Remember when we talked about that old Cinsault vineyard in Lodi? I mean, that REALLY OLD Cinsault vineyard in Lodi? The tiny, flat, rectangular Bechthold vineyard – all 25 acres of it, or just about 0.0025% of Lodi’s overall plantings – is an organic, own-rooted, sandy-soil patch of Cinsault in the Mokelumne River area, near…
Category: crowd pleaser wines
Lower Alcohol Wines Can Still Get You Sh*t-faced (What We Drank With The Greeks, Part III)
If you are under any delusions about lower (under 14% abv) alcohol wines being inherently superior to higher (15% abv and above) alcohol wines, let my recent foray into the lonesome and loathsome territory of sweating profusely from dehydration and feeling nauseous in the middle of the night be a beacon of light guiding you…
Crowd Pleasers For The Grill, From Cretans (Highlights From Wines Of Crete 2014 Tastings)
Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking about the native varieties of Crete at tastings in both NYC and D.C., organized by The Connected Table and Wines of Crete. Minor pronunciation snafus aside, I had a blast introducing the trade to the grape varieties and wines on display at both events, and it’s exciting…
Georgia (Sangiovese) On My Mind (Dispatch From The 2014 Critics Challenge)
No, you didn’t see one of these selections coming, okay? Don’t even try it. No one, least of all me, would buy it for even a second. This Summer, I once again had the pleasure of judging at the Critics Challenge in (stay classy) San Diego, my second stint as a judge there. A more…