New Restaurant Offers the Cure for Wine List Ills

Evan Dawson
Features
4 min read
There is a maddening chicken-and-egg problem with most restaurant wine lists: Are wine lists stupid because customers don’t know much about wine, or are customers uneducated about wine because restaurant wine lists are stupid? I realize that most wine drinkers don’t spend all that much time looking over restaurant lists,

2010 Ceja Napa Carneros Chardonnay

David Honig
Wine Reviews
1 min read
Pears, apples, and butter show on the nose. Pear, lemon cream, and lemon pith show on the palate. The texture is buttery and smooth, flavors fresh and bright. It shows touches butter and vanilla, but all very restrained. Drink with flounder almondine. Highly Recommended. 90 points. WHO: Ceja Vineyards WHAT:

2011 Laguna Ranch Vineyard Chardonnay

David Honig
Wine Reviews
1 min read
Formerly sold under the Gallo label, focus is now on the prime location, with grapes producing wine that is creamy, smooth, and lightly spiced, a very nice food wine. Fresh pears, asian spices, and vanilla come through on the nose. Pears, sweet cream, asian spices and shortbread come through on

2012 La Forge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

David Honig
Wine Reviews
1 min read
Black currant and tobacco leaf are on the nose. Plums show over black currant not he palate, with eucalyptus and tar on the mid-palate. Tannins are a little rough. This is an interesting, modestly priced rustic Cabernet. Pair it with blue cheese burgers. Recommended. 86 points. WHO: La Forge Estate WHAT:

2010 B Side Red Blend

David Honig
Wine Reviews
1 min read
The nose is filled with very dark aromas, blackberry, raisin, and powdered espresso, with a touch of tobacco leaf. The palate is even deeper, with blackberry jam, raisins, unsweetened chocolate and Cuban coffee. A few red fruit notes come out on the mid-palate, primary red cherry, with just a tiny

REDUX / Smells of Wine and Roses

Ryan Reichert
About
3 min read
I visited the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Oregon, this summer, obsessed with sticking my nose into every multi-layered blossom. I had just finished my Intro Sommelier course and was determined to learn how to distinguish the aroma differences among all the different flower colors. We sometimes describe a wine as

2009 Bran Caia “Il Blu”

David Honig
Wine Reviews
1 min read
Anise, black cherry, cassis, and dry herbs all float up on the nose. Bing cherries and raspberries lead, followed on the mid-palate by black licorice, tar, thyme, and soy. Tannins are tight, from, and acids well in balance. Four years old now, and it could still use a few years