May 11, 2006
How do you know it’s time to break open the Dry Rose? When your seven day forecast looks like this. Yesterday I decided to move up my official "Rose Break Out Day" from Memorial Day to, well, yesterday. The opening salvo in my attack on defining "pleasure" was a 2004 Ravenswood Rosato. It was cool, had a darkish hue, brimmed with early raspberry aromas and flavors and the requisite acid backbone necessary to be the quaffer it was designed as….
May 9, 2006
TEN THINGS…We Know About The Glossy Wine Magazines The glossy wine magazines often come in for a lot of criticism by those in the wine industry and those who make wine an important part of their lives. Some is deserved, some is not. 1. They don’t give good reviews to wines just because they are advertisers 2. Advertising is dominated by the huge brands 3. Good reviews from the glossies sell wine 4. They are written and designed to appeal…
May 4, 2006
Andy Beckstoffer is a pretty astute guy. Andy is one of the largest growers in Napa Valley and maybe the most respected. And it was Andy who last year initiated an inter-industry discussion on the affects of long hangtime and hyper ripeness on the vines and on wines. This is a touch subject for a number or of reasons. Over the past decade or so vintners have been asking growers to let the fruit hang on the vine much longer…
May 3, 2006
It appears the feds have approved new rules that will allow a winery to now only need 85% of a wine to come from a particular vintage in order for it to put that vintage date on its bottle. The rule had been 95% from a single vintage with up to 5% coming from other vintages. However, it appear the new 85-15 rule does not apply to wines with an American Viticultural Area designation on the label. This means that…
Apr 28, 2006
I think it’s simple: A designated growing area, an appellation or, as they are called in the United States, American Viticultural Areas, are only useful if they are able to deliver expectation to the drinker. If I can’t have a pretty good idea of what I’ll experience in the bottle if it says "Anderson Valley" or ‘Oakville" or "Russian River Valley" on the label, then what’s the point of putting the appellation on the bottle at all? This is also…