Is a top notch wine the product of countless hours of carefully coaxing out delicate flavors through years of toil from vines to wine, or does it depend on how the person tasting that wine subconsciously reacts to the visual, tactile, or sound stimuli in the room? Research has suggested
“Happy the man who has been able to learn the causes of things.” Virgil, Georgics (c. 29 BC), II, 490 I have tasted slate. It was on a glittering fall day in 2010, high above the Mosel River in the Juffer Sonnenuhr vineyard. My guide: a representative from Riesling producer Schloss
When John and I left The Wall Street Journal in 2009 after almost 12 years of writing our wine column, Tastings, we ended a marvelous run of working together: 32 years under the same roofs. During that time, we’d had a lot of lunches together in newspaper cafeterias or nearby,
Wine competitions: many wineries continue trust them implicitly, especially the international competitions where thousands of wines from around the world are entered. The judges who taste them also come from many different countries. All of the judges are professionals: winemakers, sommeliers, buyers or wine journalists. However, their personal and cultural
There is a small fraternity of bottles that have, over the years, ebbed and flowed as my family’s house wine. They’re mostly red—Côtes du Rhône, Vacqueyras, Barbera, Valpolicella—plus a little white and rosé. All are under $20, and even cheaper by the case. These are table wines, drunk with meals
The nose explodes with floral and stone fruit perfume. Gardenias first, followed by white peached. Rich layers of flavor roll across the palate, leading with sweet white peach and a touch of key lime, then white flowers and sweet lemon cream, finishing with lime and honey, all with an underlying
On November 10th more than 130 wine lovers, from neophytes to professionals, got together at the home of Palate Press Publisher David Honig and his wife, Robyn Pauker, for the Fourth Annual Palate Press Grand Tasting. They tasted more than 200 wines from around the world, scoring their favorites, which
The nose is very pretty, fresh squeezed apple with orange blossoms floating atop and a copper penny sinking to the bottom. The palate opens with a great mouth feel, smooth and soft. Apples and pears lead the palate with white flowers and a hint of ginger snap in the background.