An email from Hamilton Russell Vineyards this week brought an item of interest. The star South African property has begun putting a small amount of its fine estate chardonnay into small, 160 liter clay amphorae. The amphorae, seen above, are lined with clay drawn from the property itself, which is located about 70 miles southeast…
Chardonnay with latitude
IT’S WHERE THE EVERYDAY meets the can-you-believe-it that most interesting things happen; where risks and rewards run high; where people who know better (or think they do) often fear to tread. It’s true of all sorts of things – including wine. We offer chardonnay as a case in point. In warmer climes and at lower…
Mineral rights
In his relentless campaign to build the reputation of California wine, Robert Mondavi liked to set Napa Valley against Europe in comparative tastings. According to witnesses, he would badger guests into conceding that while European wine was often good – California wines were “just a bit fruitier” — and by implication, just a bit better.…
Identical strangers
A friend of a mischievous turn of mind brought several wines over the other night all bagged up in brown paper bags. He challenged me to taste and comment on them. Two were tasted as a pair. They were both clearly pinot and rather good — but startlingly different. We discussed them at some length…
Charismatic, enigmatic wines of Campania
WINE HAS ITS chattering classes too, and for some time now its pet subject has been something called terroir. Like entrepreneur or mise en place, terroir is a French loanword that requires a whole English sentence to convey the meaning. Narrowly construed, it’s the natural conditions prevailing in a particular spot that distinguish the wine…
Say it . . . don’t slay it
In the introduction to his engaging and endlessly useful book “Brunello to Zibibbo: The wines of Tuscany, Central, and Southern Italy, Nicolas Belfrage maintains that correct pronunciation “is an important tool for understanding Italian wines” since “once you get the sound, the flavors too fall into sharper focus.” Though I can’t go very far in…
The difficult sport of catching (merde!) the Noire du Berry chicken . . .
A Little Lipstick for your Chardonnay?
The first edition of Oliver de Serrres’ manual on agricultural practice, Le Theatre d’Agriculture et Mesnage des Champs, was published in March of 1600. Dedicated to King Henry IV of France (of chicken-in-every-pot fame) it was reprinted many times throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and qualified the ex-soldier from the Ardèche for the title he eventually assumed: father…
For affordable Burgundy, consider the byways
A BRITISH-BORN FRIEND now in his 70s remembers a time when high quality red Burgundy was commonly found on the tables of clergymen, schoolteachers, and other folk of quite modest means in the Liverpool he remembers. It seems amazing that wines now so sought after could once have provided everyday enjoyment for ordinary middle-class people…
Magnum opus
In a post a couple of weeks ago I mentioned researching the 1967 Chateau Beychevelle that my friend Bernie told me he intended to serve at an upcoming dinner party in celebration of his 75th birthday. The search led me to a 1973 New York Magazine article by Alexis Bespaloff, observations on his career, the…
Museum puzzle
ISTANBUL, Turkey. I snapped the photo at left in at the Ancient Orient Museum here – a handsome enclave of buildings hard by Topkapi Palace, but with many fewer visitors. This is hard to fathom since the Ottomans were robbing the Near East of its treasures long before the British or French got into…
In Istanbul, supermarket wine really is super
ISTANBUL, Turkey. Some cities are wrapped in fog or smog; Istanbul is swaddled with antiquity and exoticism. No doubt when the emperor Constantine established this city as a purpose-built Imperial capital in the fourth century of the common era he did so with the idea that it would remain eternally youthful and relevant – such…