Like this author, Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards was born in 1972, predating the official indoctrination of the Chalk Hill AVA. And thus forevermore Chalk Hill wines will slightly confuse would-be wine buyers who, upon picking up a bottle, wonder why the name Chalk Hill is listed twice on the label. You know, the way that…
Category: kick-ass wines
Wine In the Time of Coronavirus, Part 44: Feedin’ Time (Dining In with Napa Valley’s Black Stallion)
One thing that the Covid pandemic has done to us wine media types is essentially shut down the whole “visit a producer in person and break bread over wine and dinner” thing that the wine business loves to do. That’s especially true of the Napa Valley wine business. And they must be jonesin’ for media…
Wine In the Time of Coronavirus, Part 43: Run to the Hills (a Collio Deep Dive)
When you’re talking about Italy’s Collio region, you’re talking about hills. And I mean, meta-levels of hills. That point was emphasized more than a few (dozen) times during my recent Zoom+samples tasting organized by the Consorzio Tutela Vini Collio, during which wine writer Matteo Bellotto gave us the lay of the land (more or less…
Wine In the Time of Coronavirus, Part 42: Fighting the “Viticulture of Death” (Avignonesi Recent Releases)
Virginie Saverys is fighting against what she calls the “viticulture of death.” Born in Ghent, Belgium, Saverys graduated in law from the University of Paris, and moved to Tuscany in 2007. After taking the helm at Avignonesi two years later, she was, as she told me during a recent Zoom tasting of her wines, “a…
