How many kinds of wine are there? It’s a question I’m often mulling, in part because the answer always seems so appealingly out of reach. The idea that the query could be addressed merely by itemizing the hundreds of official geographic designations enshrined in appellation law (think Sancerre, Sonoma, or Chianti) is frankly laughable. For…
The Style Issue
From time to time, winemakers in town to present and talk up their wines will drop by our cellar. We love this, because it gives us an opportunity to get acquainted with the people whose wines line our shelves, and also because we get to ask all kinds of questions about how and why they…
Judgment in Paris
It was 46 years ago this month that the wine world experienced its very own version of The Shot Heard ‘Round the World: the 1976 showdown between Californian and French wines organized by late British wine merchant Steven Spurrier. It is still reverberating. The event became known as the Judgment of Paris not only because it was…
Sly, Wry Lambrusco
Wander the streets of the northern Italian city of Parma, and you may be struck, as I have been, by the innumerable small food shops, cafes and wine bars that display local charcuterie and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses in their flamboyantly dressy windows. So much so, that you might get the idea that citizens of, and visitors…
Ready or Not
How old is that in dog years? One of the most frequent, and perfectly reasonable questions we’re asked to field in the wine corner from day to day has to do with the state of readiness of a given bottle: Is this wine ready to drink? The answer, in brief, is always yes. It is longstanding…
Show of Hands
What makes a wine good, better or even best? It’s a challenging question and one that admits not only of multiple answers, but of more than one approach to drawing a conclusion.One strategy links judgment to our sensory perceptions — the degree to which one finds the scents, flavors, and feel of a wine pleasing…
The Nosy Sort
You have a nose and so do we. Some have more nose than others. Cyrano de Bergerac, whose prodigious schnoz was a permanent feature (that’s Gerard Depardieu in the role of the celebrated swordsman and poet, above) is a famous case study. Pinocchio, whose wooden nose went to great lengths only episodically is another. Wine…
The Lexicon Bandits
Here in the wine corner, we spend our days trying put words to what we sell. It’s not unpleasant work, but it is often challenging. All wine can be (and is, by the way) analyzed in someone’s lab to determine its exact composition, but even if we were privy to the numbers, it would scarcely…
May I Have Your Autograph?
The signature on a document, work of art or other created thing is a mark of origination: a sign that associates the object in some definitive way with the individual responsible for its content, or, more fundamentally, its existence. Although it’s common for a signature to take the form of an autograph — that’s…
Sure, it’s Tasty. But is it Navigable?
How did particular wines take the shape they did? One popular argument is that the possibilities are necessarily limited by the various atmospheric conditions, soil types and topographies that obtain in the vineyards from which they spring. This is plausible — but only to a degree. It’s true that each these naturally-occurring elements plays a…
The Red and White of It
Red and white might as well be the north and south poles of wine, reliably serving as stable orientation hubs on the vast and often confusing surface of planet Vino. Wine shops, wine lists and wine books all tend to organize themselves around these binary reference stations. So pervasive is the white/red divide that we…
Corky, or Just Quirky?
The most common actionable fault in wine, by far, is what’s known as cork taint: A condition that announces its presence with an off-putting whiff of wet basement, soggy cardboard, mold, or vague but insistent mustiness. Less common (but not exactly rare) is a bottle that gives the impression that someone has poured out some…