“It’s not really very safe.” Hearing those words, from winemaker Marcelo Retamal in a barrel area that is little more than a small warehouse on the Isla De Maipo estate of De Martino, surrounded by support beams that have been twisted and broken like so many toothpicks, and overshadowed by a ceiling that looks as…
Category: overachiever wines
No Limits, No Excuses: Trinchero Goes For Broke
As in, almost literally going for broke, because I don’t think they’re actually profitable yet. And that’s just fine with the people footing the bills. Sounds nuts but it will all make sense in minute. Or three… What would you do if you went to work every day with almost no limitations? Tools, money, ideas…
A Wine For Epic NFL Playoff Victories
The defining characteristic of the most preferable wine for imbibing while viewing epic, come-from-behind NFL playoff battles between hated sports rivals (aside from the wine having been paid for by someone else, that is), would be that the wine is very good without being too good. [ I should note before we go any farther…
Testicles, Terraces and Red Tape: The Trials of Port Production in the Douro (1WineDude TV Episode 24)
“Lagare volume dimensions are naturally dictated by the lowest testicles of the shortest man.” Lagares, of course, are the long, low vats in which Port grapes were once (and sometimes still, though rarely) crushed by foot. The quote above is from the straight-shooting Miles Edlemann, the straight-shooting viticulturist for some of the Symington Family estates…