The Blender, Decanter and I

I had an interesting wine this week. Three days ago I opened a Don Camillo Sangiovese (from Farnese). I had one glass and told Sairey,”I’m opening something better.” The wine wasn’t bad, as in corked, TCA taint et al., just had a sort of sickly sweet vanilla-caramel tongue coating to it. I left the wine… Continue reading The Blender, Decanter and I

The Cynical Critic Strikes – the Tech edition

As the steam roller of “smooth” wine gathers more momentum and market clout, I’ve finally resorted to my own testing. I own an Omega pocket pH meter and recently bought a couple of hundred Accuvin residual sugar strips. If this sounds like overkill to you, take a look at that picture at the right. These… Continue reading The Cynical Critic Strikes – the Tech edition

The Joy of a Gin & Tonic

I recently bought a bottle of Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin. For those of you not paying attention, artisan small batch gins have been springing up everywhere. Pricing ranges from normal-ish (~$30) to absurd ($100+). Aviation gin from Oregon has a huge following in America, as do various other small batch gins. In fact I have… Continue reading The Joy of a Gin & Tonic