Ask Quivira winemaker (sorry, winegrower, as they prefer to call him) Hugh Chappelle for the Cliff Notes version of their style, and this is what you’ll get: “One foot Old World, one foot New World.” That’s a pretty darned good summation, based on my recent visit to their Dry Creek Valley winery. I should give…
Category: elegant wines
“Tough To Spit” (Dispatch From 2014 San Francisco International Wine Competition)
Every once in a while, you get a gig that is so good, you just have to pinch yourself to test if it’s all real and you’re actually getting paid to have so much fun. Such was the case at the 2014 San Francisco International Wine Competition, which wrapped up a couple of weeks ago…
There’s A Wild Man In My Head (Cayuse Recent Releases)
“And I’m Not sorry for The things I’ve said There’s a wild man in my head There’s a wild man In my head” – Morrissey, “I’m Not Sorry” Christophe Baron, the short, edgy, high-energy force behind Walla Walla’s controversial Cayuse, is sniffing dirt. And – in a very thick French accent that betrays his Charly-sur-Marne…
Enthralled With Pinot Noir (Thralls Family Cellars Recent Releases)
It’s funny (as in “refreshingly interesting,” and not as in “ha-ha, I almost peed my pants!” or “ewww, well… that’s weird) how success in the wine business keeps getting redefined and reinvented. To wit: by now, we shouldn’t be surprised that we’re seeing wine lovers migrate from the online wine world into viable writing and…