Cremant d’Alsace is France’s go-to sparkling wine. The French consume more of it at home than sparkling wine from any other wine area than Champagne, according to the Conseil Interprofessionnel Vins d’Alsace, Alsace vintners’ trade association.… Read more
Category Archives: San Francisco Chronicle
Bordeaux’s second wines affordable, exceptional
We Americans don’t realize it, but the Chinese are determining what wine we drink.
They’re not flooding the market with knockoffs or gray-market bottles. Instead, their voracious appetite for big-name Bordeaux has relegated us to buying the leftovers.
Fortunately, there is a silver lining.… Read more
Alcohol levels can make a big difference
“I only had two glasses of wine.”
It’s not an unreasonable amount to drink with dinner, yet how much you feel from those two glasses can vary widely – whether you’re worried about a curbside Breathalyzer or just hoping you don’t feel the effects the next day.… Read more
Wine culture starting to take hold in China
The scene stopped me in my tracks. There, on the street in the middle of the bustling market, stalls filled with fake Longchamp bags and knockoff Ralph Lauren, was a young Chinese man standing behind a table wearing a portable microphone and hawking vacuum-powered wine-pump openers.… Read more
Italy’s Soave region split over DOCG label
Italy – Everything should be coming up roses for Soave. The wines, historically among Italy’s best whites, have never been better.
Yet a debate over whether to use a new designation, Superiore DOCG, threatens to spoil the renaissance of a region that has finally recovered from a long spell as a source of underwhelming wine.… Read more
Does wine really prevent heart problems?
When people discover that I’m a liver doctor and a wine writer, they invariably ask, “How much can I drink without developing liver disease?” They never ask, “How much should I drink to stay healthy?”
People know that alcohol – and wine – can cause liver disease.… Read more
Economic squeeze hitting Bordeaux wines
“This could be the crash of the century instead of the vintage of the century,” quipped Coco Conroy of Château Brane-Cantenac, a second-growth property in Margaux, as she jokingly referred to Bordeaux’s 2008 vintage.
Like other blue chips, Bordeaux, the bluest of blue chips in the world’s wine market, is not immune to this economic downturn.… Read more
Venerable Burgundy auction gets a makeover
‘Irrelevant” was the word a high-ranking representative of a leading Burgundy negociant firm, who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of offending the tightly knit Burgundy wine community, used to describe the current Hospices de Beaune auction. That’s a startling assessment of what was – and probably still is – the world’s most important wine auction.… Read more
Campania’s world-class white wines
Taurasi, Campania’s best wine, has a powerful allure. Years ago, I spotted one on the shelf of a simple seafood trattoria outside of Naples, where instead of a wine list the choices were arrayed on a shelf. I asked for this sturdy red even though we had ordered grilled langoustine.… Read more
A tale of two Bordeaux: Aside from the top chateaus, the region’s producers struggle to be relevant
Perusing the selection at a Cannes wine shop, I noticed a group of Japanese businessmen. Among the shop’s selection of upscale wines — such as Cristal and grand cru Burgundies — one gentleman selected two bottles of 1995 Cheval Blanc, one of Bordeaux’s greatest wines (for just over $600 a bottle).… Read more
Super Tuscan producers size up Syrah
It was the first time I’ve been stopped by customs officials going into Italy. At Rome’s Leonardo di Vinci International Airport, the uniformed official looked up from his coffee and conversation with several co-workers as I pushed my luggage chart through the green — nothing to declare — channel.… Read more
THE ESSENTIALS: Spain’s Priorat region flexes its muscles
Editor’s note: Beginning today, the Wine section will profile noteworthy wine regions across the United States and around the world, with an eye toward helping you in your wine-buying decisions. Look for the Essentials every few weeks in Wine.
In just 20 years, wines from Priorat have gone from obscurity to being the most expensive in Spain.… Read more
Australia’s western frontier: Maverick vintners make sophisticated, well-priced wines on the other side of the Outback
Everyone knows about Australia’s inexpensive, fruit-driven, mass-produced wines — think Yellow Tail, the largest-selling wine brand in U.S. food stores by dollar volume, according to ACNielsen.
But there is a wine-producing part of the country that shatters just about every aspect of that image.… Read more