Menu Pineau. What can be said that hasn’t already been?
I’ve sat quietly on the sidelines reading others praise Thierry Puzelat’s Clos du Tue Boeuf 08 ‘Brin de Chèvre’ (particularly Guilhaume), from the Loire’s Touraine region. Made with natural methods from a grape which maybe ten other producers in the world cultivate, Menu Pineau. For more [...]

My good pal Jeff Curry came by Salt yesterday with Fabian Olaiz, the Export Manager of Prado Rey wines from Ribera del Duero, Spain.  He had a satchel full of fun, from zippy whites to rich, deep reds and it was a great opportunity to revisit a couple things I’d tried before and dive into [...]

[ts-VIE-gellt]
Zweigelt in British Columbia? We might be on to something here. Actually, the Zuppiger family behind Arrowleaf Cellars have been on to something since 1999 when they planted 2 acres of the Austrian red grape. The winter hardy varietal was created by Dr. Fritz Zweigelt in 1922 by crossing Blaufränkisch and St. Laurent. Kurtis and [...]

I’m disappointed with the amount of wine I’ve been drinking lately. Interesting and thought provoking wine anyways. In an attempt to amend this, I spent a good chunk of time pacing the isles of Marquis yesterday, chatting about some cool and locally unobtainable producers with a French employee named Marie. She seemed defeated by BC’s [...]

I recently had the chance to try this little number, “Bordello” from Summerland’s Dirty Laundry Vineyard.
Known  primarily for a trilogy of Gewürztraminers from different plots of their vineyard, Dirty Laundry has some of the region’s oldest vinifera vines.  The winery came out of the gates strong with some great aromatic whites about half a decade [...]

Domaine de Terrebrune ‘08 Bandol Rosé
Why do most people completely dismiss pink wine three seasons a year? I’m always floored to get a disgusted look from a restaurant guest after suggesting a rosé outside the months of summer. Sorry to challenge your wine colour paradigm.
I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a rosé this [...]

I had a bottle of Domaine Huet Brut 2002 Vouvray Pétillant, and although still a touch too ill to fully appreciate it, I was able to recognize that it was damn good. This is lightly sparkling Chenin Blanc from France’s Loire Valley made in the traditional method. The colour is a beautiful golden yellow and [...]

I’ve had some bad luck with being sick lately. It started with a bout of food poisoning and, for nearly a week afterward, the thought of eating anything made me nauseous. Worse still, I had an indifference towards wine and the bottle of Arianna Occhipiniti’s Frappato on Christmas Day was almost my entire wine intake [...]

I nosed around my local discount wine retailer Spencer & Daniel’s last night to see if there was anything that looked interesting. They buy up unwanted stock and closeouts from other wine retailers and sell it at often curiously low prices. I’ve had mixed success in the past. My last trip produced a yellow and [...]

This morning I carried a Christmas tree, albeit a three foot Christmas tree, fifteen blocks in a torrential downpour like I’ve rarely ever seen (this photo fails to capture the biblical scale flooding briefly passing the streets of San Francisco). It wasn’t raining when we embarked on this ambitious mission and, as luck would have [...]