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America’s 101 Best Wineries 2014
America’s 101 Best Wineries 2014
"When we set out to determine the 101 best wineries in the United States, we knew that we had tasked ourselves with an extremely challenging mission. "The wineries on our list were nominated by experts in the field: the wonderful sommeliers, wine writers, chefs, and restaurateurs who were kind enough to gift us with their opinions about wineries around the country. After their initial nominations, these experts returned to vote on the wines based on the three values we deemed most important: wine quality, consistency, and value. "It will be a half century next year that the Davies family has...
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Douglas Blyde compares the culinary and wine delights of the Fat Duck and Fera at Claridge’s
Douglas Blyde compares the culinary and wine delights of the Fat Duck and Fera at Claridge’s
"Occuring within days, I was lucky enough to experience arguably two of England's finest chefs calibrate dishes to complement complex ferment from noble estates. These were served in the presence of two of the trade's most celebrated raconteurs. "'The Fat Duck' surrendered their sixteenth-century dining room of 42 covers (attended by no fewer than 43 chefs) for an evening hosted by Hugh Johnson OBE of the Royal Tokaji Company, while 'Fera' at Claridge's was the just-beautified, art deco setting for a more intimate lunch for 12 hosted by Dom Perignon's chef de cave, Richard Geoffroy. Johnson founded Royal Tokaji in...
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Stars of California Sparkling Wine
Stars of California Sparkling Wine
"The Davies clan is the first family of California's modern sparkling wine industry. In 1965, long before the rush of new producers began in the 1970s and '80s, Jack and Jamie Davies revitalized the historic Schramsberg property and started making bubbly. Today, their son Hugh Davies and winemaker Keith Hock consistently produce some of the best and most luxurious sparklers in California."
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Winegrowing Santa Maria Valley
Winegrowing Santa Maria Valley
"Santa Maria Valley - Driving South through California on Highway 101 the sand dunes begin to appear as the road comes closer to the ocean. By San Luis Obispo (SLO) county (home to Paso Robles, San Simeon and its famed Hearst Castle, as well as Morro Bay) ocean succulents, and cypress dot the roadway, growing from sandy loam of the seascape. The highway hugs ocean through Pismo Beach, then cuts inland again lifting over a slight climb in elevation, through the drop on the other side. You’ve arrived in Santa Maria Valley. "Santa Maria Valley proves the second oldest appellation in...
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Need an excuse to head to the wine country? These two events will do
Need an excuse to head to the wine country? These two events will do
"As we dive into June, there’s still time to catch some early summer wine events. Two that are close enough for a day trip are coming up mid-month in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, the wine country on our doorstep. "Over in Santa Barbara County, the weekend of June 20 to 22 is reserved for the new 'Key to Wine Country.' This event has so many components, it will be hard to choose between activities. You can’t be every place at once. Or can you? "Keys are $100 per person and are limited to 500. That buys you discounts of...
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Kumeu River’s Melba Brajkovich Made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Kumeu River’s Melba Brajkovich Made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
"I have been privileged to meet Melba Brajkovich on several occasions, usually after tasting through the Kumeu River range with her winemaker son Michael at the family’s beautiful property just north of Auckland. On each occasion it was her energy, vision and direct approach that always made a mark on me, attributes which clearly serve her well in the achievements she has made, and continues to make, for both Kumeu River and the New Zealand wine industry as a whole. "So, I was delighted, though not at all surprised, to hear the news that Melba has been made a Member...
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Value Brands of the Year
Value Brands of the Year
"Commit these names to memory and you'll never be at loss for a well-priced bottle of wine. These are the brands that regularly turn out excellent wines for $18 or less, the ones that you can trust when every dollar counts. To find them, we looked at all the more than 12,000 wines we tasted over the past year and selected out the brands with the most high-scoring wines in this price range. To make your summer wine shopping easier, we've listed the two top-scoring wines for each brand and present them where we think you'll most enjoy drinking them:...
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For the chop: Jared Brown’s last meal
For the chop: Jared Brown’s last meal
"I'd start my meal with a cocktail, the appropriately named Last Wish. It's an equal mix of Sipsmith gin and Royal Tokaji Essencia wine, with an orange twist. It's said that popes sip this wine on their deathbed from a silver spoon. "I tend to get obsessed with certain dishes, cooking and eating them until the recipe is just right. One of these, which has really stuck with me, is a lamb chop dish. A mixture of mint, garlic and pine nuts is gently toasted, then stuffed into the meat through the layer of flavoursome fat. "My wife and I...
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The State of Chardonnay Is Good
The State of Chardonnay Is Good
"No grape endures as much stylistic shifting as chardonnay, whose buttery, oak-driven side appeases the New World masses while critics rave about its Old World potential for bracing acidity and revelatory minerality. Today, countless California winemakers are discovering the sweet spot between those two extremes, so the state of chardonnay — especially from the Central Coast, where growing conditions are ideal — is extremely good, arguably better than ever before. "The best place to test that theory is this weekend at the Dolphin Bay Resort in Pismo Beach, where winemakers from the Napa Valley to Santa Barbara County and beyond...
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Chablis keeps it clean, unadorned
Chablis keeps it clean, unadorned
"When people return from a trip to the wine country, they often bring back a few bottles of liquid memory. I bring back rocks. A solid piece of a vineyard is my best memory touchstone. "Of all my vineyard rocks, my favorites are my chunks from Chablis, the chardonnay producing region at the northernmost reach of Burgundy. They are blazingly white, the compacted seabed formed by billions of exoskeletons of minute sea creatures during the Jurassic, some 200 million years ago. They are chalk, just like what the nuns would flick at me when I mouthed off in grade school;...
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