“We are very cheap for a Grand Cru!” It could be said that Domaines Schlumberger‘s Thomas Schlumberger doesn’t fully understand the negative connotations of the word “cheap” in the English language. I write that because, as he told me the above quote during a media visit to the Guebwiller property that has been in his…
Category: overachiever wines
Complex, With A Complex (Vinas del Vero Somontano Recent Releases)
What do you do when your identity, your story, and even your best efforts are only seen through the contextual lens of your more famous cousins? Besides developing an inferiority complex, I mean? After all, major characters in Greek tragedies were written with this stuff in mind; and it happens to be the defining lucha…
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2017 Critics Challenge International Wine Competition Highlights)
I was once again fortunate enough to be invited to judge at the annual Critics Challenge International Wine competition, which took place late last month in Stay-Classy San Diego. CC is always one of the highlights of my professional year; the organizers, volunteers, and fellow judges are all top-notch, and the fact that they’re also great…
Less Is More (Marangona Lugana Recent Releases)
Alessandro Cutolo kind of looks like a viking. Aside from close proximity to a body of water (in this case, the Italian Lake Garda), however, the heavy-handed Old Norse warrior comparison fizzles out completely. Because at the crossing of the Veneto and Lombardia regions, Cutolo, as owner and winemaker of Lugana’s Marangona, crafts elegant, svelte…