With an annual production of 6.5 million bottles, Taittinger is the sixth largest Champagne house. It’s family owned (with help from Credit Agricole Bank) and run, and they have 712…
Discovering vineyards in the Languedoc
I’m currently in the Languedoc region of southern France, on a discovery mission. I’m visiting lots of producers (most of whom are new to me) whose goal is to make…
WT Vintners: boutique wines from Washington State
I first met Jeff Lindsay-Thorsen back in 2015, when I had a chance to taste through his wines at his garage winery in Woodinville, near Seattle. I was immediately impressed,…
Orange wines are now a thing, but who invented the term?
The category of ‘orange wines’ – wines from white grapes that have been fermented on their skins – is now quite mainstream! In the last year, supermarkets in the UK…
Houseparty in the Hollywood Hills with nice wines
So Friday night was fun. We headed over to a home in the Hollywood Hills. En route we stopped at DomaineLA, a brilliant wine shop, and stocked up. And then…
Dinner at majordōmo, LA, with nice wines
Jet-lagged as hell, after arriving early evening in LA and then working in the winery until 9 pm, I arrived at Major Dōmo, the talked-about new-ish (summer 2018) opening from…
Some nice lounge wines: Zarate, Terre Nerre, Zuccardi Concreto et al
Airport lounge wines are normally disappointing. But here in Los Angeles in the American Airlines lounge at Terminal 4 I found some wines I actually really wanted to drink. Zarate…
In an urban winery in Los Angeles
I’m spending a couple of days in Los Angeles in an urban winery, where my buddy Christina Rasmussen is doing vintage with Abe Schoener of the Scholium Project. Abe recently…
Lunch with Paillard, Solaia and Biondi-Santi
Had a nice lunch in the garden with Robin and Nikolai. I brought Champagne, and they stepped things up a notch with two famous Italians. Champagne Bruno Paillard Assemblage 2009…