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This past week, the wine world lost a dear friend. Seth Kunin was a talented winemaker, loving husband and father and friend to us all. His unexpected and untimely death has been a shock to everyone. Death is not easy for anyone and it is a sad time but it is also a time to celebrate him, remember his life and drink his wines. That is why this week the Please The Palate Pick of the Week is every wine made by Seth Kunin. I first met Seth more than 15 years ago. He was the winemaker at Westerly Vineyards and also had his own label, Kunin Wines, in Santa Barbara. I was in the process of leaning about wine as I was also recovering from the dot-com world. Running a wine education business, I would take groups up to Santa Barbara for the day and we always stopped to see Seth. He would meet us at Central Coast Wine Services where he made his wine and would tour us through the facility.
04 November, 2017
This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
Yves Cuilleron, a Rhone winemaking legend, is known as the “King of Condrieu.”

I recall the first time I met him at Hospice du Rhone in Paso Robles in 2015. The crowd around his table was five-deep but I had been told that I had to taste his wines.

I patiently waited for an opening and thrust my glass forward. Yves poured some Condrieu in my glass and I was transfixed.

Until then, I had never been a fan of viognier, which always built up anticipation with its aromatic nose but then disappointed on the palate with a lack of texture and acidity. Here was a viognier with the apricot, peach and floral notes on the nose that was backed up by the richness and bright acidity on the palate. I was entranced.

I met Yves Cuilleron for a second time when I was at Découvertes en Vallée du Rhône early this year. The four-day Rhône Valley wine fair started in the Southern Rhône city of Avignon, moving north to Tain l’Hermitage and ending in Ampuis, the town just north of Condrieu. On my final day, I was unexpectedly invited to join some friends to visit Cuilleron at his winery. I jumped at the chance to go with little expectation of what I was about to experience.

The Cuilleron family Domaine was founded in 1920 by Yves Cuilleron’s grandfather, followed by Cuilleron’s uncle who took over in 1960.

15 August, 2017
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