The second of my Loire four-part series concentrates on eastern Touraine, which I have  extended westwards to take in Touraine Azay-le-Rideau and northward to the valley of Le Loir. 

If your image of the Loire is a series of honey-coloured châteaux, then you will be thinking of this section of the valley, the garden of France. Thinking of châteaux like the lovely Azay-le-Rideau and Chenonceau or the grandiose pile that…

"When I started my sommelier career in Washington, DC, I could count the number of exciting wine programs on one hand – and still have two fingers left. Only two restaurants employed sommeliers.  The scene was dominated by steakhouses and predictable wine lists. The dining public was dominated by politicians and lobbyists opting for the safety of the lowest common denominator. When a certain anti-business/pro…

Recently, I opened a bottle of Joseph Roty Marsannay from 2007, and its rim bore that smell of bacon fat that we associate almost exclusively with older, very fine wines from the Cote de Nuits (read: old DRC).  But there it was, out of nowhere, that old, fine scent.  Like it was making a cameo.

The 2007 Burgundy reds are moving along at a fast pace.  It makes them very useful in a restaurant.  This faster-than-usual pace…

Today is going to be good one!  I have been waiting for this morning for weeks. It is the day when the first of the spring namas arrive. I have been anticipating these unpasteurized sakes all winter--spring is one of my favorite times for nama sake. This year, the first one to arrive happens to be one of my favorites: Koshi no Homare "Pride of Koshi" from Niigata. This nama is beautiful with notes of marzipan, bitter melon…

We’ve all had that customer.  The one who wants to know wine, but is still hung up by the “Is Burgundy a grape or a region?” question.  It’s easy to get frustrated at the simplicity of questions like these, but the central idea remains the same.  The sheer memorization required to make sense of the modern wine world proves to be something of a Sisyphean task.  Within the United States, this problem…

I remember driving along the autoroute between Alsace and the Southern Rhone about a dozen years ago.  Just south of Chambery, I viewed an immense stone mass to my right, part of which seemed blasted into a crescent shape.  Before me, the rugged, snow-capped Alps, standing majestically against the beautiful cobalt sky, receded toward the distant horizon.  To my left I saw vineyards stretching up the steep and barren mountainside…

"Put simply, the Seattle sommelier scene in 2012 is as dynamic as any in the world. Local favoritism aside, when compared with the great gastronomic cities of New York or Paris or Tokyo or San Francisco (et al.), this sleepy Pacific Northwest “Big Town/Small City” features (on an entirely different scale, mind you) as fine a combination of wine service, beverage scene, food stuff access, chef talent and consumer base…

This is the first of an in-depth examination of the Loire's four main regions.

The Central Loire Vineyards: An Overview

The 5394 hectares that make up the Central Loire vineyards are not only in the centre of the Loire Valley but also are in the heart of France. The bridge over the river at Pouilly-sur-Loire marks the halfway point of the river’s long journey to the sea – 1000 kilometres (600 miles), while the small…

Part I: Using Visual Constructs to Calibrate the Structure of Wine

In Master Sommelier classes and tasting examinations we ask students to assess the structural components of wine, specifically the levels of residual sugar, alcohol, acidity and tannin as well as the length and quality of the finish.  Further, we ask them to use a scale which ranges from low on one end to high on the other with increments in between.  The…

The Germans are known to be anything but lazy. When dealing with wines from the Mosel region this “laziness doesn’t pay” develops different meanings. First of all, looking at the steep slopes and observing people climbing the vineyards to tip some shoots makes you realise that this area provides growers with only hard-earned bread. On the other hand, the tremendous diversity of styles and taste profiles of Mosel Riesling…