ShareThe New York Times ran a disturbing article on Buckfast Tonic Wine, an appalling-sounding brew of fermented grapes, sugar, and caffeine that’s being blamed for a national crisis of highly-wired inebriation in Scotland. The government is considering controlling the vile substance, but local fans are responding with protests to the theme of “Don’t Ban Buckie!”
 
If [...]

ShareAlthough it’s the most widely-planted red wine grape in Italy and serves as the main ingredient in Chianti, sangiovese is a really misunderstood piece of fruit. Part of it is the fault of Chianti, actually, since many people think it’s a varietal made of the chianti grapes. Actually, there’s no such thing: Chianti is not [...]

ShareWhy, oh, why didn’t I buy two bottles? I took a 2003 Sesti Brunello di Montalcino for a test run (in preparation for our all-sangiovese tasting tonight at the Ladies Tasting Society), loved every drop, and then didn’t have enough time to zip back to Berkeley to get another. If I had one to bring [...]

ShareEveryone, not just wine lovers, should see Bottle Shock for the same reason that everyone, not just Republicans, should have listened to John McCain’s acceptance speech last night. That’s because the film lit a similarly patriotic flame in my heart (me, a shameless liberal elite whose New Year’s resolution was to buy more French wine [...]

ShareOops, I meant The Wine Spectator, the magazine that one of my favorite retailers likes to make fun of by mocking its cultural imperialism over the wine world. In any case, some of you may have heard of the war of words between the folks at the venerable Napa winery Beaulieu Vineyard and The Wine [...]

ShareFor a while now, it’s not been safe to dip your toes in the lake of wine coming from Robert Mondavi Inc., as any of you who’ve had the disappointment of tasting its declining quality during the late nineties and early 2000s can attest. I’ll never forget Robert Parker’s review of Mondavi’s 1997 line-up, from [...]

ShareA reader alerted me to the recent triumph at the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition of the $1.99 per bottle 2005 Chardonnay made by Charles Shaw, affectionately known as Two Buck Chuck. The wine has already made a name for itself and Fred Franzia (head of Bronco Wines, which owns the label) by proving [...]

ShareFrom the spit-not-swallow department: Some of you may have read the hilarious report in the New York Times yesterday about “wine tasters gone wild” in the Long Island wine region of New York state — complete with stories of limo-loads of bachelorettes dancing on table tops, inebriated haywagon riders running naked through the vines, and [...]

ShareSaying that some participants in their “Romantic Winery Tour” program have been gays and lesbians p.o.’d about California’s unequal marriage laws, Bart and Barb O’Brien decided to see if they help turn things around by raising money for Equality California, the state’s leading advocate for gay marriage. So their eponymous O’Brien Family Vineyards set up [...]

ShareSince reports last month that a substance in red wine was found to prolong life in obese mice, sales of dietary supplements containing the stuff have spiked. Seems that people seeking immortality may find their fountain of life in the form of a bottle of cabernet — or rather, 700 bottles, since that’s how much [...]