Wine Reviews - Palate Press

4 min read

Thomas Duroux, winemaker at Château Palmer, likes to add some young Syrah wine from the Rhone to that made at his Margaux estate wine to construct a special cuvée. So does Caroline Frey down the road at Château La Lagune. Consultants/winemakers Michel and Dany Rolland have experimented with the combination on

Do “hand-picked” grapes mean better wine?

Erika Szymanski

Features

6 min read

Stanford linguistic professor Dr. Dan Jurafsky's recent book on The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu includes a perspicacious observation about high-class versus budget restaurant menus. Explicit adjectives about yumminess are pretty much the sole purview of the bottom lot. Red Lobster will offer you flaky cod fillets hand-dipped

Travel Channel’s Booze Traveler drinks all around

Becky Sue Epstein

Feature Stories

3 min read

Cocktails, Culture and Customs from Turkey to Tennessee: With Jack Maxwell, host of Travel Channel’s new Booze Traveler series. Once there was a little kid who snuck into bars in South Boston and shined shoes. You could to do this in Southie a few decades ago, if you were a

Best of 2014: The One Way to Build a Wine Collection You Won’t Regret

Evan Dawson

Features

3 min read

I am amazed at how much bad wine I own. I’m not talking about Yellow Tail and its ilk. I’m talking about wine that I purchased while thinking it was a good wine, maybe even a great wine, and was worth laying down. Tastes change, which makes buying wine for

Best of 2014: What Jane Goodall taught me about wine science

Erika Szymanski

Features

5 min read

The international authority on chimpanzees taught me something about wine this past month. If you were fascinated with animals as a kid or even enjoyed reading non-fiction, you probably remember Jane Goodall; the story of the fearless young woman sallying out into the African forest to live with the chimps

Best of 2014: I’ll have some Roussillon, hold the Rivesaltes

W. Blake Gray

Features

4 min read

In his February column, Blake Gray explained why the gradual extinction of some wine styles is not always a tragedy. Today I take pleasure in upending one of the most common wine story tropes: the "disappearing underappreciated wine" story. These stories play the emotions like a zither: loss, urgency to

Best of 2014: The X factor or, how I learned to love big reds in Northern Greece

Michelle Locke

Feature Stories

4 min read

In this piece, originally published in September, columnist Michelle Locke tackles tongue twisters and tongue pleasers in Northern Greece. I knew going in that Xinomavro was going to be a challenge. After all, you know you’re tasting something a little bit different when you have to start with a pronunciation

Best of 2014: The Women of Italian Wine Never Give Up

Elisabetta Tosi

Feature Stories

4 min read

This week we will be running some of our favorite pieces from 2014 by our esteemed panel of columnists. Enjoy! When we talk about Italian wines, we usually talk about the men behind them, but in doing so we forget that the Italian wine world is made up of both

Wine

The Forgotten Cru of Barolo

A Rare Champagne for Celebrations

A New Smooth French Dessert Wine: Chateau de Montifaud, Vieux Pineau des Charentes blanc

Random

A Once in a Lifetime Visit Behind Closed Gates at Bodegas Vega Sicilia

Spirits

Why Low-Alcoholic Wine May Be Increasing & An Adult Beverage Option; Even No-Alc can be Tasty

A Dog, a Mountain Hike and Gin

A Life-Saving Whiskey of Forests and Caramel

Random

Old fashioned virtues

Travel

Travel for 2025 Makes a Great Holiday Gift – Romance, Family, Celebration or Solo

Wine Country Hospitality in Amador County

Why is Arianna Occhipinti a Winemaking Legend?

Random

Bardessono the Ultimate Retreat in Yountville

Hospitality

Recharge-Relax-Decompress-Dine in Monterey CA

Wine Country Hospitality in Amador County

Top of the Mark Lounge in San Francisco Celebrates 85 years

Random

Bardessono the Ultimate Retreat in Yountville

Super Bordeaux? Bordelais experiment with Syrah

Do “hand-picked” grapes mean better wine?

Travel Channel’s Booze Traveler drinks all around

Best of 2014: The One Way to Build a Wine Collection You Won’t Regret

Best of 2014: What Jane Goodall taught me about wine science

Best of 2014: I’ll have some Roussillon, hold the Rivesaltes

Best of 2014: The X factor or, how I learned to love big reds in Northern Greece

Best of 2014: The Women of Italian Wine Never Give Up