If you’re in the bubbly business in the Aube (the southern region in France’s Champagne-Ardenne), then you have to make peace with the fact that, compared with the popular Épernay and Ay to the north, you’re basically the red-headed stepchild of Champagne. Unless you’re Emmanuel Lassaigne, who crafts the bubbly at Champagne Jacques Lassaigne. In…
Category: wine review
On The Fine Art Of Not Giving A Sh*t (Wiegner Etna Recent Releases)
Viewing the volcanic rock strewn about the foothills of the still-active Mt. Etna volcano, one would be forgiven for imagining that it must take a crazy person to want to farm anything there. After meeting the wily and eccentric Peter Wiegner, the paterfamilias of Etna’s Wiegner Winery, and his huge Tibetan Mastiff patrolling the grounds…
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Carricante (Highlights From Sicilia En Primeur 2015)
It’s somewhat ironic, as I kick off a series of posts about my press jaunt to Sicily earlier this year, that the wine region I often cite as a source of reasonably-priced wines made from international varieties will now be compressed into a highlight reel focusing primarily on one indigenous variety. But hey, we gotta…
Sweet Niblets! (2010 Anakota Helena Montana Vineyard Cabernet)
The gravelly, sandy soils of the Helena Montana vineyard sit about 950 feet above sea level in Knights Valley. It’s where we’ll be wrapping up the recent spate of California coverage her on 1WD (…and all the Europhiles rejoiced…). When I visited said vineyard, I resisted the urge to shout “Sweet Niblets!” – which, I…