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Every now and then, you taste a wine that is not particularly expressive or compelling. Nonetheless and inexplicably, your intuition tells you that the wine may emerge from its dullness and with time (weeks or months) potentially become remarkable. A wine temporarily stuck in a state where it is not revealing its aromas or flavors is called closed. Interestingly, no one knows for sure if a wine that appears closed is indeed closed, or if it’s simply not very good.

Prestige Cuvée Champagne wines are defined as those wines that come in elaborate, expensive bottles.

Answer: False.

Prestige cuvée Champagne bottles may come dressed in finery, but it is what’s inside that earns them the title. These are the finest (and most expensive) wines that a producer makes, from the best grapes in the top, highest-rated crus or vineyards of Champagne. The French refer to these singular offerings as têtes de cuvée, a term that can be loosely translated as “top batch.” Prestige cuvées are almost always vintage-dated, and are made only in exceptional harvests, on average 3 times per decade. One reason for this is that Champagne is one of the most northern wine growing regions in the world—at roughly the same latitude as the U.S.-Canadian border—with an inherently cool climate where the grapes struggle to ripen. Prestige cuvées are aged longer than other vintage Champagne wines (on average 10 years versus 3 years) and continue to develop in the bottle for another decade.

Jalapeños and Rosé

In the Hot Pink department: it seems there’s a “trend” (if that’s the right word) among some rosé drinkers to plop sliced-up raw jalapeños into their glasses of rosé. (Gag). Why not just throw in… Continue reading

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