Tag: wine

2010 Chateau Pavie: A Wine that is either Amazing or Awful

Eric Asimov, the New York Times wine critic, blogged last week about a controversy over the 2010 Chateau Pavie, which is considered one of the great wines from St. Emilion.  In his May 24 post, Mr. Asimov compares Robert Parker's rave review of the wine (tasted as a barrel sample) with that of John Gilman, whose web-only publication, A View from the Cellar, represents a new generation of wine criticism.

So, two critics, one wine.  You'd think the reviews would at least be in the same ballpark.  But you'd be wrong.  Parker rates it as nearly perfect, and Gilman describes it as "absurdly overripe, unpleasant to taste and patently out of balance."  And that's just for starters.  Continue Reading–>

May 29, 2011 | By | Reply More

A Vineyard Management class at DuCard Vineyards

Saturday's vineyard management class was the second of four at DuCard Vineyards, in Etlan, Virginia.  We've been working with a section of Norton vines, and we'll be seeing them through until the harvest.  Lots of work done is while we're not there (spraying, among other things), but we're doing much (well, some) of the essential work on the vines.

Scott Elliff, the vineyard's owner, has been migrating his vineyard from a Geneva Double Curtain trellising system to a modified Lyre system, so in our first class, we worked on pruning vines to facilitate that transition.  Both GDC and Lyre are divided canopy systems in which the trunk of the vine is planted in the middle of two sets of trellis wires about four feet apart.  With GDC, the vines grow downward, like a waterfall on each side of the row.  With Lyre, they run up. Continue Reading–>

May 10, 2011 | By | 2 Replies More

Books: How Robert Parker Overthrew the Wine Establishment

The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr., and the Reign of American Taste

It’s hard to overestimate Robert Parker’s influence on the wine we drink. Best known for developing the 100-point rating system, Parker’s Wine Advocate newsletter became so influential that winemakers consciously made wines to suit his taste for big, high-alcohol wines with power and intensity. Consultants that he was known to like were in high-demand by wineries, and wines that he praised in the Wine Advocate could sell out almost as soon as they arrived in stores. Continue Reading–>

April 30, 2011 | By | 2 Replies More

Welcome to Project Sunlight

Welcome to Project Sunlight, a blog about wine and my attempt to become a winemaker.

You may have noticed that the banner on my blog suggests that I will learn and chronicle all there is to know about this subject over the next year. That’s not exactly correct, although it’s a useful shorthand that does happen to fit within the banner. The correct part is that I plan to learn as much as I can about winemaking over the coming 12 months and discuss what I’ve learned on this blog. The incorrect part has to do with the timeframe. Continue Reading–>

April 22, 2011 | By | 4 Replies More
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