Perhaps you’ve heard of sabering champagne, which is where you take a sharp object, a saber if you have one handy, and tap smartly on the ridge of glass around the neck of the bottle. Hit it right and it will pop off.
Most likely, though, you haven’t considered trying to do this with your iPad, Read more »
Remember the tasting room scene in “Sideways” where a distraught Miles drinks out of the spit bucket? Yeah, that’s probably not something you want to do on your next visit to wine country.
So far as I know, there isn’t an epidemic of bucket abuse. But there are certainly all sorts of perils tasting room employees have to deal with, Read more »
I learned something new the other day. The practice of popping an icecube or two into a glass of wine is known in France as “piscine,” from the French word for swimming pool. The idea being that your cubes are swimming around in a pool of vino. And really, what could be better than learning...
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I’ve always been in the Groucho Marx school of club membership _ I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member. But a club where you drink your way in? That sounds like a pretty good idea. The group in question is The Wine Century Club, where admittance...
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Today is the third Thursday in November, which means it’s OK to drink Beaujolais Nouveau under French regulations. If you are an expert wine drinker this also means it’s time to make snotty comments about how this is a bubble-gum wine and how much you prefer the proper, aged Beaujolais crus wines. (Or, to talk about a handful...
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My career as a wine country reporter started out at the top _ a visit to Harlan Estate, a place that makes small quantities of big wines that routinely win the highest of praise from critics and collectors. It was one of those situations where, luckily, I was too naive to see how in over my head I...
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Writing about wine is a wonderful thing. Great places to visit, smart, engaging people to talk to … and a whole new world of ways to stick your foot right in your mouth. Let me tell you about my first experience with Brunello di Montalcino. It was some years ago and I was writing...
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I know what you’re thinking. You don’t need a guide to wine tasting. Raise glass to mouth, sniff, sip, repeat, right? Wrong. There are so, so many ways to embarrass yourself at a tasting, many of which I have done. Herewith some lessons learned the hard way: Start fresh: Don’t taste just after a...
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