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 […]
“What’s your favorite wine?” It’s a common question I get, especially for some reason during haircuts. It’s an icebreaker I guess, at least for the person asking the question. Answering it … well that’s a different story. For years I’d quickly race through my mental file cabinet, only to pull out some obscure gem I […]
On the marketing side of the wine/beer/spirits world, everybody is tripping over themselves to understand the Millennial generation. This wave of population is quickly becoming a force in terms of sales and category growth, and they are driving the bus when it comes to craft beer success (one study found that over 60% of Millennial beer drinkers have […]
We live in an amazing state when it comes to wine, and I have a prediction that will help prove this declaration. I’ll bet you’ve never before seen the Les Dauphins Côtes du Rhône, pictured here. It recently landed in Minnesota for the first time. It has some presence on the east coast, but none in our […]
A question that comes up regularly during the Ultimate Intro to Wine classes is that of ‘corked’ bottles of wine: what’s it all about, how do you identify a corked bottle, and most importantly: what do you do if you experience one (at a restaurant or at home)? These are important questions, for the ordering and […]
