To Cork or Not To Cork (Book Review)
To Cork or Not To Cork The market for wine-bottle closures is a $4 billion battlefield where an epic confrontation is now taking place. George Taber, from To Cork or Not …
review
RedHeads Studio 2005 “Barrel Monkeys” Shiraz
I don’t like to parrot other reviewers but in this one, it can’t be helped: this is a blackberry overdrive machine. Toss in some licorice for fuel, and this velvet monkey …
Graham’s 1991 Porto
Okay, so at $89.99, this doesn’t exactly fall into the value category of holiday wines. But remember, it’s also 17 years old. So when you do the math, that’s a mere …
d’Arenberg 2004 “The Laughing Magpie” Shiraz/Viognier, McLaren Vale
Why does Arenberg sell this wine for so little? Why sell a bottle of wine for under $20 when so many people are happy to spend over $30? Even the critics …
Castillo Labastida 2001 Rioja Reserva
International Wine Cellar, notoriously the most difficult of the major wine-review publications, called this bottling “fully mature and delicious.” To that, we would also add “guilt-inducingly affordable” and “dangerously drinkable.”
Good Cheap Wine
There are plenty of well-made wines that are also cheap. Here are 10 of our favorite cheap wines, but these are a sampling of the best of the best. Even better, …
Top Wine Buys
For a full list of wine recommendations, check out our wine review page. Ravenswood Monte Rosso Vineyard Zinfandel, Sonoma ValleyA definite must-buy for Zin drinkers. Dense and full-bodied, the wine uncorks …
Review: Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley.
For those of you in a wine course, a great novel to dive into while blind tasting is Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Highsmith’s protagonist is the very sordid yet …
Hilberg-Pasquero 2007 Vareij
If you’ve read any of the wine reviews I’ve posted over the last couple of years, you are well aware of my fondness for the unusual, the eccentric, and the downright …
The B’More Roadtrip
I was in Baltimore over Labor Day weekend and thought it would be a good time to have dinner at Charleston. I had worked with Chef Cindy Wolf over a decade …
Ethics and Wine Critics
There has been an ongoing conversation about ethics regarding wine writing. Specifically, wine reviews. Should a (well-known) critic and his or her colleagues take samples and/or go on junkets that have …
Italian Wine Reviews
It’s been a month since the holidays and I’m just now going over my notes for some of the wines consumed during those festive evenings, and some of the bottles subsequently emptied …
Wine Review: Green Point 2003 Chardonnay, Yarra Valley (Australia)
A lovely cool-weather chardonnay. Asian five-spice and fresh pears dominate the nose. Apple and stones pop across on the tongue, reminiscent of a Chablis with a beer belly. At $9, this …
Mas Donis 2003 Barrica, Montsant
From the Capcanes cooperative in the Montsant region of Catalonia, this straightforward blend of 80% old vines Garnacha and 20% Syrah is a deep purple color that thins out to light …
Pedroncelli 2004 Mother Clone Zinfandel, Sonoma
A decent little bottle of Zin for the price. I add this wine to my “best buy” section with great hesitation. The last time I reviewed a Pedroncelli wine, it was …
Pieve del Vescovo “Lucciaio” IGT, Umbria
Those of you who have consistently read reviews of Italian wines on this site are aware of a bias toward traditional wines that do not cater to notions of standardization. That …