Wine of the Week: Vistini Ribolla Gialla Colli Orientali del Friuli 2010

Ribolla Gialla is one of my all-time favorite grapes. It’s also an excellent way to wean your friends off Pinot Grigio. It’s usually more complex and less fruity – tighter and more elegant. That said, Vistini makes an amazing orange-hued(from skin maceration) Pinot Grigio.

One strange thing about this wine is that it gets more intense in the mid-palate, which is the opposite of pretty much every other wine. It might be just a short phase this bottle is going through or a phase that my taste buds are going through as well.

Wine of the Week: Valli Unite San Vito Timorasso 2010 Timorasso is one of my new favorite grapes – it’s Chenin-like but more intense. A must!

I’ve been to my share of bad restaurants. I still somehow do. Anyone who’s ever spent any time at a bad restaurant knows that there are costs beyond the obvious waste of time and money. It’s the dyspepsia, unexplained rashes, awkward silences, loss of faith in humanity, arguments, bouts of howling, etc. that can plunge [...]

Wine of the Week: Le JONC-BLANC Bergerac, Les Sens du Fruit 2009 Delicious, quaffable and pure. No cedar/cassis flavors as might be expected, just “les sens du fruit.”

David Gissen has done it again with an amazing new Metro Wine map of California. I know that – with the exception of BART – trains aren’t that big in CA but just like his Metro Wine Map of France, this map does an excellent job of clarifying the wines and grapes of California. It’s [...]

Wine of the Week: Château Pierre-Bise Anjou 2008 Having opened several highly oxidized white wines this week I was getting a little gun-shy. Happily this wine was in perfect condition and drinking really well right now. It definitely pushes all my buttons: restrained but flavorful, elegant, natural and amazingly inexpensive.

Since we’re in the business of selling I don’t usually go around advertising the fact that there is some quality free stuff on the site. If you’re feeling a little strapped this holiday season (or just miserly) have a look. All it takes is the ability to download a pdf, letter size-paper, an inkjet printer [...]

We received some great press this month from one of France’s most prestigious wine journals, L’Amateur. At least I think it’s good press. Something about the metro, a bottle neck and an extinct bird. Whoa! If your French is better than mine (a fairly low bar), I would be eternally grateful if you could explain [...]

If you’re in Paris this Monday, you’re insane to miss this amazing natural wine tasting at: Autour d’ un Verre 21, rue de Trévise, Paris 9 Tel: 01 48 24 43 74 Metro Stop: Cadet

It’s easy to get worked up into a shopping frenzy today, however, I’ve developed a fail-safe way to avoid anxiety: Don’t shop. Crack open a bottle of black wine: a Negroamaro (from Puglia) or the most famous of the black wines, Cahors. I was excited about the Cahors but sadly we didn’t have any in [...]