Additional Articles/Posts by Roger Morris

From the Wine Cellar: Verona’s Many Styles of Red Wine
The ancient city of Verona is at the confluence of the vast plains of northern Italy and the foothills of the Alps, surrounded by vineyards producing both white and red wines. Today, we will take a look at some of the reds — from the simple and...
From the Cellar: Grab Bag of California Reds and Whites
Sometimes our tasting notes have a theme to explore or a point to be made. Don’t look for one here. Just peruse and choose — there’s something for everyone. 2012 J California Pinot Gris ($15). Soft and fragrant creamy pears that...
From the Wine Cellar: 11 Budget-Friendly Wines From Chile
You don’t have to bring out your fine crystal for these wines, but they are affordable and are mostly respectable table companions. The reds are more savory than fruity, more lean than luscious, so you will probably enjoy them more with food than...
From the Wine Cellar: American White Wines for the Start of Summer
For most of us, Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial beginning of summer. Here are some interesting white wines from across the country — California, Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland — with which to celebrate. 2011 Raffaldini...
From the Wine Cellar: Diversity in 7 New Pinot Noirs
Can you believe that is has been almost 10 years since the movie Sideways suddenly made everyone thirsty for pinot noir? That means that wineries which have long produced the varietal as well as those who saw an economic, if not always artistic,...
From the Wine Cellar: American Cabernets and Cabernet Blends
Almost from the beginning, American wineries in California and much later on the East Coast have measured themselves against Bordeaux wines. And, indeed, cabernet sauvignon has flourished on the West Coast while eastern vintners have fallen in love with...
From the Cellar: Salento and Abruzzo Selections
Brian Larky is well-known for his Dalla Terra selection of Italian regional producers whose wines are both well-made and well-priced. Here are six that are in current release: 2010 La Valentina montepulciano d’Abruzzo ($14). Nice gamey aromas and...
A Glass Made Just for Malbec?
Riedel is famous for designing glasses that are considered perfect for enhancing the aromas and flavors of a particular wine — an Oregon pinot noir, white burgundy, red bordeaux, champagne. Now, the Argentine wine producer Graffigna has...
From the Wine Cellar: Wines Mainly From the South of France
Laroche is a Burgundy-based producer who has expanded to the South of France. Gérard Bertrand is a relatively new wine producer, but one who is now making some of the best wines in the Languedoc. Here are the newest releases from each. 2011 Laroche...
From the Wine Cellar: California Whites, Mostly Chardonnay
Warm days bring out our desire for chilled white wines to sip or to have at the table. Here are a half-dozen new chardonnays from California along with a lone sauvignon blanc to start us off. 2011 Clos la Chance Central Coast sauvignon blanc ($11). This...
From the Cellar: 5 Spanish Wines
Regardless of what wines from Spain cross my desk, I know they will be interesting drinking. 2009 Valdelana "Agnus" Rioja Crianza ($24). Rounded flavors of ripe cherries. Full-bodied and well-balanced. Takeaway: A more-modern offering from this...
Adventures in the Alimentary Canal
I despair that Mary Roach may soon run out of bodily functions. She has written science books about the dead (Stiff), the after-dead (Spook), and sex and what passes for it (Bonk). Now she is back with Gulp (W.W. Norton, $26.95), about how our bodies...
From the Wine Cellar: Easter Wine Picks
While it’s true that chardonnay and pinot noir are two of the most versatile wines for traditional Easter fare, there are other choices, particularly if you like your wines a little sweet or a little fizzy or a little pink — or all three...
From the Wine Cellar: 10 Mostly Tuscan Reds
Tuscany can produce wondrous pricey reds, mostly from sangiovese, and reds that are enjoyable everyday drinking at very affordable prices. These are mostly the latter, with a couple of Veronese wines thrown in for variety. 2007 Mantellasi "Le...
From the Wine Cellar: New Wines for Spring
FedEx and UPS trucks regularly come to my door bearing boxes of wines that generally have no common denominator other than they are the latest releases from wineries around the world. As today is a rainy, early-spring day, I have arranged a Noah’s...
From the Cellar: Caiarossa, a New Wine in an Old Country
Oh, to be a new winery in an old country — well-funded and with the ability to blend, as you like, the best of new and old in a classic setting. The 15-year-old Caiarossa estate is located in the Maremma coastal area of Tuscany, a place that...
A Food and Wine Adventure in New Zealand
About 25 years ago, sauvignon blanc from New Zealand’s Marlborough region – located at the northern tip of the country’s South Island – began to catch the imagination of the American drinking public as an antidote to California...
Rivesaltes: A Complicated Wine to Explain, an Easy Wine to Drink
Rivesaltes is a complicated wine to explain even for those who produce it, so let’s skip to the bottom line: It is a sweet wine with a lean structure, it's served chilled, it has more alcohol than most table wines but less than some other...
From the Wine Cellar: 5 Napa Valley Cabernets
It’s always interesting to sit down with a few glasses of cabernet sauvignon produced in the Napa Valley. Amid all the arguments about fruit-forwardness, big wines, and high alcohol, we sometimes lose the fact that, along with their native Bordeaux...
Malbec, Meat, and Maté
Argentina’s Mendoza winemaking region — tucked up against the Andes Mountains — produces almost two-thirds of the country's immense wine output. Cabernet sauvignon, tempranillo, chardonnay, bonarda (a grape known in California as...
From the Wine Cellar: 10 World Reds for February
Here are a few more interesting reds to help you make it through February. 2010 Veramonte "Ritual" Casablanca Valley pinot noir ($21). Quite floral with lots of red fruit notes, especially red raspberry. It’s balanced, but fruit-forward...
From the Wine Cellar: Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs
Chardonnay and sauvignon blanc are perhaps the two most familiar varietals to American drinkers, and it’s not surprising that both are grown around the world and come in all styles and prices. One here even has a little chenin blanc thrown in for...
California Dreaming: A Wine Lover’s Weekend
It’s winter now in wine country. The vines in Napa Valley and Sonoma County are bare, and the only activity happening outdoors is the pruning of the vines before bud break and the beginning of a new growing season. Click here for the California...
From the Wine Cellar: Mainly Tuscan Reds
If Tuscany was a computer, it would bear the logo, "Powered by Sangiovese," the primary and traditional, though not exclusive, grape of the area noted for its cherry flavors and raspy, citrusy finishes. Of the nine wines here, eight are Tuscan,...
What Americans Drink: New Study Shows We Love Pricey Wine (and Tequila)
In spite of the recession, Americans solidified their position as the world’s largest consumers of wine, drinking 4.5 percent more in 2011 than in 2010 — more than 3.8 billion bottles — after just passing the French and Italians in...
From the Wine Cellar: Beaujolais for the New Year
Beaujolais wines are among the most versatile in the world, as the gamay grape that is the source of Beaujolais can yield fruity wines that are similar to a cross between the tastes of pinot noir and merlot, or it can produce leaner, mildly tannic wines...
Birth of a Vineyard
The Burgundians are fond of the word climat, which, in essence, is a small vineyard definable only by the sky above and the earth below and the vines in between. As a wine writer, I have been privileged to walk in some of the world’s most-famous...
New Releases: 7 Whites from Alsace
White wines from France’s Alsace region are often a bit of a puzzle, even for those who love them. It revolves around how much sugar is in the wines — and I’m not talking about dessert wines, but table wines — and how much acidity...
New Releases: Baker’s Dozen of Red Wines From California
As new releases come out before the end of the year, there has been a virtual flood of red wine from California just in time for holiday drinking. Following a large batch of reds reviewed a couple of weeks ago, here are 13 more, and there are additional...
Just Released: 10 Collio Wines From Northeast Italy
The Collio region of northeast Italy, about 90 minutes from the Venice airport, shares a common border with Slovenia and many of its winemaking traditions, as the coastal part of Slovenia was once part of Italy. With the Adriatic at its front door and the...
Just Released: 14 Holiday Bubblies From Far and Wide
If you only drink sparkling wines during the holidays, then here is some homework for you — 14 bubblies from several different regions and countries. Remember, don’t pop the cork and spew the wine, but release it with a gentle,...
Just Released: 8 White Wines From California, Some Incomplete
There are some very nice wines in the latest white releases from California, but others could use a little more work. Increasingly, I am seeing wines from California — not just in this batch, and not just with whites — that are...
Just Released: A Case of Mixed California Reds
As cold weather digs in like a nose tackle on a goal-life defense, we are rewarded with a dozen random reds wines from California — mainly cabernets but also a sprinkle of merlot, pinot noir, even a syrah. There’s something here, as the...
Just Released: 5 Wines From Italy’s Alois Lageder
Just as northwestern Italy’s Piedmont area revels in its reds, northwestern Italy’s Alto Adige or Südtirol is a place that loves its whites. One of my favorite winemakers in the region is the charismatic Alois Lageder, who finds a way to...
Just Released: 5 Yarden Wines From Israel’s Galilee
Yarden, which makes its wine in northern Israel in the turbulent border country with Syria and Lebanon, has long been known for the quality of its products. The wines are influenced by the Eastern Mediterranean climate and are stylistically a blend of New...
Legendary Burgundies and Great Food in Beaune
Beaune is a beautiful little walled town that serves as Burgundy’s wine, food, and charity capital. Its Hospices de Beaune hospital dates back to 1443, and each November since 1851, its auction of new barrels of some of the most prestigious cuv...
Recipes for Thanksgiving Desserts Paired with Sauternes and Tawny Port
For the past few years, Aline Baly, the engaging, American-educated co-manager and owner at Château Coutet, an estate which makes the lovely sweet sauternes in France’s Bordeaux region, has been touting how well the rich, but well-balanced...
Just Released: Beaujolais on Washington Street
Nouveau beaujolais "madness" takes many forms, and this year it will involve the simultaneous renaming of streets in lower Manhattan and Lyon, France, on Nov. 15 as the two cities share celebrations by giant video screens more than 3,500 miles...
Just Released: 7 Bonny Doon 'Read My Back Label' Wines
Boony Doon owner and winemaker Randall Grahm continues his delightful quest toward winemaking with less intervention and more biodynamic methods used in the vineyard and in the winery. He is also probably the world’s greatest advocate for full...
Just Released: 6 Wines From Sicily’s Donnafugata
Everyone is in love with the wines of Sicily these days, in part because there is the feeling that the region’s winemaking is both ancient and modern, which, in many ways, it is. Nowhere is this new Sicily more apparent than with the family-owned...
Stomping with the Symingtons
For generations, ports — those marvelous end-of-the-meal fortified wines — have been produced in Portugal’s Douro Valley. Some of them are bottled young when they are big, bold, and fruity, and the best of these are declared by their...
Just Released: West Coast Chardonnay Lovers Alert!
In spite of the fact that some wine snobs continue to try to merlot-ize West Coast chardonnays as being too big, too oaky, too alcoholic, too… too… everything, the wines continue to flourish and defy the criticisms. Thank you, Bacchus! Here...
CBS Sportscaster Scores with California Wine
The wine world is awash with vanity brands that carry the names of famous athletes and actors, most of them mere endorsements with no real involvement on the part of the celebrity on the label. Emmy-winning sportscaster Jim Nantz, who calls everything...
Just Released: 3 Zinfandels From Ravenswood Plus Jordan, Justin, and Divining Rod
Ravenswood founder Joel Peterson no longer owns it but, last we heard, he was still overseeing winemaking at zinfandel’s most-famous winery. Here are three new ones: The 2009 Ravenswood "Lodi" Old Vine Zinfandel ($13) is warm and generous...
Heavenly Greek Wines From Mount Olympus
Roger Morris, a regular contributor to The Daily Meal's Drink channel, is a veteran wine, food, and travel writer based in rural Chester County, Pa., and the author of the blog Been There Tasted That: A Journal of Living. He and his wife, artist and...
Just Released: Wines From Portugal and Argentina
Portugal is increasingly becoming a source of diverse table wines, and Esporao in the Alentejo area is one of the most solid producers. Here are three from them plus one from Mendoza in Argentina. The 2011 Esporao "V" Alentejo Verdelho ($13) is...
Just Released: 3 Rosés for a Fading Summer
We’re reaching the end of summer, so it’s a good time to enjoy our rosés. Here are three that are worth exploring: The 2011 Macari North Fork of Long Island Rosé ($15) is somewhat sweet and full with peach and spice flavors and...
Just Released: Marlborough Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs
The Marlborough region at the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island is a beautiful place to grow grapes, and remains perhaps the country’s best-known wine-producing region. The Nobilo and Kim Crawford brands are both stars of...
Front of the Line: Bordeaux Château Tour
Roger Morris, a regular contributor to The Daily Meal's Drink channel, is a veteran wine, food, and travel writer based in rural Chester County, Pa., and the author of the blog Been There Tasted That: A Journal of Living. He and his wife, artist...
Just Released: 17 Wines From Germany, Alsace
Like the crush of garden tomatoes that reward us in late summer, we have just received a crush of soothing summer wines from Germany (from the importer Valckenberg) and from Alsace. Most, but not all, are rieslings, and we even have a red wine waiting at...
Just Released: 7 Wines From the Languedoc
The South of France — especially the vast Languedoc region with all of its appellations — was once known as being a sea of everyday bulk wine. Today, it is one of the most vibrant regions of this wine-growing country. Two of the more prominent...
Just Released: 6 Sauvignons From Pasternak’s Portfolio
Like many of the major importers, Pasternak has a portfolio on wine producers from around the world, and this summer they are promoting a variety of sauvignon blancs from both sides of the equator. Let’s start with those from the home of...
Just Released: L’Avenir Wines From South Africa
For several years now, the international wine community has been praising the improvement of South African wines and waiting for it to become a full-fledged member of the great-wines countries. In spite of this encouragement, total recognition has been...
Just Released: 5 Reds From Around the World
It’s unusual for a distributor or importer to officially release a wine that is almost a decade old, so it’s a treat to be able to buy the 2003 Château Simard ($29) from St. Emilion. A portion of the vintage was released earlier, of...
Just Released: 4 Sonoma Whites
Sonoma County is rapidly becoming our go-to bin for high-quality white wines in California. Not that the reds are bad — the area grows both excellent cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir — but many of our best whites made from sauvignon blanc,...
Just Released: 2009 Ports From Fladgate Partnership
Normally we think of vintage ports as something we drink only in winter in front of an evening’s fireplace, but they are just as appropriate in the summer as something to sip with the cheese course or instead of dessert. To me, there are few dining...
Just Released: 6 Shades of Chablis
The Burgundy-based producer Laroche got its start in Chablis, and it has just released five of them plus a regional chardonnay, the same grape also employed in the five with the higher pedigrees. The basic flavor of most chardonnay is generally apple, and...
Just Released: Biserno Wines From the Creator of Ornellaia
Lodovico Antinori is back. The creator of Orenellaia, one of the great super Tuscans from the coastal Maremma area near Bolgheri, has now moved a few kilometers north and established a new set of IGT wines at the Tenuta de Biserno estate in Bibbona,...
Just Released: 3 California Sauvignon Blancs
If I have a complaint with New Zealand sauvignons blancs from the Marlboro region — other than the fact that the acidity can sometimes cut right through my Riedel — is that they generally taste so similar that everything seems to be just two...
Just Released: California Cabernets and Pinot Noirs
In spite of the fact that we often have a one-image-fits-all take on California red wines — lots of fruit, lots of alcohol, maybe not enough acidity to be good food wines — it’s an overused mindset that doesn’t do justice to the...
Just Released: 5 Chardonnays From California and Long Island
There are two ways in which American winemakers approach that most French of all French white wines — chardonnay. On the East Coast, where there is less sunshine but great wine-growing soils, many winemakers approach chardonnay as if it were the...
Just Released: 4 Reds from Gérard Bertrand
The South of France — Languedoc, Roussillon, Provence — has over the past decade been establishing itself as the most-exciting "new" old region of France. This is especially true with red wines, where combinations of grenache, syrah...
Philadelphia to Host Its First Dîner en Blanc
As if the opening of the untraditional Barnes Museum this summer wasn’t enough excitement, Philadelphia will also be hosting its first Dîner en Blanc. We would tell you where and when, but it doesn’t work that way. The first Dîner...
Just Released: 2 Matchbook Tempranillos From Dunnigan Hills
In the politically correct field of winemaking, it’s not often that a brand owner admits that he was (hopefully it is in the past tense) a pyromaniac as a kid. But that’s John Giguiere’s story — that his fascination for starting...
2 New Wines, Verjus Released by Bonny Doon
Randall Grahm has always attracted a crowd of wine lovers because he makes very good wines and because his wit is outrageous. In the past few years, he has reined in his wit a bit, and, according to his own admission, his ego as well. He now tries to do...
New Wine Releases: Two from Gary Farrell
The Gary Farrell winery is located in a picture-pretty setting in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley and has long been noted for the quality of its founder’s winemaking. Susan Reed is wine honcho now, and her style is to make restrained...
After 40 Successful Caymus Vintages, Chuck Wagner Is a 'Special Selection'
After 40 years, Chuck Wagner still feels very passionately about his wines because, well, they are his wines. When Wagner, then 21, started Caymus Vineyards in 1972 with his parents Charlie and Lorna, almost all of Napa Valley’s wineries were still...
Long Island Winemakers Announce First East Coast Sustainability Program
A group of Long Island winemakers has spearheaded the formation of the East Coast’s first official sustainability program, an eco-friendly effort that marries grape growing, winemaking, and social responsibility. Named Long Island Sustainable...
Drew Barrymore’s First Wine: Promising Pinot Grigio
Drew Barrymore has been a child actress, adult star, film producer and director, humanitarian and philanthropist, author of an autobiography, and brand model for CoverGirl and Gucci jewelry. She has walked miles on red carpets, and, in her earlier years,...
The Best Wines You Can’t Have... Yet
Every April, Bordeaux throws a blowout party for the wine trade and media called "primeurs," a big barrel tasting of their new wines from the previous vintage barely seven months after the grapes were picked. But you can’t buy them then...
The Perfect Rye Whiskey to Pair with Pancakes?
If you’re tired of sipping the same old Starbucks dark roast with your morning stack of pancakes, Van Gogh Imports has a treat for you. Van Gogh, known for its palette of palate-pleasing flavored vodkas, has gone north of the border to bring back...
2009 and 2010 Vintages in Burgundy Produce Win-Win Choices From Home of Pinot Noir
Which wine you choose to drink should always be a matter of personal preference, but wine experts generally agree that, after a century of New World challenges, "Burgundy" is still the answer to the question, "Where are the best pinot noirs...
No Spitting Allowed: Secular Wines for Holy Days
Although Passover and Easter are two of the holiest days for two religions, for those of us who may be more secular than sacred, they are important holidays that mark the changing of the seasons from the last dregs of winter to the blossoming of full-...
No Spitting Allowed: Short Journey Across Northern Italy
When I started regularly drinking wines decades ago, I probably enjoyed more wines from Northern Italy than from France. Even when they were fairly simple wines, they had a nice basic fruitiness — never opulent — and a citrusy finish that...
No Spitting Allowed: Frank Family Without Caveats
About three years ago, I toured and tasted at Frank Family Vineyards in the revitalized Kornell/Larkmead facility on Napa Valley’s Upper East Side. I liked the wines, but I didn’t love them. They are what I refer to as "caveat wines,...
No Spitting Allowed: Gentlemanly Zins from Dry Creek
Ridge Vineyards’ Paul Draper is a legendary winemaker and one of the three best and most knowledgeable zinfandel producers (wine geeks can guess the other two), having made zins from some of the best vineyards from across California. I was talking...
No Spitting Allowed: Sweet Wines with Muscle
Sweet wines — whether natural or fortified — often have the reputation of being somewhat ephemeral and delicate, like lace window curtains billowing on a spring breeze. And some are. But many are almost burly, with earthy tones and assertive...
1,000 Points of Wine
Next Saturday afternoon, a few lucky people who each pony up $500 will get to taste something few people have tried at one sitting — 10 wines that each scored a perfect 100 points on the rating sheet of someone important. It’s part of the...
No Spitting Allowed: Staying on the Beaten Path
White wines from New Zealand and California are among the most popular and reliably good New World wines — particularly chardonnays and sauvignon blancs. Here are some examples that might titillate your palate without putting their hands too deeply...
Like Wine for Chocolate: 10 Valentine’s Day Suggestions
Wine + Chocolate = Love. Except for roses, nothing says Valentine’s Day more than our favorite drink with our favorite sweet and savory nibbles. And the roses don’t taste as good. Here are some pairing suggestions: 1. Buy or make some...
No Spitting Allowed: Give It to Me Straight
In this day and age, where mixologists (the folks we once called bartenders) have all the tools of a virtual kitchen underneath their bars and who’ve earned Ph.D.s in the history of pre-Prohibition cocktails, we sometimes just want to wander up to...
No Spitting Allowed: Fragrant White Wines for Winter
Hearty foods and big red wines are the faire de saison, but sometimes we need to drink some white wines to remind us that warmer days are coming. We’ll be examining several over the next few weeks, so let’s start with the white pinots, a...
Best Wines to Serve on Super Bowl Sunday
If you’re throwing a Super Bowl XLVI party this year, or going to one, you’ve got to prepare like the pros do. First, come up with your personal celebratory dance for if your team wins. Maybe even get a few friends to join in as you take...
No Spitting Allowed: Speed Dating in Eastern Vineyards
Europe had centuries to figure out which trysts in the terroirs were forever. California grape growers have found some great marriages, but still have a fairly hefty divorce rate. The rest of the country — particularly the East Coast...
No Spitting Allowed: A Swiss Hit in Paso Robles
My friend and neighbor Tom Schaer is a veterinary surgeon who grew up in Switzerland and now runs a translational orthopedic research laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. With his wife Barbara, also a large-animal...
The Yeatman, Oporto’s Winery Hotel
Winemakers are generally known for their hospitality, and many have set up bed-and-breakfast facilities as add-ons to their wineries in order to accommodate wine tourists. A few larger wineries have gone a step further and built full-service hotels and...
Red Wine May Reduce Risk of Breast Cancer
Over the past dozen or so years, there have been several studies touting the health benefits of components in red wine, as well as competing studies arguing that the positive effects are minimal or nonexistent. A new study by highly respected Cedars-...
No Spitting Allowed: Of Grappas and Grains
When I first tasted marc — the French version of grappa — years ago on the Champs-Elysées, I immediately fell in the love with these often rough-hewn brandies made from the leftovers of wine grapes or pomace after they have been pressed...
Splash Marsala in the Glass, Not Just in the Zabaglione
There is an old chef’s adage that says you ought to cook with the wine you would drink with the dish. The idea is to illustrate the importance of cooking with a good wine whose flavors become concentrated during cooking. In reality,...
No Spitting Allowed: Toast in the New Year with these High-Falutin’ Flutes
Of the many things I've had to celebrate this year, one is having been able to drink some excellent Champagnes in high-falutin’ places — Krug at its Reims with headquarters with Olivier Krug and his cellar team, and the new Rothschild line...
No Spitting Allowed: Mendoza Wines with a European Touch
An occasional review of wines that find their way into our glass where they are tasted and toyed with before actually being consumed. 2010 DiamAndes de Uco Mendoza Viognier The Bonnie family, which owns Pessac-Leognan’s Château...
A Book for Food Lovers Who Love Wine
If Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg’s new book, The Food Lover’s Guide to Wine (Little, Brown, $35), were on a restaurant menu, it would be a chateauneuf-du-pape paired with a cassoulet — there’s a little of everything in it...
In Bouley’s Kitchen, Beaujolais Crus Meet Hay-Scented Chicken
David Bouley loves Beaujolais and chicken in the hay, and he has a story about each. We are in the famed New York restaurateur’s test kitchen in lower Manhattan where Bouley has put together a small lunch and cooking demo...
No Spitting Allowed: Drinking in the '09s
An occasional review of wines that find their way into our glass where they are tasted and toyed with before actually being consumed. 2009 Henri Gouges “Clos des Porrets” Nuits St. Georges The first of our series of five '09...
No Spitting Allowed: A Great Malbec for Ribs; a Rias Baixas for the House; and a Limp Cabernet
An occasional review of wines that find their way into our glass where they are tasted and toyed with before actually being consumed. 2008 Arkenstone “Obsidian” Howell Mountain Estate Red On the sniff, concentrated red and black...
New Web Site, Vitis, Offers Personal Sommelier Service
A new web-based wine company, Vitis, has entered the crowded “daily deals” Internet wine sales category by touting its Masters of Wine selection process and promoting best-prices-guaranteed on cut-rate offerings. What's more, the site'...
2011 Beaujolais Nouveau Takes to the Streets
The ritualistic arrival of beaujolais nouveau on the third Thursday of each November is all about fun and celebration of the current vintage — trying to make any more or less of it is akin to telling your 5-year-old that Santa Claus isn’t...
15 Wines Fit for Holiday Feasting
There was a time when preparing for the holidays was easy. You bought a turkey and a ham and hoped that both would be done within a couple hours of when you told everyone the meal would be on the table. Wines? A bottle of chardonnay and a bottle of pinot...
The Sipping News
Tom Hudson had always been a wine man. In fact, he even opened a high-end restaurant — Domaine Hudson in Wilmington, Del. — built on the premise that the wine list always comes first, even before the menu. And in the early days of the...
The Wineries of Saint-Émilion
Now that the East Coast has been tossed its inaugural coverlet of winter snow, is it time to start talking about holiday book gift ideas? Yes? Good. Because Saint-Émilion: The Châteaux, Winemakers, and Landscapes of Bordeaux’s Famed...
Ornellaia's Rare Bird
Wine enthusiasts know that the Tenuta dell’Ornellaia winery is responsible for producing the wine — appropriately titled Ornellaia — that helped place Super Tuscan international red blends on the fine-wines map during the early 1980s....
Pastis: The Soul Drink of the South of France
You cannot go to the South of France without lingering at least one midmorning at an outdoor café in the shade of a plane tree, reading Le Figaro or the International Herald Tribune while alternately sipping an espresso and a glass of pastis with a...
Waiter, I’ll Have a Glass of Loin de l’Oeil
If you’re very familiar with the red wines of Uruguay, then you’ve probably downed a few liters made from the tannat grape. Not bloody likely, you say? Then you’ve got a world of discovery ahead of you when you start tasting the very...
Cognac Blends Heaven and Earth
It wasn’t that many years ago that we were content with just sipping our cognac after dinner, perhaps savoring its fragrant aromas and tastes with espresso and a good cigar. Those simple days are gone. Cognac has taken the dinner menu and turned it...
Long Weekend on the Riviera Maya
What if you just want a long relaxing weekend with nothing but a comfortable, everything-included suite, an open beach, the mandatory pool bar, a top-notch spa, and several options for adventurous dining — without ever leaving the property? ...
Traveling Along France's Metro Wine Map
Want to visit the vast French wine country? To start off, how about taking the “A” train to Lyon, then switching to the "L" line at Vienne to Chateauneuf-du-Pape? Or go from Nantes to Orleans, passing through the wine regions of the...
Cheval des Andes Rocks
It is the perfect time and the perfect place to enjoy a premium Argentina red blend. We are on the rooftop of a six-story Soho loft on a sunny afternoon. As winemaker Nicolas Audebert pours a second glass of his 2007 Cheval des Andes, the aromas from...
Xtabentún Marks the Spot
Turbina corymbosa is a flowering vine that grows in Central America and is related to the morning glory that climbs up cornstalks and garden fences throughout the United States. The Mayans of the Yucatan peninsula called the flower “xtabentún...
Australia Swears Off Bogus 'Champagne'
As I write this, it is only 1 day, 16 hours, 40 minutes, and 18 seconds before Australia can no longer legally produce “champagne.” After that, it will have to be Australian “sparkling wine.” For years, the winemakers of Champagne...
5 Rookie Winemakers to Watch
Most winemakers learn their craft through a combination of the new and the old-fashioned — by taking technical classes at a university, then dragging hoses and cleaning out barrels as apprentices under the eyes of experienced winemakers as they work...
5 Rookie Winemakers to Watch
Most winemakers learn their craft through a combination of the new and the old-fashioned — by taking technical classes at a university, then dragging hoses and cleaning out barrels as apprentices under the eyes of experienced winemakers as they work...
Kieran Robinson's First-Born Wine
Kieran Robinson walks into Twelves Grill & Café in West Grove, Penn., with a bottle of wine clutched tightly by the neck, a prize that he could firmly hold aloft in celebration if called to. The 32-year-old Pennsylvania native has been working...
Wine Pairing: Burgers & Beaujolais
The wines from France’s Beaujolais region are especially tempting to our palates because they are so versatile — fun and frivolous as we pause during November’s Beaujolais nouveau season before plunging into winter, but also elegant and...
The Wines of France's Southwest (or South West)
Unlike Spain and Italy — where undiscovered, traditional winemaking regions become rediscovered with amazing frequency — most of the wine regions of France are fairly well known by those in the wine trade and by many wine consumers. An...
Tea & Wine: The "Twine" Meet
The folks at Paradocx Winery in Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley make serious wines, but they also have a great sense of humor and an eye for branding. The owners are two couples, all four being physicians, so they decided to name their winery...
Harvard's Wine Team Wins Big
One of the things they teach well at Harvard Business School is sourcing. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the HBS’s three-person wine team was judged best in the world on its knowledge of the provenance and composition of Left Bank...
"Bite-Mare" at DC's Summer Fancy Food Show
Attending the opening day of the Summer Fancy Food Show in Washington, D.C., is a little bit like being given a bottomless plate at a never-ending, take-one-taste-of-everything buffet dreamed up by Chef Ferran Adrià — a phantasmagorian...
Mojito Expert Loves to Muddle Through
Cocktail expert Kim Haasarud says that if she were stranded on the proverbial desert island with only one bartending tool, it wouldn’t be her shaker or her strainer or her blender. It would be her old-fashioned muddler. For those of you rushing to...
Chilling Out with 'Lite Whites'
I really enjoy the big reds — well-balanced wines that nevertheless have mind-bending alcohol levels exceeding 15 percent — but sometimes a man just likes to sit in the shade with a cool, low-in-alcohol white wine that he can drink all...
Taking a 'Shine' to White Lightnin'
As someone who grew up in a holler in darkest West Virginia, I can tell you that the newly launched Shine white whiskey — aka, moonshine — would never make it as the booze du jour on the back porch of my neighbor up the road who ran his own...
Great American Bubbly for the 4th of July
If you're having family and friends over to your place for a celebration on the 4th of July, why not get things off to a patriotic start with American “poppers” — sparkling wines that are born in the USA? Increasingly, good to...
Krug Opens its Kimono
The house of Krug is well-known for its Champagnes, among the best and most-expensive in the world. It has also been well-known for not talking much about them. Last week, it opened its kimono — to use the business transparency phrase from the...
Great Coffee Flavor from a To-Go Cup?
Riedel revolutionized how we drink and appreciate wine by emphasizing the shape of the glass so that wine projects its optimum aromas, which, as we all know, are keys to a wine’s flavor. Can Vaporiety do the same thing with how we appreciate and...
Ship of Foods: Dining Aboard the Queen Mary 2
There are ocean cruises, and there are ocean crossings… and only one Queen Mary 2. In the off-season, this jewel of the Cunard line sails on extended world cruises to multiple ports, but during warm weather, it is the only ocean-going vessel that...
Spirited Presents for Father's Day
Not all dads wear the same size sweater, watch the same sports on TV, or agree on whether the garage is a place to park the car, start a new business, or have a woodworking shop. As such, buying the gift of booze for Father's Day should depend on what...
Spirited Presents for Father's Day
Not all dads wear the same size sweater, watch the same sports on TV, or agree on whether the garage is a place to park the car, start a new business, or have a woodworking shop. As such, buying the gift of booze for Father's Day should depend on what...
Spirited Presents for Father's Day
Not all dads wear the same size sweater, watch the same sports on TV, or agree on whether the garage is a place to park the car, start up a new business, or have a woodworking shop. As such, buying the gift of booze for Father's Day should depend on...
Garnacha Heaven
Cariñena gave its name to the grape variety called “Carignan” in France, but this region in Aragón in northeast Spain has given its heart to Garnacha, the dark but fruity wine grape whose tannic grip is like a firm, but friendly...
Best Wines for Weekend Grilling
Whether you use charcoal, wood, electric, propane — or even dig a hole in your backyard to make an old-fashioned wood-fired grill — warm weather weekends are a time for us to roast, toast, char, and put grill marks on our food. When it comes...
Best Wines for Weekend Grilling
Whether you use charcoal, wood, electric, propane — or even dig a hole in your back yard to make an old-fashioned wood-fired grill — Memorial Day weekend is a time for us to roast, toast, char, and put grill marks on our food. When it comes...
5 Drink-Inspired Memorial Day Party Ideas
For most of us, the Memorial Day weekend is the official kickoff event for welcoming summer. And whether you're planning a family get-together, a gathering of close friends, or a neighborhood bash, it’s a great time to get creative with the...
Sunny Wine Adventures at Cloudy Bay
New Zealand is famous for its premium wine production and the love of its natives for outdoor adventures — parachuting out of airplanes, mountain climbing with bare hands, and bungee jumping off high bridges. Now Cloudy Bay winery, a pioneer in...
Soave Gets Serious
Soave is a little like Audrey Hepburn at the beginning of Sabrina — when last we looked, she was this pale, skinny kid. Now, suddenly, she has blossomed into a bit of a temptress. Years ago, Soave provided my first taste of Italian white wine, a...
Surprising Wine Pairings for Easter
Easter is a time of devout religious observances, but it also has its more secular side as a holiday that celebrates the onset of spring, a time when family and friends gather for fun, food, and good wine. You can’t go wrong with traditional...
Paso Robles' West Side Story
The west side of Paso Robles wine country is the kind of magical place where an unknown young winemaker can grow up to have his picture on the cover of Wine Spectator. A few years ago, I met Justin Smith, just out of college, at his modest...
Donald Trump — The Next Robert Mondavi?
Donald Trump has not yet decided whether he wants to bid on America’s most-famous residential property — The White House — but on Thursday he picked up at auction for about $6 million the most famous winery in Virginia, Kluge Estate....
U.S. Wine Drinkers Double
Core wine drinkers — those Americans who imbibe at least once a week — have doubled in number since 2000, which means that today one in every five adults regularly drinks wine, whether they chug-a-jug, savor Champagne, or sip something in...
The Lows and Highs of Greek Wines
Greece is undergoing a renaissance in winemaking these days, and two of the most interesting places that wine is being made are at opposite sides of the compass — the spent volcanic island of Santorini in the Cyclades Islands and the upper reaches...
Italy's Anniversary Wines
Italy’s honor is its food and wine. But in the coming year when Italian President Giorgio Napolitano needs a wine to pour on very special occasions or a gift bottle to a visiting head of state, the wine of choice will not be Italy’s best-...
Barrel-Aged Rums, the Next Big Thing?
Unlike most other liquor categories, rum has never really produced a blockbuster super-premium or luxury brand. But could fine aged rums from Panama — a country not previously well-known as a producer of sugar cane-based spirits —...
Kosher Wine: Finally Catching Up with the Food
Kosher meats have long enjoyed a reputation with food shoppers as being of exceptionally high quality. Now kosher wine is becoming worthy of the same stature. Here’s why: It’s all about the winemaker and the quality of the raw materials, not...
Bonny Doon Winery's New Venture
Randall Grahm has always moonwalked to a different saxophonist. In the 1980s, when everyone else in California was still gaga over Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, Grahm’s Bonny Doon winery in Santa Cruz County started churning...
Bonny Doon Winery's New Venture
Randall Grahm has always moonwalked to a different saxophonist. In the 1980's, when everyone else in California was still gaga over Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, Grahm’s Bonny Doon winery in Santa Cruz County started...
Take an Amarone to Dinner... or Lunch!
“It’s a shame more people don’t drink Amarone with their meals,” says Baroness Barbara de Rham as she samples a decanted bottle of the 2004 Le Ragose and gives a nod to the waiter at Becco in New York City’s theater...
Bullish on Toro Wines
Toro is one foreign wine whose name you won’t have any trouble remembering or pronouncing. It is a wine region – not a brand – in the northwest of Spain and is the last major wine appellation along the Duero River before it rushes...
How to Start a Wine Cellar
So you love to cook and you love wine, but don't have a wine cellar. Except now you find yourself with a little extra cash, or maybe you're tired of not having the right wine when you need it, or you've just moved in with someone to share a...
Burgundy on the 9s
The last year of each decade has generally smiled on the winemakers of Burgundy — 1949, ‘59, ’69, ‘89 and ’99 were all very good to exceptional vintages — and the 2009s, which are just being released, are holding up...
A Toast to Our (Almost) Founding Vintner
Thomas Jefferson was a lusty and passionate Founding Father, both when it came to women (see Sally Hemmings) and to his food and drink. His accounts of his journeys through the vineyards of Europe show that he could be considered...
U.S. Becoming World's #1 Wine Drinker
Individually, we may be a nation of moderate wine drinkers, but collectively we Americans know how to throw a hell of a party — in 2012, we will celebrate becoming the world's largest consumer of table wine, surpassing those rowdy Italians....
155-Year-Old Wine? That's a Good Scion
As a wine writer, people often ask me how long a wine will keep in their cellar. How about 155 years? That's the age of Taylor Fladgate's "Scion," a tawny Port I tasted at a February 9th luncheon honoring its launch at New York's...

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