MENTIONED IN THIS POST: –2005 Haut-Brion –2011 Pingus –2013 Louis Jadot For his 50th birthday, my friend reserved a table at his favorite restaurant. He brought along his own bottle of 2005 Haut-Brion, and asked the sommelier to uncork it for him. The sommelier poured a thimble-sized splash of it into a glass and offered…
A few weeks ago, I opened a bottle of California Zinfandel and found the wine as dull as nails. Since this is a vintage that a good friend raved about, I decided to give it another shot, this time pouring it through my handheld wine aerator. Within moments, the bland Zinfandel transformed into a heady…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: Blandy’s Malmsey Madeira Louis Roederer Cristal Rosé Bouchard Pere et Fils Domaine de la Romanee Conti Chateau Angelus Years ago, I brought my favorite bottle of Blandy’s Madeira to my family’s annual Christmas dinner party. I asked my sister to get our mom’s Port glasses out of the bar cabinet, but…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Tenuta Marchesi Antinori -Sine Qua Non -Domaine de la Romanee Conti The first time I opened a stunning bottle of 30-year-old Antinori Solaia the cork crumbled inside. Fortunately, I was able to salvage the wine, but it was a terrifying few moments. No one told me that older wines often…
A few months ago, I had a hankering for blackened salmon, so I found the perfect recipe and ended up with a beautiful dinner that just needed a good wine to go with it. The only problem was that my white wine collection wasn’t up to the task. As I looked through my wine fridge,…
White wines aren’t the easiest to pair with food; their light, delicate flavors can get overwhelmed by even a simple beef stew. However, in my experience, nothing beats a great pairing of white wine and food. When you get the balance of flavors right, your food appears more complex–you’ll taste every pinch of paprika and…
When you have vintage Krug, Screaming Eagle Cabernet, and Angelus Grand Cru on the menu, you need to give these special wines plenty of space to impress your guests (and yourself). If you serve the Screaming Eagle first, the wine’s robust, juicy flavors will overpower your palate, eclipsing the lighter flavors found in the Krug.…
The summer after I graduated from high school, I stayed at my grandmother’s house for a few weeks to help her with a gardening project. After a long day of digging in the dirt, she’d usually relax on the couch with her knitting and a chilled glass of Robert Mondavi Chardonnay. One evening, her foot…
My grandmother always told me that I should never keep open Champagne overnight. When I got older, I decided to test this theory. Early one evening, I got more than halfway through a bottle of Moet & Chandon (don’t ask me why I opened it knowing I wouldn’t finish it) and since I didn’t want…
Over the holidays, I found a couple bottles of Argentinian Torrontes that I decided to store in my wine fridge. At an ideal serving temperature of 40 degrees, the Torrontes was peachy and absolutely delectable–the vintage was so good that I decided to bring one of the bottles to a dinner party so I could…
I’m reasonably skilled at opening wine bottles, but I’ve had quite a few synthetic corks break in half recently. One was a high-quality bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir whose synthetic cork was sealed so tightly to the neck of the bottle that it broke off into four separate chunks as I tried to pry it…
In 2014, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Napa Valley in the early dawn hours, shattering thousands of bottles of wine. Winery owner Marguerite Capp told Reuters that she lost dozens of bottles in her tasting room just two weeks before their peak tourism season began. She was caught completely unprepared, saying, “Mother Nature moves on…