• All
  • *
  • Cocktails
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Podcasts
  • Syndicate
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos
  • Wine
This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
I was sitting in an outdoor patio in Healdsburg on a classically beautiful early afternoon. The sun was shining, a nice breeze was blowing and I ordered oysters. With the briny, delicate oysters, a natural pairing is a crisp, acidic sauvignon blanc.
Although I was in Sonoma, I found myself sipping a sauvignon blanc from Mt. Beautiful from North Canterbury in New Zealand. While it is not uncommon to find New Zealand wines throughout the U.S., there is a connection between Mt. Beautiful in New Zealand and California.
David Teece, founder of Mt. Beautiful, is a New Zealand native who lives in Berkeley, California. Raised in Lower Moutere along the Tasman Bay on the South Island of New Zealand, Teece’s father started a trucking company that transported items from outlying farms to the cities. His father also purchased a fallow quarter-acre lot next to their home, which Teece and his brother cultivated crops.
24 October, 2017
This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
The 2017 harvest is well under way in the Northern Hemisphere, and Puligny-Montrachet in the Cote d’Or in Burgundy, France is no exception. According to their website, at Domaine Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet, harvest took place from Aug. 29-Sept. 5. And the 2017 harvest marks the first vintage with a new winemaker at this historic winery.
Domaine Leflaive was created by Joseph Leflaive in 1910 but the Leflaive family has been established residents in Puligny-Montrachet since 1717. Joseph’s children, Vincent and Joseph-Regis, inherited the property upon his death in 1953 and in 1990, Vincent’s daughter Anne-Claude Leflaive and Joseph-Regis’ son Oliver became co-directors. Upon Anne-Claude’s death in 2015, Brice de la Morandiere, great grandson of the founder Joseph Leflaive took charge.
Under Anne-Claude’s control, famed Burgundy winemaker Pierre Morey made the wine at Domaine Leflaive from 1988-2008, followed by Eric Remy from 2008-2017. In January 2017, under Brice de la Morandiere, oenologist Pierre Vincent became the new general manager.
11 October, 2017
This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
Last week, I wrote about the dry riesling found in Nahe, Germany and the fact that 90 percent of German wine is dry. But fruity, sweet wines do still exist in Germany, specifically produced in the Mosel, Nahe and Rhinegau regions.
When we talk about “sweet” wine in Germany, we are not talking about overly sweet, cloying wines. We are talking about wines of finesse. These are wines with fragrance, fruity acidity and a mineral undertone. We are talking about riesling, considered the king of wine grapes in Germany. Of all the white wine grapes, riesling grapes produce the most intense and flavorful wines.
Unlike the dry riesling which is categorized under the VDP (“Verband deutscher Prädikatsweingüter”) system, the sweeter wines are classified under the traditional Pradikatswein. The levels of sweetness will vary and are dependent on when the grapes are picked. There is trocken (dry), kabinett (off-dry), spatlese (late harvest), auslese (select harvest), beerenauslese (berry select harvest) and trockenbeerenauslese (“dry berry select harvest”).
To differentiate between these different styles, it was best described to me by a winemaker who likened these styles to bananas. Kabinett is described as the perfectly yellow banana whereas spatlese is a banana with brown spots. Auslese is the banana that is almost entirely brown and trockenbeerenauslese is a dehydrated, concentrated banana.
04 October, 2017
Show more
Loading...
Copied!