Big champagne houses like Mumm, Veuve Clicquot, and Moët et Chandon use grapes from different vineyards they don’t own to produce a house style with a unique and consistent taste, quality, and style. All good things. On the other hand, Grower Champagne is terroir-forward and reflects the...
What lies at the foot of the mountains?
You will find Italy’s preeminent wine region at the foothills of the Italian Alps, appropriately called Piedmont, literally pie-d-mont, meaning foot of the mountain. Piedmont borders France and Switzerland and is influenced by both culture and cuisine. Like France’s Burgundy wine region, Piedmont relies on...
Has Donny found a new favorite wine?
Our old family friend Donny (aka the Ump) was over, and there we were at the appetizers, enjoying cream cheese-stuffed mini peppers, tiny toast, cured meats, and cheese, when suddenly Donny’s face lit up. With a wide-eyed look of wine shock, he asked, “What is...
Do you know Nero d’Avola, the black grape of Sicily?
If you have enjoyed a Nero d’Avola you know it’s as big as a California Cabernet or Australian Syrah.
You can make pudding out of anything!
“You can make pudding out of anything”, so said one of my esteemed bosses. So it is with wine, you can make it from strawberries, Dandelions, rice or even tomatoes! Nothing however comes close to grapes, they have the best balance, color, sugar, acid, tannin and juice for creating a flavorful and complex wine that can improve with age.