Know how to get a cavalcade of seasoned (read: potentially jaded) wine writers, winemakers, wine growers, and wine industry insiders to go as quiet as mice (I’m talking pin-drop-sounds-like-a-jet-engine-on-fire quiet), and as stupefied as deer in the headlights? I do. I saw Robert Mondavi Winery pull it off a few weeks ago in Napa Valley….
Category: on the road
Working Hard To Change Nothing (Williams Selyem Recent Releases)
There was so much that I didn’t want to like about Sonoma’s storied Williams Selyem. The too-cool-for-school exclusivity of their mailing list. The imposing fortress-like facade of their “barrel-evoking” tasting room and its “wall of bottles.” The fact that they used terms like “barrel-evoking.” That current owners John and Kathe Dyson were former mailing list…
And You Were Expecting What, Exactly? (Lugana Highlights From L’Anteprima Lazise 2016)
Back in March (yeah, yeah, I know…) I attended, as a media guest, the 2016 edition of the well-executed but unfortunately-named L’Anteprima Lazise (seriously… how many of you knew that was a town near Lake Garda in N. Italy?). The event marked the first time that the nearby winemaking regions of Chiaretto, Lugana, and Bardolino…
The Fiendish Plot (And Fiendishly Good Wine) of Dr. O. Fournier
[ Editor’s note: This piece was originally written for my old Playboy.com gig, was purchased, but due (I think) to staff turnover there, was never published. I’ve attempted multiple times to buy this back from PB, because I really liked how it turned out, but never heard back from them. So… I’m reprinting it here,…