This white-wine-producing mutation of Pinot Noir is enjoying a wave of popularity perhaps greater than it has ever known, and certainly on a wider geographical scale – even if it is relatively rarely known by its true French name Pinot Gris. The word pinot, comes from the word meaning “pine cone” in French, and could [...]
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There’s a common misconception that good tasters are a rarefied group with special abilities. Nonsense. The reason most of us aren’t good tasters is that we haven’t tried. Most of the time when you have wine you’re conversing and there’s food, music and all kinds of distractions. It’s hard for anyone to evaluate anything under [...]
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Good wine and food are among the great pleasures in life, but many of us are unsure about the best way to put them together. The first thing to remember is that you can’t be wrong. If it tastes good, it is good. Aside from being subjective, one of the reasons wine and food pairing [...]
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With the release of the 2005 ÆROS®, in the spring of 2008, we introduced our first Meritage in 25 years of wine making. What is a Meritage? The Meritage Alliance was formed to distinguish high-quality, hand-crafted blends wines from ordinary, generic ones and, additionally, limits the blending to the traditional Bordeaux varieties which include these [...]
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Is it important to smell the cork? Are the “legs” a sign of quality? Is older wine always better? There are persistent truths and myths, when it comes to wine. Let’s take a look at some of the most common ones. Older Is Better In surveys, this is one of the most pervasive misconceptions of [...]
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Reading books and taking classes are great ways to learn about wine, but to get to the heart of the matter quickly, tasting is always the best way to go. Nothing takes the place of real life experience, not to mention it’s a lot more fun to taste than to study. Just find other friends [...]
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Wine and cheese have always been considered a classic combination and one of life’s great pleasures. It evokes romantic images of a sumptuous supper in front of a blazing fire. It is also a catalyst of great debate among wine and food lovers because, frankly, pairing wine with cheese is a little more challenging than [...]
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There are so many ways to look at blending wine: Blending grape varieties, different vineyard lots, locations, barrel lots and more. I sat down with Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, and also Jeff Booth, our consulting winemaker, to discuss the endless possibilities. Q: I think when we hear the term blending, we tend to think first about blending [...]
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In the early part of this century you may have noticed a movement toward low oak and no-oak Chardonnays and other whites. It’s not a surprising response to complaints about what have been called the over-oaked wines of the 1990s, those from the new world particular. If the trend is to play down the oak [...]
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Scroll down for a 3-course, all-chocolate menu for Valentine’s Day! In 1528, when Hernando Cortez first brought chocolate to Spain from the Aztec Empire, it was considered the ultimate gift to bestow upon a loved one. Its rarity and seductive powers made it an unequivocal declaration of passion and devotion. The Aztecs believed chocolate to [...]
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