The histories told at many old European wineries are often drenched in romance, pulsing with charm, and riddled with inaccuracy--or embellishment, at least. That’s why a visit to Chateau de Saint Cosme in Gigondas is so refreshing. Owner and winemaker Louis Barruol appreciates the work that his family has done
Jean-Marie Guffens Went From Media Darling to Police Handcuffs (read part 1), and He’s Never Been Happier. Here’s Why Part II: The Big Knife If Jean-Marie Guffens's wines are even better today than they were in the 1990s, why is he struggling? Guffens doesn’t have a simple answer, but he wants
Jean-Marie Guffens Went From Media Darling to Police Handcuffs, and He’s Never Been Happier. Here’s Why Part I: France vs. Guffens On a brisk, sun-splashed day in Provence, the man who was once the white-hottest winemaker in the world sits at a long table studded with nearly 40 open bottles.
Is it wise for a winemaker to keep some of the most basic information about a wine off the label? Say, the grape variety used in making the wine? This is an information age, an age in which more wineries are peppering their labels with all kinds of technical information,
Rarely do wine enthusiasts have a summertime page-turner. There was Sideways, of course, the Pinot-drenched novel by Rex Pickett that became a blockbuster movie, but that hit bookstores nearly ten years ago. Over the past decade, many writers have tried to replicate the success of Sideways with wine-inspired fiction. But
The streets of old Europe can be hauntingly quiet. In small villages, one can walk along cobbled corridors in the middle of a weekday afternoon and hear nothing but the breeze. The streets are lined with stone buildings, some of them homes, some of them businesses. Trousers hang to dry
One of the great pleasures of wine exploration is not just in encountering something new, but something special. Italy is full of something new. An inquisitive consumer can find dozens of new grape varieties to explore, red and white, fat and thin, rich and ripping. That's not a promise that
Hardy Wallace gave himself one year to sell through his first significant release of wines from Dirty and Rowdy Family Winery in late August, 2012. It would be work, hand selling, lots of travel. If they could sell out in a year, it would be a sign that maybe this