Out of the dozen or so virtual, online, live sample tastings in which I’ve participated the last several months (necessitated due to the COVID-19 pandemic), I might have been looking forward to this one with Bacigalupi Vineyards the most. The thing is, I am kind of a fan boy for their matriarch, the indefatigable Helen…
Category: elegant wines
Wine in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 10 (“The Vineyard Is the Style” – Fort Ross Vineyard Recent Releases)
Add yet another locale to the list of gorgeous places that I’m supposed to be visiting, but the opportunity for which has been heinously denied to me due to the USA’s botched response to the current pandemic: Fort Ross Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast. My experience with FRV, as has been the new normal lately,…
Alentejo Postcard, Part 5 (“Lost Art” – José de Sousa Recent Releases)
Making wine at J.M. da Fonseca’s José de Sousa in Portugal seems, from what I can discern, like a huge pain the ass. First, they’re fans of lagare foot-treading their grapes, an effort that is full of, well, effort. Next, when they do use basket presses, they’re covered in a specially approved blue paint that…
Wine in the Time of Coronavirus, Part 8 (Decoster Bordeaux 2016 Releases)
“It was just, like, a dream.” Thibaut Decoster and wife Magali (a Bordeaux native) knew basically nothing about farming and winemaking. No prior experience working the land. No family in the industry. So naturally they now own four wineries across twenty-eight hectares of vineyards in Bordeaux. “My dream was to be a farmer,” Thibaut Decoster…
