“If you’re looking for the worst place in the world to make wine, Madeira would be a candidate.” Also sprach Rui Falcão, during a recent tasting/masterclass for the media in Philly, hosted by the Madeira Wine Institute. You see, this is why I love Madeira with a passion bordering on unreasonableness. And the border is…
Category: kick-ass wines
“Living Patrimony” (Bollinger Champagne Recent Releases)
In theory, it ought to be easy to hate on the Champagne house Bollinger. They’re big (producing about 3 million bottles annually); they’re kitschy-famous (getting the royal warrant from the UK market in 1884, and then becoming the official Champers of agent 007); they’re fairly corporate (a staggering – and, one imagines, barely manageable –…
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Carricante (Highlights From Sicilia En Primeur 2015)
It’s somewhat ironic, as I kick off a series of posts about my press jaunt to Sicily earlier this year, that the wine region I often cite as a source of reasonably-priced wines made from international varieties will now be compressed into a highlight reel focusing primarily on one indigenous variety. But hey, we gotta…
Sweet Niblets! (2010 Anakota Helena Montana Vineyard Cabernet)
The gravelly, sandy soils of the Helena Montana vineyard sit about 950 feet above sea level in Knights Valley. It’s where we’ll be wrapping up the recent spate of California coverage her on 1WD (…and all the Europhiles rejoiced…). When I visited said vineyard, I resisted the urge to shout “Sweet Niblets!” – which, I…