Muscadet Summertime and the livin’ is easy. It doesn’t matter if you live near the ocean, a lake, a cool river or a swimming pool, when the weather heats up we all enjoy being by the water. A very dry, zesty white wine from France, Muscadet is perfect for sipping on a hot summer day. [...]
Louis Latour Pouilly-Vinzelles en Paradis 2006 A great summer wine made of Chardonnay grapes from the same limestone hills in Burgundy as it’s pricier cousin, Pouilly Fuisse. Aromas of pear and spice. Full flavors of apple compote and poached pear. Medium body and balanced with a slight mineral finish. Perfect with seared scallops or roast [...]
Wine Terrorism France is in the throes of a wine crisis. After centuries of world domination, demand for its wines is diminishing because of declining wine-drinking at home and through losing ground to new wine-producing nations abroad. A cruel irony is inherent in France’s polarised industry today. While wine buffs can’t get enough of the [...]
Riesling “Les Princes Abbes” Domaines Schlumberger 2005 Light yellow color with a hint of green. Dry, floral aromas of honey blossom on the nose. Concentrated peach, citrus and mineral flavors with hints of dried spice and honey. A light to medium-bodied wine, nicely balanced with a clean, dry finish. At 12.5%, a great choice for [...]
Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 2006 The Napa Valley Winery that put California at the forefront of world-class wine making is still doing it right. Jim and Bo Barrett’s 2006 chardonnay came in first place in the 2009 Westchester Wine School tasting in Rye Brook, N.Y. Although not as famous as the 2006 Paris event, the prize [...]
Beaujolais ‘sugar ring’ fined heavily as supermarkets escape with light sentences The wine producers in the Beaujolais sugar case have been found guilty of illegally adding sugar to their wine and fined up to US$27,000 each – much higher than originally demanded by the prosecution. The state prosecutor had originally requested between US$950 and US$2,000 [...]
The French Wine Industry vs Parisian Bureaucrats While the French wine industry is reeling from same economic downturn as the rest of the world, members have had to defend themselves in the National Assembly against Bachelot’s Law, which would have forced wine writers to state a warning that “the consumption of alcohol is detrimental to [...]
Uncorking a mystery Last September, The New Yorker published an essay on a wine-related subject by Patrick Radden Keefe. The New Yorker is known for articles that can carry a reader from a Saturday morning bath, through lunch and into the afternoon. Keefe’s was one of those —and it was one of the most compelling [...]
Red Wine The “French paradox”— is the notion that the French have a relatively low incidence of coronary heart disease, despite having a diet of cheese, chocolate, and wine. When a description of this paradox was aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Nov. 17, 1991, it was proposed that because the French drank more red [...]
