For all my travels to the greater Napa area, my experience with Napa’s venerable Stags Leap District hasn’t exactly been trophy-mounting-24-point-buck caliber. In fact, it’s been quite doe-like – I’ve tasted a good number of high-end wines from the area, and visited a few its producers, but aside from a stop at Chimney Rock earlier…
Category: kick-ass wines
Tasting 40 Years Of A Tawny Port Icon
“Billy C. is drinking Sandeman Port down at the old café And the river goes by slowly, the river likes it that way.” – The Knuckleball Suite, Peter Mulvey In the world of wine, there are a few images that stand the test of time and can truly be described as iconic, instantly conjuring up…
Reverse Cowboy Psychology: Christian Tietje Cracks The Mourvedre Code At Paso’s Cypher Winery
Spending an hour of so over lunch with Cypher Winery’s self-proclaimed “Winemaker, Troublemaker, and Firestarter” Christian Tietje is a bit like experiencing a small vinous indoor dust devil. In the wake of this whirling dervish of a man, you are left with remnants of well-crafted comfort food, open bottles and empty, stained glasses strewn about,…
Wine As Bottled Poetry, Poetry As (Really Expensive) Bottled Wine
Wine has often inspired poetry (and still does – check out this example reviewed here a few short years ago), and in today’s case, waxing poetic about the most expensive wines that all of you out there have imbibed in turn inspired me to pull out some of the more expensive sample bottles calling to…