Editors' note: To close 2011, Palate Press: The online wine magazine will be featuring some of our top stories from the past year. Our fourth piece comes from columnist Evan Dawson, reporting on the uproar over rumors that California Pinot Noir producers beef their wines up with Syrah. “I do
WHO: Caymus WHAT: Cabernet Sauvignon WHERE: California, Napa Valley DESIGNATION: Special Selection WHEN: 2004 SIZE: 1.5L RESERVE: $275 MINIMUM BID INCREMENT: $25 96 Points, Robert Parker Jr., Wine Advocate Even richer and fuller than the regular bottling, but at the same time hedonistically and voluptuously styled is the 2004 Cabernet
For the rest of 2011 we will be running two polls for our Readers' Choice Palate Press Wines of the Year, to join the Palate Press Wine of the Year selected by more than 100 wine lovers and wine professionals in a blind tasting at the Third Annual Palate Press
Great Napa vineyards? Check! Low yield? Check! Dry hot summer and fall? Check! Nearly two years in 80% new French oak? Check! More than 90 points in the big magazines? Check! Okay everybody, it's Cult Wine Time! Let's sell this stuff for $175 a bottle! That was a great plan in 2008, when the
The nose opens with white flowers, pears, and a background of lemon zest. On the palate the acids are positively zingy. Pears, tart apple, and lemon all play over a background of ginger snaps and white pepper. Drink with fried tenderloin. Recommended. DH WHO: Sybille Kuntz WHAT: Riesling WHERE: Germany,
This chardonnay is the product of grapes from an exceptional vineyard, yes, but also of a high-powered alliance between Rajat Parr (wine director for the Mina Group of restaurants, including RN74, in San Francisco), Charles Banks (former owner of Screaming Eagle, no less), and Sashi Moorman (a winemaker who worked
Having had a delightful lunch on the terrace at Chateau de Parenchère last fall, I was pleased to see their 2008 Bordeaux Supérieur had recently arrived in the States. I opened it before dinner one night. I inhaled, I sipped -- and I just wanted to drink it, not analyze it. It's a well-made wine with
The nose is striking, different, confusing, the sort with aromas that make you tear through the spice rack trying to identify them. The smells are grassy, dry, piquant, and they proved to be basil, rosemary, and a light powdering of cardamom. On the palate it was very different. The herbal