Clark Smith is a tough act to follow. By this, I don’t mean that it’s hard to step on a stage after he has danced his ideas across it, but rather that it’s often hard to understand what he’s getting at. In the last few months, I heard Clark Smith
Argentina is a place full of contrasts – if not contradiction. It is the wealth and bustle of Buenos Aires and the quiet, ramshackle villages of the interior. It is the vast desert plains of Mendoza, set in front of the majestic wall of the Andes mountains, a combination that
From a dry-farmed vineyard and using a laid-back, relatively low-intervention approach, a very nicely structured cabernet sauvignon, with a good tannin structure and freshness - in particular for this price category, where residual sugar and excessive jamminess too often rule. Old World wine lovers will like this New World wine
The emergence of syrah in Canada, and in particular in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, has been one of the most pleasant developments of the last few years, in Canada, and this wine is one of the finest examples of what that grape can do in that particular region. Born of
Franco Biondi Santi, the patriarch of the family credited for having laid the foundations of the prestigious Brunello di Montalcino appellation, died last weekend at the age of 91. A staunch guardian of the tradition started by his grandfather Ferrucio, both by the style of the family estate's wines and
One of the things a lot of people look for in wines – in particular young-drinking wines – is a good dose of clean, expressive fruit. Logically, a great number of winemakers seek to provide just that, in a precise and reliable manner. As they do so, one of the
Palate Press has selected our top ten stories from 2012 and will publish a 2012 Redux article each weekday until January 4, 2013. These stories highlight our featured columnists, widely recognized contributors, and most popular works published through the year. The Palate Press editorial board hopes you enjoy these highlights as we look
Wine Grapes, the huge new encyclopedic work by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding, and José Vouillamoz covering 1,368 varieties of grapes used to make wine around the world, is at once full of surprises and unsurprising. It is full of surprises because it is full of information about the secret life