My views on wine are ecumenical. There’s room in my life for a big, buttery chardonnay and a steely, unoaked version. Ditto a big, lively zinfandel (esp. if served alongside a chilly day and a warm fire) and, at other times, a refined and delicate pinot noir. So, I was tickled when a wine...
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It looks like the era of trying to sell wine with cute critter labels has given way to an edgier trend of names that are unconventional if not shocking. Sometimes this works not at all for me. Although I know some women find all those “Bitch” wines amusing, I don’t. (But do let me...
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Does expensive wine taste better? It may if you can see the price tag. This study famously showed that when people were given the same wine at different prices they thought the higher-priced version tasted better. Today’s wine, one of several produced by Bronco Wine Co., the home of Two Buck Chuck, might have...
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We’re used to buying wine by the grape variety _ cabernet sauvignon, merlot, sauvignon blanc, and that’s fine. But a blended wine can be very good, too … we’ve come a long way since the days when jugs of generic red and white were bywords for plonk. A recent wine I tried, Conundrum 2010,...
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Did you ever have to drink your words? For some reason, I had Kim Crawford wines pegged as overhyped. But then I tried the 2010 Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc sample that was sent to me and … wow. The wine starts with a refreshing aroma of grapefruit and pineapple, which continues with the...
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“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May/And summer’s lease hath all too short a date,” says Shakespeare in his Sonnet 18, and, boy, does that seem truer than ever this year. I cannot believe how quickly the summer flew past. Fortunately, we have winemakers standing ready to store summer in a bottle,...
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I knew I was getting into a weird area with this wine writing business when I learned that “cat’s pee” was a relatively common tasting note term when assessing the aroma of sauvignon blanc. I mean, you know going in that tasting notes are a bit odd, if only for the full bodies, insouciant...
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I’d like to say I discovered Benessere Vineyards by driving around the Napa Valley and exploring a wildflower-lined lane. But the truth is I learned of them by getting a box of samples delivered to my door in Berkeley. So, not so much with the romantic backstory, but that, as it turns, out doesn’t...
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Ever try to take a bottle of wine on a hike? It’s pretty tricky. The bottle’s heavy, it clinks around and there’s a good chance _ if you’re clumsy like me a great chance _ you’re going to break it and get wine all over. Of course, there are those backpack deals...
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The good news about the WOTW, Smith-Madrone 2009 Riesling, is that it’s a very nice wine. The bad news is that there isn’t a lot of it around, only 302 cases made. The wine, which was sent to me as a sample, has a suggested retail price of $27, and is a dry...
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