Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
The 2009 vintage offers both quality and value
Posted: October 24, 2012 By Tim Fish
California Merlot falls into three basic categories: the easygoing values, the expensive Cabernet-wannabes and that big void in the middle that’s a stylistic roll of the dice. For my annual Merlot report, I tasted nearly 200 wines, and I give the lowdown in the Nov. 30, 2012, issue of Wine Spectator.
Since the high-tech proletariat seems to throw around the most weight on the Internet, I thought I’d focus today on Merlots that cost between $10 and $20. In years past, that has not always been easy, but the 2009 vintage is so good that even the value Merlots are tasty. (A few early-release 2010s show promise as well.)
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Are there really only two kinds of wine?
Posted: October 24, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
Some of us believe that Duke Ellington was America's greatest composer, even though he wrote in an idiom that many people then (and now) do not consider serious enough—jazz. His being something of an outsider, both because of his race and his musical genre, probably prompted his most famous quote, that "there are only two kinds of music: good music, and the other kind."
It's a telling remark, one that resonated with me the first time I ever heard it as a music student. I like to quote it today, when the diversity of the music we can pipe through our iPod earphones covers a range even the Duke couldn't imagine.
The same could be said about our favorite beverage. We can experience a wider choice of good wines today than ever before. And we are having the same kind of arguments over how to define good wine as those we had over just what constituted good music in Duke Ellington's day, or today, for that matter.
Blogs
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Mixed Case: Opinion and Advice
Do you Americanize wine names or use the authentic pronunciation?
Posted: October 18, 2012 By Jennifer Fiedler
In the past year, I've noticed an odd thing bubble up in pop music: artists talking about drinking wine they know nothing about. It happens in Frank Ocean's "Super Rich Kids" ("too many bottles of this wine we can't pronounce") and in André 3000's guest verse on Rick Ross's "Sixteen" ("we eat until our belly aches and then go and grab the finest wine and drink it like we know which grape and region it came from.")
Maybe two isn't quite an official phenomenon, but it does make a strange blip in an otherwise strong current of wine name-dropping fashionability in pop music (see: Cristal, Santa Margherita, Ace of Spades). The songs involve too many layers of role playing to know how Ocean or André 3000 personally feel about wine, but Ocean—or Ocean's character—got one thing right: Wine names can be maddeningly tricky to pronounce.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Herewith, some restaurants to consider
Posted: October 17, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
If you’re joining us this week at the New World Wine Experience at the JW Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles, and you’re staying downtown for the event, you can find a good selection of restaurants, from casual to fancy, in the neighborhood.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Looking at the past, present and future of the empire Jess Jackson built
Posted: October 17, 2012 By Tim Fish
Jess Jackson was a force of nature. Anyone who knew him could tell you that. A big guy, he had shoulders like a fireplace mantel and a bold swath of white hair in his later years. He was charming and had a big heart, but at times could be mercurial and stubbornly private. He was driven and unashamedly competitive. He was also a self-made billionaire who started from scratch—less than scratch, really.
That's how I describe Jackson in "The House That Jess Jackson Built" for the Nov. 15 issue of Wine Spectator. Jackson, who created a wine empire around Kendall-Jackson wines, died in April 2011 yet his legacy looms large.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Paloma, known for its Merlot, made an exceptional 2009 Napa Cabernet
Posted: October 16, 2012 By James Laube
Merlot won out, but it could just as easily have been Cabernet or Syrah.
In the case of Paloma, Jim and Barbara Richards' 15-acre vineyard on Spring Mountain, it actually produced three astounding wines, any one of which could have been a star on its own.
Blogs
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Mixed Case: Opinion and Advice
Collegetown ain't what it used to be. Tailgating at LSU from a Hummer packed with high-end wines
Posted: October 16, 2012 By Robert Taylor
Tailgating is religion in Baton Rouge, La., and when it comes to a huge game between national championship contenders, the Tiger faithful pull out all the stops. Some of them even pull a few corks.
On Saturday night, the defending South Eastern Conference Champion Louisiana State Tigers hosted the undefeated South Carolina Game Cocks at Tiger Stadium, or as I've always known it, Death Valley. As the saying goes here, "You don't just walk into Death Valley." Sometimes, though, you drive up in a fine wine–laden white Hummer.
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
The 2010 Pinot Noirs' delicacy make them worthy of attention
Posted: October 15, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
After tasting select wines from barrel last year, I said that 2010 would be a polarizing vintage for Oregon’s Pinot Noirs. Those who crave delicacy in Pinot Noir, who prize pretty aromas and flavors, will love it. Others may find it wimpy and wonder what all the fuss is about.
Now that I have blind-tasted out of the bottle more than half of the 2010s I expect to review, I still believe that. Time after time I hesitated after writing a tasting note that described the charms of pretty fruit character, delicate structure, and a welcome sense of transparency to it all. Lovely wines, but I wondered, did they have the depth, the length, the complexity to qualify as great? These elements make a wine truly memorable.
The answer, more often than not, was yes, although more than a few of the wines came up just a bit short on those factors.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
Reviews of some choice eateries for hungry wine country vacationers
Posted: October 12, 2012 By James Molesworth
In addition to a burgeoning number of quality-oriented wineries, the Finger Lakes is also home to a bustling food scene, much of it of the farm-to-table variety. Prices are often low (compared to what urbanites are used to), the settings are always casual and a few places are attached to or next door to wineries, making weekends of wine tasting and eating ideal. Here are a few options for good eats. You can also refer to my Nov. 2008 blog post for more recommendations on Finger Lakes dining.
Blogs
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Mixed Case: Opinion and Advice
The web retail giant's plans for wine are modest—for now
Posted: October 11, 2012 By Mitch Frank
When I heard the news that Amazon executives were meeting with wineries, hoping to launch Amazon.com Wine Marketplace before year's end, I was reminded of the play Waiting For Godot. In Samuel Beckett's work, two characters spend two acts waiting in vain for Godot, whom we never meet. There's a sense that everything will change once Godot shows up. For a dozen years now, the wine industry has been waiting for Bezos—Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, who has made unsuccessful stabs at selling wine twice before.
Amazon loves efficiency, and the wine business, where each state is like a separate country with different laws, is not efficient. But either Bezos is a wine lover or he sees great potential in it, because Amazon is back. If it succeeds in launching Wine Marketplace, the question is: Will this truly be a game changer for the wine business or just an absurdist drama?
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
There's a big blurry line between innovation and done-to-death
Posted: October 10, 2012 By Tim Fish
Oh look–Ahi tuna tartare is on the menu. And short ribs. Pizza, too! Who’d a thought?
I know my chef friends will hate me for this, but I think things are getting little monotonous on the restaurant menus of America. Certainly, there’s still innovation in the kitchens, particularly in top restaurants as well as the small bistros where young and creative chefs are keeping it real.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
The next stop on my Finger Lakes tour was at Silver Thread Vineyard
Posted: October 9, 2012 By James Molesworth
After my visit to Ravines and a quick lunch, I headed up to Silver Thread Vineyard, which is under new ownership since being purchased by the husband-and-wife team of Paul and Shannon Brock. Paul, 36, is the former winemaker at Lamoreaux Landing and he also currently teaches viticulture and winemaking at Finger Lakes Community College. He accentuates the professorial background with his tussle of wiry black hair and thin-rimmed glasses. Shannon, 35, was wine educator at the New York Wine & Culinary Center in Canadaigua, so she also knows what it's like to stand at the head of a class and educate others about wine, and she commands attention with her bright, vivacious personality.
Blogs
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Mixed Case: Opinion and Advice
Is black stemware to wine as Vibram shoes are to running?
Posted: October 9, 2012 By Jennifer Fiedler
When I took up running after years of playing team sports, I gave myself permission to not be competitive: no races, no time trials, no slippery slope to marathons. If I could do an around-the-park loop of 3.5 miles a couple times a week without collapsing like Scarlett O’Hara after a fight with Rhett, I was totally all right with myself.
This experience got me thinking: I didn’t necessarily want to get better at running, but what about a field where I did, such as wine? Had I reached a comfortable plateau with wine drinking as I had with running around the park and, if so, could some sort of equipment tweak raise my level of “fitness”?
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
Morten and Lisa Hallgren have moved Ravines winery to Seneca Lake after purchasing White Springs Farm
Posted: October 8, 2012 By James Molesworth
After leaving Fred Merwarth at Wiemer to deal with his remaining 70 tons of Riesling fruit, I headed farther up the western side of Seneca Lake to check on the new digs for Ravines Wine Cellars. Owned by Morten and Lisa Hallgren, the winery was started over on Keuka Lake in the 2002 vintage, and it's grown steadily since then, from a few thousand cases to now 14,000 cases annually, with a projected 20,000 cases within the next five years.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
Tasting Hermann J. Wiemer's soon-to-be-released 2011 Rieslings with Fred Merwarth
Posted: October 5, 2012 By James Molesworth
On my second day in the Finger Lakes I made my usual lap around Seneca Lake, the region's most prominent lake and home to the largest collection of wineries.
While I always try to mix in some new faces on each trip, I need to stop in at benchmark estates on a regular basis. Since assuming control in 2007, Fred Merwarth has made sure that the Hermann J. Wiemer estate hasn't skipped a beat. With 75 acres under vine and three-quarters of its 15,000-case annual production represented by Riesling, this is the flagship winery for the region's best grape.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Less is more when it comes to blind tasting
Posted: October 4, 2012 By James Laube
Some of the most frequently asked questions of me are about tasting: How do we conduct tastings? How often do we taste? How many wines do we taste at a time? My philosophy: Less is more.
Blogs
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Mixed Case: Opinion and Advice
In 10 years, India's wine drinkers will outnumber France's total population. Here's how Rajeev Samant and his Sula Vineyards helped light that fire
Posted: October 4, 2012 By Ben O'Donnell
Before becoming a vintner, Rajeev Samant struggled for more than three years to get a license to put down vines. Finally, he persuaded alcohol-suspicious authorities that the ability to grow vinifera in the region was "a gift from the gods." A novice grower, he had no idea what to plant and where, and once he decided on Sauvignon Blanc, he had no idea if his grapes would ripen—no idea if they would even bear fruit.
15 years later, India is poised to become one of the world's most important wine markets.
Blogs
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Stirring the Lees with James Molesworth
Sheldrake Point's Bob Madill follows his Riesling's lead
Posted: October 3, 2012 By James Molesworth
Sheldrake Point's Bob Madill, a Canadian native, got the wine bug early. While working in tech and software, he was already moonlighting with Ontario wineries such as Lakeview Cellars in the '80s and early '90s.
"I was a cellar rat, a cellar master and then I learned how to sell wine too," said Madill, a spry 65. "The selling part was the hardest."
Blogs
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Harvey Steiman At Large
Tasting the differences, and history, with Jason Lett
Posted: October 3, 2012 By Harvey Steiman
Jason Lett has been working on a project, tasting through every single bottle of Eyrie Vineyard’s library wines, then recorking them. The collection represents one of the true treasures of American Pinot Noir, hundreds of bottles that testify to the longevity and quality possible in Oregon.
When he has time, Lett opens eight cases of a vintage to recork. It takes about half a day and most of the time 90 percent of the bottles are just fine. Sometimes, he said, “only half will be correct for the vintage,” an experience that has led him to reseal the bottles with a cork alternative called Diam, a conglomerate cork that promises zero cork taint.
Jason’s father, David Lett, one of Oregon’s earliest pioneers, founded Eyrie in 1966, and made the wine that called the world’s attention to what was happening with Pinot Noir in Oregon—Eyrie Vineyard Pinot Noir Oregon South Block 1975, from a portion of the estate vineyard in what is now known as the Dundee Hills AVA.
Blogs
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Exploring Wine with Tim Fish
Web retail giant takes its third stab at wine
Posted: October 3, 2012 By Tim Fish
I've been writing about wine and the Internet since the Dark Ages of the mid-'90s, so I felt déjà vu all over again last week when I heard that Amazon was giving wine yet another try.
Three strikes Bezos and you're out!
Jeff Bezos, of course, is CEO of Amazon, and this will be the Net giant's third attempt at wine in the past 12 years. Let's hope this venture won't be as cursed as the first two.
