VINTNERS WITH PROPERTY in the steep hillsides that overlook the Mosel River between Trier and Koblenz have a worldwide market for their cooly aromatic, austerely-structured white wines. Today, growers there can count on steady demand and good prices. In the U.S., the hipster segment appears to have succumbed to the taut allure of cool-climate riesling…
Historic embrace The love affair between tree and vine goes way back. Here's their story.
CAMDEN VALLEY ROAD runs east-west from Sandgate, Vermont across the state line into Washington County, New York. It’s a winding, two-lane country road with hardly any traffic on it, and it’s partially for this reason that my wife and I walk it every day when staying nearby. The other reason is that it’s exceptionally picturesque –…
Gimme air!
Decanting wine conjures visions of cobwebby bottles, guttering candles, crystal goblets, and white-gloved butlers. Performed primarily to relieve wines of sediment, the technique that’s known as the soft decant once involved all this and a good deal of practiced skill to boot. Today the soft decant is less frequently seen, since (1) we tend to…
Field blends have something to say, but is anyone listening?
The hip, cozy watering hole known as Backbar occupies a back room of Journeyman restaurant in the scrappy Boston satellite city of Somerville. With its usual team of cocktail jockeys off for a few days of social muddling at a trade event, GM Meg Grady-Troia filled the void with a couple of somm-for-a-night guests. Sunday…
Of sassy barmaids, drinking by the numbers, and barbarian manners
THE SKETCH AT LEFT is a bit of graffiti scratched by a first century Roman who may have been keen to have some fun caricaturing then Emperor Nero – as some think – or just engaging in an impromptu bit of self-portraiture. It’s sure the wag never imagined it would still be amusing people twenty…
Is there a bias against the blend?
THE STORY OF HOW a genial Swiss wine importer named Christoph Künzli undertook the recovery of the Boca vineyards in Italy’s Piedmont region when they were on the verge of extinction has been told before. It’s a story that should be better known, in part because it is so frankly…
Of orange wine, faded jeans, and shabby chic What distinguishes intentionally and accidentally oxidized white wine?
LAST WEEK A FRIEND showed up with a bottle of 20 year-old grand cru white Burgundy that for some reason had rather fully oxidized despite having been kept in a wine-friendly environment. A spongy cork made us think the wine might have long since gone off, but the opposite proved to be the case. The…
Light, appetizing, chilled Loire reds
FOR AMERICANS, France’s Loire Valley is familiar as the source of the lively, mineral-inflected white wines of Sancerre and Muscadet. The region is also home to a broad, if less frequently encountered, range of red wines made from varietals such as cabernet franc, gamay (of Beaujolais fame), and the curious antique cultivar pineau d’aunis. Although…
The House of Orange
CENTRAL BOTTLE WAS POURING three so-called orange wines at its most recent Thursday Night Wine Bar event. We’ve written twice before on a category (I’ll cite those posts momentarily), that remains a controversial one. Why so? Because these wines are exactly the opposite of what the Robert Mondavi-UC Davis Axis of Normal mandates…
Québec, au bar, en bref
IN WEDNESDAY’S BOSTON GLOBE FOOD SECTION we reported on our crawl of newish, higher-end burger joints in Atlanta, but last week we ducked out of town to snatch a few days in Montréal and Québec City. Our main interest, as you might guess, being the new & slightly used wine bars and restos there. To pack…
Of horsepower, megapixels, thread count, and alcohol in Napa cabernet
Was the deed done by Mother Nature, in the vineyard, with her little heat index? Or was it done by Mr. Winemaker, in the cellar, by means of a doubled-barreled roto-fermenter? Thanks to Felix Salmon who blogs on a variety of subjects for Reuters and recently drew our attention to an article that appeared in the…
Tokai: How they get the sweet in
AXA is a big French insurance company that also owns a number of important wine properties. The wine part of the business is run by Englishman Christian Seely whose blog I peek in on now and then. I don’t normally find it the most interesting writing on the web, since it often has a promotional…