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"Pat’s Picks"
I don’t even want to count the number of wines I tasted this week. Five tastings in three days is a bit much. But stacking grapes as disparate as zinfandel, pinot noir, and garnacha against each other on consecutive days allowed an unexpected common denominator to leap forth: Vine age matters.
People often ask “How [...]
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I’m a neophyte in Greek wine. Like most baby-boomers, my education started and ended with Retsina. A rustic tavern wine, Retsina is to Greek wine what straw-flask Chianti is to Italian wine: the plonk we drank before we knew any better—and before Greek and Italian winemakers stepped up their game.
Named [...]
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One of the hottest tickets at Sundance 2011 wasn’t a film. Rather, it was the launch party for the Napa Valley Film Festival, which debuts this November 9–13. Sixteen Napa wineries came to Park City to pour the good stuff—90+ point, limited-production wines from Carneros to Calistoga—while celebrity chef Continue Reading →
It’s awards time. Kudos to all those who made the Top 100 list in Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast magazines, but especially to those estates we visit on tour. A special shout-out to our friends at Renato Ratti, whose Barolo cru was No.1 for Wine Enthusiast. Bravi a tutti! And encore. Keep those good wines [...]
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Water is for fish! That’s what my Italian husband likes to proclaim at the dinner table. But truly, water is a wonder drug. Without it—lots of it—I couldn’t survive my profession. That, and the inelegant art of spitting.
So, armed with my nifty green Nalgene water bottle, I faced down a [...]
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Remember Mateus? Back in the 1980s, quality table wines from Portugal were rare as hens teeth. Today, that hen has a full Cheshire-cat grin.
With 200 indigenous, tongue-twisting grape varieties, Portugal has lots to offer adventurous tasters. Not only are there unfamiliar grapes to explore, like peachy Alvarinho; light-bodied, raspberry-redolent Castelão; and [...]
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Ah, what a blessing to work in wine. Yesterday’s Barolo tasting, organized by Pietro Ratti of the Renato Ratti winery for the Wine Media Guild, was tops: tightly focused (25 cru from 2005), coherent (organized by communes), with a mix of marquee and obscure names. Out of the [...]
Gambero Rosso‘s Tre Bicchieri tasting, the Oscars of Italian wine, undoubtedly qualifies as The Most Anticipated Event of the year for Italian wine buffs. Crowded and intense, it’s an afternoon of frenzied tasting, jostled elbows, truncated conversations, and barely legible notes. But boy, is it worth it. Where else can you sample the best [...]
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