The Wine Idea

IN WEDNESDAY’S BOSTON GLOBE FOOD SECTION we reported on our crawl of newish, higher-end burger joints in Atlanta, but last week we ducked out of town to snatch a few days in … Québec, au bar, en brefRead more

Was the deed done by Mother Nature, in the vineyard, with her little heat index?  Or was it done by Mr. Winemaker, in the cellar, by means of a doubled-barreled roto-fermenter? … Of horsepower, megapixels, thread count, and alcohol in Napa cabernetRead more

AXA is a big French insurance company that also owns a number of important wine properties. The wine part of the business is run by Englishman Christian Seely whose blog I … Tokai: How they get the sweet inRead more

A WINEMAKER FORTUNATE ENOUGH to have a vineyard within a prestige appellation is entitled to the cachet the name conveys and earns a correspondingly high price for his wine. Another, whose … Drinking One Tier down</br>Read more

WHEN suppertime rolled around last Sunday night and I had an open bottle of a favorite red wine standing by (2008 Closerie des Alisiers Hautes Cotes de Beaune), I decided not … On whether red wine can ever be fish wineRead more

IF YOU HAVEN’T at least heard about the natural wine movement, it’s likely you haven’t been paying  attention. If you have been paying attention you probably know that it’s an amorphous … Absent-minded Winemaking and the Romantic traditionRead more

IT’S EASY TO FORGET that at one time the celebrated  vineyards of northern Europe were nothing more than wooded hillsides. The Romans, who generally took the long view of things, planted … Hautes Côtes de VermontRead more

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, … The Clay’s the ThingRead more

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. … Chardonnay with latitudeRead more

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 … Mineral rightsRead more

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. … Identical strangersRead more

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 … Charismatic, enigmatic wines of CampaniaRead more