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January 2008
Nostalgia Has Its Limits with Older Wines
Posted: 01:42 PM ET, January 31, 2008
Wine Spectator's senior editors blind tasted a series of old California reds this week, and the tasting, about which James Suckling has also written, demonstrated how well most of these wines aged.
Our editors agreed on a few stars. Read more
Rosenblum's Sale Crucial for Zinfandel Lovers
Posted: 05:50 PM ET, January 30, 2008
The sale of Rosenblum to Diageo is important on several fronts.
Rosenblum has been one of the state’s biggest champions of Zinfandel. In any given year it can bottle up to two dozen single-vineyard wines from this grape as well as other often underdog varietals and, perhaps more significantly, it has emphasized value, which all wine drinkers prize. Read more
Running into an Old Friend in Hawaii
Posted: 10:56 AM ET, January 24, 2008
I arrived in Waimea Monday night for a week’s stay and immediately ran into a friend in the wine section of the local store—Kaena.
This was about the last place I expected to see a wine of this caliber this far away from its home town. Read more
Curran Departs Sea Smoke for New Pinot Venture
Posted: 08:41 PM ET, January 18, 2008
Kris Curran called late today with more news than typically comes this time of day on a Friday, just as I prepared to shut down my computer and head out of town for a couple of weeks.
Curran said she is leaving Sea Smoke, the Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir estate where she’s worked the past seven years and helped shape into one of the area’s defining wineries, to join a new venture headed by William Foley, owner of Foley winery, also in Santa Rita Hills. Read more
Tried or Not, They've Got Opinions
Posted: 05:50 PM ET, January 17, 2008
While my colleague Harvey Steiman wonders whether people really understand the diversity of Australian wine, I have another somewhat related question.
One reason, if not the main one, that people don’t understand Australian wines is they either haven’t tried enough of them, or they have a mindset that stereotypes the wines. Read more
Harlan '97 Cabernet Polarizing to Harlan Too
Posted: 03:46 PM ET, January 15, 2008
Bill Harlan extended an invitation to meet over lunch after the holidays. "No agenda," he said, "let's just catch up."
Luckily for me I had a topic in mind and Harlan was more than game. Yesterday’s visit at Julia’s Kitchen in Napa provided the perfect opportunity to talk about the 1997 Harlan Estate Napa Valley Cabernet. Read more
A Standoff in the Homemade Wine Showdown
Posted: 03:46 PM ET, January 14, 2008
Midway through Saturday’s tasting of homemade wines, one of my friends summed up what had transpired: “What Mother Nature giveth, Father Time taketh away.”
We uncorked more than 20 wines in the span of three hours and there were some wonderful surprises, a few duds, a few corked bottles, yet overall enough evidence to suggest that even amateurs can make pretty good wine, as the homies stood up to some of the big guns. Read more
A Look Back at Some Homemade Wines
Posted: 05:39 PM ET, January 11, 2008
Tomorrow I’m tasting a group of homemade wines from the 1980s and early 1990s, several of which I played a very small role in making. I helped pick the grapes and occasionally hopped in the fermentor, applying my size 13 stompers to the freshly squeezed must. Read more
Dark Horse Zin in the Winner's Circle
Posted: 07:42 PM ET, January 09, 2008
I like the vibe from Dark Horse, a new Dry Creek winery. It calls itself "The wine for cowboys, not to mention cowgirls, cowhands, hell, even the cows themselves. Pigs and chickens too."
Michael Loykasek is the winemaker, a veteran from this northern Sonoma appellation, who worked at Meeker and Armida before starting his own label, and he consults for De La Montoya and Hauck Cellars. Read more
Talking Baseball And Wine With Tim McCarver
Posted: 02:51 PM ET, January 08, 2008
It’s not often that I visit with other critics, especially those who work in other fields. So it was with great pleasure that I sat down for lunch yesterday in Napa with baseball analyst Tim McCarver to talk about our national pastime, wine, sports in general and calling them the way you see them. Read more
The Case for an Upper-Case Boysenberry
Posted: 01:15 PM ET, January 07, 2008
When I was growing up in Anaheim in the 1950s, we frequently visited Knott’s Berry Farm in nearby Buena Park. Back then, Knott’s was a homey theme park, set in a western cowboy motif. It was the only show in town until Disneyland arrived. Read more
Rising Waters in California Wine Country
Posted: 02:35 PM ET, January 04, 2008
Much needed rain arrived in Northern California last night and as much as I enjoy the wet weather, and the greenery and fast-running rivers and streams that come with it, I’ve come to learn that a little can go a long way fast.
Already there are reports of minor road flooding in the North Coast and those who live in areas where rivers can overflow are keenly aware of that possibility. Read more
An Excellent Napa Cabernet for $20
Posted: 04:15 PM ET, January 03, 2008
Napa Valley’s 2005 bumper grape crop has created plenty of opportunities. Producers can select their finest wines for their top labels and discard wines that don’t fit into those blends. There’s often lots of good wine that doesn’t fit in those cuvées, which is where the opportunities lie. Read more
Back to Work and Expanding California Wine Coverage
Posted: 01:11 PM ET, January 02, 2008
Today is a work reentry day for many of us. It’s also the start of a new tasting year, a year in which we’re hoping to significantly increase the number of reviews of California wine.
Getting back to work is welcomed for me. I’ve had about 10 days off since my last tasting and one of the things I’ve noticed over the years is that I’m a better taster if I taste every day, rather than if I only taste periodically, as in once a week. Read more
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