Photo: the crest of the hill of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, April 2007. 2015. 2016. 2017. 2018. If you love the wines of the Rhône Valley, your life is good right now. Never before have we seen a string of top quality vintages such as this. The Northern and Southern Rhône regions are notorious for variable weather. Why? […]
Lilacs are in bloom. Need I say more? We are in that special window of time in Minnesota where the blossoms are drawing the bees, and wandering through the neighborhood the explosion of floral aromas makes me giddy. I’ve found myself looking over State Park maps, plotting camping trips. Cleaning up the canoe and camping […]
With any great European wine region, change can be difficult and slow. In France, change happens at a glacial pace, slowly over generations. In Italy, it’s a bit faster but still controlled by the federal government and mountains of bureaucracy and paperwork. In Spain, it’s a bit different. It’s not that change happens fast in […]
Every quarter Cotroneo’s Wine and Spirits in White Bear Lake is kind enough to let me take over a section of the store. This set up is called, creatively, “Jason’s Picks” (I came up with that one) and consists of ten wines that I select around a particular theme. We kick off the quarter with […]
The Twin Cities Wine Awards Grand Tasting was all we hoped it would be and more. Last Monday night the best of the local wine scene along with fantastic consumers celebrated, high fived, hugged, and laughed. And it was magical. Photo: the power trio of local wine lists. Desta Klein of Meritage (best wine list, […]
It’s a week of micro-announcements, as opposed to the long format essay of weeks past. Easy to read and digest! Call it the Cliff Notes version of the newsletter. Here ya go. ** Congrats to the freshly minted new Somms of 2018! Last Saturday dozens of hopefuls gathered in Wayzata for the Court of Master […]
Over the decades we’ve visited hundreds of wineries around the world, and whether they are in Australia, Sonoma, France, Oregon, Washinton, Itay, or South Africa the best wineries producing the best wine have a few things in common. Here’s a fun little outline for you plus a nice little twist at the end. #1 Cleanliness […]
