Why Connections to Wine?
WEB UPDATE: New categories on Bordeaux 2008 barrel tastings published. More coming.
A new wine tasting video from January 2, 2010: HERE!
In February 2008 during a special wine event in London, I tasted a 1986 Mouton Rothschild – an $800 bottle of wine. Several times. Before the event started, to check each of the 12 bottles to be poured for possible defects and during the tasting, when I eagerly drank, not just sipped and spat. The tasting also featured other fine vintages of this great Bordeaux estate, some as expensive, including the already legendary 2005 and 2000, the popular 2003, a racy 1996 from magnum and a meaty and savory 1989. My connection was Decanter Magazine, which organized the event, and for which I occasionally write articles. But anyone could have attended. As I wine lover, I’ll take any connections that come my way, also for wines far less expensive – wines which I can afford with excellent quality-to-price ratios. Wines I will share with you in these pages. Thanks to my experience traveling and tasting, I have established many a wine connection to get you the wine tips you want: from finding that perfect fine wine dinner with the winemaker at a luxurious hotel restaurant to accessing hundreds of pages of copious wine tasting notes, free on this website.
Partly because of the proven health benefits when enjoyed in moderation, partly because it’s a wonderful way to pass the time with friends over a fine meal, wine increasingly fascinates consumers the world over. Cruise ships hire sommeliers – a job I am considering – and wine bars sprout like so many autumn mushrooms from Austin, Texas to Strasbourg, France. New markets in Russia, China and India to take three prominent examples ratchet up prices for popular brands, much to the dismay of many a consumer including your humble servant. And with so many wines being made worldwide – I recently tasted a Chinese wine that resembled a decent Bordeaux blend – choosing wine at stores and restaurants will become an ever more daunting affair. I hope I can help you.
Tasting Notes
This is the meat of the website, where you will soon be reading hundreds of tasting notes on wines you may want to purchase. I am not a marathon taster, basing notes on numerical scores after quick evaluations. Wine changes over time – it changes as it sits in your cellar over the years, and it can change in glass over a few hours at the dinner table. Although I can (and do) taste as many as 50 wines a day when I am on tour to Bordeaux, for example, I prefer to taste several wines over dinner – the way you drink wine. I will score wines, but please pay more attention to the text. Go to the Tasting Notes
Wine Dinners
Since 2004, I have been organising wine dinners for luxury hotels and private homes, featuring top wines from Bordeaux and other regions. It started back in May 2004 at the Nantucket Wine Festival, where I co-hosted verticals of Chateau Pape Clement and Chateau Angelus, as well as a horizontal of top wines from Bordeaux. Ever since, I have worked with many great hotel restaurants and top wines, including Domaine de Chevalier, Figeac, Gruaud Larose, Leoville Barton, Lynch Bages, Palmer, Pichon Longueville Baron and many more. Future events include a great vertical tasting dinner of Chateau Mouton Rothschild at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai on November 28, 2008, a tour of Germany for three dinners with Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in December, a vertical dinner of great vintages of Ruinart Champagne in Berlin and a tasting dinner with Chateau Canon and Chateau Rauzan Segla in Marlenheim, Alsace. Go to the Wine Dinners
Vineyard Visits
With vast experience and contacts in Bordeaux – and in other French wine regions – I could also organize a tour for you to visit your favorite vineyards, wine and dine on location with the winemakers and taking a tasting course. Please contact me for more details. Go to the Vineyard Visits
Images
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