California sparkling wine has come a long way (baby) since German draft-dodger and later NYC barber Jacob Schram decided that the hot and sunny knolls of Calistoga in the 1860s looked like a suitable place to plant vines like those he’d left behind in his beloved Rhineland (after all, he’d seen hills far steeper –…
Category: elegant wines
On Planting A Vineyard By Hand, And Not Getting Your Wines Reviewed By U.S. Critics (Yarra’s Giant Steps)
“I can’t review your wines, they have too much acid.” Those were words that a reviewer at one of the U.S. wine glossies told Aussie Yarra Valley producer’s Giant Steps head honcho Phil Sexton (according to Phil, anyway). To which Phil’s reaction was, apparently, something to the effect of “but that’s the whole point!” Linear…
Roots, Reconnected (Tasting Inglenook’s 1960 Cabnernet)
Jeff Smith, of Hourglass wines (and who, incidentally, just took the rather bold move of parting ways with long-standing and celebrated consulting winemaker Robert Foley, and bringing on Cade and Plumpjack alumnus Anthony “Tony” Biagi), knows his Napa Valley wine history. Fortunately for me (more on that in a minute or two). Smith’s roots are…
Hill Of Grace, Fifty Vintages On (Henschke Recent Releases, And Getting Schooled In Australia’s Greatest Vineyard)
Fill a van with half a dozen Right Coast sommeliers traipsing through Australia’s Eden Valley en route to Henschke, and the on-road proceedings will take on the air of a group of pre-teens after a full night’s sleep and a breakfast of Sweettarts that were about to enter Disney World. Initially, I didn’t “get” why…