Smart Pick For Global Champagne (Or Any Other) Day

Bringing the right Champagne to a party is always dicey and curious business for me. Picking bubbles for a gathering of wine and food writers creates new layers of complexity and anxiety.  When the occasion falls on the evening (tonight) of a global Champagne celebration that will connect tasters all around the world at their [...]

Malvasia Sparkles in Emilia

My ultimate 2009 new wine discovery was a 2006 Malvasia delle Lipari, made by Hauner, on a volcanic island off of Sicily.  I became interested in the the grape, which is actually a group of grape varieties, mostly white but also red, that can be used to produce unimaginably delicious late harvest desert wine, dry [...]

A Taste of Loire, Burgundy, and Bordeaux: Replaying Four Remarkable Wines

Louis needed to miss our 2000 Bordeaux tasting.  Instead, he was happily conflicted by a commitment to host dinner at his home for a group of thirty like-minded, active community members dedicated to the preservation and improvement of a local school system’s already profound results.   Louis was intending to pair each of the evening’s [...]

15 Wines in Simple Format Unlock Path To Wine Apprecation

Hosting less experienced wine drinkers to easily replicated and structured tasting formats appeals to my ritual instincts for making wine more accessible to more people.  On the one hand, it’s a refreshing personal break from the usual “club” and a way to strip away the bravado and bias brought to tasting tables by hardened wine aficionados.  On the other hand, it is a chance for me [...]

Reconnecting with Cotes du Ventoux in New Hampshire

With the 2006 in distribution and the 2007 releasing, stumbling  across the 2005 Chateau Pesquie Terrasses at a local New Hampshire State Liquor store last week was a pleasant surprise.  I grabbed the remaining 4 bottles on sale at $10.99, ignoring the half dozen 04s and asked for more 05.   With the New Hampshire State Commission selling the 04, 05, [...]