Clik here to view.
Maugeri: Reclamation of a Mt Etna patrimony
In February of this year, in a Wine Spectator article titled "What is Etna's Next Wine Wave?", Robert Camuto identified Carla Maugeri as one of the producers to watch.Carla MaugeriAccording to Robert,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Milo (Catania, Sicily) context: The physical environemnt
In this post I continue to provide context on the comune of Milo. I kicked off this series with an overview of the history and economics of the comune and continue herein with the physical aspects of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tasting selected Cabernet Sauvignon wines from the 1997 vintage, one of...
Our team was so impressed with the 1997 Chateau Montelena at our last tasting that we immediately decided to explore that Napa vintage in greater depth. The results of that exploration are reported...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tenuta Boccarossa: All roads lead (back) to Mt Etna
In a prior discussion of winemaking on Mt Etna, I characterized the environment as "a patchwork of identities and experiences ... directly correlated to the origins of the parties." The chart below...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tenute di Nuna: Straddling the Milo-Sant'Alfio borderline
Tenute di Nuna is a Sant'Alfio-based winery operated by Marina Novello Trantino and her partner, the lawyer (and self-taught agronomist) Fabio Percola. The winery currently owns 5 ha of land in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
California's Santa Cruz Mountains AVA
The Orlando Friends Tasting Group has, over the past year, held events focused on Constellation's To Kalon wines. Continuum, Tignanello, the slopes and terroirs of Mt Etna, Chateau Montelena, and the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ridge Vineyards: Monte Bello grape-growing environment and farming practices
The Orlando Friends Tasting Group will be tasting selected vintages of Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon this upcoming weekend. I have previously described the Monte Bello home AVA (Santa...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The making of the Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon
Monte Bello is the Ridge Vineyards property located in the Saratoga/Los Gatos sub-region of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA where the combination of high elevation, decomposing limestone soil, and cooling...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tasting selected vintages of Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon
The Orlando Friends Tasting Group has, over the past year, held events focused on Constellation's To Kalon wines, Continuum, Tignanello, the slopes and terroirs of Mt Etna, Chateau Montelena, and the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Milo (Catania, Sicily): Contrade, vineyards, and Superiore wines
Marco de Grazia (delleterrenere.com) makes on of the most cogent arguments for the current Mt Etna grape-growing architecture and Milo's place within that space.For centuries and centuries the northern...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The "best" Etna Bianco Superiores
The chart below shows an updated Etna bianco superiore database. I have begun a process of seeking to identify the best of the bunch by asking persons with the relevant expertise to give me a list of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A vertical tasting of the wines of Chateau Pichon Comtesse de Lalande: The...
In our continuing exploration of terroirs and wines from regions around the world, the Orlando Friends Tasting Group has, over the course of the past year, held tasting events featuring Constellation's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A vertical tasting of the wines of Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de...
With the background out of the way, I now turn to the actual tasting of the Pichon Comtesse wines. The vintages chosen for the tasting reflect the will of the participants. Once an attendee identified...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Feudi Cavalieri: Old vines on Etna’s southeast slope
Brandon, Lidia, and I were in the midst of a glorious week of rest and relaxation at Portopalo di Capo Passero when I received a message from Frank Morgan (@drinkwhatyoulike) indicating that he would...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chateau Pichon Baron: The other side of the Longueville coin
The Orlando Friends Tasting Group recently conducted a vertical tasting of selected Pichon Comtesse de Lalande wines. At the time the group signaled its intent to close the loop by tasting the wines of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Château Pichon Baron vertical tasting: 1975 - 2008 (selected vintages)
Having tasted 11 vintages from 2nd-Growth Pauillac estate Château Pichon Comtesse Lalande, members of the Orlando Friends Tasting Group thought it only natural that we hold a similar tasting of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Comparisons of shared vintages of recently tasted Pichon Baron and Pichon...
In our recently concluded Pichon Baron tasting, The Orlando Friends Tasting Group sought to have as many common vintages as possible with our previous Pichon Comtesse tasting in order to allow for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A tasting of Montalcino's Castello Romitorio wines at Wine Watch
On October 5, 2024, I attended a Castillo Romitorio wine tasting held at Fort Lauderdale retailer Wine Watch. The guest for the event was Filippo Chia (son of Sandro Chia, the founder of the modern...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An overview of Bordeaux's Medoc
Our Orlando Tasting Group has recently held vertical tasting events focused on the Pauillac wines of Pichon Baron and Comtesse de Lalande and are about to embark on the tasting of a third -- Château...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Château Lynch-Bages: History, environment, grape-growing, and wines
According to famed wine purveyor Berry Bros & Rudd, Château Lynch-Bages "is one of the best-known Medoc estates and has always had a particularly strong following on this side of the English...
View Article