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Bill Hardy, scion of the eponymic family of the Hardy Wine Company, visited Massachusetts recently, bearing samples of Hardy’s way with Shiraz, the Australian term for Syrah. We’ll get into those specifics after consideration of the genre. Syrah is the great black grape of the northern Rhone, most notably Cote... Read More

Every year, in the first week of June, Tuscany’s Carmignano Consorzio presents its newly released vintages to journalists. By far the most interest is lavished on the prestigious local red wines, the Carmignano and Carmignano Riserva DOCGs, but Carmignano for its size (some 2O producers working some 5OO acres of... Read More

Vermentino is Italy’s best shot for an indigenous variety that could go international. Years ago, some journalists wagged their fingers at producers warning them that the name “Vermentino” could be confused for a diminutive term for “vermin”. But the trade and the public has, either mercifully or by chance, chosen... Read More

Master and apprentice, behemoth and beauty, yin and yang: two complementary personalities and temperaments make this newly formed team creating wine at Bodega Norton. The winery was founded by Edmund James Palmer Norton, an English engineer who’d come to Argentina to help in the gargantuan task of building the Transandean... Read More

While it’s true that the predominant low-end domestic segment, that represents over 7O% of gin’s 11 million-case annual total volume sales in the US, continues to be static and largely disappointing, the upwardly mobile performances and brand expansions in the high-end import tier is cause for genuine celebration in this... Read More

Pro-Stelvin testimonials, trickling in from wineries worldwide, are raising voices against all corks, natural and plastic. We report the findings and learned commentaries of three respected wineries, Bonny Doon from Santa Rosa, California, Mitchell from Clare Valley, Australia, and Kim Crawford from Marlborough, New Zealand. But first, let’s begin with... Read More

One of the most difficult and time-consuming situations for a sommelier, manager or waiter is when a client refuses a bottle of wine. This is mainly because it is such a subjective situation. If a customer sends a dish back because it is over or underdone there really isn’t any... Read More

Sophie Larmandier (Champagne Larmandier-Bernier), of Vertus in the southern end of the Cote des Blancs, and her husband, Pierre, have taken a biodynamic course as a way to nurse their land back to health. Pointing down at the ground in her vineyard, she exclaimed, “This soil is alive again. Pierre’s... Read More