Some Old Wine Bottles

95% of wines are consumed within a week of purchase.  It’s a fact, but is it vinous genocide? I had a conversation with a notable wine educator the other night who said he preferred young wines and can only recall tasting eight older wines that were worth the wait or more enjoyable to drink older [...]

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

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 possible [...]

2008 Bordeaux Vintage Tasting

The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux just rolled across America on a four city press and trade tour with more than one hundred different Chateau owners, representatives, and wines representing and promoting the 2008 vintage from thirteen different appellations.  Normally, for fun, context, and some learning I’ll pour two different vintages of the same [...]

Cazin and Williams Selyem Stretch Winemaking Boundaries

I had the chance to drink two utterly dissimilar styles of wine during Thanksgiving dinner; Cazin’s 2007 Cour-Cheverny Vendanges Manuelles ($15***) and Williams Selyem’s 2003 Forchini Vineyard Zinfandel ($40***).  Both came from my wine cellar to serve as testimony to a nagging personal dilemma rooted in an evolving and schizophrenic palate.  As full disclosure, my split wine personality [...]

Clos Rougeard Saumur-Champigny 2005: Best Wine This Year

I am fortunate to taste more than one man’s fair share of special wine every month.  Tonight, in the context of a business dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar with a young, smart, scrappy, web marketing guru from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we experienced the most compelling red wine I have tasted this year, and most probably one [...]

One Enthusiast’s View on Wine as an Investment Vehicle

I always buy wine with an intention to drink it….someday.  For me, enjoying wine requires popped corks.  Unlike paintings, sculpture, or antiques that can be enjoyed without harming value appreciation or resale opportunities, wine is a consumable whose value remains elusive until it swirls in a glass under nose, eliminating any possibility for future valuation. [...]

Blind Tasting Series Report Part II: 2000 Bordeaux

The kaleidoscope of quality wine in market channels at any given time serves as decoy and easy distraction from the simple truth of Bordeaux’s classic performance and superior drinking experience.  My cellared claret sits ignored and unmoved for long stretches of time while I uncork wines with age-worthiness generating far less confidence.  The second flight of 2000 [...]

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 [...]

WineZag Alert: How to Stretch the $US in France's Wine Market

I want to share a stunning winner from the Loire Valley, made by Marc Ollivier, fully hand harvested, from Muscadet’s heralded appellation between the Sevre and Maine rivers, that sits on its lees until bottling, which you can drink now or lay away for more than 25 years, brought to us by Louis/Dressner .  Oh and by the way, it costs $13.  An [...]

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 [...]