Blog Index

Harvey Steiman

When Is Unpretentious Pretentious?

Posted: 12:16 PM ET, 04/23/08

Some casual restaurants insist on serving wine in water glasses. Bistros in France have done it traditionally, as do trattorias in Italy, and their American counterparts have followed suit. It sends message, apparently, that "we're not snobby about wine. Read more

Maynard Keenan

Vino Las Vegas—Can You Win the Ticket?

Posted: 11:00 AM ET, 04/23/08

As I explained in my last blog, I'm giving away a ticket to Wine Spectator's Grand Tour in Las Vegas that I can't use due to our vineyard-planting schedule. But … I'm going to make you work for it.

Eric Glomski, owner of Page Spring Cellars and my partner in Arizona Stronghold Vineyards, and I have come up with a set of six questions about Arizona's wine industry and wine regions in general, and our properties: Page Springs, Arizona Stronghold and Merkin Vineyards. Read more

James Suckling

Syrah Splendor

Posted: 10:57 AM ET, 04/23/08

I wonder if Cortona will one day become the Côte-Rôtie of Italy? Will it become one of the best places on earth to grow Syrah?

It already has a head start. And it’s made some excellent Syrahs already.

One of the best Italian Syrahs I ever tasted (drunk too!) was the Tenimenti Luigi d'Alessandro Syrah Toscana Podere Il Bosco 1997. Read more

James Laube

Lust for the Must: A Different Take on 2006 Pinots

Posted: 04:49 PM ET, 04/22/08

Today is a share day, with me passing along a note from a winemaker, Wes Hagen at Clos Pepe, who once wanted to be a writer, and once you read this, perhaps you’ll understand why.

It’s a bit of a contrarian view on the vintage, from my perspective, but this is offered in the spirit of sharing from a die-hard Pinot lover. Read more

Richard Betts

Three Days

Posted: 11:11 AM ET, 04/22/08

“At this moment you should be with us / feeling like we do, like we love to, and I will again….” — Perry Farrell, Jane’s Addiction

This comes to mind over and over as I consider three recent days strung together over two coasts and fueled largely by too much great wine, good friends and fun. Read more

James Laube

Final Thoughts on Cork Taint

Posted: 01:59 PM ET, 04/21/08

Cork taint can be a can of worms.

Several readers have accurately addressed most of the questions posed here since Friday's blog entry, "Corks Worse Problem as Price Increases."

Daniel points out that Wine Spectator has covered cork-related issues extensively, not only in the context of TCA-infected corks, but also about instances of entire wineries having been affected. Read more

James Suckling

A Brunello Producer Makes a Brave Decision

Posted: 11:40 AM ET, 04/21/08

I spoke to the commercial director of Argiano this morning, the well-known producer of Brunello di Montalcino, and he told me that they decided to declassify most of their 2003 Brunello di Montalcino production. (Argiano is one of a handful of well-known wineries whose production of Brunello has been sequestered by local magistrates, as reported here on April 3. Read more

James Laube

Corks Worse Problem as Price Increases

Posted: 01:39 PM ET, 04/18/08

We re-crunched the numbers and percentages of corked wines by wine price range and, based on our limited samplings, it’s actually worse than we thought.

Yesterday’s blog was intended to simply look at corked wines across price points, using the assumption that expensive wines have more expensive corks and inexpensive wines use cheaper corks. Read more

Harvey Steiman

Glenn and the Lafite

Posted: 01:00 PM ET, 04/18/08

The e-mail asked for the usual advice. Glenn, the thirty-something son of an old friend who passed away a few years ago, had been given a bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild 1985. His e-mail said that he would be celebrating his birthday the next day and wondered what he should eat with the Lafite. Read more

Maynard Keenan

Vino Las Vegas: The Long Version of a Short Story

Posted: 10:02 AM ET, 04/18/08

Alex Stratta, of Wynn's Alex Restaurant, asked to include my and Eric Glomski's wines (the 2007 Arizona Stronghold Vineyards Tazi and the 2005 Caduceus Naga and Sensei) for a wine dinner in May. I, of course, said yes, and then requested that he make good on his promise to let me work in the kitchen for a while prior to the event. Read more

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