The beauty that I imbibed with Christmas dinner was a 2006 Domaine Christian Moreau Pere et Fils Chablis 1er Cru Vaillon. I adore white Burgundies, and Chablis in particular… this was a great reminder of how long it had been since I treated myself to one. The bouquet was complex, with floral notes mixed ...

Yup, it’s been a while. The final term in my day job last fall was a blur. Took on way too much, but the happy result is that I have a bit o’ nest egg now to see me through 2012 WITHOUT having to say yes to everything. Leaving white space for pleasure and beauty and other hedonistic pursuits… This ...

Slander? Not really.  My snarky comment in the last post regarding “bad boxed wine” stemmed from my own experience – nothing more or less.  But it niggled at me that perhaps I was being unfair. Just because I had made the choice to purchase a 4L box o’ bad Grigio in a fit of self ...

OK. Enough wound licking and holding pity parties in vats o’ boxed wine. BAD boxed wine. Time to shake it off, regroup and forge ahead. I may have lost a good percentage of what I had memorized for the exams – but therein lies the problem, doesn’t it? If I want to own it, and not lose it all in a ...

I choked and balked. Not ready for exams. Not even ready for the blog these days, either, as the lack of recent presence will attest. Said yes to too much work – the bane of the consultant’s existence. More study, more prep, exams for the next round.  I want to own it, not panic about ...

Heading up and over today, north and then east, to explore one of my very favorite wines, Grüner Veltliner from Austria, particularly the Wachau region. Wachau is in the Lower Austria (Niederosterreich) wine region – unhelpfully non-intuitive, since it’s the furthest north of the lot. The region is ...

Ah, the blood of Jove. Would that every grape had such a romantic history. Sangiovese, of course, is the main grape in the Chianti that we have been talking about of late. First documented in the 1500′s in Italy, its origins are presumed to be much older.  Prone to rot, sometimes tough to ripen, and ...

Castello di Bossi is a solid, reasonably priced Chianti Classico that delivers a good introduction to the difference between a proper Chianti Classico and a regular ol’ Chianti. Colour was garnet, perhaps moving even to a slight copper tinge. On the nose, dried cherries, violets, and burnt sugar predominated.  ...