TWO OF BURGUNDY’S BEST HAVE JOINED WISDOM

What if Toni Morrison and Harper Lee wrote a book together? Or Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammed Ali opened a boxing school? There are few names you can mention in any field that everyone with even a little exposure will recognize. Yet at Chateau des Quarts, two of Burgundy’s best have joined wisdom. In the […]
ISOLE E OLENA — PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

We all have it. But what do we learn from it? The first time I met Paolo de Marchi, owner of Isole e Olena in Tuscany, I was an insignificant young wine seller working the floor in a shop in south Calgary. I’d recently tasted his Chianti Classico and had been astounded by its elegance […]
TIBERIO FROM ABRUZZO IS MAKING YOUR NEXT GO-TO WINE

Abruzzo-cadabra—pulling great out of seemingly nowhere When was the last time you sought out a wine from Abruzzo, never mind kept some at-the-ready? The truth is, it’s never been a default drinking option beyond satisfying a curiosity or including it in an educational tasting. The closest it’s come to staplehood are some fairly mass bottlings […]
PRODUTTORI DEL BARBARESCO SHOWS CO-OPS DON’T HAVE TO SUCK BY DEFAULT

A lot has been written about Produttori and their superb wines. More than that, they’ve done it in the cooperative model which is infamous for medium- to low-quality wine. But Produttori del Barbaresco shows co-ops don’t have to suck by default. How? The short answer is “intention”. But it goes much deeper than that. First, […]
DOMAINE MARCEL DEISS VIEWS TERROIR AS SYNESTHESIA

The word terroir is a fun one to drop because:1. many agree on its general definition2. some dispute its validity altogether3. others have a more specific idea of what it really is and its true role.This last group is the most interesting, and is where one Alsatian wine legend is firmly planted. With a history of going […]