If you’re a true wine geek, then you know about the Jura. When I lived in New York, you couldn’t go to an “Offline” (translated into human: a wine geek gathering) without seeing a boatload of bottles from the Jura; some Arbois, some Vin Jaune, etc.

Wink Lorch, the scribe of Jura Wine scribes, is writing THE BOOK about the region and has started a Kickstarter campaign. To be honest, it’s already met its funding goal. So why support it then?

Simple.

Fame.

All Kickstarter backers will be acknowledged in the book. Yes, you too can have a piece of eternal wine geek history!

What are you waiting for?!

Italy’s at it again. When you look at their constant changes, it’s hard to think of them as a unified country. Does Italy need a wine Garibaldi? Luckily, out of this chaos, a wild variety of good and great wines are made, so it’s hard to complain too much. There has been the overall change [...]

This is my presentation from the Blind Tasting and Point Scores Panel at the 2012 EWBC. On recent trip to Etna, I learned that you can take blind tasting a step further. One of their most influential and famous wine makers believes that you can actually identify a wine by the sound it makes being [...]

Nerello Mascalese with Mount Etna beyond Notes from a recent educational trip to Etna with a bunch of other bloggers: Traditionally, wine on Etna wasn’t red or white, it was simply wine with all the grapes blended together. Barone di Villagrande introduced separately vinifying the red and white grapes on Etna in the 1850s. Nerello [...]

There are many wine regions that compare themselves with Burgundy but few have a better argument than Etna DOC. Actually, the more precise comparison would be to the Côte-d’Or. Both are very similar in size and slope from hillsides, but while the Côte-d’Or slopes from hills in the west, the Etna vineyards are wrapped around [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]