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July 2008
A Great Example of a Wine Restaurant
Posted: 12:20 PM ET, July 28, 2008
Hey, what's wrong with a restaurant making money on food? Does the wine list nearly always have to be the profit center for a restaurant?
Maybe these two questions are not fair, considering the cost of starting and running a restaurant these days, especially in major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles or New York. Read more
Sass Road Trip
Posted: 12:31 PM ET, July 24, 2008
I went on a road trip on Tuesday to Tenuta San Guido, the producer of Tuscany’s famous red, Sassicaia. It’s in the coastal area of Bolgheri, about a two-hour drive from my house with no traffic, or about an hour south of Pisa by car.
I try to go every year and taste with Niccolo Incisa della Rocchetta, the owner of the estate. Read more
Bad Memories and Global Warming
Posted: 01:12 PM ET, July 21, 2008
I was thinking about this yesterday when I was getting over my jet lag at a friend’s pool in Tuscany. We had had a light lunch with a couple of bottles of Champagne and some whites, and I brought up the subject of the weather this summer. I've heard so people here say that the summer hasn’t been very warm. Read more
Bitter Bottles of Friendship
Posted: 02:34 PM ET, July 18, 2008
One of my best friends has been staying in my house in Tuscany since I left for the West Coast on business about a week ago, and I found out that he has been cherry-picking some of my best bottles from my cellar. I just know about one night when he pulled the corks on a 1997 Petrolo Torrione, 1997 Roberto Voerzio single-vineyard Barolo and a 1997 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto. Read more
When a Syrah Outshines a Rock Band and Playboy Bunnies
Posted: 04:43 PM ET, July 16, 2008
The 2005 Sine Qua Non Syrah Atlantis Fe 203 1A saved my evening in Las Vegas a couple of nights ago. It started out pretty well, with a private party in the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa at the Palms. My friend Tim Ozgener of C.A.O. cigars had invited me for cocktails and a cigar before a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert that he had organized in the Rain club of the hotel. Read more
A Lucky Week in Wine
Posted: 03:49 PM ET, July 11, 2008
I had a good week of drinking some amazing wines. I could say tasting, but these were wines that were served at dinners or lunches. And drinking is a lot more exciting than tasting. We all know that!
The best wines during the week were consumed during a dinner in London at the home of Stephen Browett, a long time friend and owner of Farr Vintners, a key wine merchant there. Read more
Repeating History with 2007 Bordeaux?
Posted: 09:19 AM ET, July 09, 2008
I was thinking about 2007 Bordeaux futures this morning after reading the well-researched article on this site that addresses the failure of France’s premier wine region’s most recent campaign. It seems to me that the top names in Bordeaux were still too greedy with their pricing, even though a number of them decreased their prices significantly compared to 2006. Read more
A Great Pair in Tuscany
Posted: 04:41 PM ET, July 07, 2008
I had some Italian wine producers over for dinner last night, including the owners of Casanova di Neri, Valdicava, La Massa, and Tua Rita as well as the manager of Ornellaia. They brought samples of their best 2006s and 2007s.
It was a great tasting and underlined how fabulous 2006 and 2007 are for Tuscany. Read more
Sour Grapes or Wine?
Posted: 02:00 PM ET, July 02, 2008
Tomorrow there will be a joint press conference in Montalcino featuring Luca Zaia, the Italian agricultural minister, and Ron Spogli, the U.S. ambassador to Italy. They will announce a plan to resolve the current dilemma with the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco and Trade Bureau (TTB), which has said it will block the importation of Brunello di Montalcino to the United States if the wines do not have an official certificate from the Italian government guaranteeing that they were produced in accordance with DOCG rules. Read more
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