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Hermitage may be the greatest wine made from Syrah anywhere in the world. In this post, Jeff takes a close look at Hermitage, focusing on everything from its history and terroir, to its vineyard sites, top producers and more.

Fernando Garcia and Daniel Gómez Jiménez-Landi have one weird trick for winemaking success in the Gredos: they hang out in the local taverns and drink beer with the village old-timers. Why are people so excited about these wines? What makes them so good?

We want to take a moment, as the holiday weekend dawns on us, to talk with you about how to organize an at-home tasting! There's no better way to experience wine than with friends. And there's no better time than...you guessed it....NOW!

There are many great things about California! But, for wine nerds, there is one glaring imperfection which lies in California's soils: there isn’t enough limestone! Europe, by contrast, enjoys a high concentration of limestone, one reason wine production has long thrived there.

Ready-to-drink, Biodynamic, Old-school Bordeaux for a Song

Maison Blanche is one of our favorite biodynamic addresses in Bordeaux. It’s also one of our favorite old-school Bordeaux, in a way: at MB they pursue finesse over power and flash, a throwback to the days before flying winemakers and the 100-point rating scale.

What gives rosé wines their pink color?

Rosé is usually made with red-wine grapes, which have pigment in their skins.

All the color in rosé wines come from the skins of those grapes.  (We’ll talk more about wine making later in this post.)

Well, is Rosé more like white wine or red wine?

While the color of rosé wines can run the gamut from almost white to light red, people tend to drink them more like white wines than red wines. We drink rosé with a chill (the exact serving temperature depends, as with red and white wines, on all the particulars). Like white wine, many rosés are perfect for outdoor, hot day drinking: that’s why they’re mainstays of seaside vacations.

 

We just got word that Willi Schaefer's 2018 Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett is available. This isn't the kind of wine we usually get to offer by email--it is, as Terry says, allocated down to the bottle. But Terry Theise picked up some extra stock this year and, well, here we are!

Champagne is often regarded as the most iconic sparkling wine region in the world, so much in fact, that it is often used interchangeably to mean all sparkling wine. This however, is not completely accurate, as true Champagne only comes from grapes grown in the protected appellation in Champagne, France. Many fans of Champagne know well the main grapes of the region like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and, to a lesser extent, Pinot Meunier. What may be surprising to some is that, in addition to these, there are actually 4 additional grapes that are permitted to produce Champagne. 

Eric Asimov’s latest post, "Everyday Wines: The Most Important Bottles You Will Drink," at his New York Times Blog, The Pour, is a gem.

And I’m not saying that just because he said to “find a good wine shop” with a link to his article saying that “[i]nstitutions like Chambers Street Wines, Flatiron Wines & Spirits and Crush Wine & Spirits in New York are great for expert and novice alike, and they serve a nationwide clientele.” No, this has nothing to do with validation in the National Press…

It’s because Eric has, once again, nailed how we actually drink wine. His eight tips are spot on and we’d recommend you read them.  Here is a helpful link to read it now.

You may know how to drink wine like a pro, but can you taste like one?