Clos de la Roilette: Age Worthy Gamay from Fleurie

An Easter ham dinner set the legitimate stage for tasting one of several newly acquired bottles of Coudert’s 2008  Clos de la Roilette from Louis/Dressner Selections.  Tinged with intrigue and mystery, the vineyard was originally classified Moulin-a-Vent before Fleurie was declared into existence back in the ’20s, causing an angered owner to spite France’s wine market by [...]

Leonetti Cellars Merlot Vertical Tasting: Proves Ageability and Quality

In the late 1980′s before the Walla Walla Valley appellation blossomed into more than 100 wineries farming over 1,800 acres of vineyards in a particularly dry region blessed with extended growing seasons, pioneers Gary Figgins and Rick Small slipped onto my developing list of world class winemakers.  I made sure their releases beat regular paths [...]

2004 Dumol Syrah: A Country Club Wine?

American country clubs and their wine lists are simpatico; boring, nondescript bottles of wine punctuated by a few “has been”, overpriced, tired Cabernet and Chardonnay brands served up to a homogeneous pool of status-subscribing members willing to pay for social standing.   Apologies for these harshly extreme generalizations, but my memory banks were recently refreshed at a [...]

WineChap.com: When Wine Lists Matter Most

I am guilty of choosing and patronizing restaurants with quality wine lists first, great food second.  Preferring  a reasonable level of symbiosis, my restaurant choices are disproportionately weighted by wine programs.  If this resonates and you are more jazzed by contents of a subterranean cellar than walk-in refrigeration, or you just need a dose of [...]

Platter’s: Showcase and Reliable Guide for South African Wine

Sheltered from cooling afternoon rains by a thatched roof structure on the Zimbabwe side of its border with Zambia, I started applying context to a few days of exclusively South African wines. I, like lots of American wine drinkers, don’t pay a lot of attention to the category.  The US does not even rank in [...]

Wine and Food at Troquet: Half of Uncanny New York Analog

On August 26, 2009 Frank Bruni inked his last New York Times Dining column answering a group of questions that follow around restaurant critics with pulpits as authoritative as his.   Finding great value is on everyone’s minds these days, and his “top value spot” answer to New York foodies neatly covered two of my favorite [...]

A Blind Mencia Tasting

Gathered around a few white cloth-covered tables under brighter than usual Saturday night lights, I hosted a group of 17 New England tasters to evaluate a dozen wines made from the Mencia grape.  Finally, the opportunity to examine Mencia in a critical environment presented itself and I looked forward to validating my developed preference that I have unleashed on restaurant wine lists across the [...]

Bayamon and Barrilito: Sultry Escape From Snow and Wine

Wine Blogging Wednesday Solera of the Caribbean Sea, Papirusa of Puerto Rico, and the Batard of Bayamon, Ron del Barrilito (rum from the little barrel) offers palates predisposed to character-rich wines a welcome midwinter alternative.  Three Fernandez generations have crafted a mysterious, deceptively complex, amber-hued, full flavored rum using the same secret family recipe since 1880.  For full appreciation and escape from frozen tundras, you can visit the Fernandez clan clinging to their patch [...]

Courting Mencia: How Have I Lived Without You?

Bear with me, I am falling in love again.  I have been peripatetically traversing the Ribeira Sacra and Bierzo regions by tasting every Mencia wine I manage to unearth and then blabbering away about the new discoveries here at WineZag.   A byproduct of utter submission to my new Mencia tick, I recently met up with Joe Austekewicz, wine director at Yankee Spirits, who just returned from a foray through these very regions alongside Eric Solomon . [...]

Cab Franc and Falanghina With Roots

I can only tolerate an hour, or so, of tasting through large portfolios at crowded trade events.  With an air of desperation, I scurry to discover a new wine or two representing a commensurate quality and value reward for immersing in this tasting format’s inherent nest of inconvenience. My schedule had me in Boston simultaneous with the Loire Valley Wine Bureau tasting at the Taj [...]

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