Grape of the Day

Let's get to the controversy first. This is not a debate about long-term shifts in climate on earth and what is or is not causing them. If that is the debate that you do want, there are plenty of places online that you can do that. Frankly, as someone who doesn't study climate science, my thoughts on the matter should no more influence yours than should any other random person's. Here is a fact. The last 10 years or so have been warmer across essentially our entire planet than they have been over any other 10 year period since people started using thermometers and recording temperatures for posterity. Roughly 50 years ago back in the 1970s, we had a multi-year period during which temperatures were much colder than norms over the same periods of manually or electronically recorded temperatures. Each has an effect on wine. Let's consider what this does to wine and to some extent why. And, before you think I've misled you, this is not about wine that might have been ma...

 I took 3 years off from this blog. Why? I write off the top of my head and the top of my head just wasn't coming up with new ideas. So, I stopped for quite a while and focused on some other things.  What, you ask? Work, life, family, volunteering, debate reviews. One of those has somewhat fallen off the radar, so the top of my head had an idea. Suppose you were a person just getting into wine or even if you've been drinking it for a while had never really explored. What might I tell you to do? Do not drink Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon for a year.  That's right. I'm telling you to stay away from two of the most popular grapes in the world. Why would I do that? Well, among white wines, Chardonnay is about as full-bodied as it gets (yes, I could name some obscure grapes that might dispel that, but that's not the point) and among red wines, Cabernet is about as full-bodied as it gets. So, when people start their wine adventures with those fuller-bodied wines, they ...

You sit down at a table at a restaurant and persuse the menu and the wine list. After a few minutes, you choose your food for the evening and a bottle of wine to share that goes with the food. Upon ordering the bottle, you can see that look in your server's eyes. She wonders what I have just asked for and how it is that she is going to get it served. You see, it's the first time any of her guests have ever ordered a bottle of wine. And, she doesn't know what to do. And, then to make matters worse, there is a chance she is reading this. But, then again, that's not all bad because some stories end better than others. In this particular case, she took one of the alternatives available to her. She approached a manager or beverage manager, I'm not sure which, for help. This manager came to the table and showed our hero how to open and serve the wine. Well, sort of. This manager says she is going to hold training for the staff so that they can all see the right way to do ...

I'll be one to say it and I'll say it here. I really do not like having to look at a restaurant menu or worse yet, a restaurant wine list on my phone. The whole craze of using QR (quick response in case you weren't sure) codes to get to a menu or a drink or wine list is a craze that makes me crazy. I'm not as facile as most of the people half my age and my eyes just don't like looking at the list either in a microscopic size or pinching it so that it's bigger, but then having to scroll all over the place to see what I really want to see. Imagine a 5-page wine list or a 10-page list or a 200-page list on your phone. Maybe you can, but for me, it is a nightmare that just won't quit. But, for restaurants, there are hueg advantages. If wines are kept online so that diners and drinkers can see the list on their phones, then restaurants can easily track inventory. They can also track the likes and dislikes of frequent guests. They can see how people are choosing t...

As a broad classification, the most expensive wines in the world are Burgundies. Primarily red, but a few whites as well. Are they worth it? It depends who you ask, but don't ask me as I will never know.  There is a website that every year compiles a list of the 10 most expensive labels on average and shows that average retail price. And, it is not split by vintage, so the most prized vintages are ever more expensive. In 2021, 9 of the top 10 are Burgundies (the other one being a TBA Riesling) and 8 of the top 10 cost more than $10,000 per 750 ml bottle, on average. Compare to 2019, when only 5 exceeded $10,000. In just 2 years, the price to make this esteemed list has gone up by more than 50%. That is inflation. The number one wine on the list is the Domaine Leroy Musigny Grand Cru weighing in at an average of $32,857 per 750 ml bottle. On the 2020 list, the same wine was not #1, but it was only about $17,000 per bottle. What happened there? Who drinks this stuff? Presumably, it...

What makes you like a wine better than another wine? I don't know. It could be that it tastes like a Hawaiian pizza, that's it's overly oaky, or that it's so tannic that you're still puckered up from last night's glass. While I've exaggerated a bit, I have heard descriptions that approached each of those from various people describing wines they love. On the other hand, if you are reading a description of wine from people who are experts in the field or at least purport to be, you'll likely see descriptors a bit different from those. What are their keys and if you understood them, would they make a difference to you? It might be easier to start with what they are not. I've never heard a real wine geek describe what they really like in a wine with a particularly simple description. And, if you read a review of a great wine, it might go on and on ... and on. It's that last "and on" after the ellipsis that should be telltale. Experienced w...