ShareMy wife likes to tease me by saying that I “woefully under-decant.” I don’t think so. But it is true that I rarely decant. And I admit that a few times I’ve been burned by not decanting — take the example of the Glen Carlou 2005 Grand Classique I wrote about recently. In fact, the [...]

ShareThere are a number of wine tasting party kits on the market, all of them having the advantage that a wine tasting event, no matter how poorly organized or equipped, is kind of hard to torpedo. A pretty table, delicious snacks, good friends, ten bottles of wine … what possibly could sink this ship? So [...]

ShareI gained a friend at a party last weekend thanks to an embarrassingly nerdy discussion we had about, of all things, storage. (I promise I am not usually such a dweeb at parties, but I was standing around with a handful of Internet and high tech types.) My new friend was delving deep into the [...]

ShareI put in a pretty dismal performance at my local wine store’s blind tasting last week. Out of eight mystery syrahs from the northern Rhône, my second favorite was the group’s second least favorite. Then my almost-most-disliked was the winner. It wasn’t just a case of to-each-her-own; it was as if I was wearing my [...]

ShareWhen people say “wine geek,” usually they mean it metaphorically. But sometimes the parallels between the pimply, C++ quoting nerd and the red-nosed, Frenchified wine snob are all too real. Here are nine gifts that will satisfy that special person on your list whose love of wine has taken on a certain cultish, slightly weird [...]

Share1. Girl’s Legs Wine Bottle Stopper, $24.95
It’s a Playmate, In Your Chardonnay
I’ve never liked those vodka ads with hot models lounging in martini glasses. This subtext to this tchotchke devolves in the same downward ideological direction, like: I was minding my own business, enjoying my grand cru, and this stripper appeared out of nowhere, dove [...]