There is a reason you haven’t heard too much about Brazilian wines. It’s not because Brazil is new to wine production. It has more than 1,100 wineries, mostly in the cooler southern regions, and there are more than a quarter of a million acres under vines. But, although there are
GIN GLORIOUS GIN: How Mother’s Ruin Became the Spirit of London by Olivia Williams Headline Press, $14.99 (Paperback), available on Amazon “Gin was mother’s milk to her.” –Eliza Doolittle, “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw Is there a spirit both loved and reviled more than gin? Many people cannot stand its
They used to call them "the hidden generation." The women of Burgundy’s domaines: once banned, never heard, and rarely seen. Women in the shadows. The women of the hidden generation were the mothers and grandmothers of today’s rock star wine makers like Ludivine Griveau, Hospices de Beaune's first female wine
The 2015 vintage in Bordeaux was striking – amazingly so. Actually stunning. In the sense that those of us who recently had early samples of the wines at the Bordeaux en primeur tastings in April were both awed and mystified by this vintage. First, because the wines were so smooth
Nowadays wine is so sexy and so successful a product that it seems everybody in the world is suddenly trying to get into the business – no matter who they are, or what kind work they do. But there are also people who have nursed a secret desire to make wine throughout
In February 2012 a group of French winemakers gathered together to organize an original collaborative wine tasting at Vinisud, a wine trade event in Montpellier in southern France. They called themselves "The Languedoc Outsiders" and for their debut tasting, they presented a mind-bending experience. When event invitees stopped by to taste
Looking back, and ahead, with the iconic Chianti producer Lined up on the white tablecloth, the vertical Chianti tasting is a study in scarlet, from the deep ruby of the 2011 to the brick red of the 1977. It’s not every day you taste a nearly 40-year-old wine – for many
Big companies dominate the Chilean wine industry so much that I didn't think small artisanal wineries existed there. Yet there are terrific, unique wines being made in Chile: not points-chasing Napa wannabes either. You have to look really hard through oceans of solid, unpretentious wine. But imagine wines of such