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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 once called myself a ‘pinot whore’ at a wine-club tasting with a crowd of people I’d only just met. (That was before I’d learned to spit.) I was riffing off my friend Howard, a film critic and bon vivant who used to call himself a ‘festival whore,’ since he’d accept any film festival invitation [...]
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My mission this spring is to delve into the nebbiolo-based wines of northern Piedmont—not just Ghemme and Gattinara, regions that most Italophiles know by name, if not by firsthand. I’m also intrigued by wholly obscure regions like Bramaterra, Carema, Colline Novaresi, and Lessona. (I feel safe in saying “wholly obscure” when, [...]
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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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I’ve been MIA for some time, and I feel bad about it. Sure, it’s an occupational hazard of bloggers who have a life, but still, the guilt is there, nagging and wagging its finger at me.
While the dog didn’t eat my computer, I did suffer a concussion. If you’ve never [...]
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Sancerre and Soave: It never occurred to me that they had much in common, other than their sibilant sound. One’s from the Loire, the other from Italy. Sancerre is pure sauvignon blanc, and Soave is garganega, sometimes with a splash of trebbiano. Where’s the overlap?
Two recent tastings suggested that they do share a common [...]
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Drum roll, please: It’s time for the Gambero Rosso awards.
“The what?” you ask. Foodies might jump up from their seats and say, “I know my way around an Italian menu, and gambero rosso means red shrimp. Now, what’s that got to do with wine?”
[...]
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“What would you serve with this?” one member kept asking at the Vermentino tasting I recently organized for my wine club.
Fish is the quick answer. But in reality, Vermentino accompanies every course in Liguria. It’s perfect with freshly baked foccaccia scented with rosemary and glistening with fruity olive [...]
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“Vermentino is a grape that needs to see the sea,” a winemaker recently told me. But let’s be specific. Vermentino craves the Ligurian Sea.
I get that. Liguria is my favorite place, too. I never tire of hiking its ancient paths that follow the contours of the rocky cliffs. I love the [...]
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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 →
I don’t run across Malbec in my travels, but when we do cross paths in New York, it always catches my eye. What a wallop of inky, dark fruit! Think black current, mulberry, plum, and blackberry enlivened by a racy acidity. Now that winter is nigh, it’s the perfect mate for slow-cooked [...]
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