The arrival of Valentine’s Day marks a turning point for many wine enthusiasts, particularly those who have recently come to love dry rosé wines. Not only is dry rosé a natural for the Valentine’s tradition, but it also signals the coming of spring and warmer days. Rosé wines, which are seldom aged in oak barrels,…

Years ago, on a trip to Bordeaux to taste samples from a new vintage, I had the opportunity to have dinner at Domaine de Chevalier. The host, Domaine de Chevalier owner Olivier Bernard, used the occasion to raid the Chevalier cellar for a couple of seriously old bottles of wine. If memory serves, the vintage…

Valentine’s Day presents a unique opportunity for wine lovers. Although there are many excellent options for a Valentine’s wine, there is one slam dunk. And that would be bubbly. Throughout its many iterations—Champagne, cava, Prosecco, crémant, domestic sparkling, etc.—bubbly brings the sparkle to the party. That isn’t to say you couldn’t swing and miss with…

You may recall the issue of so-called cork taint that ravaged the wine industry not so long ago. Many natural corks were infected with a compound called TCA (short for trichloroanisole, which forms through interactions between plant phenols, chlorine, and mold). TCA was a huge problem until recently, spoiling many bottles of wine, including some…

When the late Jack and Jamie Davies purchased the historic Jacob Schram winery in Calistoga, California, in 1965, they embarked upon what must have seemed at the time to be the impossible dream. Their goal was to produce the finest sparkling wine in America at the 100-year-old winery up on Diamond Mountain. They dreamed of…