Ticino Wine Festival—Le Richemond—Geneva—November 7, 2016 Despite many twists and turns, the current worldwide popularity of merlot remains unabated. It is the second most widely planted variety in the world—cabernet sauvignon is first—and is found in nearly every country where wine is made. It thrives on its own and plays well with others—high-end blends and […]
Mémoire & Friends: Zürich 2016
This year marks an end to the collaboration between Zürich’s Kongresshaus and the Mémoire & Friends annual gathering. One of the city’s most iconic facilities is headed for a retrofit and remodel while event organizers scramble for a new home. As of this writing there is still no secured venue which, sadly, places next year’s […]
Wine with Dinner: Randomly Chosen in October 2016
Nature is clockwork. Just as the grape harvest wraps up in Switzerland the temperatures drop. Fall is here and it is in the air. By all accounts 2016 looks to be another excellent harvest with fine, dry weather until the tail end of the season when there was quite a bit of rain. By that […]
Opinion: Words Have Meaning (Especially Hugh Johnson’s)
A quote from a recently published interview in the Washington Post (Some Wine Writers Benefit From Aging, Too—October 22, 2016) struck a distressed chord with me but seems to have been accepted as incontrovertible elsewhere because of who said it. “Orange wines are a sideshow and a waste of time. What’s the point of experimenting? […]
Book Review: I Taste Red: The Science of Tasting Wine — Jamie Goode (2016)
I Taste Red: The Science of Tasting Wine by Jamie Goode University of California Press (2016) Little did I know that over the last forty years my wine career was merely an edited and incomplete version of reality—but thanks to a phenomenon known as Higher-order Brain Processing—my curated reality was still sufficient to call upon […]
Desperately Seeking Chasselas: San Francisco, California (Part 2)
My supply of chasselas was trending dangerously low even before I reserved the one meal designed to test the limits of its versatility as a jack-of-all–trades wine. It’s all well and good to pair chasselas with fondue, raclette or even a ripe Vacherin Mont d’Or but with arbol, habañero and chipotle chiles? With lime juice? […]
Desperately Seeking Chasselas: Berkeley, California (Part 1)
Chasselas 2014, Vin de France, Pierre Gonon, Mauves It’s always fun to find chasselas on a wine list outside of Switzerland but it’s not often that you do and then chances are it’s not even Swiss. Last night at Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California a little digging around turned up this rare gem from […]
Wine with Dinner: Randomly Chosen in September
A small group of wines for this month's Randomly Chosen feature shouldn't fool you into thinking there hasn't been a lot to drink—there has—just not enough of the good stuff. I'll try to remedy that on my trip to California in the beginning of October. In the meantime this coming month will feature my round-up […]
Profile: Weingut Familie Hansruedi Adank (Fläsch, Graubünden)
I don’t usually quibble with subjective “Best Of” lists but I’ve got to argue with this one. To omit the Adanks is something of a glaring oversight. If this was the 25 or 50 Best Vignerons in Switzerland list, then fine. But surely they are among the Top 100. Especially when some of the […]
Profile: Weingut Donatsch (Malans, Graubünden)
Back in the day when a young musician/vintner named Thomas Donatsch introduced oak barrels and chardonnay grapes to the cellars of Bündner Herrschaft he was considered a pariah. Nowadays, in the vernacular of the tech world, he would be celebrated as a disrupter. Such was the opprobrium he endured that fines and official censure followed. […]
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