What a great way to start off the New Year. Finding another terrific young, exciting, winemaker in Burgundy.
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Personally I have always loved cognac. Be it Armagnac, Bas Armagnac, Cognac, Brandy, Petite Champagne. If it has Ugni Blanc in it, if it’s aged in barrel and has a potency in excess of 40%ABV I love it!
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Youthful brilliance, historical roots in Burgundy, and a masterful blending of talent and terroir have produced a debut vintage like few others we can remember. One might ask what they were doing when they were 20-21 years old? Pierre-Vincent Girardin can say he made a range of 18 wines from Bourgogne […]
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September is a great month in my industry. The first two weeks are filled with trade tastings, and the third week is my annual Barolo Luncheon at Bruculino in Norwalk (one of the ultimate best Italian restaurants in Connecticut). This year the concentration will be on the fabulous 2015 vintage.
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As I gear up for the fall season and test my ability to remain sober whilst attending all the fall trade tastings, I am reminded that it’s not just about me! Everyone has different tastes and whilst they may not be to my liking, they are to that individual […] So, I thought what better way to restock Wine at Five than to ask my customers, and readers what their favorite wines are.
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“You wouldn’t eat the same thing every day or listen to the same music every day. But people choose to drink the same wine every day? It just doesn’t make any sense to me. “ – Scott Schultz, Proprietor Jolie-Laide Winery
I couldn’t say it better myself.
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It’s still gloomy out there. And there is still rain in the forecast. And it’s feeling more and more like we are living in Seattle! And so yesterday afternoon, in amongst a bevy of wines that various suppliers brought to the store to cheer us up and taste, there was one that just brighten everyone’s demeanor. It was such fun, with a kick-ass label and great juice to boot.
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Sometimes you just have to taste it. It’s all well and good for me to wax lyrical about this wine or that, and many of you thankfully have grown to like my tastes and you buy the wines blind on my descriptions. But every now and again, you need to try the wines before you buy them.
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Yea, it’s Easter. It’s a second Thanksgiving! I love any holiday that centers around food and drink, especially if it doesn’t include stress! […] Easter comes with a plethora of different foods and wine choices. Personally, I am a Francophile during this holiday.
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I felt compelled to write a quick introduction and tasting note for this wine after I opened a bottle at a 'dog and pony' show tasting last Wednesday night in the store.The theme for the tasting was overwhelming, undervalued, and this wine hit it out of the ball park.
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The wines of Domaine Dugat have been captivating collectors for decades. Even when I first came accross his wines in the late 80’s the wines were expensive and ultra rare.
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Ask most anyone to name three of the greatest wine-makers in the Côtes du Rhône and you should hear the name Château Rayas and Château Fonsalette in the mix. I have not had many bottles of Fonsalette so I can’t offer much on that front, however I did stash away a few cases of Rayas back in the early 90’s and I still, every now and again, pull out a bottle and simply marvel at it’s greatness.
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It’s been a great few weeks on the tasting front. Lots of Burgundies to begin, then some terrific wines from Oregon and then to cap this week off, a series of explosive wines from California. YES! California.
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Read MoreIt’s a great time of the year to be in the wine business. Although, to be honest, all year is a great time to be in the wine business. But right now is when we have a multitude of trade tastings and with those come the wine makers. And with the wine makers comes knowledge.
Way back when, I had recently returned to London from living in France. Toward the end of my stay there I came across an amazing red wine from the Rhone. I hadn’t ventured far out of my home town, in Perpignan, and my comfort zone was mostly wine from Spain or Languedoc. The Rhone was an area I knew little about.
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In fairness to the French term, Pretty and Ugly allows an artist much lee-way in the pursuit of greatness. Scott Schultz is an artistic wine-maker. He makes less than 500 cases of his own label each year. They are ‘unconventionally beautiful’ wines and they are some of the most sought after wines in California. Up there with the likes of Manfred Krankl and Togni.
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This is a great introduction to Verdicchio. The grape is most commonly grown in the Marche region of Italy and whilst there are many inexpensive and plonkish versions of the wine, if you do the homework and find small producers using old clones and limiting production, the wine can be truly delicious.
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Sometimes, when I worked on Wall Street, I didn’t want to wake up. And if I had to, I didn’t want to go to work. Wine at Five was opened in March 2006 and I don’t think there has been a morning since then when I haven’t wanted to come to work – that’s a monumental difference.
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Spring time is always exiting around here. For the past couple of months, we’ve been tasting and considering new wines for spring and summer, and though the weather hasn’t really followed suit with the calendar, the goodies have started to trickle in. This week, some of my personal faves from Oregon made their way through the door. Division Winemaking Company is a Portland based winery founded in 2010 by Kate Norris and Thomas Monroe.
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And so it is/just like you said it would be/Life goes easy on me/Most of the time/And so it is/The shorter story/No love, no glory/No hero in her sky/
Damien Rice – The Blower’s Daughter.
If you have never heard the song, I urge you to find it and listen to it. His music travelled with me through Chile whilst I rode a Yamaha Tenerife across the Andes into Argentina and back.
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