If you, like me, like to carry-on with Carignan, for Carignan Day held on the final Thursday of October, consider Domaine Bomary “Absolutely” Carignan! paired with a tomato Tian for a vegetarian celebration! Not familiar with this ancient grape? You may know the Spanish version, Carinena, best known from Aragon where the grape likely originated. And you may be surprised to find out that not long ago it was the most planted grape in California, and in 1988, the most planted grape in France! But with its prolific nature, it was popular: when it’s hot and happy, it can produce grapes like crazy.
2015 Château Bardoulet Saint-Émilion Grand Cru is 85% merlot
In Rex Pickett’s book Sideways, the wine that Miles is saving for a special occasion is Château Petrus Pomerol, a rare and expensive Bordeaux made with Merlot– a grape that he dismisses and downplays in both the movie and the book while elevating thin skinned Pinot Noir, a grape which metaphorically represents him. The book explains his disdain more clearly than in the movie: Merlot is the favorite wine of his ex, and the Petrus was a bottle they were saving together for an occasion that never occurred. Feeling rejected himself, he rejects her via her favored wine, and when he finds out she’s not only happily married but pregnant, he finally opens the bottle at a fast food restaurant and drinks it out of a paper cup. When Sideways producers weren’t allowed to use Petrus, they went with Château Cheval Blanc, also a Merlot and Cabernet Franc blend.
Most people miss these points, just as many people miss that a lot of Bordeaux wine is made from Merlot–and can be had for $20 or less! Continue reading →
“We have rarely seen such a close final, except for one point!” reports Philippe De Cantenac, founder of the RVF World Tasting Championship aka Championnat du monde de dégustation which was held today, Saturday October 14 at Château Sainte Roseline in Provence. As a competing member of Team USA in 2019, I was curious to see who won and what the wines were. Continue reading →
When we think red wine, we tend to think red meat. And when we think Italian food, we tend to think osso bucco, meaty ragus, pizza piled with pepperoni. While these may be obvious pairings, they are not the only ones– especially in the fall when there’s a rich abundance of fruits and vegetables that offer plenty of flavor and umami to pair with red wines like this herbal, mellow merlot from Mendocino’s organic Ettore. Continue reading →
BiancaVigna amphora orange glera sparkling wine paired with small bites inspired by Venice’s cicchetti
An orange wine made in amphora from the Glera grape? Say what? Background: Until 2009, Prosecco, located in the Veneto region of northern Italy, meant a place, a grape, and/or a style of wine. That’s a lot of territory to cover for one word! ‘The European Union ratified this, effectively making it illegal for wine producers anywhere outside northeastern Italy to label their wines as “Prosecco”. Continue reading →
What does Netuno Gengibre –a Brazilian ginger liquor– have to do with Burning Man 2023 or with fig cookies? It all has to do with Placement, my friends, Placement. And that’s Placement with a capital P because Placement is where it’s at for Burning Man theme camps, which form the communal core of Burning Man’s Black Rock City located in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert about a two hour drive northeast from Reno. Continue reading →
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 