It’s a self-evident truth, not to mention a basic principle of homeostasis, that what goes in must come out. Around this time of year, huge trucks full of grapes go into wineries. Months or years later, the bottles of wine that come out of those wineries look a lot smaller
Even after more than forty years as a winegrower, Stuart (Stu) Smith still finds his happiness in the vineyards. “There is just something to playing with a product in the dirt, and then having it at dinner,” he gushes. Smith, founder and managing partner of Smith-Madrone in Napa Valley’s Spring
Trying to navigate Piedmont by using GPS is like asking your high school Spanish teacher to translate street talk in the heart of San Juan. You'll get some things right, some wrong, and you're likely to eventually make an embarrassing mistake. And so we were about 40 minutes late in
In 1998, Fred Strothman (who now operates JF Strothman Distillery in Grand Junction) was building St. Kathryn Cellars Winery in Palisade, CO. There were a few issues with construction and Strothman took the unconventional step of deciding an exorcism was required. He contacted Bishop Arthur Tafoya in Pueblo, CO, who
In my experience, vins clairs tastings are a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of the wine before the bubbles, and to imagine their development over time; they are a unique foray into the magical kingdom of champagne. Early in the life of a bottle of champagne, before bubbles have
What are latest trends in wine lovers’ attitudes? This is what I wanted to find out, last fall, when I attended SIMEI, a large, professional winemaking equipment exhibition taking place every two years in Milan, in Northern Italy. “We see that wine consumers are most drawn to a quality product;
Editors' note: To close 2011, Palate Press: The online wine magazine will be featuring some of our top stories from the past year. Our fifth piece comes from columnist W. Blake Gray, exploring the idiosyncrasies of how the wine world defines sustainability. Two Central Coast vintners walked through a pristine-looking vineyard last
The relationship between tradition and innovation is not a linear one. Sometimes, it can even go full circle. Take appassimento, for instance, an Italian tradition of partially drying grapes before turning them into wine that is taking hold considerably in Canada’s Niagara region. The appassimento style of winemaking began in