Wine

Wine WeddingWe are gathered here today to witness and celebrate the Perfect Union of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot in a bottle of Napa Valley Red Wine.In the years these varietals have been together, their bond has grown and ripened, and now they live at each other's side, in one bottle, in unity. May these flavors find happiness in your glass. May they delight your taste buds, and may you enjoy every single drop. May they accompany your dinners, your parties, and your relaxing nights in. May they be the perfect accompaniment to your meal. It is our pleasure to pronounce this drink, a bottle of wine. You may drink the wine.

Brazil was the unexpected hit of the Tops at Spar Gugulethu Wine Festival which partied down last night on the roof of the Gugulethu Square Mall in the rainbow colours of Carioca fruit coolers which bring the exotic flavours of the Amazon across the Atlantic. The colours: electric; the taste: exotic; the vibe: exciting. From a [...]

See tasting notes on more than 200 wines under £10 a bottle. Only once have I been criticised for the subject matter of my regular columns for the Financial Times . Some years ago a member of the traditional British wine trade ticked me off for stooping to mention some of the bargains then.

An email from friends in Australia presented me with an immediate, professional challenge. They were due to arrive in London in two days' time; they would be free on only one busy weekday evening; and they wanted to have dinner around 8 pm somewhere close to Green Park station. I knew that,.

Here’s the video from the rare grape varieties tasting conducted by Dr Jose Vouillamoz at the London Wine Trade Fair this week, organized by the Circle of Wine Writers. I’d agreed to film it for them (I am on the committee), even though I was a little concerned that filming a tasting would actually be a bit boring. But this was such a good tasting, packed with really interesting commentary by Dr J, that it’s actually a compelling watch, especially the introductory section. He’s a real star in the making: an ultra-cool scientist.

My good friend Will Eddy shared...

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My goodness! Tracie P and I have almost four cases of wine stacked up in our samples corner! That’s not a bad thing: I’m always game to taste wines I’m unfamiliar with and always geeked to taste new vintages of wines that I know and follow. Luckily for us, the Texas summer is already here and it’s too hot to ship wine. And we have plenty of bottles that I need to sort through and taste in coming months. The other night we opened the Bastianich Adriatico Ribolla, sent to us by my friend Wayne who works as the Bastianich “special ops” man in Friuli. Of all the Bastianich wines, I tend to like the entry-tier the best. They are always fresh and food-friendly and relatively inexpensive. The Sauvignon Blanc is always an affordable winner at my table but the wine I really like this year is the Ribolla. So many young wine professionals in the U.S. only know Ribolla through its most extreme expressions: the skin-contact “orange wines” from Friuli that have enjoyed a lot of attention in recent years. Few know that when you travel to Friuli and Slovenia, Ribolla is most often vinified as a light, inexpensive, and easy-to-drink white wine, with balanced fruit and minerality. Nothing extraordinary. Just right. Ribolla, just plain Ribolla. And on a night when I craved my cafeteria-style penne al pomodoro, it was just the right wine to complement the zinging acidity in the passato brand we use (Central Market, one of Austin’s local gourmet market chains). I call it “cafeteria” penne because it reminds me of my early university days in Italy when the cafeteria-line servers delivered a ladleful of pomodoro or ragù over your pasta and you had to mix it in yourself. On most nights, I fold the pasta into the sauce in the hot pan (with some of the pasta’s cooking water) so that the noodles will absorb as much flavor as possible. But some nights, I just want to be transported back to those early years in Padua (although back then, they served Pinot Bianco from a spigot at the cafeteria). Here’s the only link I could find with an image of the Via San Francesco Mensa (from the ESU, the University Students Association). Buon ponte a tutti! as they say in Italian. Happy long weekend, yall!

craig.camp posted a photo:

Last year the commune of Epeigné-les-Bois bought a small barn just across from Le Lézard Vert, the village café, restaurant and shop (cream building in left hand corner of photo). The barn's roof, which had fallen in, has now been replaced and now the small patch of ground (see above) had been cleared of its scrubby trees and will be turned into a garden. This morning clearing the space was in full swing. Inside the barn (above and below)Loading up tree roots and other debris into the lorry