SIPPED: X-Ray vision for wine lists? The above image comes from wondertonic.tumblr.com SIPPED: satire HoseMaster continues his discussion of Carbon Footprint wines, including “Creeping Deforestation” & “Screw the Ozone” [ HoseMaster of Wine ] SIPPED: dug up from the cellar “Perth Pink….This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.” An old Monty Python wine sketch... 

Eric Asimov discusses Txakolina, Txakoli or Chacoli, wines of Basque Country.  Read More →

I keep meaning to do a comparative tasting of wines made from the mencia grape. But every time I get a bottle, I drink it! Case in point: D. Ventura’s Vina do Burato, 2008 (about $19). Weighing in at a spare 12% alcohol, this is a great summer red, perfect for chilling and serving dining outside. It’s reminiscent of a cru Beaujolais, although a tad darker in color, but with that same lively acidity, bright fruit and scoring highly... 

The only white wines by the glass available at Terroir are rieslings by the glass. Would you go ahead and order and reject the limited choices?  Read More →

Aria wine bar, opened last month in the West Village, emphasizes wines made using organic using biodynamic methods as well as wines made by women . Christy Frank , who owns a small wine shop downtown, tweeted that she was heading there last week to sample the all-women wine list, seeking out “ Brix by chicks ” (geek alert: Brix are a measure of sugar in grapes). Eric Asimov chimed in : “No pricks?” I asked Christy on... 

Eric Asimov discusses the wines of the white grape, vitovska.  Read More →

Hi, soon visiting New York for a wedding, my wife and I intend to do some NY touristing. Drinking good Italian wine I can do in Italy or in my home country (Sweden), but where to find a good selection of reasonably priced US wines in NY? -Johan Interesting question! I assume Johan would be interested in a bar to drop into before or after his wedding festivities on an evening. New York City wine bars are dominated by lists that focus mostly or... 

Have you ever looked at a wine list and wished that you might want to try a half a bottle of one wine and a half a bottle of another wine? At Bar Henry, that dream can become reality. John Slover, who previously worked at Cru, has assembled a wine list with 116 wines on the “market” list. Order any wine off this list and they will pour off half of it and charge you–gasp!–half the price of the full bottle. The remaining... 

Ten years ago, vineyard owner David Hirsch of Sonoma brought some of his wines to New York. Wine & Spirits magazine assembled a group of leading sommeliers, tasted the wines and Rod Smith wrote a story about it. A couple of weeks ago, the magazine assembled another group with David Hirsch to taste some of his 2007s–as well as some of the same 1997s tasted a decade ago. Hirsch bought his land on the Sonoma Coast, just three miles from... 

In an aside in his radio report, KQED’s Cyrus Musiker notes that “Anheuser Busch used to sell wine on tap in the 1970s, and it wasn’t very good.” No shock, that. The 1970s were all about bad wine. Remember Lancer’s? Annie Green Springs? You can’t blame A-B for trying to popularize wine on tap back then, since people would apparently drink just about anything. But what about now? It seems to be a burgeoning... 

Why are there no Chinese restaurants in New York that venerate great ingredients, with a real list of wines to match?  Read More →

The Independent reports that the British government has spent more than £17,500 on wine since the May 6 election. This adds to existing cellar of 39,500 bottles bringing the total value of the wine cellar to £864,000. The Foreign Office minister who oversees the cellar, Henry Bellingham, insisted last week that buying the wines young saves the British taxpayer money. With the revelations came calls that they cellar’s contents should... 

Tasting the legendary wines from Domaine Francois Raveneau in Chablis is a rare event since the wines are almost impossible to find. And tasting them with some age and oysters hardly ever happens outside of Chablis and the Hamptons. But I managed to try oysters with three Raveneau wines at a collector’s house recently, thanks to an invitation from a friend (I brought the Champagne , as we already discussed). Since I didn’t have my... 

Florence Fabricant gives advice on coping with speedy eaters, tipping on expensive wines and whether to wait before eating when a dinner companion’s meal is delayed.  Read More →

Eric Asimov attends a tasting Valentini wines, presented by Valentini’s new American importer, Domenico Valentino.  Read More →