The most delicious dessert I’ve had in my life was accompanied by a beautifully-aged, off-dry Riesling from Napa Valley. Two years later, I remember that wine more than I remember that dessert. Despite the gooey custard of that creme brulee, crisped to perfection on top, it was the Riesling that made the experience memorable. The…
It’s well known that 2012 was an exceptional growing season for California’s star Cabernets, especially in comparison to the complicated 2011 vintage. The quality of the wines that resulted from the 2012 harvest is accompanied by a spectacular volume produced. With 500,000 tons of Cabernet grapes harvested, California has never seen such a large production…
Pinot Noir has been in production more than 1,000 years longer than Cabernet Sauvignon, yet it is increasingly rare to find a bottle that lives up to this varietal’s elegant reputation. Only the finest estates are able to grow these difficult grapes to the perfection Pinot Noir deserves. As wine writer Bob Thompson famously…
Over the past 50 years, Port wine has amassed a reputation as an old-fashioned drink traditionally drunk with dessert. However, a Nielsen study found that more than 21 percent of Port drinkers are under the age of 44, a higher percentage of young drinkers than any other fortified wine, including Sherry. This is partly…
Burgundy’s reputation for growing the finest Chardonnay on the market comes down to the one-of-a-kind clay, limestone, and chalk terroir that provides its wines with intense minerality. Modern winemakers clamber to buy grapes from every subregion of Burgundy, making it the region with the most widely-replanted white grape roots in the world. Terroirs in Napa…
Over the past 10 years, more and more wine producers are using skin-contact pigeage on white wines, a practice that for centuries was viewed as a flaw in white varietals. Every year, dozens of guests gather barefoot at Peju Province, tucked away in the dry hills of Napa Valley. There, they sink their freshly-cleaned feet…
An excellent wine collection requires dedication and joy in the thrill of the hunt. Serious collectors like Leslie Rudd never allow their cellars to lay dormant, constantly seeking out special additions that excite them. Rudd owns more than 10,000 bottles of wine, yet he is still on the search for the best new vintages…
Many wine collectors are turning to “do-it-yourself” self-service wine locker facilities as a supposedly cheap way to invest in wine. These are often viewed as the most cost effective way to store your wine collection. What collectors fail to take into consideration are three often-ignored reasons that self-service facilities typically end up costing far more…
When I took a family wine tour of my hometown near Napa Valley a few years ago, we were all ecstatic about trying a 25-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon that my friend had kept on her estate for a special occasion. We opened the bottle, savored the intense violet bouquet, and took our first sip.…
When we talk about fine winemaking techniques, chances are that horses and cows don’t enter the equation. What many of the most discerning wine connoisseurs don’t realize is that livestock can create a wine more vivid in flavor than any previous vintage on the same estate. Not only do animals naturally fertilize the vineyard’s soil,…
The 1939 Treasure Island World’s Fair marked the birth of Napa Valley wine tours as we know them. Under Beringer’s direction, my great uncle enticed movie stars like Clark Gable to visit the then-unknown Napa Valley wine scene for the first time shortly after Prohibition ended. Hollywood soon became enamored with the tiny, premium wineries…
Sonoma winemaker Adam Lee once said, “I’m just not a fan of Brett, whether it’s a lot or a little. It’s like someone saying they’re a little bit pregnant.” Most wine connoisseurs would agree with him, but trendsetters are taking an entirely new approach to this long-maligned quality in wines. Biodynamic producers such as Terroir…
