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Orogeny Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2004 $22 Rabbi Tuchman says: We were invited to a friends house for lobster on Father’s day. Yeah, it’s a tough gig. Since we tend to drink more red wine, it was my mission to pick up some Chardonnay while I was out shopping for the meal. I tend to struggle [...]
It’s time for a break. Back with updates from 20th November, and who knows - maybe the Autumn issue will also be out before the clock strikes December! a holiday time
Schlepping in the West Village. Cold and windy but bright. Glamour and sensuality are well hidden today, layered away for winter. The same could be said for the heady, expansive displays of prosperity which ruled till just yesterday. Christopher Street, once the epicenter of gay commerical life, is half shuttered and empty. Many storefronts are bare except for rebtal signs in English and Spanish. Familiar coffee bars and eateries seem long gone. The same forlorn...
Continuing our coverage of the 2008 Hospice du Rhône, we had some burning questions and we wanted some answers. What do today’s winemakers, producers, importers, and attendees think of: High alcohol wines? Your favorite: French vs. American wines? What’s your favorite amongst the 22 Rhone varietals?
Ringing in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, this cheap wine was an equal match to the FishEye Merlot. From Ripon, California, this wine lets the fruit speak for itself. Along with the dark plum taste, I also experienced a little pepper in the nose.
At only 8 dollars a bottle, I found this to be a great wine. I had mine with Spicy Montreal seasoning. Try it! Rating: 7/10 Price: 7.99 Place of purchase: L&L Grocery Vineyard Info: FishEye Winery Ripon, CA www.fisheyewines.com
Mr. Ramsay is not actually in residence at his latest London venture, the York & Albany, but the place has all his hallmarks: professionalism, attention to detail and tweaks of idiosyncrasy.
An over excited spectator at the final day of the Indy . The track ran right past our building. I do have photos of him running back to collect his clothes.
It's been a wetter and milder than normal November, which perhaps accounts for the large number of snails in my garden. I've ceased my campaign of chemical warfare and decided coexistence and photography is the best approach. . .
Ahhh, “Dear Abby“…what ever happened to that in this age of near real-time social media…anyway, here’s one thats worth a chuckle (but not worth the e-mail bandwidth its probably taking up!).
Maybe this is a way to reduce traffic on the Internet, just post funny stuff up on a blog and send friends the links not giant emails.
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Dear Abby:
I have never written to you before, but I really need your advice. I have suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me. The usual signs; phone rings but if I answer, the caller hangs up. My wife has been going but with ‘the girls’ a lot recently — although when I ask their names, she always says, “just some friends from work, you don’t know them.” I always try to stay awake to look out for her coming home, but I usually fall asleep. Anyway, I have never approached the subject with my wife. I think deep down I just did not want to know the truth, but last night she went out again and I decided to check on her finally. Around midnight, I decided to hide in the garage behind my golf clubs so I could get a good view of the whole street when she arrived home from a night out with ‘the girls.’ When she got out of the car she was buttoning up her blouse, which was open, and she took her panties out of her purse and slipped them on. It was at that moment, crouching behind my golf clubs, that I noticed a hairline crack where the grip meets the graphite shaft on my 3-wood. Is this something I can or should try to fix myself, or should I take it back to the pro-shop where I bought it and try to get a refund?
If you were to sit down to your last dinner and were offered one last bottle of wine from anywhere in the world - what would that wine be and why?
Additionally - if two sommeliers, namely Robert Parker and Hugh Johnson, approached your table to offer you advice - who's suggestions would you take most to heart?
I'd go with Johnson and signal Parker away from my table :)
Fall is just around the corner and few wines are more enjoyable when the weather turns cool than Italy's Sangiovese wines. In the video below, Iron Chef Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich discuss how best to pair Sangiovese with food. Take a look:
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With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, people will be uncorking bottles of wine the world over. After all, when you think romance, wine is never far behind. In her book, The Simple & Savvy Wine Guide, author Leslie Sbrocco suggests “a deep red wine such as a sparkling Shiraz” as the perfect drink to celebrate the occasion. She also set about to dispel a few popular wine myths:
Myth: A screw cap means the wine is cheap. Fact: Some of the world’s most forward-thinking wineries are using screw caps these days. They’re easy to open and reclose, and they preserve the wine longer.
Myth: Older wine is better. Fact: Most wine sold today isn’t meant to be aged. If it’s from a reputable source, it’s safe to assume that it’s ready to drink.
The Prosecco DOC? di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene Consorzio? has applied to the Italian government for promotion to the higher DOCG? status.
At the same time, the basic IGT? (Indicazione Geografica Tipica?) level Prosecco grown in the lower plains will also have to go though stricter quality control, the DOC says.
Some IGTs will be elevated to to DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata?) while others will be demoted, losing the right to put 'Prosecco' on the label.
DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita?), established in 1963, is the highest legal category of Italian wines.
The Prosecco Consorzio has applied to the Ministry of Agriculture to allow promotion of the best Proseccos in 2009.
Speaking at the Consorzio tasting in London on Monday, Consorzio director Giancarlo Vettorello told decanter.com it was time 'to push ahead with our UK promotion as sales in UK are on the rise and Prosecco seems to be all the rage.'
There were 37 producers at this year's tasting, 12 more than last year.
Today the Prosecco DOC produces some 57m bottles of which 15m are exported worldwide. The currently imports 6% of total exports, the equivalent of 1m bottles exported in 2007.
The wine world is chock full of gadgets these days and this is one of the funniest I have seen in such a while. A physician by trade, Patrick Farrell claims that he has an invention that will improve the quality of a wine simply by pouring wine into a glass. Let me explain?
He has created a device that will fit around the neck of a bottle that uses magnets to enhance the wine.
Farrell started out tying magnets to the neck of a bottle at the urging of business acquaintances who were distributing magnets to try to improve water quality. At the time, he thought the chance magnets would work on wine was ?about the same as seeing pigs fly.? But, he says, ?I took the thing home, put it on a bottle of shiraz from Australia and was shocked to see it made it taste smoother and fruitier. So then I went down to my cellar and I got a bottle of Bordeaux from the Medoc and it made it taste softer and fruitier.? Eventually, he came up with a molded plastic device that looks like a regular non-drip pourer and has an air hole to speed up oxygenation. That intensifies the effect of the wizard and differentiates it from other magnetic devices on the market such as The Wine Clip, which clasps around the bottle neck, says Farrell. Um?magnets?? I guessing the pourer at the top actually aerates the wine and that?s what softens the wine as opposed to the magnets. But let?s see what the critics have to say.
?Testimonials are irrelevant. Tastings are not proof,? says Ball, a professor at Cleveland State University, and ?amateur wine snob,? who says magnetic fields aren?t strong enough to change the shape of tannins. ?All that magnetic field is doing is separating you from your money,? says Ball, who won?t be trying the Bev Wizard any time soon. Awesome! At $30 for the gadget you?re better off buying a $5 corkscrew and a $25 bottle of wine!!
This really promises to be a cool event. I hope to see some of you there.
Seven North Carolina breweries - including all five from Buncombe County - are teaming up this month to host a Slow Food beer-tasting event at the downtown Asheville Brewing Company, 77 Coxe Ave. Slow Food is an international group that works to preserve food traditions and sustainable agriculture. Proceeds from the beer tasting will be used to send local delegates to the Slow Food Terra Madre gathering, Oct. 26-30 in Turin, Italy. The tasting, at 5 p.m. Aug. 27, will feature beers each from Asheville Brewing, Highland Brewing, Pisgah Brewing, French Broad Brewing, Green Man Brewing (all from the Asheville area) Catawba Brewing of Glen Alpine and Foothills Brewing of Winston-Salem. Each brewery will have at least two beers at the event, and Asheville Brewing will likely serve all of their ales, said brewmaster Doug Riley. Beers will be served in four-ounce samples, and the evening includes pizza. Tickets are $20, on sale now at Asheville Brewing and its sister operation, Asheville Pizza and Brewing, 675 Merrimon Ave. http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060809/NEWS01/60809012/1119
So, things have been really hectic at work and with dial up access only (and limited at that) blogging is very difficult. Anywho I am not giving up on it, just lagging behind. I expect the next post to be on Sunday unless the heavens open up and smile upon me. Tomorrow I am going to a Highland Beer dinner at Ganache so I'll post the deets then. Lay-tah!! Cheers!
One of the greatest experiences that a wine lover can encounter is a wine that stops them in their tracks. I'll admit that I'm excitable in general, but there's nothing that gets me quite so giddy as a schoolboy as when I stumble across a wine that truly bowls me over. Such wines are the closest I get anymore to the emotions of that first passionate kiss in a new relationship -- they electrify me. While the world slows down to a crawl around me, all I want to do is stick my nose in the glass and inhale slowly.
This is one of those wines. I was minding my own business, tasting away through a public wine tasting in San Francisco. As a matter of course, I marched up to the Guigal table, and tasted through what they had to offer, like I have done before at other tastings. I enjoy Guigal wines a great deal, especially their more exclusive bottlings.
But while I've had Guigal wines that have been great, even exceptional, I've never had one knock me on my ass in quite the same way as this wine did when I put it in my mouth.
Etienne Guigal founded his winery in the tiny Northern Rhone village of Ampuis in 1946. The vineyards he purchased to begin producing wine had been growing grapes for as long as anyone can remember. So long that some of the stone walls in the fields dated back more than 2400 years to Roman times.
The enterprising 32-year-old Guigal was no stranger to the wine business when he bought his first vineyard, having worked as a winemaker for several years before striking out on his own. By the time his blindness forced him to turn operations over to his son in the Sixties, he had personally worked more than 67 vintages.
The estate is now beginning its third generation of family ownership, and is widely recognized as one of the top wine producers in both the region, and the world. From its humble beginnings, the estate has grown to sizable proportions, or what amounts to sizable proportions in the relatively small appellations of the region. The estate now owns vineyards in Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and Saint-Joseph, and buys a significant amount of fruit from producers all over the region.
I'm not entirely sure of the estate's current production levels but they are somewhere north of 340,000 cases, with the bulk of that being wines made from purchased grapes. The wines are currently made by Philippe Guigal and his father Marcel.
This particular wine is 95% Syrah and 5% Viognier, culled from some of the oldest blocks among 6 of Guigal's vineyards:
Le Clos "Côte Blonde", La Garde "Côte Blonde", La Grande Plantée "Côte Blonde", La Pommière "Côte Brune", Le Pavillon Rouge "Côte Brune", Le Moulin "Côte Brune"
Some of these vineyards were planted in the early 16th century. Of course, they have been replanted over the ages, and the average age of the vines now is around 50 years. While the vineyards are not certified, they are essentially farmed organically.
The grapes for the wine are hand harvested, meticulously sorted, destemmed, and then undergo a cold soak for sometimes more than a month before fermentation is allowed to begin in steel tanks. After fermentation, the juice is transferred to the estate's own barrels (since 2003 the estate has run its own cooperage on the property) where it ages for at least 38 months before bottling.
Tasting Notes: Medium garnet in color, this wine leaps out of the glass, grabs you by the scruff of the neck and drags your ass into a field in the middle of southern France and then stands back laughing as you stumble blissfully among sage, lavender, rosemary, and a small lake of fresh cassis. In the mouth the wine is equally explosive with an incredibly juicy core of cassis that is riddled with crystalline, granitic minerality. Perfectly balanced, with the texture of satin, and tannins that don't grip so much as they caress. And just when you think it can't get any better, the floral notes from the Viognier sweep in like valkyries to carry you away into the finish. Please, sir, may I have another? This is definitely the best current vintage of Côte-Rôtie I have ever tasted.
Food Pairing: I'd love to drink this with a slow roasted leg of lamb with rosemary.
Domaine Weinbach Schlossberg Grand Cru Cuvee St.Catherine Riesling 2004 (375mL) Peaches, pears, orange peel and marmalade on the nose. A rich, viscous and weighty palate with excellent texture and length. Bold, but balanced. 92/100
Domaine Fourrier Les Goulots 1er Gevery-Chambertin 2003 A nose of red berries, candy, violets, chocolate and cinnamon. Touch of stalk to the medium bodied palate. Decent length and structure. Nice. 88/100
P&C Bonnefond Cote Rotie 2001 Licorice, dark chocolate, raspberry and coffee aromas. A juicy, ripe palate with the elements of the wine well integrated. Very good. 90/100
Taylors Vintage Port 1977 (375mL) Vanilla, jasmine tea, licorice and cedar. Palate is smooth and of medium length, but doesn’t have the complexity or depth I expected. A bit of a let down as it is meant to be amazing. 88/100
First--Ripasso is a specially made wine from Valpolicella created by fermenting young wine with the unpressed but drained skins and lees left over from making Amarone. Ripasso is made by a number of producers, often using their own variations of this basic method.This wine has a heavily pigmented hue like a Syrah with a deep black cherry presence.
Bouquet is brimming with ripe rich berries and light spice.
Palate--rich tannins with steel and minerals, forthright, juicy, fruit and very tasty.
This wine is voluptuous, velevty and plush; a pure wine. A bit pricey around $22 but well worth it! Raise a glass!
Last year I ran a 'subscription and book deal' that a lot of people have been asking me to run again. The book last year was the Wine Hunter - this year it's the Why the French Hate Us: The Real Story of Australian Wine book. Once again I've slashed the price - it wasn't all that long ago that a new subscription to The Wine Front was $55, and the book retails for $28.95. And yet I am offering both a full year's subscription and the book for just $49.95, and that includes delivery of the book.
The Wine Cask was sent this wine for review by the good folks at Sam's Club. It represents an embarkation to "Fair trade" products which purchases products from people who are committed to paying their workers in every step of the process a "fair wage."
This Malbec is from the Mendoza area of Argentina which is truly coming of age with respect to this grape. The 2005 vintage was a 90 point rated vintage according to the Wine Spectator. (The current issue of the Wine Spectator highlights Argentina and its forte with this grape.)
The wine is a hefty purple hue with room filling medium sweet aromas of dark berry jam and some pleasant aromas of a tinge of black licorice. This wine has plenty of life in it but is well integrated and drinking well right now. Palate is extracted with big dark fruit, some tarry notes and a touch of smokey or burnt wood--for the uninitiated, these are positives--and finishes with a lingering light plum ending. The reference price on this wine is $10 and for the price, this is a decent value so raise a glass and give it a swirl!
The Pisco Sour is one drink that comes and goes and almost has its day in the sun… Why do people like it so much? It’s the egg white, stupid. Some where back in the 80’s bartenders stopped using egg whites in their sours, but they had bigger problem with the pre-made bottles of sour [...]
Thomas Jefferson was a polymath, who, among his other pursuits, was a very impressive and knowledgeable wine expert and enthusiast. If he lived today he would also be called a “wine geek”.
Mr Jefferson also happened to be the third President of the United States, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Founding Father of the United States, Governor of Virginia, first American Minister to France and founder of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He promoted the ideals of republicanism in the United States, an ideology that encourages a system of government that emphasizes liberties and rights, and makes the people as a whole sovereign, which underlies the philosophy of democracy.
Brian Clark and Ted Burns interview John Hailman, author of the book, “Thomas Jefferson on Wine”.
I scraped myself up and out of Hong Kong to go grab the ferry to Macau. I later found out that helicopters are also available and a lot faster, although the boat trip wasn?t that bad, lasting only an hour. The ferries leave from Hong Kong every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, and [...]
Hot on the heels of the sensational success of the 'World's Greatest Book Of Useless Information', the Official Useless Information Society bring you another essential compendium of everything you never needed but always wanted to know., Reference ; Curiosities & Wonders, The Best Book of Useless Information Ever
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With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, people will be uncorking bottles of wine the world over. After all, when you think romance, wine is never far behind. In her book, 
