As a wine writer, and a peddler of the juice too, I’ve often felt the urge to get defensive when it comes to the much-maligned “tall bottles”: German and Austrian Riesling, Alsatian Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Gris, Gewurtztraminer, and sometimes even Muscat. The amount of visceral and intellectual satisfaction that I’ve pulled from these kinds […]
With the holidays nearly here, and the weather looking dreary and foreboding, could there be a better time to get into port? The richness, residual sugar, and alcoholic punch it brings to the end (or beginning) of a night seem tailor-made for this time of year. And yet, with so many stylistic interpretations and official […]
As Wine Guild of Charlottesville co-founder, I taste a lot of wine. There’s a lot of great wine out there, and some not-so-great wine too; after awhile, though, I end up with a substantial list of wines that I love, or that are overperformers in their category, or both. So, with the holiday season upon […]
There’s undoubtedly something special about this time of year in this part of the world, and with the right wines and the appropriate food, it becomes pure magic. One of the most perfect of those pairings? Smoked meat and Provence reds. Situated in the far southeast corner of France, Provence straddles the Mediterranean and benefits […]
There’s long been a saying (half-jokingly, of course) in the wine industry: “To make a small fortune, you need to start with a large fortune.” While it may not always be the case, the reality is typically that many years and much capital must be pumped into a fledgeling wine growing operation before the first […]
Is there a more misunderstood and utterly disorganized style of wine than “sparkling”? (Alright, maybe Riesling, but that’s another discussion entirely—stay tuned!) Sparkling wine is, by all accounts, the patron wine of “special occasions” and celebration, and has thus been cast about, bastardized, and otherwise abused to the point of utter confusion and caricature. Let’s […]
Alright, admit it: Despite how much you think you know about wine, you’ve invariably found yourself in an unfamiliar restaurant with a daunting binder of wines in front of you, and recognized not a single bottle. It’s O.K., we’ve all been there. This is a precarious situation for anyone, but it becomes even more dicey […]
Normally I try to avoid pigeonholing and categorizing wine too intensely; the thing about winemaking and viticulture is that they’re seemingly built to buck trends, to defy the accepted knowledge, to alter the industry’s trajectory one barrel at a time. And yet, one of the most overused categorizations in the wine world, “old world/new world,” […]
The first thing that pops into your mind as an everyday wine drinker who’s looking to start laying down a few bottles is, inevitably: “Don’t I need a big temperature-and-humidity-controlled dungeon, replete with rustic stone walls, candles, and old first-growth Bordeaux?” The answer is “No.” Cellaring wine is, really, all about understanding the rules and […]