Tag Archives: Grand cru

How Not To Hate A Wine: Give Cheese A Chance

Posted on December 6, 2017 by

Ever try a wine and hate it?  Yeah, me too.  But before we blame the wine, maybe give it a second chance. Actually, give it some food.

It is freezing outside and I am in the mood for a hearty Bordeaux.  Some Bordeaux need years to work, while others taste brilliant young.  So, when I find a Right Bank, Merlot blend, from the ripe 2009 vintage, I consider myself safe.  Doubly so, this is young Château Vignot (est 2003) with modernist Pierre Seillan at the helm, Kendall Jackson money backing it, and a website pushing words like “approachable”, “elegant”, “feminine”, “silky”, and the phrase, “meant to be enjoyed upon release”. It all seems overeager to please.

Is it? Continue reading →

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Strasbourg Part 2: Historic Wine Cave beneath a Hospice: Cremant and Pinot Gris Grand Cru

Posted on November 17, 2014 by

Last Monday’s EU Austerity Drinking Tour landed us in Strasbourg’s Christmas markets, on top of its Cathedral, and enjoying its wine. Today, we descend into the caves of the Hospice de Strasbourg.

As with our visit, not ten days prior, to Burgundy’s Hospice de Beaune, we find Strasbourg had its own, even older medical, religious, wine cellar. Since 1395, cellars beneath the city’s hospital provided wine as medicine and sacrament. Like Beaune, this hospice gained vine-land from guilty proprietors bent on heaven. Although wine-making stalled during the last century, it reformed as a cooperative in 1995. Let’s see what survived the centuries. Continue reading →

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