April 21, 2023

CORISON “Kronos Vineyard” Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

(St. Helena, Napa Valley, CA) $225

Cathy Corison was the first woman winemaker to own her own winery in Napa Valley. She’s now made more than 35 vintages in the valley, honing her style year by year. That style? Making Cabernets that are so alive they have a lit-from-within quality. This Cabernet from Kronos (her top vineyard) is a perfect example. Plush yet precise, structured yet elegant, it’s a wine of depth, complexity, and beauty. It slow dances onto the palate with languorous deliciousness, then whirlwinds its way to a long supple finish. It’s one of the best Cabernets in all of Napa, and one of my favorites year after year. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are coming, and this gem would be the perfect gift.

97 points KM

Available at Corison Winery

Sensory researchers recently isolated the aromatic compounds that distinguish soft baked pretzels from regular bread. Among the compounds that give soft pretzels their compelling aroma were compounds that smell like:

A. Tea and baked apples

B. Vanilla and mocha

C. Sweat and butter

D. Animal fur and damp earth

In a study recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry—the whiffs of sweat and butter were among the distinguishing aromas that make soft baked pretzels so crave-inducing. According to Atlas Obscura, the researchers determined that the signature smell of pretzels comes from the brown outer crust (not the inside of the pretzel). They then peeled soft pretzel skins, crushed them to a fine powder, and created an extract from the ground pretzels. Using a process called aroma extract dilution analysis, they identified specific odorous compounds in the extract. These included aromas that were sweaty, buttery, malty, mushroom-like, carrot-like, cooked potato-like, caramel-like and cheesy. People laugh when I tell them that pinot noir has the wonderful smell of a sweaty man who just ran one mile. But sweatiness can be attractive. Now I can’t wait to try pretzels with pinot noir.

Holy Vino

Of the hundreds of different sweet wines produced in Italy, the best known may be vin santo, holy wine, so named because priests have drunk it during the Mass for centuries. Vin santo is the… Continue reading

CORISON “Kronos Vineyard” Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

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