Each year, Silicon Valley Bank issues a wine report. “But Silicon Valley is about tech, isn’t it?” you ask, and that’s partly true but the other side of the story is Silicon Valley Bank’s strong investment and venture capital activities in wine country. The bank’s annual report is a closely watched indicator of the health of the American wine industry. It’s also a good marker for wine trends in general, and that is where this year’s report is particularly interesting, offering both positive and negative notes for us wine lovers.

Overall, wine sales are down in many parts of the world. Equally concerning is that younger consumers are trending toward low alcohol or no alcohol wines. Now, to my mind if it is truly no alcohol, then the beverage fits no reasonable definition of wine…but it’s still a beverage that is giving traditional wine a lot of competition. To make matters worse, the World Health Organization issued a report last year saying no amount of alcohol consumption is safe. Many in the medical community have noted significant disagreement with that assessment, but that is a story for another post. For today’s commentary, let’s just note that there has been a good deal of vocal support for those eschewing alcohol of any kind. We are seeing a significant portion of Gen Z consumers moving to hard seltzers (still alcohol but not wine) and marijuana that is now legal in many areas.

As wine consumption is falling, vineyards are being replaced with other crops in former wine stalwarts like California, Australia and even Bordeaux. However this big picture doesn’t tell the whole story. The Wine Enthusiast magazine recently noted a report by a Canadian financial group arguing that, “the American wine industry has surpassed $107 billion in sales over 2023—an increase of 46% since 2018.” The report goes on to explain that nuances are important and that not all the news is bad. The Wine Enthusiast’s article continued, “the report is threaded with cautious optimism: Case sales and volume sales are slumping—particularly with budget bottles—but premiumization persists. In 2023, sales of wines over $10 in grocery stores rose to $4.8 billion, which is 34% more than in 2019. Seventy percent of wineries reported that they expect increased sales growth in the future.” So, some interesting points here in what people are actually buying.

Back to the Silicon Valley Bank report, bank president Rob McMillan says, “We need to get off this doom and gloom crap…We can’t be passive anymore. I believe our industry will translate to something better than it’s ever been, but we need to have an active approach.” 

The Wine Enthusiast points out that, “There are bright points in the findings: oversupply issues are creating what SVB calls a “golden era” for consumers, with great deals and incredible value abound.”

“We’ve never made better wines in the history of wine making,” says McMillan. “We’re just not telling that to new consumers.” So marketing has to catch up with the high quality of wine being produced. Among the good news that should be noted, McMillan cites the growth of white wine sales, especially with Sauvignon Blanc (sales up 8.5%) and Pinot Grigio (up 8%). White blends are also up and Prosecco continues to enjoy growing popularity with consumers. One note about the wines that are trending up – they are mostly less expensive wines, lower in alcohol and easy to drink on their own or with food. These are also “gateway wines” that may indicate younger consumers are exploring wine, a taste that may grow with time.

Sales by volume may be down, but in many segments, sales by value are increasing, so those who already consume wine are perhaps trending to even higher quality, or are less fazed by increasing prices. In areas where sales are down, many producers ended  last year with a surplus of wine, wine that they are repackaging and selling through private labels. This means odds are we’ll see even better wine at Trader Joe’s and Costco.

There are other points in the report to note, and we can explore those another time. Morale in the wine industry is falling, and there is a long road ahead, but for now, if you are a wine lover, continue to love, continue to explore – there are good wines out there.

McMillan concludes his report on an upbeat note. “I know I’m delivering difficult news [but] if we work together, market the industry and increase the occasions when people choose to drink wine, we can shorten this and we can grow even more as an industry when we come out of it.” You and I can be an important part of that recovery – I’ll drink to that.

By Italian law, Brunello must be aged in such a way (combining barrels of varying sizes plus bottle age) that it may not be released until “January 1 of the 5th year following the harvest.” This is a bit of clever bookkeeping because it sounds as though the wine must be aged five years, but since it’s harvested in September 2019 and can be sold January 1st of the fifth year, which is 2024, it actually has about four years’ aging after the harvest. This extra aging gives the wines, made from the frequently tannic Sangiovese grape, some extra time to soften and gives those tannins a sense of polished richness./

I was honored to be one of the three US presenters of this beautiful and exceptional vintage, sharing six wines in a Masterclass in Miami and then another 60+ examples (including a few 2018 riservas) in a tasting organized by the region’s Consorzio del Vini di Montepulciano.

It’s intriguing to remember than in 1975 there were fewer than 30 producers of Brunello di Montalcino but the stunning growth in the wine’s international reputation has brought new investment and a flood of new producers. We had 70 wines on display in Miami Tuesday to showcase there 2019 vintage (along with a few riservas. By law, they must age an additional year before release so in that category we showcased the 2018 vintage.

A vintage that is approachable young, 2019 also possesses the concentration to age gracefully for 20 years. The Consorzio ranked the 2018 vintage as a four-star vintage, but 2019 they believe is definitely worth five-stars (out of five). For the Masterclass’s six wines I chose all family owned producers from various sub-zones to show the nuances these skilled winemakers and grape growers can bring to the wines. Many of them were founding members of the Consorzio in 1968.

The six seminar wines I showcased were:
* La Fornace 2019 Brunello di Montalcino
* Franco Pacenti 2019 Brunello di Montalcino
* Tenuta Silvio Nardi 2019 Brunello di Montalcino
* Corte dei Vente 2019 Brunello di Montalcino
* La Serena 2019 Brunello di Montalcino
* Col d’Orcia 2019 Brunello di Montalcino

What I found striking was the variety - some in an early drinking style and only a few with unruly tannins. Most producers using very large (20 - 40 hl) barrels keeps the tannins supple without diminishing concentration. The wines are lovely. 2018 was a more challenging year but the riservas I tried were uniformly polished, powerful and delicious.

These wines will be on the market January 1 or thereabouts and if you have a favorite producer considering purchasing six bottles, one to have soon and five left so you can open one every two years for the next decade. Salute! I’ve included a video of the wine lineup below.

The wine lineup at Miami’s Benvenuto Barolo, November 28, 2023

“Cats and beer. It’s what we do.” That’s the comment by Luke Daniels, proprietor of The Bag of Nails, a pub in Bristol, England. He notes that they are also well known as The Cat Pub, thanks to an ever growing family of felines who camp out at the establishment.

Around this time of year, with so many news stories depressing spirits, I was happy when my cat Vino called my attention to this story with a bat of his paw and rather loud, “meow.”

Mr. Daniels says the Bag of Nail’s now Britain-wide reputation started in 2011 shortly after he opened the pub and a small cat came by to visit.

The cat he named Malcolm kept returning and of course he fed it and pretty soon another (named Beresford) joined, and, well as my son once said, “cats are like potato chips, you can’t have just one.” The cats come and go as they please but mostly, they are pleased to hang out with the patrons of the pub.

As one commentator on a cat fanciers’ website noted, “The Bag of Nails, unlike your typical dimly lit watering hole serving flat pints, offers an extraordinary haven where you can unwind, explore diverse IPAs, engage in spirited board game tournaments with friends, and revel in the delightful company of cats.”

If only it were a wine bar. Glass of Meowlow anyone?

Be sure to check out Bag of Nails - they have a great Facebook page listed as “Bag of Cats”

Last month, Master Sommelier Chris Tanghe, Guildsomm’s director of education, led an enlightening masterclass on Napa Valley – its variations in climate, soil, topography and what I call cultural terroir, that certain something a winemaker and a special place brings to their collaboration. Chris picked 14 wines to showcase what Napa is up to these days. Here are my tasting notes from the seminar, with the wines listed in the order they were featured in the presentation: 

Brendel Wines 2020 “Chorus Cuvee Blanc” Field Blend (Napa Valley) $28

This was a lovely starter – lemon, lime, gooseberry, white flowers, and wet stone aromas and flavors. Crisp high acidity, lovely vibrant texture with a long finish. The wine is named Chorus Cuvee because the component wines blend and harmonize like a great chorus. 70% Sauvignon Blanc, 10% Chardonnay, 10% Malvasia Bianca, 10% Fernão Pires, 13% abv.

Schramsberg 2004 “Late Disgorged” Sparkling Wine  ($200)

Clearly a sparkler with a lot of age – oxidized notes but very well balanced and complex – it opens with lemon, pear and yellow plum then starts to show toast, honey and hazelnut with overripe pear and apple lingering on a long finish. With its oxidative flavors, this won’t be to everyone’s taste but it’s wonderfully complex and will be as good with food as it is on its own. The Cépage is 85% chardonnay and 15% pinot noir; 30% of the wine was barrel fermented and following the second fermentation in the bottle, the wine rested 17 years on its lees before disgorging.

2021 Matthiason “Linda Vista” Chardonnay (Oak Knoll) $40

This is a wonderfully youthful wine, pale lemon-green in color with vibrant aromas and flavors of yellow plum, apple, lemon and acacia. High acid, medium body. Think very appetizing rainwater with a long finish. Very appealing.

Darioush 2021 Signature Viognier (Oak Knoll District) $60

This was a delicious example of how well viognier can do in Napa when it’s carefully managed in a relatively cool site (like Oak Knoll). Classic aromas and flavors of lemon, white peach, honey, beeswax, chamomile and vanilla. The wine is off-dry with an oily texture and a long finish. Despite the medium acidity, the wine had a persistent vibrancy I found irresistible.

Frog’s Leap 2021 “Concrete Aged” Sauvignon Blanc (Rutherford) $65

From a winery I find sadly under-appreciated comes this nearly water-white sauvignon with classic, ultra-pure aromas of lime, lemon, green apple, green pear, grapefruit and gooseberry. This shows Napa can produce sauvignon blanc that isn’t lacking acid or plagued by overripe flavors. This was a wonderfully engaging and satisfying example of just how complex New World sauvignon can be.

Hourglass 2022 Sauvignon Blanc (Napa Valley) $40

Named for the shape of it home AVA of St. Helena, Hourglass goes from one strength to another. This sauvignon, sourced from five vineyards running from Yountville in the south to Rutherford in mid-valley, has a lot of ripe fruit with some nice herbal nuances of thyme and oregano to compliment the green apple, gooseberry, Meyer lemon, grapefruit and pastry. There is a bit of oak in the mix (the wine is 60% stainless, 20% old oak and 20% new French oak) and a tiny amount (5%) of Semillon that adds a Bordeaux-like richness to the wine. I wish the finish were a little longer however this is a new release from April, 2023, and, like a Bordeaux white, it will undoubtedly grow in the bottle. I’d love to revisit it in two or three years.

Robert Mondavi 2019 Fume Blanc  “The Reserve” To Kalon Vineyard (Oakville) $95

The OG of Fumé Blanc – Mondavi created the name Fumé Blanc (and strangely never trademarked it so for many producers it’s become emblematic of an oak-kissed style of California sauvignon blanc) and I’ve been tasting it since the 1970s. What is now called “The Reserve” was for many years referred to as “I Block,” a section of the famous To Kalon vineyard. It’s a fascinating wine with a ripeness that tends to suppress the green, herbaceousness of the grape and instead features Meyer lemon, golden apple,Mandarin orqnge, jasmine, honeysuckle, Asian pear and grapefruit along with clove and vanilla notes from the oak. The overwhelming impression of this wine is of balance – every element is in place, the fruit perfectly matched by the medium acidity, the rich texture set off by the alcohol and slightest hint of tannin. It’s excellent. 98% Sauvignon Blanc, 2% Semillon

Saintsbury Winery 2017 Stanly Ranch Pinot Noir (Carneros) $68

Stanly Ranch was originally planted in 1870 and for more than 150 years it’s been a treasured source of grapes in Carneros. Saintsbury has been buying the pinot noir from a trio of hillside blocks since 1984 and they really know how to handle this fruit. The resultant wine has a broad palette of aromas and flavors including raspberry, black cherry, wild strawberry, forest floor and dried rose petals. The wine has a very appealing and ripe juiciness but feels just a bit shy of acidity to be truly outstanding.

Snowden Vineyards 2018 “Melchior Kemper” Cabernet Franc (Napa Valley) $75

This is an arresting example of Napa style in cabernet franc, a grape I find seriously under-appreciated by both consumers and producers in the United States. This wine gives me hope a renaissance may be on the horizon. The aroma booms out of the glass, with blackberry, black cherry, plum, mocha, candied violet, anise, dried herbs, tobacco leaf and just enough hints of oak to add to the interest. This is a beautifully balanced wine with the pronounced aroma well supported by the acidity, medium (+) tannins and the 14.5% alcohol. This is a great value, enjoyable now and promising greatness over the next decade.

Corison Winery 2019 “Helios Sunbasket Vineyard” Cabernet Franc (St. Helena) $135

Cathy Corison has been one of Napa’s greatest winemakers for nearly five decades. She keepks a low profile but her wines speak profoundly on her behalf. This wine has a deep voice, with a brooding ruby color and laser-focused aromas of black cherry, red cherry, pencil lead, grilled meat, dried herbs (reminiscent of Provençal garrigue) and toast. The velvety tannins are plentiful, the acidity crisp. There are no jagged edges here – everything is so perfectly proportioned nothing sticks out in a beautifully harmonious presentation. In my notes at the tasting, I twice underlined, “great definition.”

Relic 2018 “Alfred Frediani” Field Blend (Calistoga) $n/a

Al Frediani was born in 1921 and lived on this vineyard his entire life until his death in 2018. The vineyard has been organic for as long as anyone can remember, and Al said the Carignane vines on the property were there long before he was born, guessing they were planted in 1901. Al added petite sirah to the vineyard in the 1930s (so those are the young vines!) and while the winery doesn’t provide an “ingredient list,” we can safely assume this field blend consists of those two grapes with a few stray additions of alicante bouchet, valdigue and who know what else was there? The wine is a beautiful evocation of old Napa Valley style with loads of black cherry, blueberry and plum with moderate oak influence, plentiful but silky tannins and bracing acidity that keeps the wine from seeming too rich. Only one barrel (24 cases) was made, a second-year French oak barrel with the wine fermented half whole cluster and half crushed. Ten aged 18 months. A dazzling wine that alas, will never show up on your wine shop shelf.

Shafer Vineyards 2019 “One Point Five’ (Stag’s Leap District) $115

The name “cabernet sauvignon” does not appear on the front label of this wine to allow for flexibility in the exact composition, but in 2019 this wine was 83% cabernet, 12% merlot, 3% malbec and 2% petit verdot. The wine spent 20 months in 100% new French oak and has 15.3% alcohol. That might lead you to imagine it will be a tannic powerhouse, but the resulting wine in the glass has an alluring balance and restraint. I found lots of bright black cherry, red cherry, blackberry and cassis – I’m tempted to call the fruit “charming” with sufficient fruit to balance the tannin and alcohol and yield a lovely, harmonious wine. Such is the nature of carefully situated vineyards that balance can be achieved even at 15.3%!

Continuum 2017 Sage Mountain Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (Pritchard Hill) $295

This wine was one of the several stars of the tasting to my palate. Grown way up on Pritchard Hill (near Chappellet’s iconic property) at 1600 feet altitude by Tim Mondavi and his family, the grapes offer stunning aromas and flavors of plum, black berry, cassis, garrigue, clove and toast with some tertiary notes of dried violet and mocha starting to show. The blend is 64% cabernet sauvignon, 18% cabernet franc, 9% petit Verdot and 9% merlot, fermented in concrete and oak. The wine was aged for 20 months in 66% new and 33% second fill French oak plus one amphora. The wine ends up with a lot of tannin but it is so velvety and elegant it already drinks beautifully. Ripe and gorgeous.

Dalle Valle Vineyards 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon (Oakville) $310

Long an organic property, 2019 was the first vintage that is accredited biodynamic. The wine is 77% cabernet sauvignon and 23% cabernet franc, all raised in amphorae. I found it stunning (hardly a surprise given the glorious record of this winery) – it really shows the concentration and balance of Oakville fruit. Black cherry and cassis provide the top notes with violet, blackberry, dried herbs and vanilla rounding it out. Velvet tannins and wonderfully appealing high acidity to give great balance to the lush fruit. Simply stunning.

Many thanks to Chris for being such an engaging guide providing new insights and nuances of an area many of us in attendance thought we already knew pretty well.

Across its 20 wine-producing regions and varied climates, Italy produces a stunning variety of wine. From crisp, light-bodied Pinot Grigio, Kerner and Lagrein from Alto-Adige in the cool-climate Alpine Northeast to richly textured Aglianico and Nero d’Avola from the volcanic south of Campania and Sicily and all types of wine in between, the sheer scope of Italian wine is a marvel that is unequaled by other countries. That’s not to say other countries don’t produce great wine (France, I am not ignoring you) nor is it to say Italy produces more wine than anyone else (Spain and France always vie for the title of Most Productive), but I will venture Italy produces more types of wine (or perhaps more accurately, wine from more varieties of grapes) than anyone else.

This isn’t a contest though, it’s just an introduction to allow me to mention that I’m giving a series of seminars and masterclasses in the coming two months that focuses on the diversity and richness of Italian wine and culture, and wine culture come to think of it. While Italy is usually described as a boot in shape, for a wine lover it is easier to think of it as an italicized “T” (though it tilts the other way). I liken it to a T because Italy is to a large extent comprised of two mountain ranges. One range is comprised of the Alps to the west on the French border, Alpine foothills above Lombardy and on to the Dolomites on the far northeastern corner of the country bordering Switzerland to the north and and Slovenia to the east. That’s the crossbar of the T, and the long mountain range called the Apennines stretches southeast from the intersection with the crossbar all the way to the arch and toe of the boot and then turns west in to Sicily. To give it some scale, from Milan in the northern province of Lombardi to Syracuse on the southern short of Sicily, it is nearly 1100 miles (1770 kilometers).

I point out these mountain ranges because they define something like 90% of the area of the country. Aside from the Po River valley that empties into the Adriatic and the stiletto heel of the boot that is the region of Puglia, you will be hard pressed to travel more than a few kilometers in any direction without running into some serious hills or mountains. That has a huge impact on the wine produced here. And given the distance, we’re spanning everything from very cool continental climate to very warm Mediterranean climate. In other words, if there’s a grape you like, you can generally find a place in Italy where it will thrive.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I led a sympsium on the stunning wines made in Piemonte from the grape Moscato Bianco (the glory of Asti), and there are three more opportunities to taste coming up. They are listed in the event section of the website, but in brief :

• On March 20 I’m doing a deep dive into Italy and its 20 wine regions for the Italian Trade Agency. It’s a four-hour masterclass followed by what will be a much needed dinner and it’s open to anyone in the wine and/or hospitality trade.

• On April 17 I’m giving two seminars with the Consorzio (the association of wine producers) of Valpolicella, focusing on the several styles of red wine made in the area (“regular” Valpolicella, Ripasso and Amarone). I’m joined by 14 producers from the region and there is a walk around tasting during and between the seminars.

• On May 15 my good friend Luca Alves, worldwide ambassador of the Chianti Consorzio, joins me for an exploration of Chianti and its fascinating nuances among the seven sub-regions of the area.

At all these seminars there will be wonderful wines to taste and great producers to speak with directly about the particular challenges and gifts they receive from Mother Nature in Italy. Registration information for all three seminars is in the event section of my website, along with information about many classes I’ll be teaching this Spring and Summer. Just click on the event, and registration instructions are inside. Let’s get together for a glass…or more! Cin Cin!

I confess, a trip through my local supermarket shows way too much shelf space devoted to insipid, off-dry and medium sweet pink wines. My market had three or four brands of White Zinfandel and I reasoned this would serve as a gateway for wine drinkers moving on to “real” wine, but I missed the point. Young Americans (I’ve lost track of what comes after Millenials,and Gens X, Y & Z) are raised on overly sweetened beverages. I won’t bash Coca-Cola but I will note that Coke has, ounce for ounce, as much sugar as a classic Sauternes but one is marketed as s dessert beverage and the other as an anytime drink.

People raised on super-sweet drinks with searingly high acidity to balance the sugar are understandably graduating to wines with a similar profile and so the semi-sweet “rosé” category has only continued to grow. Today even more than Zinfandel, a favored base wine is Moscato, another grape given to high sugar content and sweet juicy and floral flavors. That said my fear that this sea of insipid pink wines would destroy the market for “legitimate” rosé. hasn’t been at all true. Thanks to Sasha Lichen’s brilliant insight in creating and marketing Whispering Angel millions of consumers have taken a closer look at the rosés of the south of France and found many to love.

Whispering Angel is made by Château d’Esclans, which also makes a number of other rosé wines celebrating the carefree Provençal lifestyle. In fact, it was so successful as an entry point to the portfolio, Lichine and friends created another tier below Whispering Angel so it could be view more as the mainstream wine, and then there are three other wines in the family above that. A hundred miles west of Château d’Esclans, the brilliant wine grower Gerard Bertrand has taken wines of Languedoc to the mainstream with some very high quality bottlings of red and white wines and a huge span of rosés retailing in the U.S. from a little over $10.00 (a wine often found by the pallet at Costco, a “big box store” that sells a huge amount of wine) to a super-premium rosé selling for over $200 (and no, I haven’t tried that one, I’m sad to say).

As I’ve spent more time in the South of France and especially the Rhône Valley about whose wines I am particularly passionate, I’ve watched an entire spectrum of pink wines come up in the public’s estimation. There are the Grenache-based rosé wines of Côtes-du-Rhône, that are light and fun, village-level wines like Séguret that get a bit more maceration time on their skins and have an engagingly deep color and a bit more weight. And then there are even more deeply colored and weightier rosé wines, like the Grenache and Cinsault-dominant wine of Tavel, France’s sole rosé-only appellation, and my favorite, the Mourvedre-led rosés of Bandol.

I’m leading a 10-wine masterclass coming up exploring the nuances of wine and food pairing and, amid the usual suspects of Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc (represented by a white Bordeaux, not a Sancerre or Marlborough Sauvignon) and Cabernet Sauvignon, I am happily including a Bandol rosé as an example of an exceedingly food friendly option for meal planning (there are still a couple of seats available if you want to attend). A rosé with some body and weight still maintains it’s deft finesse but offers great compatibility with all sorts of food items - white meats, cheeses and a fair number of red meats as well as complexly spiced dishes like Thai and Indian cuisine.

There are many more rosés to try - some beautiful examples in Tuscany and Southern Italy for example, and a recent favorite, winemaker Nikki Pallesen’s “Crowded Table” rosé from California’s Central Coast. I’ll devote a separate post to the Crowded Table rosé.

In the meantime, I invite you to ponder some preconceptions about rosé that were engagingly pointed out in a recent column in Decanter by Elizabeth Gabay, MW. She’s just written a book about rosé in the South of France and I found her comments not only on point, but thirst inspiring! Here’s the link to her Decanter article.

I asked him about this one day after class and his response was simple: “I like teaching students with many perspectives,” he said, “but I also do this for myself. If every year I can put myself in the place of a beginner and rethink the entire history of this art form, I think I’ll be a better composer.” In other words, frequently revisiting the basics enhances your expertise with fresh ideas and an open perspective.

I have come to believe that music and wine are linked in many ways, and I think about Dr. Argento’s comments often because I get to experience something similar. Teaching wine classes for the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) gives me wonderful exposure to wine. I certainly enjoying the technical tastings and sharing ideas in advanced classes, but my greatest joy comes from teaching the fundamental and intermediate courses. Far from being a rehash of things I already know, I get to attempt to dispel with preconceptions and, to some extent at least, enjoy that thrill of discovering something new.

Yes, I’ve had New Zealand sauvignon blanc hundreds of times, but when I ask Level 1 students to taste it without knowing what it is, it’s almost like discovering that blast of herbaceous fruit all over again. And better still, it challenges me to think about what I mean by a term “herbaceous,” and how do I sense and explain acidity, and whether, putting aside existing prejudices as much as possible, do I like this wine?

I’m fortunate to teach for WSET provider Fine Vintage, Ltd. because the owner (and my mentor), master of wine James Cluer, insists we pour more wines than called for by WSET and significantly better wines than the minimum required. With quality wines in the glass, I get to revisit wines I like, a few I’m not so passionate about and, in some cases, brands I haven’t tried before. For example, we need to feature a premier cru Chablis as an example of unoaked chardonnay, but I choose the producer each time I give a class. Because I teach in half a dozen cities, the availability changes so I get to taste the efforts of many different producers.

This process of evaluating the elements of how to taste wine on a frequent basis, or tasting while trying to avoid stereotypes and biases, is invaluable. You might think it’s doing the same thing over and over, but in fact it is key to keeping my palate fresh. There are plenty of opportunities to have technical tastings with highly skilled friends, but the challenge of tasting with people just discovering their own passion for wine has been a key in keeping my own passion in high gear. I invite you at your next tasting to try to be a novice again and see if it doesn’t bring you some welcome surprises as well.

Here are some thoughts on what we tasted in my most recent WSET Level One course:

Piper-Heidsieck NV Cuvée Brut Champagne – This wine is at a very high level of quality these days, and if anything getting a little fuller bodied. It’s a great example of Champagne style.

Domaine Vincent Dampt 2020 Chablis 1er Cru, “Les Vaillons. — Crisp, mineral driven with lots of lemon, green apple, green pear, oyster shell and flint, this is a wonderfully clean, high-quality Chablis at a reasonable price ($40).

Rombauer 2020 Napa Carneros Chardonnay – I frequently use this ripe and heavily oaked wine to provide a contrast to the Chablis and illustrate how versatile a grape chardonnay is when grown in different climates. In past vintages I’ve found Rombauer to be overly ripe and overly oaked for my taste. It still is, but everything was much more balanced in the 2020 vintage of this wine – a welcome surprise. ($40)

Abbazia di Novacella 2020 Alto-Adige Pinot Grigio – crisp, clean and bright, this is the epitome of pinot grigio grown in the cool mountain climate of Northern Italy.  ($20)

Cloudy Bay 2021 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc – there are several styles of sauvignon blanc, and that grown in Marlborough, New Zealand is certainly the market favorite these days. But this wine shows we are seeing some changes coming to the once-single-style region. Cloudy Bay is toning down the traditional pungent herbaceous nose and palate and picking up a little extra body along the way. Still unmistakeably NZ in approach, but it has its mellowing style. ($30)

Dr. Loosen 2020 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese – Loosen turns out a consistently reliable style of Mosel riesling with medium sweetness, crisp lime and green apple flavors, a welcome whiff of white flowers and an always intriguing petrol note. I would have preferred one a little bit older to show how the grape ages, but that is increasingly difficult in today’s market. ($34)

Château Doisy-Vedrine 2017 Sauternes – though sweet wines are not a wildly popular style in today’s wine market it’s important to talk about the various ways they can be made, and you can’t discuss the great wines of the world without address botrytis, or “noble rot.” ($25 / 375ml)

Michel Magnien 2019 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru “Climats d’Or” – if you are going to talk about pinot noir there is no better example than a premier cru Burgundy. Magnien’s wines are biodynamic, innovative and delicious as well as being very classic in their medium ruby color, high acidity and low(ish) tannins. This is a terrific example. ($100)

Paul Hobbs Crossbarn 2018 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon – My aim in Level 1 is to give students classic examples of the world’s great grape varieties, and this wine is a wonderfully pristine representation of Napa cab – lots of black currant, blackberry and cedar on the nose and palate. ($50)

Château du Parc 2015 Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – in talking about merlot, it’s important to show how the grape behaves in the old world. This Bordeaux is 80% merlot (with 20% cabernet franc) and moderates the varietal plum, wild strawberry, blueberry and mocha notes with a typically Bordelaise inclusion of forest floor, tobacco leaf and an appealing earthiness. Fruit and minerals together – classic right-bank Bordeaux. ($56)

Elderton 2020 Barossa Valley Shiraz – you can learn a lot about wine making from a wine like this that has pristine varietal character (blackberry, just a hint of jamminess, a touch of black pepper and licorice) enhanced by aging in new and used, large and small oak vessels. Great quality and very approachable now though it could last for a decade. ($29)

Brolio 2018 Chianti Classico Riserva – I am happy when I can include Brolio in our level 1 classes because it has such a great story as one of the most historic properties in Tuscany as well as having exceptional quality. This beautifully made wine is 100% sangiovese and showcases the grape’s classic red fruit flavors, violet aroma and high tannin and acidity. ($30)

Lopez de Heredia 2008 Viña Tondonia Rioja Reserva – Rioja comes in many styles these days, but few wines offer as clear a taste of classic tempranillo as this one. With 13 years of age, we get to talk about what happens when a wine ages in bottle and there are plenty of tertiary notes in this wine without sacrificing any freshness. ($57)

Taylor-Fladgate 2016 Late Bottled Vintage Port – LBV Port is a great introduction to a discussion of fortified wine. Several producers have good LBVs, and this one is a great classic. ($23)

The beauty of this tasting is that I have another Level 1 course coming up in July and an altogether different roster of wines to share. Bring on the passion!

I am director of a wonderful wine and food festival in Miami called VeritageMiami that, in addition to raising a lot of money each year for United Way of Miami-Dade, features great chefs contributing their time and talent for a greater good. This week on my blog on the VeritageMiami website, I continued a 15-part series tracing the history of the festival from its beginnings in 1996 to its 25th anniversary this year (and yes, it sure looks different thanks to the pandemic).

The post this week on the anniversary timeline recalls some of the chefs I’ve worked with over my 25 years with the festival - it’s a chance to share some behind the scenes story, like Dean Fearing getting everyone to drink tequila before cooking and Jonathan Waxman making a foie gras taco that dripped down everyone’s sleeve.

The signature event of the festival is called the Interactive Dinner in which guests cook alongside a great chef, literally. The chef is on a stage with a single-burner cooktop and the guests, at tables of eight, also have the same setup as the chef - cooktop, pans, utensils and mis en place, the all-essential ingredients. The chef guides them along in them process of cooking three courses, so basically you have people spending a lot of money to make their own dinner, and they have such a good time (we do supply wine) that they then spend more money bidding on wonderful auction items, all in support of United Way.

Beginning in 2005 we shifted from showcasing a group of chefs at each of these dinners to focusing on a single celebrity chef, and that it the core of this week’s blog post: six chefs over five years who each showed us how to cook a great meal and, not incidentally, shared some amazing recipes in the process. I share all of those recipes as well in my blog post, so may I suggest you head over to the VeritageMiami website and think about what you would like to cook from our archives?

You can go directly to the blog post by clicking here

And you might consider cooking with us this year, virtually or in-person, when our guest chef is Adrianne Calvo (who also just did a great video with Pit Bull!) Bon appetit!

I have been both leading and attending a lot of webinars during these Covid times but I have to say, as much as I love my Zoom tastings and discussions, they augment and do not replace in-person learning where you can share the same wine with a group of equally passionate people and compare notes. That’s why I’m so happy Fine Vintage Ltd is reopening selected in-person classes with lots of safety precautions in place.

Social distancing is vital, as is wearing a mask except when you are tasting. We provide temperature checks and sanitizer and take exception precautions in cleaning our class space in coordination with our venues like the Hotel Intercontinental in Miami, The Whitley in Atlanta and the Kimpton Nine Zero in Boston, all locations where I’ll be teaching in the next few months. I strongly believe that wine is a wonderful vehicle for sharing experiences, one of those experiences being the sharing of course. Even with social distancing, we can safely do this in person with some straightforward precautions. You can see the list of extensive precautions we are taking on this page on the Fine Vintage website, and while there you will also see an explanation of our special offer that gives you complementary access to one of Fine Vintage’s excellent online courses just for registering for an in-person course.

My favorite of the online courses is the Food and Wine Pairing course - an excellent chance to explore and review the elements that help wine and food go together (or, occasionally, not go together). Why pairings work and why wine and food may clash is a fascinating subject and we cover it thoroughly in this course I helped assemble. There are other courses as well - a chance to brush up on spirits, for example, or an online version of Fine Vintage’s own the Level 1and Level 2 courses to use as preparation for the in-person WSET course experience. The choice of course is up to you once you register for one of our in-person classes.

The real gem here though is the actual WSET course you’ll be taking. I’ll be offering Level 1 courses February 27 (Miami), Atlanta (April 24) and Boston (May 15), and Level 2 in Miami (date pending but likely in July), Atlanta (April 10, 11 & 25) and Boston (May 1,2 & 16). I also have the French Wine Professional course coming up in Miami and Atlanta as well as the fantastic (and fascinating) Sensory Masterclass in Miami and Atlanta.

After a year of sheltering in place, let’s take our best precautions and safely get together to share some wine and explore what goes into supplying that marvelous liquid in our glasses. For more class information, check out the appropriate pages on this website, and don’t forget the special bonus - it’s available only for a limited time, so let’s commit to a wine experience and have a (socially responsible) blast!

More information about:

Level 1

Level 2

French Wine Professional

American Wine Professional

Fine Vintage Sensory Masterclass

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I’m excited to be talking about wine and food pairings with my dear friend Elise Cordell, Champagne ambassador for GH Mumm and Champagne Perrier-Jouët tomorrow night. We’ll match three sparkling wines (two from Champagne and one from Napa) with a variety of cheeses (hence the “Whey Cool Pairings” in our event title). There’s no charge to join us, and Elise is offering a 15% discount on the wines (shipped anywhere in the U.S.) if you want to taste along with us.

The three wines we’ll be trying represent the styles of both houses:

• Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut, NV

• G.H. Mumm Grand Cordon, NV

• Mumm Napa ‘Cuvée M’, NV

And then there are the cheeses. Actually, not right away. First, we are going to do a couple of exercises with a wedge of lemon, a slice of apple and a bit of salt. These experiments will let us explore some fundamentals of wine and food pairing, and even if you don’t have our sparkling wines on hand, you can do these exercises with us with any cool climate white wine or a medium bodied red wine (for whites, this Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand or Chablis, an unoaked chardonnay from France.

After these experiments, we’ll move on and taste the Perrier-Jouët with several soft-ripened cheeses, especially Delice de Bourgognne, a rich triple-creme from France. You’ll see the important role acidity plays in making this match work, and we’ll also try it with a bit of Parmigiano-Reggiano and one of the classic cheese matches for Champagne - Camembert. This is a soft-ripened cheese like the Delice but quite different in character.

Then, Mumm is the word, and we’ll try this slightly fuller-bodied Champagne with the Camembert again, and then with Gruyère and my favorite pairing in this flight, Langres. Langres is a cheese from the Champagne region and it is wonderful balance between pungency and richness. And see that dimple in the top of the small piece of cheese? Traditionally that was to hold a small amount of Champagne. I’m not going to use my Mumm for that - I’m keeping it in a glass, but it’s a fun bit of history.

Finally, we’ll pair Mumm Napa with some cheeses. Mumm Napa is, as the name implies, from California and as you might expect, grapes get riper here than in Champagne. Consequently, the wine, while it is made the same way as Champagne, is a bit richer, riper and, on our palate, it feels a little sweeter. This calls for some interesting pairings, so I’ll bring out a wonderful blue cheese from California’s Point Reyes Farm, a rich French cheese called Mimolette and a few other surprises.

All in all, we’ll have a great time and you.are welcome to join us, with or without cheese and with one wine or all three. For your free registration to the event on October 15 simply click here and click “October 15”

And, if you want the full experience, purchase your wines here and use the promo code ELISE15 for your 15% discount.

And here’s an insider tip - raid your kitchen and have the a lemon and some salt at hand to try a couple of easy experiments I’ll share! You’ll be surprised by how simple some of the concepts behind matching wine and food really are, and we’ll make some fun explorations. Santé!

I’m so excited to be talking about wine and food pairings with my dear friend Elise Cordell, Champagne ambassador for GH Mumm and Champagne Perrier-Jouët! We’ll match three sparkling wines (two from Champagne and one from Napa) with a variety of cheeses (hence the “Whey Cool Pairings” in our event title). There’s no charge to join us, and Elise is offering a 15% discount on the wines (shipped anywhere in the U.S.) if you want to taste along with us.

The wines we’ll be trying represent the styles of both houses:

• G.H. Mumm Grand Cordon, NV

• Mumm Napa ‘Cuvée M’, NV

• Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut, NV

I’ll include some cheese suggestions for each wine and we’ll explore what elements make a felicitous pairing, and what might cause discord when matching food and wine - no rules, just some revealing tips!

Join us! For your free registration to the event on October 15 simply click here and click “October 15”

And, if you want the full experience, purchase your wines here and use the promo code ELISE15 for your 15% discount.

And here’s an insider tip - raid your kitchen and have the a lemon and some salt at hand to try a couple of easy experiments I’ll share! You’ll be surprised by how simple some of the concepts behind matching wine and food really are, and we’ll make some fun explorations. I’ll post my cheese picks here in a couple of days, but don’t let that hold you back from registering for the free webinar now, and do consider purchasing the wines - it will make it so much more fun!

In my classes, I often use cheese to illustrate basic points about how and why certain wines match particularly well with individual dishes. Wine is a complex substance, and many food dishes are a complex blend of elements as well, but the basics still apply. Here are three of these basics to consider:

1. Acidity in food pairs extremely well with acidity in wine - they bring each other into balance.

2. Fat in food also pairs with acid in wine for a different reason - rather than matching up, acid cuts through fat, making the food seem less fatty and more palatable. You could also take the reverse approach and say that fat in food helps moderate acid in wine. Either way, it’s a question of balance.

3. Salt in food has several effects on wine components - salt helps reduce our perception of bitterness, so it makes wine seem less tannic; salt in food also reduces our perception of sweetness in wine (or in food for that matter), so a salty dish will help balance a sweet wine. And, salt in food reduces our perception of acid in wine with the net effect of the wine seeming to be fruitier and a little fuller in body (this is why one of the greatest of all wine/food pairings is Champagne with french fries but that’s a post for another day!)

All of these food elements — salt, fat and acid — are present to varying degrees in cheese, so a wine with vibrant acidity will be a good companion to fattier cheeses. Acidic wines will also go well with some cheeses with notable acidity, like goat cheese which can be quite tart. Many cheeses have noticeable salt content, and these can also go well with tannic wines because they will help reduce our perception of the bitter tannins. And sweet wines are also good matches for saltier cheeses, like Sauternes with Roquefort cheese or Port with Stilton. Even a wine that is just off-dry (or, very slightly sweet) like the sylvaner in the picture with a chunk of Stilton (from England’s great Colston-Basset Dairy) and a piece of Vermont cheddar shows the magical synergy of sweet and salty.

In my experience, there are few cheeses and wines that don’t go harmoniously together but there are some combinations that are particularly good, so for National Cheese and Wine Day, here are some of my favorite pairings to try:

Traditional method sparkling wines like Champagne and Franciacorta from northern Italy are great matches for many types of cheese. In the photo, I’ve paired three different Franciacorta wines (a Brut non-vintage, a vintage brut and a rosé) with several kinds of cheese including Gorgonzola and Taleggio that come from the Franciacorta region in Lombardy plus an American goat cheese called Humboldt Fog and a French Camembert. The bubbles keep the palate fresh, and the crisp acidity of the wines is tempered by the saltiness of some of the cheeses and cuts through the fat in all of them.

Alsatian Riesling with practically anything: riesling in Alsace is generally medium-bodied with ripe citrus flavors and good acidity. They tend not to be as sweet as many German rieslings (though riesling in Germany is getting drier, especially with a warming climate that promotes greater ripeness levels. I love Alsatian riesling with older cheeses like cave-aged comté or young but pungent soft-ripened cheeses such as Münster that also comes from Alsace.

Sauvignon Blanc is classically paired with goat cheese and that follows the axiom that “what grows together, goes together.” The best goat cheese in France comes from the eastern Loire Valley that also produces the world’s greatest sauvignon blanc, Sancerre. The same elements apply though to sauvignon blanc from New Zealand or Chile and goat cheese from Spain or the U.S. (like the Humboldt Fog noted above). Sauvignon blanc has herbaceous, grassy flavors and high acidity, elements that go so well with creamy, slightly vegetal goat cheese, the best of which from the town of Chavignole very close to Sancerre. It’s a win-win!

By now you are probably wondering where the red wine is and I’ll confess, I like white wine with cheese more than most reds. Many people automatically thing cheese must go with red wine because they end of having cheese either just before, or in place of, dessert. Since red wines usually are served with main courses, that is the wine left on the table when the cheese is served, but it isn’t always the best option. Tannic and powerfully flavored reds can be a less than perfect match for many cheeses, but if you are dying to have red wine with your cheese, go for it - have the wine you love with the food you love and most of the time, you’ll be happy.

For my cheese pairings, I like fruitier reds with low tannin and high acidity so I often turn to Beaujolais, a terribly misunderstood and unjustly maligned wine from the area just south of Burgundy. Good Beaujolais (and I promise I’ll do a post on this soon) is wonderful with semi-soft and firm cheeses - think Comté, Beaufort, Gruyère and Manchego. Pinot noir works well with these cheeses too, and for the same reasons.

There is a world of cheese out there, and of course a world of wine as well, so two parting ideas: you will seldom go wrong pairing a wine with a cheese from the same region. And, remember to follow one of the basics of pairing wine with all foods - match flavor intensities. A delicate and fresh young cheese will want a wine lighter in flavor intensity and body. An intensely flavored blue cheese, a cave-aged Gruyère, a robust (and wonderfully stinky) Reblochon or Epoisse will be best suited to something fuller bodied and richer in flavor, like a medium-bodied red wine or a richer white like an older Burgundy or a New World chardonnay. Just remember with chardonnay that the super-ripe style favored by some comes from very ripe grapes, and the riper a grape gets the lower its acidity. I find very ripe chardonnay (Rombauer is a good example from California’s Carneros AVA) are full of flavor but don’t have enough acidity to stand up to dry and strongly flavored cheeses like Gruyère, Manchego and Parmigiano.

Okay, with that, I’m in desperate need of a glass of wine (I have an Alsatian riesling handy) and some of the cheese I’ve been stashing just for a day like this. Let me know in the comments section what you ended up pairing this week. Cheers!

One particularly rewarding outcome of the quarantine (I consider it “sipping in place”) has been having the time to consult with Fine Vintage owner James Cluer, MW and several other colleagues on our lesson plans. We’ve updated our presentations, wine logs and video libraries to make the courses even more fun and I’m keen to share some new wines with you. In many cities in the U.S. we offer our courses at City Winery, the amazing urban winery/restaurant/concert space pioneered 10 years ago by Michael Dorf and now located in nearly a dozen cities across the country. Michael and his team are ready to slowly reopen some of the venues and so I am slowly (and very methodically!) offering some course dates knowing my colleagues at City Winery are putting stringent safeguards in place.

I’ll start by offering WSET Level 1 in Chicago next month: Level 1 will be a one day class in the spacious concert venue at City Winery Chicago on July 11 where we’ll have plenty of room to seat everyone at a safe distance from other students. This would be a great opportunity to share your passion for wine with others at a socially safe distance. For the full lineup of upcoming classes, check the Event Page on the website - everything is listed there.

You’ll need a mask of course, and we’ll do temperature checks on everyone coming to class as well as positioning the seats more than six feet apart - I’ve included a video below to show steps taken by City Winery to assure a safe reopening.

I look forward to welcoming our Chicago students back in August, The current plan is to offer two classes in Chicago (both the Fine Vintage Sensory Masterclass and our wonderful French Wine Professional two-day course). We’ll start classes in Boston in September, as well as debuting classes at the new City Winery in Washington, D.C; In October I’ll be teaching WSET classes in Atlanta and Miami, and then in November starting classes in Philadelphia as well as continuing classes in Miami. It’s a slow process of reopening, but one we are doing with care and most of all, with your safety in mind. I am ready to start tasting with you!

Wondering about the other steps we and City Winery are taking? Here’s a great video Michael put together to show what they are doing, not only in Boston but in all their venues as they slowly reopen:

Cheers!

City Winery explains its steps for reopening

First, I want to point out that wine lovers can be cocktail lovers. some of my wine-loving friends get a look of horror when I suggest having a cocktail, even if it is a Happy Hour conducted via a Zoom video hookup. Some distilled spirits have their roots in wine (Cognac and Armagnac come immediately to mind, so wine is essential to the success of the Sidecar among many other drinks) and many cocktails depend on wine-based ingredients for their success - the Martini is a shining example, but also many others that use vermouth, bitters and sparkling wine. So, it’s not a big jump to associate a love of wine with a love of cocktails, and thus I feel totally within my comfort zone sharing a few favorite cocktails with you.

I don’t much see the point (beyond the alcohol) of vodka, but I like gin (which is in a sense, flavored vodka) and a lot of gin-based cocktails. Gin synthesizes the old view of spirits as vehicles for medicinal properties, so here are a few interesting gin cocktails you might enjoy during these days of self-medication as we try to steer clear of the coronavirus. I won’t go into a lot of detail on the history of these drinks, though I do find cocktail history a terrific subject. Instead, let’s mix it up:

The Negroni

This is an aperitif-style cocktail that uses two types of bitters with gin to make a winning combination:

• 1 part gin (for this drink, I like Beefeater)

• 1 part Campari

• 1 part Sweet Vermouth (lots of options, but I like Cocchi Vermouth di Torino here)

You can “build” this in the highball glass you serve it ink or make it in a shaker and pour it into a small martini glass to serve it straight up. Garnish with an orange peel.

The Coral Reef

This is a riff on the Negroni I created a few years ago when I was designing cocktails for Silversea Cruises. While working out the formula I shared the drink with a few guests on a Pacific cruise to get their impressions and one guest said, “oh, it looks like pink coral!,” and so the drink got it’s name

• 2 parts gin (I like Plymouth in this drink)

• 1 part St. Germaine Elderflower Cordial

• 3/4 part Aperol (this is where the color comes from)

• a splash of soda

Stir the first three ingredients with ice in a mixing glass or shaker, pour over ice in a highball glass and add a splash (and just a splash!) of soda. Garnish with a lemon twist

The Pegu Club Cocktail

This drink was concocted at the eponymous Pegu Club, which gave Brits in Rangoon a comfortable place to hang their hats, at least until World War II intruded on the scene in 1943. In case you were wondering, the Pegu is a river. The drink also flows very easily, so careful - this can catch up with you:

• 2 ounces gin -- any good London dry gin will work (I use Tanqueray for this drink)

• 3/4 ounce orange curacao (or Cointreau or even Grand Marnier for a slightly richer version)

• 3/4 ounce lime juice

• 1 dash Angostura Bitters

• 1 dash Angostura or Gary Regan’s orange bitters

Shake well with ice, then pour into a chilled cocktail glass where you can appreciate the delicate orange color that comes from the Angostura bitters. This is the ideal time to use those Nick and Nora glasses you’ve been dying to try.

[This is a good point for an aside: Nick and Nora Charles are characters in Dashiell Hammet’s 1934 novel The Thin Man, which was almost immediately turned into a film that then spawned five sequels. In the novel and the first film, set in 1932 as Prohibition was about to end, Nick is (there is no way to put this mildly) a lush - he seems to drink from dawn to well past dusk. But, key to this aside, he is drinking from the small cocktail glass of the time, that held no more than four ounces (roughly 120ml). It bears no resemblance to the gargantuan troughs called martini glasses today. A single martini filling today’s glass will knock a good sized fellow on his behind, but in the 1930s, drinking was much more genteel and a real cocktail makes no more than four ounces, the perfect size for the glass they used then and that is today called a Nick and Nora - the picture of the Pegu Cocktail above is in a Riedel Nick & Nora glass that holds four ounces. I see another blog post coming, but that’s enough for now. End of aside.]

This seems a good point to end the post as well - there are so many wonderful cocktails to explore and yes, I do drink cocktails that do not include gin, and I’ll highlight a few of those in upcoming posts. Meantime, celebrate the day, and cheers! Stay healthy and safe everyone.

Even when the danger of this virus ebbs, as it surely will eventually, I suspect the face of dining (and by extension, of wine consumption) will be irrevocably changed for a long time. What sort of distance measures will we contend with in the future? Amid all the restaurant closings, there is a new restaurant opening in Sweden. The restaurant is called Bord för En, which translates as Table for One, a name that summarizes the restaurant’s admittedly radical solution: located in a meadow, it is a restaurant without walls (and without servers for that matter) and with a single table for a single person. The kitchen is some distance away, and the food is delivered to the table in a basket sent to the table by rope and pulley.

Here’s how the restaurant’s website describes itself:

“A table. A chair. In the middle of a warm summer meadow. Bord för En is a dining experience in privacy. No wait staff and no other guests. The food is sent to you in a basket from the restaurant kitchen window.”

The restaurant of course only takes one reservation at a time, but it’s open from 10 in the morning until the kitchen closes at 10:45 at night. And lest you worry about dining in a field at 9 or 10 at night, keep in mind that with the coming of summer (the restaurant opens May 2), the days in Northern Sweden are very long indeed.

Is this the shape of things to come? Well, I’ve been dining a little like this for six weeks and it gets a little tiring. I don’t have a meadow, and I have two cats for company (who do not dine with me though a few times I’ve invited them), but I’m keeping inspiration while cooking for one is hard to maintain at a gourmet level. On the other hand, I do always get to pick the wine.

I was saddened to learn this week of the death of Michael Broadbent, MW, my first mentor in wine. He was 92 and lived a rich life full of great wine, and eulogies are pouring in from around the world. The news made me both sad and, curiously, a bit happy as well. Not happy at his passing, but happy because knowing Michael Broadbent was a joy to reflect on, and in these very troubling times, we take comfort where we can (and often in a glass of wine). And therein lies a story.

When I was in my early 20s and a very inexperienced wine drinker aspiring to be a wine taster, I picked up a copy of a small book simply titled, Wine Tasting. Published in 1968 and written by a man with the curious and totally English name of Broadbent, it was a very straightforward guide to tasting wine. In my unenlightened youth, I was confused that one might taste wine differently than tasting anything else (I mean, seriously, you put it in your mouth and tasted it, didn’t you?). But this book piqued my interest and did several things: it prompted me to purchase more books about wine (easy to do because at that point there weren’t many books about wine in the market), it spurred me to join with a group of friends to create an informal series of wine tastings together (we didn’t know anything about a “tasting group” at the time), and in my youth and total naiveté, I wrote to the author.

Michael Broadbent, MW (I later learned that meant Master of Wine) was not difficult to find even at that time long before the internet. The book jacket said he was the head of the wine department at Christie’s, an important auction house in London, and so I wrote to him there. I remember the letter – a plea for some guidance in how to taste wine. The group of which I was a part had decided to taste cabernet sauvignon from California, mainly because it was easy to obtain. We searched and managed to come up with eight different wines which, at the time, seemed like a huge number to a group of inexperienced young drinkers. We splurged on one that was significantly higher priced than the others available to us and I wanted some insight into how to taste them.

In retrospect I had no right to expect a luminary of the stature of the head of Christie’s wine department would respond to a letter from relative youngster, but he did. He wrote me the kindest letter in response and took great pains to compliment me and our group on the remarkable adventure on which we were embarking. He had some good tips on how to order the wines, using good wine glasses (not at all a given in my circles at the time) and taking the time to make some careful notes about what we were tasting. Acknowledging our youth, he wrote, “Remember this tasting - you will look back on it often as the beginning of something wonderful.”

I have indeed looked back on that tasting many times, but I have looked back on Michael Broadbent’s letter even more often. Yes, the tasting was an adventure, but the letter to a 24-year-old taster was even more important because he essentially gave me permission to begin something that has become a lifelong pursuit: he both allowed and encouraged passion. I have many frustrations with today’s community of wine drinkers (only a few of them strike me as true tasters), and the greatest frustration of all is that too many people pursue technical mastery in place of passion. Today, I’m privileged to be in a position where I can help change that. As a wine educator, I meet several hundred people every year who want to “know” more about wine. In my classes for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (of which Michael Broadbent was president for many years), I encourage students to learn the basics of wine but more importantly to find their own passion. Science and passion can not only co-exist, they enhance each other and lead all of us wine lovers to find even more wines to love.

I met Michael Broadbent in person several times after that first postal encounter and if anything, he was even more passionate in person. Within the wine industry, he was an icon – a consummate gentleman, infinitely knowledgeable yet equally curious. In the mid 1990s when he was updating his seminal Great Vintage Wine Book, I had a call from a wine collector who was a mutual friend. “Michael is in town – he wanted to taste 1985 California cabernet. He’s here and I have about a hundred bottles each missing one glass. Want to come join us?” Of course I did, and there was Michael holding court without a hint of pretense, just genuinely enjoying nearly every cabernet made that year. Indefatigable in his research, magnanimous in his sharing his experience and never without a little bit of awe at his good fortune in living this life in wine.

Over the years, I became good friends with Michael’s son Bartholomew (a wonderful wine importer) and tasted with the two of them many times. Michael inspired and informed my love of vintage port and Madeira, his books encouraged my exploration of wine and my eventual happiness at finding my true calling as a teacher who only wants to share a passion for this remarkable beverage. I’ve often thought that each time we taste wine, we experience a place. Wine gives us a postcard in a glass, an opportunity to travel and share an experience, and that is a lesson I learned many years ago from a phenomenal writer and taster, an expert who was willing to share his passion with a novice who hadn’t yet discovered his. Michael Broadbent, Master of Wine, and, perhaps less officially, professor of passion. RIP, professor.

Based on the discovery of a document that shows wine made from the riesling grape being sold on March 13, 1435, the Wines of Germany trade group has decided this must be the grape’s birthday. Count Katzenelnbogen (whose name is easier to pronounce after a couple glasses of wine) noted a riesling purchase in his cellar log on that date, so we know the grape was producing wine even earlier. A first mention is as good a reason as any to mark the geburtstag of what has turned out to be one of the greatest of all wine grapes, so let’s celebrate... But if it’s so great, how come more people don’t drink it?

Many of my colleagues in the wine trade consider riesling the greatest of all white wine grapes – sorry chardonnay, it’s no contest. As my winemaker friend Ed Sbragia once told me, “I make my cabernet sauvignon in the vineyard, but I make chardonnay in the winery.” He was referring to the basically neutral character of chardonnay and the fact that much of what we perceive as the grape’s flavor actually comes from how it’s handled by winemakers – whether or not they use barrels, where it’s grown (chardonnay can grow in a warm climate as easily as it does in a cool climate) and whether any (or all) of several winery practices are followed – lees stirring, malolactic conversion, oak aging (it’s a long list).

I’m not writing this to disparage chardonnay which makes some extraordinary wines (and even more ordinary wines, but that can be said of almost every grape). I’m here to celebrate riesling, and if today is its birthday, I’m sending the grape my heartfelt wishes for a long(er) and happy life. Riesling is a remarkable grape for many reasons. 

Take riesling’s versatility – more than any other grape, it can be successfully (and deliciously) made into wines ranging from bone-dry to nectar-like sweetness. It has a wonderful range of flavors and aromas, everything from white flowers and lime to stony minerality, honey, apricot and even petrol (yes, it can in some circumstances develop a kerosene-like aroma). Riesling is not happy in warm climates but thrives in moderate ton cooler climates like those found in Germany, Austria and Alsace. In Australia riesling is planted at higher altitudes to give it the important cooler temperatures it needs, and it responds producing very dry wines of wonderful minerality and searing acidity that can age for decades. I have had astonishingly fresh 40-year-old Aussie riesling and loved it. 

With 45 percent of the world’s riesling vineyard area, it’s understandable that Germany is most identified with the grape, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. Germany’s reputation took a huge hit a few decades ago when a lot of off-dry and medium-sweet wine of low quality hit the market. Never mind that most of those wines contained little or no riesling – because Germany is so identified with this single grape, riesling unfairly but decidedly took the hit. Unfortunately, the country never recovered its lofty image and more than 40 years later still depends on apologists like me to make the case both for riesling as a whole, and Germany in particular.

I do love many off-dry rieslings from Germany but am just as passionate about the nearly always dry rieslings from Alsace. In Germany I especially appreciate the elegant, floral wines of the Mosel, but I have a special place in my heart for wines of the Rhine valley. The first quality wine I ever purchased was for a dinner I cooked for my university advisor, a wonderful professor who had traveled widely. I realized that while I could cook the food, he would expect wine and I knew nothing about it. A wine shop owner took pity on me, and not only overlooked the fact I was underage but offered some great advice. She said it was perfectly fine to serve two wines with dinner (I had no idea!) and suggested for my Basque-style chicken with almonds, tomato and peppers that a nice wine match would be from Germany because the wines were so versatile. I didn’t know what that meant at the time, but to this day I remember the wine – Niersteiner Goldene Luft, a lovely riesling kabinett that did indeed make a wonderful match and inspired what has turned out to be a life-long love affair with this magical grape.

Riesling falls into a category I call “low risk wines.” Because it’s generally low in alcohol, often off-dry and almost always fruity, it goes with an astonishing number of foods, including the hard-to match categories of foods with chili heat and with umami, two types of food that are notoriously difficult to pair with wine because they increase the perception of tannin and alcohol. This makes a good, off-dry riesling an ideal match for Indian, Thai or Szechuan cooking where chili heat can sometimes play a dominant role. And, interestingly the opposite approach holds just as true: with no tannin in the wine (riesling is almost never oak-aged), it goes wonderfully well with “naked” foods like sushi and sashimi.

The next time you are at a restaurant with a group of friends and everyone orders something different, suggest a riesling – it goes with so well with so many things it could be the surprise hit of the night. In fact, tonight I’m making sesame-crusted seared tuna with a light soy, ginger and lime jus on the side and I have just the wine to pair with it – birthday riesling!

Pitt and Jolie did an incredibly smart thing and paired up with a group of the savviest winemakers in the south of France, the Perrin Family. Owners of Château Beaucastel, one of the most admired wineries in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the Perrins are accustomed to innovative partnerships. There were already half-owners of my favorite winery along California’s Central Coast, Tablas Creek. Now, with Jolie and Pitt, they were making a very respectable rosé.

The solid credentials of their winery, Miraval, was cemented with consistently well-received vintages. Even after the couple divorced, they confounded gossip mongers by retaining their ownership of the winery with the Perrins – good heavens, this was a real labor of love and not a vanity project after all! Now, they are doing it again.

It was just announced the Pitt and Jolie formed another partnership to make another rosé – they’ve joined with the highly admired Champagne grower-producer Pierre Peters and plan to make rosé Champagne. Given the amount of time to make quality champagne (it will be at least four years from their first harvest until the first bottles are released), we don’t have a lot of details yet, but the very fact these two parties decided to make a partnership is telling. 

Pierre Peters does already make a rosé Champagne, but they are by far best known for their mineral-laced and deeply flavored blanc de blancs Champagne highlighting the strength of chardonnay. Here, they plan something different. Winemaker Rodolphe Péters told Decanter magazine, “We have effectively created a new Champagne house, which is a partnership between Miraval and Pierre Péters.”

I love rosé Champagne and can’t wait to learn more. Cheers!

As we head into the first full week of 2020, I’m reminded of just how personal a business wine can be. It is a global industry but in a very real sense enjoying wine is also a one-on-one pursuit. There is a wonderful scene in one of my favorite films, “A Good Year,” in which Uncle Henry, a patrician landowner in the South of France (wonderfully played by the late Albert Finney) tells his then-young nephew about the magic of wine. Speaking of the dialogue that a good wine can elicit with its consumer, he says, “I enjoy making wine because this sublime nectar is absolutely incapable of lying. A bit too early, a bit too late, it matters not. The wine will always whisper into your mouth with complete unabashed honesty every time you take a sip.”

I think of that perceived honesty with which a wine “speaks” as a direct link from place to palate. You may be sitting by a fire trying to ward off winter’s chill, but a glass of grenache from the Côtes de Luberon (where Uncle Henry’s fictional wine was produced) will whisk you to a day of golden sunshine just before harvest. This is why I say wine is a one-to-one dialogue between the taster and a grape, a vine and a producer. There may be a lot of chemistry and technology involved but at its most basic level, wine is much the same as apples or carrots: it is the land speaking to you.

I have thought of this a lot during these first days of the new decade. Devastating bush fires in several parts of Southeastern Australia have caused a terrible loss of animal life and destroyed many important vineyard areas. This has been devastating news on a very basic level for many Australian wine producers and portends shortages for fans of Australian wine for several years to come. I have traveled to most of Australia’s wine regions and my heart aches to see the devastation faced by people I know and love.

And then this weekend I learned the “Pope of Beaujolais,” Georges Duboeuf, died on Saturday (January 4, 2020). Georges (on being introduced, he insisted you call him by his first name) was born in 1933 and from the early 1950s on, he was a strong promoter of his native Beaujolais region at the southern tip of Burgundy. When he began in the business, most producers sold their wine in tanks or barrels and let merchants do the bottling. He successfully pushed for producers to do their own bottling, thus guaranteeing a greater level of accountability and authenticity. 

Duboeuf became by far the most commercially successful producer in the Beaujolais region, but not without some controversy. In creating an international demand for Beaujolais Nouveau, he commercialized a relatively minor local tradition of selling off some very young, “new” (thus nouveau) wine. He did this at a time the region was struggling financially, and definitely brought it commercial success but at the cost of having much of the world think this simple new wine was all Beaujolais had to offer. Beaujolais is still trying to come back from that misperception of the region’s wines.

Beaujolais is a region of small estates and mostly small producers who do not have the resources to do widespread promotion. As the largest producer in the area, Duboeuf did have the resources to make an international impact, and he used his visibility to not only promote his own wines, but the wines from throughout the appellation. I first met him in the early 1990s and through an evening-long (and literally) one-on-one tasting with him, I fell in love with the wines of Beaujolais and especially one “cru” (a village known for its quality wine) in particular, Fleurie. On subsequent meetings he opened up the depth of Morgon to me and what he called the “poetry” of Chiroubles and Julienas and the other crus that are the real soul of Beaujolais. There will be a lot written about the impact Duboeuf had (and still has through his son Franck), but more than the global impact, what I will remember most is the personal impact, and what an elegant translator he was as his vines spoke to me with “unabashed honesty.” Georges Duboeuf was a wonderfully personable man, a true gentleman who never tired not only of sharing what he knew but of making the effort to learn from consumers about our reactions to the wines of Beaujolais. 

Georges Dubeouf certainly had his detractors, and when I hear them complain that his wines are “too commercial,” I think of Robert Mondavi, another towering figure I was privileged to taste with on numerous occasions. Mondavi defined a generation (or two, or three), and in many ways he defined an industry. He got his share of criticism for commercializing some aspects of his portfolio, but, as with Georges Duboeuf, there is no denying his contributions, not just to the wine industry in general, but what ends up in our glass on a daily basis.

That daily glass is the one-to-one wine experience at its most insightful. It’s an experience we can each have when we stop by a favorite wine store and meet a winemaker, or learn that a friend is particularly passionate about a certain wine. Our challenge is to let the wine speak for itself.