“Lento y fuerte.” This is how Benjamin Romeo – possibly Rioja’s most celebrated modern winemaker since his 2004 Contador red wine received a 100 point score from The Wine Advocate – described how he speaks. Measured and forceful. Which, it turns out, is a perfect descriptor for most of Romeo’s wines, as well as for…
Category: kick-ass wines
Bubbly At 150 (Schramsberg Recent Releases, And Why It’s Okay That California Is Not Champagne)
California sparkling wine has come a long way (baby) since German draft-dodger and later NYC barber Jacob Schram decided that the hot and sunny knolls of Calistoga in the 1860s looked like a suitable place to plant vines like those he’d left behind in his beloved Rhineland (after all, he’d seen hills far steeper –…
The Southern Hemisphere’s Best Chardonnay? (Tasting Leeuwin Art Series 2005)
I know what a lot of you geeky-geeks (I use that as a term of endearment, by the way!) are already thinking after reading the title: Dude, WTF?!? What about Yarra Yering? Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Here’s the thing about Yarra Yering for me: that Chardonnay is the Moriarity to my Holmes; while…
Wined Down: Gulping With A Mastodon For Playboy.com
In what’s become a surreal state of affairs, the list of California cult wines that I’ve yet to try in some way/shape/form is dwindling. Quickly. The surreal part is that there is no way that I could afford these wines on my own, and in some cases I wouldn’t want to pay the money for…