Rioja was virtually synonymous with high-quality Spanish red wine until the late 1980s, when Ribera del Duero began to capture the attention of wine lovers. But today, much of the excitement in Spain is coming from new—or, more precisely, resurgent—regions, including some that previously did not ship their rustic wines very far from home. READ MORE »
What’s so special about sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley? My favorite wine merchant is always telling me about alternatives from New Zealand or California, but he’d really rather I stick to the real article.
Sauvignon blanc is most famous as the grape responsible for Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, two of the most popular and energizing white wines of France. In the eastern portion of the Loire Valley, sauvignon blanc (which is often simply referred to here as sauvignon) produces bracing, aromatically pungent wines with strong citrus and gooseberry tones along with grassy and herbal notes, which in extreme cases or underripe vintages can cross over to green or herbaceous. A whiff of what the French call pipi de chat (cat pee) is also present in many Loire Valley sauvignons; while this element can add a note of complexity in small doses, it can easily become overbearing. The best examples from the Loire Valley display clear mineral nuances and a distinctly dry chalkiness resulting from the limestone-dominated soil. READ MORE »
First off, I do it for competitive reasons—and because all adult life is a continuation of high school. I’d be happy to let my descriptions of wines (i.e., tasting notes) speak for themselves if other critics agreed to do the same thing. But they won’t. Besides, I suspect that many consumers prefer the unambiguous specificity of a score, even if they agree with me that a bottle of wine, like any other work of art, can’t be reduced to a number. READ MORE »
Rioja is certainly one of my personal favorites, along with Bordeaux and Chianti–preferably with bottle age–when it comes to midweight, savory, firmly structured, food-friendly red wines. Located in north central Spain, Rioja is Spain’s most famous wine-producing region, and until the mid-1980s it was the only category other than sherry and the wines of Miguel Torres with a serious presence in international markets. Some of the greatest bodegas in the region, such as CVNE, La Rioja Alta and López de Heredia, are over a century old and continue to use modified traditional winemaking techniques, even if most of these large old firms have recently constructed high-tech vinification facilities. READ MORE »
