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1WineDude
Do We Still Need Wine Critics?
Photo: Polina Tankilevitch (via Pexels) I was once a guest lecturer at a wine class for undergrads at Drexel University in downtown Philly. The class is taught by Jason Wilson (author of the very entertaining spirits book Boozehound and who somehow Id never met in Philly; it took a chance encounter at one of the Professional Wine Writers Symposium events in Napa for us to become friends)
Bumping into a 1959 Red - and Marion Cotillard - in Bordeaux
While touring the less-appreciated side of Bordeaux as a guest of Planete Bordeaux, we wrapped up our jaunt with a boat ride, before which we tossed back some cured meats and a lot of tasty and inexpensive Bordeaux whites and rosés, and during which we tossed back some oysters and a lot of tasty and inexpensive Bordeaux whites and rosés, and after which we ate dinner at a modest-but-quite-good restaurant along the water (and tossed back a lot tasty and inexpensive Bordeaux reds, whites and rosés).
A Mysterious Wine and a Submerged Cork: Rediscovering Holiday Magic
For a guy like me, discovering a forgotten bottle of Madeira in a liquor cabinet of one’s house is kind of like a pothead finding a stash of Sativas weed and a stack of previously-unreleased, high-quality Grateful Dead live bootleg recordings in one of their bedroom dresser drawers. And so, with eyes wider than a nine-year-old’s on Christmas morning, I found myself face to face with (what I think was – more on that in a minute or two) either a 1967 or 1970 Manuel de Sousa Herdeiros Verdelho Madeira.
Tasting 50 Years of Madeira's Rarest Grape
“Terrantez grapes: neither eat them nor give them away, for God made them to produce wine.”. I recently had what amounted to a kind of dream speaking gig for me: leading Madeira masterclasses in both Boston (at Committee) and NYC (at Rouge Tomate Chelsea).
Are Boutique Wineries Really Better Than Big Producers?
Photo: Elevate (via Pexels) An online kerfuffle ensued after wine writer and author Jamie Goode postedan eye-opening article on his blog detailing the massive size of some of the wine worlds largest industrial-size producers. They are, interestingly (and in a sort-of-capitalism-run-amok fail), all owned by one company: Gallo.
What It's Like to Taste 40 Years of Vintage Port
Port is best experienced when you accept the fact that Vintage Port (VP) not only takes a looooooong time to come around, but that a) many of us might be dead before newly-released Vintage Ports are fully developed, but we should buy them for future generations, and b) your patience regarding waiting on the slow maturation of VP will be well rewarded.
French Soul, California Roots, Philly Grit: Sosie Wines
Over a Winter holiday break, I managed to catch up with talented Sonoma-area winemaker and Philly-boy transplant Kieran Robinson, who will soon be opening a tasting room for his wines in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it one-block section of downtown… Downingtown, PA.
Drinking Well on a Budget: Roussillon Wine
Photo: Pixabay (via Pexels) French wine has a secret for the budget-conscious wine shopper. It happens to be the same region as it’s not-so-secret Medeterranian beaches (which is good news if you’re a wine lover and find yourself hankering for a seaside European vacation). It’s a place where the more restrictive winemaking rules throughout the rest of the country are relaxed a bit, allowing them to experiment with more grape varieties, and in some cases produce wines that rival better-known regions in France, without carrying quite so high of a price tag. That place is the Roussillon.
What You Need to Know About Rioja Wine
Few places in the wine world carry the level of prestige of Spain's renowned Rioja region. Rioja was the first wine region in all of Spain to receive the country's highest appellation designation, and it's often cited as the world standard when it comes to red and rosé wines made from the Tempranillo grape.
What to Expect from Gruner Veltliner Wine (with Laurenz Maria Moser of LAURENZ V. Winery)
For many white wine aficionados, the small but historic country of Austria is synonymous with a single fine wine grape variety: Grüner Veltliner. While the grape’s moniker is difficult to pronounce for many westerners (at least, for those who don’t speak German), it’s decidedly easy to enjoy the wines made from it. Co-founded in 2004 by Laurenz Maria Moser, Austria’s LAURENZ V. winery specializes in wines made only from Grüner Veltliner (according to Moser, as of 2014, “we are the only ones doing this, globally”).
Why Instant Pot Wine Is a Bad Idea
With the Instant Pot pressure-cooker phenomenon still sweeping the USA, it was only a matter of time before it got used for the crafting of adult beverages. In fact, several readers of my wine blog brought to my attention, in whoa-check-this-out-dude! fashion, the intrepid endeavors of foodie David Murphy, who blogged about using his popular-with-the-cool-kids Instant Pot to make wine out of Welch’s Grape Juice.
An Interview with Napa Valley’s Mike Grgich
Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, now a Napa Valley winemaking legend, is almost 100 years old. For those who aren’t familiar with the tale, Mike’s life story could make fitting fodder for a TV drama: one of eleven kids, he stomped his first grapes at age three, fled communist Yugoslavia in the 1950s, hit the Napa Valley wine scene just as it first began to bud, studying under the master André Tchelistcheff, and for all intents and purposes, practically invented the sciences of several modern winemaking techniques (like controlling cold sterilization, malolactic fermentation, and the proper use of oak barrels for wine). No surprise that Grgich eventually went on to establish well-regarded and successful wineries under his own name.
A Philly Boy Makes Good, Making California Syrah
I got an intriguing email from a California vintner; intriguing in that he was, he told me, originally from my neck of the woods (near Philly in Southeastern PA), and would soon be in town for a wedding. Could we get together over lunch to taste some of the wines he’d been working on (note: ending of sentence with preposition is intentional for casual effect – deal with it, grammar nerds!)?
Wines for Now: Exploring Virginia Wine at Blenheim Vineyards
I am not a fan of small producers in emerging wine regions bottling and selling a large array of varietal wines; almost everyone loves having choices, but too often the cumulative result in this case ends up feeling like a Zinfandel that’s been watered-down in a feeble attempt to get it under 16% abv – a diluted mess with a lack of focus (with even the worst results being pawned off at inflated prices to unsuspecting tasting room visitors).
Can Penns Woods Reinvent Pennsylvania Wine?
“No shortcuts – either you do it, or you don’t do it. You either believe in yourself and commit to the idea to spare no expenses, or you close your doors.”. Gino Razzi, owner and winemaker at Penns Woods Winery, drives his minivan in the same way that he makes his wines. In fact, he seems to do everything the same way that he makes his wines – which is to say, with a driving singularity of purpose.
1WineDude
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a.k.a. Joe Roberts. Dad, wine-writer-guy, wine critic, wine competition judge, author, bassist, free-thinker, & occasional hiney-shaker. Opening up highly-pressurized cans of whoop-a** on the wine industry since 2007. Joe is a Certified Specialist of Wine, and the author of Wine Taster’s Guide: Drink and Learn with 30 Wine Tastings.
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