At this point, I think that I’ve met most of the 5th generation of the Wente family (including jamming with Winegrower & Chief Land and Supply Officer Karl Wente at his then unfinished house several years ago, which is just the kind of thing that happens to people like me on wine travels, I guess)….
Category: crowd pleaser wines
“The Biggest Fear” (Catching Up With Bolgheri’s Tenuta Argentiera)
“We want to have elegance be the main focus of our wines. The biggest fear for me is over-extraction.” Tenuta Argentiera winemaker Nicolò Carrara is right to be a little afraid. He is dealing with ripening and fermenting grapes in Tuscany’s Bolgheri, after all, where sunlight and the potential for big levels of ripeness—not to…
Me, and the Ladies (Maculan Recent Releases)
I’m preparing to jump into some extended coverage of California’s Livermore Valley (with which I have a fairly long history at this point), but before that goes down, I though that I’d drop a quick post about tasting some recent samples (via Zoom) with Veneto producer Maculan. You know, because it’s been something like six…
Gambling (Literally) on the Spanish DO You’ve Never Heard Of (Probably)
Today, we’re going to talk about a brand that is (quite literally) gambling on a Spanish region that you (probably) know nothing about whatsoever. Back in November of 2024, I was a media guest of Perelada, a somewhat enigmatic producer who is basically the biggest thing going in Spain’s Empordà DO (which is primarily in…