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

Tweet 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 [...]

2009 Burgaud Chateau De Thulon Beaujolais Villages: Top Vintage, Producer, and Value

Tweet It has been a charmed decade for Beaujolais producers and 2009 is highly anticipated as the best yet.  First there was 2003, possibly the best Beaujolais vintage in at least 40 years, producing deliciously round, richly fruited wines and then quickly followed two years later by the well hyped and overall excellent 2005 vintage where the [...]

One Enthusiast’s View on Wine as an Investment Vehicle

Tweet 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 [...]

Questioning the Sensibility of Bordeaux’s New Found Irrelevance

Tweet Eric Asimov helped me feel old, out of the loop,  and crusty today simply because I prefer Bordeaux.  Please do not crucify me en masse, and allow me to cling to a hard earned 51-year-old point of view that many of the world’s finest wines are products of Bordeaux as you join me on a [...]

Blind Tasting Series Report Part 1: Viognier

Tweet After a several year hiatus, a successful season of reincarnation has passed for the blind tasting series and wine enthusiast group that I am pleased to regale monthly at my home.  Each tasting requires hours of preparation including wine acquisition, printed line ups, tasting agendas, room set, food and bread supply, wine prep, glassware [...]

Courting Mencia: How Have I Lived Without You?

Tweet 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 [...]

15 Wines in Simple Format Unlock Path To Wine Apprecation

Tweet 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 [...]

Reconnecting with Cotes du Ventoux in New Hampshire

Tweet 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, [...]