As a wine enthusiast, I rarely get what I want when the holidays roll around. Most of the time, my well-meaning friends and family will get me a couple of wines from Trader Joe’s, or yet another corkscrew. By the beginning of January, I usually have a cabinet full of mass-produced California Cabernet (or worse,…
Some of us don’t have the time nor patience to wait for a wine to mature by 2045. If you’re the type of collector who wants a wine that will last, but that you can still safely drink in its youthful vigor now, 2013 Realm Cabernet Sauvignon from the Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard is a…
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…
Few things will make you feel more privileged than drinking a wine that isn’t officially on the market. I once had the chance to try a homegrown wine that a friend of my family made purely for his own entertainment, and even though it was a bit syrupy, it had a ton of character, and…
Wine seller John Kapon recently reviewed two DRC jeroboams, giving the 1999 vintage a high score of 96. There was just one problem: the wine was corked. Kapon admitted this in his review, but claimed he could taste around the flaw. He wrote, “The quality of the raw materials was clear, present, and dangerous.” But…
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…
One of the best hotel experiences I ever had was when I stayed at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. While there, we dined at the hotel’s famous restaurant, D.O.C.G., and got the chance to sample some of its 500 Italian wines. There were dozens of wines on that list that I had never heard of…
If you’re anything like me, you love spending time with friends and family over the holidays, but you’d still rather be sipping wine quietly in a cellar. There’s something about that cool cellar air and the sweet smell of cork that’s instantly calming, even during the most stressful holiday get-togethers. Here are a few excuses…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: –Robert Mondavi Winery –Silver Oak Cellers –Chateau Pichon Lalande –Chateau Cheval Blanc A Wine Berserkers forum member once considered buying a mixed case of 1970s and 1980s California and French wine, including some Robert Mondavi, Silver Oak, and Pichon-Lalande. The only potential problem that this forum member noticed was that the…
A few years ago, we thought about moving Vinfolio’s headquarters to a new location. The area seemed spacious and perfect, except for one thing: it was located next to a brewery. Inside the building, we could smell the funky yeast wafting from the brewery’s exhaust, and we knew that if we stayed there, it would…
Earlier this year, I accidentally “decanted” a small serving of Champagne. I had poured some of it into a standard white glass, but because I was getting my house ready for dinner guests to arrive, I forgot where I set the glass down. I was eager to taste the wine, so I poured myself another…
I once visited the home of a magnificent wine taster. The 70-year-old collector had developed an incredible palate for both Burgundy and aged scotch in his lifetime, and could tell you everything about Cote de Nuits. I assumed he would have a massive wine cellar in his home, but I found that he kept all…
