Winery Grifton Cellars Barrel Selection Bourbon Edition Old Vine Zinfandel

There’s a reason why heavily-applied perfume ranks highly on most wine lovers’ list of pet peeves. It overpowers your senses, conceals aromas and distorts your perception of a wine. In professional tastings and wine exams the wearing of perfume is banned, if not thoroughly frowned upon. You just don’t do it. What then, if we applied the same logic to music, controlling the sounds we hear, or don’t hear, while tasting wine? There’s no doubt that a chaotic environment can clog your synapses, makin ...

Andrea Franchetti, one of the most talented and visionary Italian producers, has died at the age of 72 in Rome. In 30 years exactly, he positioned his superTuscan Trinoro among the top Italian references, producing a wine with stylish elegance and outstanding potential for ageing. Franchetti’s Bordeaux blends were without the over-extractions that were on-trend in the 2000s, nor the excess of fruit following phenolic maturity. He followed a precise idea to produce classic wines for the long haul ...

I n 2009 Prosecco was re-mapped in sweeping changes that created an extensive new zone for the production of Prosecco DOC and elevated the traditional growing areas of Valdobbiadene-Conegliano to DOCG, Italy’s top denomination. At that time, one might have overlooked the fact that the new legislation also created a small, independent DOCG for Asolo Prosecco to the west of the river Piave. The sparkling wines of the area had low visibility, producers were few and production was limited. However t ...