Our Spotlight last week on vintner Ashley Trout’s fiery decision to submit her wines exclusively to female wine critics for review (WineSpeed 3/17/2023) elicited lots of comments from WineSpeed readers. If you missed it, Trout—the… Continue reading
Delicious white wine. Australia? I know; I know. Lots of people don’t equate the two. But maybe they should. In a recent office tasting, we were knocked out by the quality of Australian white wines—and… Continue reading
While First Growth Bordeaux is stratospherically priced, there are scores of stellar 2020 vintage Bordeaux (red and white) now coming onto the market that—though not exactly steals—are pretty affordable given their track records. Here are… Continue reading
Champagne is a wine, a place, and a state of mind. Which is one of the reasons it’s perfect in the lead up to Valentine’s Day. Some people might think they want a box of… Continue reading
A few months ago, the manuscript for a soon-to-be published book arrived in the mail. The first sentence was: This is the story of how wine brought me back from the dead. With a sentence… Continue reading
Chris Carpenter has been the longtime winemaker of Cardinale, La Jota, Lokoya, and Mt. Brave—four top estates—all in the Napa Valley. Last year I asked him about wine’s connection to emotion. What is it about… Continue reading
I hope you splurged in December, my friends, because January is austerity month. Time to give that credit card a rest, or at least put a reasonable cap on your expenditures. I’m not talking about… Continue reading
I am so excited to tell you about these wines—wines that we fell in love with this past year. Some are expensive, but they are all so good that just a single bottle becomes a… Continue reading
As some of you know, I drink a glass of Champagne every night. For me, Champagne demarcates the day from the night. It says the evening has begun. And because I immediately “recork” the bottle with… Continue reading
Ridge has been considered one of California’s “First Growths” for more than half a century. Yet the story of Ridge’s rise to prominence is as improbable as it is fascinating. The details are compelling: How… Continue reading
Four years ago, the World Economic Forum reported that extreme, volatile weather events would cause 12 crops to be extinct within the next few decades. One of those crops was wine grapes. This can’t possibly… Continue reading
The new French Laundry lives—and it’s in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Ok, it’s not the French Laundry (the Napa Valley restaurant owned by chef Thomas Keller). But the new restaurant ōkta in the small… Continue reading
