Featured on The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast has published a new article by yours truly. Check it out and leave some (hopefully nice) comments: The Great Cabernet Ripoff. This is a great honor for me. …
Featured
PA Budget and the PLCB
Talking about the PLCB – and the inane shipping laws that affect us wine-loving folk – is nothing new. Newspapers, magazines, websites, and blogs have opined and complained and ranted and …
Smoke Taint
California is no stranger to wildfires. But recent years have been exceptional by all accounts. Fires swept through wine land, leaving many growers worried about “smoke taint.” And in these strained …
Summer Wine Suggestions
To desire wine is to throw oneself into a lifelong adventure that will never be fully satisfied. And The Wine School – with its no-frills and down-to-earth manner – has been …
I stand corrected
A couple of days back, I wrote a quickie post regarding George Taber’s original “Judgement of Paris” article published in TIME magazine, 1976. I pointed out that it is now available …
Surprising Wines from the Land Down Under
Last night, I taught our once-a-year Top 10 Regions wine class on the wines of Australia, and, just as was the case with the Napa Valley class a month or so …
What the Nose Knows – A Book Review
If I were to describe a wine as boasting a nose with hints of geosmin (damp earth), phenyl ethyl alcohol (rosy scent), some methylthiobutryate (feces), and a lingering waft of androstenone …
Wine Reviews
Paul Lehrner “Cuvée Claus,” Mittelburgenland This blend of Zweigelt and Blaufrankisch exhibits all the berry and spice character you’d expect as well as a lighter frame that makes it all go …
German Riesling Wine Reviews
Jakoby-Mathy Kinheimer Rosenberg Riesling Auslese “Eulenlay,” Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Quite a mouth-full both in name and in flavor. This is a super-friendly, surprisingly light-on-its-feet Auslese with pronounced notes of lychee and an almost …
Wine Reviews
Sign up for our wine newsletter here. Grant Burge “Barossa Vine” Chardonnay. This is a steal. Aromas are of fresh apple and pear, with just a whiff of butter. Soft but …
Ask the Wino
Dear Wino, I’m writing about a bottle of 1999 Chateau Lafitte Rothschild we have. In the past, we have had wines that we drank before they peaked and other wines we …
Bordeaux, or no?
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” – Groucho Marx In the article Wine Scams: A Counterfeiter Confesses, wine writer …
Wine Reviews
From October 2008. Check out our current wine reviews here. Domaine Serene 2005 Chardonnay “Cote Sud” – 15.5 / 20A clean, Burgundy-by-way-of-Oregon Chardonnay, with hints of vanilla, baked apples and pears …
Veuve Moisans Cuvee Brut Rose
The nose of this refreshing pink sparkler wears its red-berry fruit lightly, which allows a hint of mushroom and thyme to come through relatively unimpeded. The palate, however, is all strawberry, …
Winery Tour and Tourism
Similar to what the video did to the radio star in the ’80s, tourism has had a massive effect on wine tasting in Napa over the last 10+ years. It’s not …
Who’s the Wine Snob Anyway?
Sure, we’ve all seen them. Turning their noses up at what they perceive to be merely average or inferior wines, the so-called wine snob is as much of a fixture in …