The flavor of petroleum in wine of Trentin-Haut-Adige

Disconcerting: I couldn’t forget this bottle for days afterwards. Still can’t. Back in August, wine critic Lin Liu MW (together with her partner Philippe Lejeune of Château de Chambert in Cahors) came to dinner, en route to a short holiday in Provence. One of the bottles Lin brought for us to try together was the 2018 Les Rocheuses, Parcelles No 5 et 6, from Château Le Rey in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. It came in a slope-shouldered bottle, not a classic Bordeaux bottle. We tried it with some R ...

Champagne is a protected denomination of origin (PDO) in the EU, just like Parmigiano Reggiano, Kalamata olive oil from Greece and paprika from Murcia in Spain. Belgian officials determined that Miller High Life’s century-old motto represents an infringement of the PDO, and they ruled that the cans were therefore illicit goods. Workers at a plant in Ypres destroyed the batch, sending out a clear warning to the world that the Champagne brand is not to be messed with. ‘The Comité Champagne helps t ...

What to drink now… Mimosa Perfect for spring brunch, the Mimosa is a mix of equal parts Champagne and orange juice. The cocktail is attributed to Frank Meier, head bartender at the Paris Ritz, who served the first Mimosa in 1925, though the recipe appeared elsewhere in France at the same time. Either way, it’s a twist on the British Buck’s Fizz, invented in 1921 at the Buck’s Club in London, which used more Champagne and could include gin. Avoid vintage fizzes or special cuvées: a classic ...