Blogs
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Bruce Sanderson Decanted
Tasting the 2009 lineup from Burgundy's most sought-after label
Posted: February 22, 2012 By Bruce Sanderson
When you have exalted parcels, conscientious viticulture, attention to detail in the cellar and tradition on your side, in most vintages, you will make excellent wines. But when you align all of the above with a superb growing season, such as 2009, the result can be magnificent. Such is the case with the 2009 Burgundies from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.
"Seductive," "tender" and "pure," were words co-director Aubert de Villaine used more than once during the 90-minute presentation of the DRC wines in New York this week, the 33rd such event staged in conjunction with long-term importer Wilson Daniels.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Revisiting the groundbreaking book Taste Buds and Molecules
Posted: February 20, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
It is worth casting a skeptical eye on received wisdom about wine. So much of what we think we know turns out to be wrong. Early in my gastronomic career I grabbed the wrong glass and inadvertently took a sip of red wine with my grilled salmon, only to find that it made better music in my mouth than the white wine next to it.
Received wisdom takes a beating in Taste Buds and Molecules by François Chartier (Wiley, $37). An English-language translation is set to be released March 5.
Blogs
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Bruce Sanderson Decanted
Recent acquisitions provide depth and diversity to the Champy range
Posted: February 17, 2012 By Bruce Sanderson
Since my last visit with Pierre Meurgey, director of Maison Champy, and enologist Dimitri Bazas, in June 2007, the firm has expanded its domaine holdings. First, it acquired Domaine Laleure-Piot in 2010, then last year secured three premier cru parcels in Volnay and Pommard from Louis Boillot that will be called Domaine Clos de la Chapelle.
With more than half the wines now under Domaine Champy or Domaine Clos de la Chapelle labels, Meurgey and Bazas showed me all the 2010s from these two properties. Here are my highlights.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Scientists demonstrate that it makes sense to relate wine to music
Posted: February 15, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
As I composed a tasting note the other day, I called a particularly acidic wine “screechy.” For another wine, rich in dark chocolate character, I referred to those elements as “bass notes.” We tasters often describe wines as “harmonious” and individual flavors as “notes.” This may not be as fanciful as it seems. A paper by two scientists in England confirms that the various smells associated with wine evoke strikingly similar musical associations in test subjects, according to an article in The Economist.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Researching a travel story to the region, things are looking up
Posted: February 15, 2012 By Tim Fish
I’ve been spending a lot of time traveling the back roads of Sonoma County the past few weeks, working on a travel story devoted to visiting the area. Our last major Sonoma travel package was in 2007 and considering the economy during the past five years there are a surprising number of new tasting rooms, restaurants and hotels. Here are a few of the bright spots I've found.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
The longtime Finger Lakes winemaker sees Riesling finally getting its due
Posted: February 10, 2012 By James Molesworth
Peter Bell, 55, has been the winemaker at the Finger Lakes' Fox Run Vineyards since 1995. He stopped by my office today and following are some excerpts from our conversation.
Blogs
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Bruce Sanderson Decanted
Natural selection was the key to Pinot Noir quality in Burgundy's 2010 vintage
Posted: February 8, 2012 By Bruce Sanderson
I'm back in Burgundy to taste the 2010 whites and reds. Some have been recently bottled, others are assembled in tank, or still in barrel, waiting to be blended for the bottling. Today I tasted the 2010 lineup from Louis Jadot with winemakers Jacques Lardière and Frédéric Barnier. Here are my notes and ratings on the 2010 Pinot Noirs.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Have your battle plan prepared as Feb. 14 approaches
Posted: February 8, 2012 By Tim Fish
Over the years I've made some boneheaded moves on Valentine's Day, and after 25 years of marriage I'm doing pretty well on the learning curve. (Champagne good. Yellow roses bad.) Here are five lessons I've learned over the years.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Ubiquitous in food, but how bad is it?
Posted: February 7, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
Although I don’t usually write about nutrition issues, the announcement last week that researchers associated with the University of San Francisco were going on the warpath against sugar got my hackles up. I have no problem with their findings—that Americans consume way too much sugar for our own good—what irritates me is how little these scientists consider quantity.
Blogs
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Bruce Sanderson Decanted
Winemaker Jacques Lardière previews his 2010 Chardonnays
Posted: February 6, 2012 By Bruce Sanderson
I'm back in Burgundy to taste the 2010 whites and reds. Some have been recently bottled, others are assembled in tank, or still in barrel, waiting to be blended for the bottling. Today I tasted the 2010 lineup from Louis Jadot with winemakers Jacques Lardière and Frédéric Barnier. Here are my notes and ratings on the 2010 Chardonnays.
Blogs
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Bruce Sanderson Decanted
Old, high-quality vine strains are the key to pure, ripe fruit flavors and intensity in 2010
Posted: February 3, 2012 By Bruce Sanderson
I'm back in Burgundy, where winter weather has firmly set in, to taste the 2010 whites and reds. Some have been recently bottled, others are assembled in tank, or still in barrel, waiting to be blended for the bottling. I will cover mostly the Côte d'Or, with a side trip to Chablis and, for the first time, the Côte Chalonnaise. Today I tasted a lineup of 2010s from Tollot-Beaut.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
The South African wines importer still sees a bright future after a long, hard road
Posted: February 1, 2012 By James Molesworth
I sat down with André Shearer, chairman of South African importer Cape Classics, Inc., to talk about selling South African wines in the competetive American and Asian markets. The youthful looking 50-year-old father of three lives in Somerset West, speaks with a gentle South African accent (he was born in Johannesburg) and is now celebrating his 20th year importing South African wine into the U.S. market. His company accounts for one in every three bottles of South African wine in the U.S. and exclusively represents 20 brands, including top names such as Thelema, Mulderbosch, Kanonkop and Ken Forrester. Here are excerpts from our conversation.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Notes on my favorite wines at the annual San Francisco event
Posted: February 1, 2012 By Tim Fish
Wine Spectator associate editor Tim Fish attended the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP) Festival in San Francisco this past weekend. It was an opportunity for him to get a first impression of the difficult 2010 vintage, as well as taste more wines from the outstanding 2009 vintage. Here are his notes from the festival and scores for his top 10 favorite wines.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
It’s a revolutionary concept
Posted: January 31, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
A report at an industry event in California last week caused a stir when it pegged a significant portion of a healthy 4.5 percent increase in U.S. wine sales to sweet red wine. Sweet wines in general seem to be driving the bump in the wine market currently bringing smiles to the big boppers of the wine industry, the ones who count their success on how many millions of cases we buy.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Kendall-Jackson president Rick Tigner gave viewers (and himself) a candid look at daily life in the vineyards and warehouses of a big winery
Posted: January 30, 2012 By James Laube
Kendall-Jackson president Rick Tigner made his reality television debut last night on CBS' Undercover Boss, in which executives at large companies pretend to be new low-level hires to get a look at a typical day in the life of one of their blue collar (or no collar) employees. Having met Tigner, I have to say that the makeup and disguise made him fairly unrecognizable.
For a first-time viewer of the show, it impressed me on several fronts, perhaps most because it embraced the inner workings of the wine business. Most shows that cover wine still portray it as a romantic endeavor. Not Undercover Boss. Here are a few observations I jotted down last night.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
There may be lots of glamour at this annual event, but there's a more important reason it's so successful
Posted: January 30, 2012 By James Molesworth
The annual Naples Winter Wine Festival has all the trappings of an A-list event. Based at the Ritz-Carlton Tiburón Golf Resort in Naples, Florida, the list of participating vintners includes the likes of Ann Colgin of California's Colgin Cellars, Prince Robert of Luxembourg of Bordeaux châteaus Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion and Peter Sisseck of Spain's Dominio de Pingus. The event's well-heeled attendees enjoy generous pours while eating food prepared by a list of chefs that includes Wolfgang Puck, Dean Fearing, Kelly Liken, Bill Telepan and more. The festival ends with a day-long live auction attended by approximately 600 people.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Ordering wine in restaurants is easy with the right advisor
Posted: January 25, 2012 By Tim Fish
If you drink enough wine in restaurants you'll eventually come across your first sommelier. Take a deep breath. Fear not. Think of him or her as the lifeguard in that big pool of wine, ready if you need rescue. And we all need that from time to time.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
How wine could show the way for extra-virgin oil makers
Posted: January 20, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
You wouldn’t know it from all the olive oil being poured into tiny saucers at Italian restaurants across America, but the makers of fine extra-virgin olive oil are worried. At a time when demand for their product is booming around the world and modern techniques have made it possible to bottle some of the best oils ever, the author of a fascinating new book on the subject argues that cheap, fraudulent products are making it difficult, if not impossible, for the good stuff to be profitable.
That’s because, writes Tom Mueller in Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (Norton, $26), most people don’t know what good-quality olive oil should be. Early in the book he quotes one expert, after tasting a poor-quality oil labeled extra-virgin, as saying, “This is what nearly everyone in the world thinks is extra-virgin olive oil! This stuff is putting honest oil makers out of business.”
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Can wine be a legitimate financial investment? Or is it money poured down the drain?
Posted: January 19, 2012 By James Laube
Using wine as an investment vehicle, where the goal is to profit financially rather than just drink well, is about as tricky as playing the stock market. That is, it’s just as easy to lose money as win it. And if the past few years haven't made the risk involved painfully obvious to traders of either commodity, the recent Wine Spectator Auction Index numbers for Bordeaux should serve as another cautionary tale: The Chinese are no longer driving Bordeaux prices through the roof, and prices are dropping.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Does this vital Sonoma County wine region risk losing its meaning as it continues to expand?
Posted: January 18, 2012 By Tim Fish
Is it possible to love a wine region to death? Sometimes it seems that way with Sonoma's Russian River Valley. Three times now its American Viticultural Area (AVA) has been expanded. Everyone wants in.
As the Russian River AVA becomes larger and more unwieldy, is it losing its meaning as a wine region? There is a real risk and it's something that every AVA faces. All AVAs start off as righteous causes dedicated to purity, to distinctive places to grow wine, but they end up being about money. If Russian River Valley is on your wine label, let's be honest, you can charge more than a wine labeled Sonoma County or Sonoma Coast.
