Identifying Merlot in a blind tasting is not as easy as you might think. It’s June 2002. I’m sitting in a meeting room at The Westin hotel in San Francisco for the Master of Wine exam. The exam starts at 9 a.m., just when you really feel like tasting wine. There’s...
I’ve got a business idea for you. Make a shower gel that smells like Gewürztraminer. It would sell like hot cakes. Everyone would walk around smelling like roses, sweet spice and fragrant tropical fruits. Better yet, you could have product extensions. Once you’d gone...
Call me jealous. If I could come back to this world as another man, I’d be some young, handsome, fashionably dressed Italian vintner. I’d drive up to my castello in a Maserati, hop out, say ciao five times to the same person, and then spend my days talking to wine...
I was chatting with a girlfriend recently and asked her, “If I was a grape variety, what would I be?” “Grenache,” she replied immediately. I felt insulted, like a second class citizen. I always thought of myself as a vine sitting somewhere in...
Chardonnay is a white grape variety that dances between two worlds. Most commonly, it is made to be round and rich with flavours of new oak. Yet, what many don’t know is that in the shadows, it holds a secret: its lean elegance, a core quality that is often...
Nebbiolo is Italy’s answer to Burgundy. It has long been revered as one of the world’s great wines, but perhaps has never been more popular than now. It’s increasingly sought-after by enthusiasts and collectors, though prices still haven’t caught up...
