They may have mischievous names: Sex on the Beach or Sexy Lady. They may be fanciful like Faliraky by Night or world-famous: Caipirinha, Cosmopolitan, Tequila Sunrise, Tom Collins. But they are all colorful, fun, fresh: a glass in hand, good company, a bit of music and the warm breeze from
As you know, John and I always encourage folks to experience new wines. If you’ve never seen something before and it looks interesting, try it. That’s the way your knowledge of wine grows and it’s a heck of a lot of fun. Well, I want to tell you a story
Today, Portugal's extremely photogenic wine regions are being affected by a dizzying whirr of circumstances beyond their control, both political and financial. Currently, vineyards and winemaking exist in the midst of hundreds of years of fine traditions from music to horse breeding, with amazing gardens and upscale hotels punctuating the
From a dry-farmed vineyard and using a laid-back, relatively low-intervention approach, a very nicely structured cabernet sauvignon, with a good tannin structure and freshness - in particular for this price category, where residual sugar and excessive jamminess too often rule. Old World wine lovers will like this New World wine
Gin is getting its groove back. In the past five years or so, scores of new gins have hit the market, some entirely new products, some new twists on existing brews. Countries not known for gin, like Spain, have new brands and micro-distillers have been pushing the envelope on what
Intimidated by wine? You're not alone. Consider the prototypical wine connoisseur -- swirling his glass, sniffing his wine, and blabbering on about some French chateau. He's insufferable. Or consider a representative tasting note. Wine Spectator recently praised a wine for offering notes of "creamy boysenberry, plum skin and cassis .
My wife came home and saw me with a giant map spread out on my lap. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Writing a story about Australian Shiraz," I said. I'm leading with this because it's not the way people think about Aussie Shiraz. Common perception is that if you
Despite repeated attempts at coercion, I can't get Franz Landauer-Gisperg to tell me how he acquired his amphorae. “If the other winemakers round here knew where I got mine, they'd all want one” is his rather cryptic comment. A better question might be “what the hell is an amphora doing