Archive for the ‘Good Stuff’ Category
My Favorite Wine Article in a Long Time
March 11th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
W. Blake Gray at the Los Angeles Times has written a spectacular article about Zinfandel field blends.
Joel Peterson and his son Morgan Twain-Peterson own one such vineyard, called Bedrock. Twain-Peterson, currently writing his Master of Wine dissertation on field blends, calls it one of the four greatest old vineyards in Sonoma Valley, along with Monte [...]
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In Which I Stop Before I Make a Complete Boob Out of Myself
March 10th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Joe over at 1 Wine Dude is confused by large-format bottle names and wants suggestions about new naming conventions. After I crack wise in comments, other commentors with better reading comprehension skills come along and answer the question Joe actually asked, suggesting the use of, for example, Star Trek names.
That gives me the idea of naming [...]
Tags: wine
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Some Kind of Stinky
March 9th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Tom Mansell over at Palate Press has a good piece on the effects of sulfur in wine.
UPDATE: Link was broken. Now the link is fixed.
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Can You Trust Word of Mouth?
March 2nd, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Fred Swan at NorCalWines thinks we might be going overboard on our beatification of user-generated Wine 2.0 reviews. He asks:
How do you know whether a review has been posted by someone responsible or by Sippy the Tasting Clown?
The short answer is: you don’t. To illustrate the point, Swan tells an amazing story about two reviews of [...]
Tags: wine
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Cooking Wine
February 28th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
The old adage is that you should never cook with wine you wouldn’t drink. Another Wine Blog disagrees, expanding the adage to read:
Never cook with a wine that you COULDN’T drink if it was the only thing in the house and you really needed to get your drunk on because your spouse just left you [...]
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Tasting Note Hall of Fame: 2005 Chateau-Grillet
February 26th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
From Vinography:
Pale gold in the glass, this wine has an electrifying smell of lemon…cocaine.
Electrifying, indeed.
There is apparently no truth to the rumor that Chateau Grillet will become the first wine sold by weight, not volume.
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Brunch Shortcut
February 14th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
If you’ve ever tried to juice a peach to make a Bellini, you’ll appreciate this. The label recommends four parts Prosecco to one part mix. I worked with what I had — Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs — and settled in at about three parts sparkling wine to one part mix. I like the big [...]
Tags: Sparkling Wine
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But Does It Go With Chocolate?
February 12th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Tom Wark celebrates Valentine’s Day by creating a sparkling wine-based cocktail for the woman he loves.
Speaking for those of us who can barely drag ourselves to Walgreen’s to spend 89-cents on a sappy, mass-produced card, I think, Mr. Wark, you’re setting the bar a little high.
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Ah, Romance
February 10th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
W. Blake Gray goes rogue, telling the unvarnished truth about wine and chocolate.
This time of year, as we approach the candy producers’ favorite holiday, you can see articles everywhere on the topic. Why? It’s simple. Valentine’s Day gives editors a theme to assign in February, which is otherwise a bleak, short month…This is an editor’s story, [...]
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Beats the Old Tying-the-Cherry-Stem-In-a-Knot-With-Your-Tongue Trick All to Hell
February 9th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
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