Worthy Rioja Tradition

I lean towards naturally made wines subjected to minimal human intervention that can transport me to the vineyards, hills, and cellars of their birthplace.  So it was no surprise that tasting through seven recent releases from the venerable Rioja producer, Lopez de Heredia, made for a compelling, head-turning, and fully recommended indulgence. These are profound wines which [...]

2005 Clos Rougeard Les Poyeux and Menton Boston

In both cases, drinking 2005 Clos Rougeard (click for review) and luxuriating over dinner at Barbara Lynch’s Menton (click for review) in Boston’s Fort Point extension last week were opportunities for critical return visits.  I first tasted the entry level 2005 Clos Rougeard Saumur-Champigny a couple of months back and made my one and only previous visit to [...]

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