Wine News

In my recent post wrapping up the 2009 Vincent Cellars harvest, I wrote that elevage had begun. Elevage is what winemakers call the time from the end of primary fermentation at harvest through to bottling. In the case of pinot noir, that's typically one or two years where the new wine cures into a finished beverage.During elevage, red wine is typically in wood barrels, occasionally being moved from barrel to barrel to aerate the wine and draw it off its sediment. In some situations, red wine...

A History of Wine As Therapy is a book written by Dr. Salvatore P. Lucia that, as the title says, is a historical account of wine used as medicine. Why did I pick this book up and write a review about it? In short, I was interested to see if ancient civilizations saw wine as a panacea as I do. What can't wine cure? Well, aside from hangovers...and maybe head lice. Anyway, it cures a lot! This book also happened to be only $5 from my local used book store. The price probably had something...

Talking with a friend recently about German riesling, I was reminded about the great 2001 vintage. For me, 2001 was the revelatory year for me regarding the riesling of Germany's Mosel Valley and beyond.In particular, I remember a trade tasting in spring of 2002 that I was able to attend at the warehouse of then-importer Ewald Moseler, featuring newly bottled 2001 rieslings from several Mosel producers in Ewald's deep portfolio. Among them were the wines of Ernie Loosen, head of legendary...

Though I'm mostly interested in wine, there's a place for serious beer in this blog. Last night I attended an annual winter beer and cheese gathering hosted by my friend and blog reader Dudley. The event attracts local brewers, vintners and regular folk like me, though I guess I've moved into vintner category.When I arrived the crowd was packed around a dining room table full of mostly west coast U.S. beers and domestic cheeses. My contributions were 22oz bottles of 2007 Deschutes Abyss and the...

The only good thing I can say about the recession is the effect it's had on the price of Oregon Pinot Noir lately. It's true that growers and vintners need to be compensated and encouraged to do what they do (and to do is so well). But still, I love Oregon Pinot and it's pretty easy to go broke drinking the stuff. That's why it's so exciting to find so many really good low-end Pinots these days. And by "low-end", I mean inexpensive. And by inexpensive, I mean between $14 and $20.