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Vinography Unboxed: Week of 1/9/22
Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of...
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Bottles of Dear Old Blighty: A Deep Tasting of English Wine
For the longest time, my British friends have been bragging about their wines. Not the wines they’ve been drinking, mind you, but the wines that their countrymen and women have been growing. I’ve had...
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A Boatload of Flavor: Tasting Some Smaller Loire Producers
A couple of weeks ago I resumed something that has been a regular periodic activity of mine for more than 15 years: traveling for wine. More specifically, I embarked on my first press junket in more...
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Vinography Unboxed: Week of 6/19/22
Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of...
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Carved From the Mountain: The Wines of WeatherEye Vineyard
Mark my words: the greatest wines Washington State has ever produced will come from one of the most ambitious vineyard projects I have ever seen in the United States. And when I say “will come,” what...
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The Emotion of Savennières: The Wines of Thibaud Boudignon
Winemaker Thibaud Boudignon looks me straight in the eye and says, “I want fresh vitality in my wines and an almost brutal minerality,” and I honestly have to catch my breath for a moment, since it’s...
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The Way of Granite: Gideon Beinstock and the Wines of Clos Saron
In the most famous wine regions of the world, a tourist wandering the nicely manicured rows of vines that lead up to the front lawn of a gorgeous winery becomes easily lulled into the romantic fantasy...
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Napa’s Best Cabernet: Tasting the Superb 2021 Vintage at Premiere Napa Valley
Some people run marathons. Me? I taste 150 or so Cabernets before lunch. That’s the way I like to describe my annual tradition of experiencing the event called Premiere Napa Valley. Each year, the...
View ArticleTasting California’s Geekiest Vineyard
Psychologists analysing paratroopers divide them into three different categories: ‘courageous’, ‘fearless’ and ‘over-confident’. It’s not clear which of these would have applied to ex-paratrooper Bob...
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Ultramarine: California’s First Cult Sparkling Wine
How exclusive is Ultramarine, the single-vineyard sparkling wine made by winemaker Michael Cruse? Well, the wine was first released in 2014, and up until a few months ago, I still hadn’t tasted a...
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Vinography Unboxed: Week of 9/10/23
Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of...
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The Wines of COS and the Soul of Vittoria, Sicily
Most wine lovers are fated to fall in love with far more wines and wineries than they will manage to visit in their lifetime. Even as someone who travels to wine regions several times per year, my...
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Tasting The Ghost Grape: A Deep Look at Pignolo
What virtues are there to be found in obscurity? Don’t ask a hipster. They’ll just roll their eyes and go back to listening to music you’ve never heard of. But move beyond the stereotypes of aloof...
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Vinography Unboxed: Week of 2/4/24
Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of...
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Vinography Unboxed: Week of 2/25/24
Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of...
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Island Wines: A Seminar
Anyone lucky enough to have been to an island paradise knows just how special it feels. There’s a certain quality of light, the sensation of warm sea breezes on the face, and scents of flowers in the...
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Cultivating Eden: 150 Years of Henschke Winemaking
There’s a lot of talk these days among the wine cognoscenti about the waning significance of the distinctions “Old World” and “New World” when it comes to describing wine. Blind tastings among experts...
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Tasting the Swartland Revolution
When I first went to South Africa in 2008 for the Cape Wine convention, I knew next to nothing about South African wine. I attempted to remedy this fact by spending as many hours as possible tasting...
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Vinography Unboxed: Week of 9/1/24
Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of...
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Dealing with Change in the Douro
Look closely enough at the fabric of nearly any major wine region around the world and you’ll find the threads of history intertwined with those of innovation and change. In some regions, however, the...
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