Virginie Boone - All Comments

RE: What You Should Know About Chartreuse

Chuck Nix — Thu, 01 May 2025 13:41:58 GMT

Necessary reading material for professionals. Great article.

RE: What You Should Know About Chartreuse

Bob Lipinski — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 17:28:26 GMT

Virginie... excellent article. Thank you!

RE: Pairings Beyond Wine

Bob Lipinski — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 18:24:54 GMT

Very informative. Thank you.

RE: California’s Trellising Systems Adapt with the Times

Charity Potter — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 02:38:03 GMT

I would have liked to see this article include trellising to allow permanent grazing in the vineyard. Vineyards grazing sheep/ducks/etc retain so much moisture and soils are so much more micro biologically diverse leading to much healthier vines.

RE: An Introduction to Rhum Agricole

Geoff Murray — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:52:13 GMT

Thank you for the informative article, Virginie. This is the first I'd read that Agricole represents less than one percent of the global market. Wow. And growth does not appear to be keeping pace with the finely distilled/rare scotch and whiskey market. Perhaps limited distribution across North America is contributing to the low penetration? To wit, I've purchased most of my Agricoles in France and they've been "imported" by virtue of carefully-packed checked luggage.

RE: An Introduction to Rhum Agricole

Vojtech Cukor — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 21:00:48 GMT

Thank you for very interesting and useful look on rum. I was curious to see Božkov among the 10 best-selling rum brands, given that their flagship product is a rum-flavoured sugarbeet, potato or god only knows what distillate that cannot legally be called rum. Truly vile potation. They also produce "real" rum now. I would be really surprised if the 1,3 milion cases sales came from the latter category.

RE: An Introduction to Rhum Agricole

Jonas Landau — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 12:43:06 GMT

Great article and great to know the history behind Rum. I might add La Favorite to the Agricole producer list.

RE: An Introduction to Rhum Agricole

Bob Lipinski — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 00:21:07 GMT

Well researched and written article. Thank you!

RE: What You Need to Know about Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, and Raicilla

Kassandra McPherson — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 23:30:11 GMT

I noticed Virginie notes, "Mezcal Artesanal: These agaves can be cooked in stone ovens or earthen pits and milled by mechanical shredders. The fermentation requirements are the same as those for ancestral, without the inclusion of fibers" while the Mezcal DO compendium page indicates that Mezcal Artesanal can include fibers. I am going to assume the Compendium is correct?

RE: What You Need to Know about Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, and Raicilla

Jacqueline Pelletier — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 01:57:54 GMT

very well written ty!

RE: What You Need to Know about Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, and Raicilla

Noel Brizuela — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 16:22:20 GMT

Great article. Here to drop the necessary mention for Destilado/licor de agave. There's many families whose original recipes did not comply with regulation when Tequila DO was first established, so they had to downgrade their product from tequila to destilado if they wanted to keep the recipes they'd inherited. See for example Agavero,

RE: What You Need to Know about Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, and Raicilla

Charles Ferrin — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 22:09:15 GMT

I think the original orange liqueur for the margarita is Licor de Naranja produced by La Madrilena S.A. de C.V. in Mexico City. I could be wrong about that, but it makes sense to me that the first margaritas were made with spirits distilled in Mexico.

RE: What You Need to Know about Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, and Raicilla

Vojtech Cukor — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:09:01 GMT

Great article. Thank you. I just think that the name of the worm is gusano. Guano is bird excrement I think. Also I am not sure that agave syrup is part of the traditional margarita.

RE: What You Need to Know about Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, and Raicilla

Bob Lipinski — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 13:44:13 GMT

Very informative and easy to read article. Thank you!

RE: The Diversity of Oak Knoll: One of Napa Valley’s Great Appellations

Michael Dolinski — Sat, 13 May 2023 19:23:09 GMT

Just a note about using the grape name Greco on labels.... 'Greco Bianco' is on the list of varieties that TTB has approved "administratively" but is not yet on the official Federal statute (27 CFR 4.91). There are several other grape variety names that are on the same 'approved, but not quite' list that are, in fact, already being used by wineries in the US (Pinot Bianco, Ribolla Gialla, Saperavi, Schioppetino, & more). I'm not sure exactly why Robert Biale feels they couldn't put Greco on the label. Penrose, Mathiasson, and perhaps others already use Greco on labels. Matthaiasson has even labeled theirs in some vintages as 'Greco di Tufo,' which would obviously be illegal to send to the EU and even legality under US law might be debatable.