Languedoc Scope Maps Value and Challenge

Like so many older European winemaking regions, the Languedoc has instigated its own transformation during the last decade as more informed and new generations of winemakers introduced state of the art winemaking technique to showcase local terroir.  The development can not be taken casually since the Languedoc, combined with its southwest neighboring sister region Roussillon, represents more [...]

Wine Writing Styles Reflect Culture

There is no surprise that Do Bianchi author Jeremy Parzen, whose wine and food credentials drip with immersion and cultural understanding, recently managed to illustrate old world vs. new world wine writing styles in utterly poignant fashion.  In his post about the differences in European and American wine writing genres he brings new light to the [...]

2009 Bielsa Vinas Viejas Garnacha Is Not Pizza Wine

A member of our Boston blind tasting group, Rich Schnitzlen, recently re-merchandised 70% of the inventory that fills my town’s wine shop. The fact that we have only one store of any kind in the entire town, and its proprietors added the wine shop last year following a town vote allowing the sale of alcohol makes it [...]

Top Three Wines Of September

Tom Matthews, Wine Spectator Executive Editor, left an intriguing and somewhat tongue-in-cheek comment today on a WineZag post that I published earlier this week which featured some thinking stimulated both by Terry Theise’s new book and my palate’s evolution over the last twenty five years.  Here is Tom’s comment that he left today: “The ‘quiet [...]

Authentic Wines Advance Palate and Stir Soulful Wine Appreciation

I repeatedly ponder two questions about wine appreciation.  First, I query myself about my evolving preferences, wondering if my shift to more authentic old world wine is palate driven or trend inflicted.  Secondly, I ask myself how so many practical people get so wrapped in wine minutia, devoting large chunks of their waking time studying, tasting, [...]

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 [...]

Declaring Mencia King

My love affair with the Mencia grape is officially out of control.  Tasting through more of these wines at Toro (which is by the way Ken Oringer’s restaurant serving very serious food in a relaxed but energy charged atmosphere…sitting on my top ten all-time list for “simply delicious” and a winning choice for Beantown foodie indulgence) convinced me that my first [...]

Venerable Value Trove or Flash in the Pan?

US consumers just might develop whiplash keeping up with declarations of new regional sources for quality wine values.  Rewind the last ten years and value arrows have stopped on Spain, Argentina, Australia, Germany, Languedoc, Beaujolais, Chile, Loire, and more.  And, there appears to be no let-up. Trying to make sense of the shifting landscape, each new pronouncement of dominance in the global value segment falls neatly into one of these [...]