When you visit Alentejo’s Cortes de Cima (as I did late in 2019 on a media jaunt), you realize that their geese are more than just “a loud alarm system” (as Winemaking Director Hamilton Reis put it). Those geese also eat vineyard pests, like slugs and snails. That’s not the only traditional thing that Cortes…
Category: crowd pleaser wines
Alentejo Postcard, Part 3 (Herdade do Rocim Recent Releases)
According to general manager and oenologist Pedro Ribeiro, Herdade do Rocim has “probably the most expensive amphorae in the world.” Rocim sent clay from their ancient vats – a staple of aging wine in Alentejo for centuries – to a university in Montpelier for analysis, in order to create newer amphorae that had the same…
Wine in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 4 (Legendary Zinfandel Vineyards)
Virtual (a.k.a., remote) tastings have been a thing for several years (hell, I was involved in some of the very first… daaaaannnng, remember those?!?), but they’ve positively (and virtually/figuratively) exploded during this time of SIP sipping. This has been a welcome surprise and a needed respite, since some of us (myself included) are unable to…
Wine in the Time of Coronavirus, Part Three (Through the Wayback Machine with Hesperian Wines)
In this edition of our sipping during the time of SIP (Samples In Progress, during Shelter In Place), we’re setting the Wayback machine for 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2016, as we go back in time and into the samples pool with Napa Valley’s perennially misunderstood Hesperian Wines. I was provided this in-home vertical tasting opportunity…