general
I recently read a piece in Wine Spectator (March 31, 2018) by Matt Kramer. It was titled “It’s Really Very Simple.” He started off by stating “The temptation for all wine evangelists…is to somehow make wine simple.” He then goes on to say “Although...
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behind the cork
2015 Matsu “El Recio” Tinta de Toro ($22) This is the second in the lineup of 100% Tempranillos from Matsu. This one also comes from the D.O. Toro in north-western Spain. The grapes used in this wine come from 90 to 100 year old vineyards that ar...
Read more →A friend of mine recently recommended a wine that he really liked. When he showed me the wine’s label I saw that it was an Italian Appassimento. That’s a wine that I was not previously familiar with, so I took a look on-line and found a brief descrip...
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behind the cork
2016 Matsu El Pícaro Tinto de Toro (Tempranillo) $14 From the D.O. Toro in Spain, this 100% Tinta de Toro is grown in 50 to 70 year old vineyards and manually harvested. It is fermented in concrete with natural yeasts. Matsu pays homage on their...
Read more →I just took a week-long trip to the east coast. Not a wine-focused trip. But, nonetheless, I did pick up a couple bottles to enjoy in the evenings. Being a Californian, it’s really easy to immediately look on the shelves for a nice California wine. ...
Read more →During a recent special occasion, I decided to pull out some older wines to share. Not really old, but from 2010, 2009 and 2007. All were reds - a couple Barberas (a favorite of mine) and a Zinfandel. These weren’t amazing bottles to begin with or t...
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behind the cork
Tio Pepe Fino ($20) This Tio Pepe Fino Sherry is from the Jerez region of Spain. Jerez is the home of sherry and all true Sherry comes from the vineyards around Jerez. Made from the Palomino grape, this Sherry uses only the free run and first pre...
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general
* Wine Enthusiast Magazine, February 2018 * Last time we looked at the factors that make a wine more capable of bottle aging. And, somewhat surprisingly, there are very few wines that actually hold up well in the bottle, even with proper storage....
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behind the cork
2016 Lusco Albariño ($25) This 100% Albariño by Lusco is from Rias Baixas, in the Galicia region of northwestern Spain, located along the Atlantic coastline. Imported into the U.S. by González Byass, this wine is fermented with natural yeasts pro...
Read more →We’ve now worked our way through how a wine gets its flavor - from the grape, the skins, seeds and stems, fermentation, barrel aging and last time we touched on bottle aging. There we learned that most wines are not meant for long-term bottle aging. ...
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