With the summer heat in Virginia, you could often use a good bottle of refreshing rosé. But the important question may be: with the summer heat in Virginia, can they make a good bottle of refreshing rosé? Paradoxically, answering yes right now may have to do with the fact that
It’s a big week for wine in London, this week, with not just one but three fairs taking place, starting with two natural wine fairs that brought some 300 organic, biodynamic and natural winemakers to the British capital. Strangely competing for attention in what is a growing but still a
The nose clearly announces this will be a California sauvignon blanc. It offers up a very interesting blend of tropical fruit and citrus. The tropical leads, with mango and tangerine over white grapefruit, with a hint of cut grass. The palate is even more interesting and complex. The fruits are
Clear, medium-deep intensity, bright ruby red with purple tones. Clean on the nose with medium-full intensity aromas of tobacco, dried herbs, licorice, molasses, black fruit, plum, and boysenberry. Dry on the palate, full bodied, medium-high acidity, medium-high tannin, and medium to medium-high alcohol. Flavors of blackberry jam, dried black fruit,
Santa Barbara County is one of the youngest wine growing regions in California, measured by both vine age and the age and experience of its winemakers. Thus it wasn't hard for me to sit around a table at the home of Presqu'ile winery owner Matt Murphy with eight winemakers and
Very light violet aromas float over blueberries and vanilla on a slightly reticent nose. There is no reticence on the palate, as this opens with lush berries, blueberry and elderberry, vanilla, cloves, and violets. Vanilla and cloves show more on the mid-palate, with fruit sweetening to pure blueberry. A bit
Joie Farm is certainly one of the most delightful wineries in the Okanagan. Their crisp whites and easy-drinking rosé and Passetoutgrain, evoking the Burgundian blend of gamay and pinot noir) are consistently some of the most pleasant wines in British Columbia’s wine country. Careful and well-controlled in their approach –
An off-dry Riesling from the Hattenheimer Nussbrunnen vineyard, aromas are soft and sweet, pear, honey, and white flowers, perhaps peonies. Honey and pears dominate on the attack, adding apples, florals, and hints of dried apricot and Meyer lemon on the mid-palate. Ripe, even bruised, rather than tart, apples linger on