June 2012
The wine world is full of people who seem to know it all
Posted: Jun 27, 2012 10:00am ET
A long time
ago, before I started writing about wine and food for a living, I was a
newspaper reporter. I covered everything from fatal car crashes to rock
concerts, and interviewed everyone from movie stars to murderers on death row.
A lot of
the beats required little more than fearless interrogation skills and the
ability to type like an AK-47, but some called for specific knowledge and
experience, and that's when I learned that the line between passion and
snobbishness is razor thin.
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Cellaring wines for your children can be a history lesson
Posted: Jun 20, 2012 10:00am ET
With all the great California Cabernet Sauvignons that came after, people tend to forget the 1991 vintage, but it was an excellent one. California Cabernet came into its own with the 1985s, but for me the early benchmark was always 1991.
From the start, the wines showed great depth and balance, and were immediately drinkable, but you had the sense they would age gracefully. For me they had an additional significance: My daughter Sophie was born in 1991.
We celebrated her 21st birthday last week and I opened a few of the 1991s I've had in my cellar since they were released. The bottles were in great shape and the wines had aged beautifully. They made up for all those bottles I've opened with anticipation over the years only to be disappointed.
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Sonoma's young AVA is a distinctive place that makes distinctive wines
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 10:00am ET
How can you not like a wine region called Rockpile? The name alone brings up all sorts of images, of prehistoric-style rugged countrysides or chain gangs busting stones in the godforsaken sun. The reality of the place is not all that different from that.
Rockpile is a rustic landscape and a distinctive place that makes equally distinctive red wines, particularly Zinfandel and Syrah. Some of the wineries that make wine from the region's fruit include Carol Shelton, JC Cellars, Seghesio, St. Francis and Valdez Family.
That day, people were practically crawling across the Meadowood lawn like it was the sandy Mojave in search of something cool and refreshing. And all they could find was Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. Warm Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. They could have raised $100,000 on a single chilled bottle of rosé that day. I would have chipped in.
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Now that the weather is warm, it’s time for a good dry rosé
Posted: Jun 6, 2012 10:00am ET
You could actually get a glass of rosé at this year's Auction Napa Valley. And why not? It was a beautiful, warm afternoon on Saturday. I remember an auction back in the late 1990s and it was so sweltering under the tent that I thought of a classic line from Biloxi Blues: "It's Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot."
That day, people were practically crawling across the Meadowood lawn like it was the sandy Mojave in search of something cool and refreshing. And all they could find was Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. Warm Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. They could have raised $100,000 on a single chilled bottle of rosé that day. I would have chipped in.
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