Armagnac is a brandy that hails from the Gascony region of Southwestern France.  Traditionally, Armagnac is consumed in a snifter, but today it is often served in a shorter, narrower glass like a sherry copita.  Armagnac is commonly served straight and is typically consumed after a meal.  Its sublime flavors and bold alcohol make Armagnac a true digestif, providing immense gustatory pleasure while simultaneously aiding digestion…

Last month I had an opportunity to spend two days in the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene region of the Veneto and experience Prosecco Superiore DOCG first hand.  It was everything I didn’t expect: a gorgeous, rural landscape dotted with small villages and with vineyards so steep it was if we were in the middle Mosel.  What also quickly became apparent was the monumental gap between worlds of simple Prosecco DOC and Prosecco…

In November 2011, we had the opportunity to interview Dr. Carole Meredith, Professor Emerita in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California at Davis.  We discussed her work in the field of grape genetics, the recent history of ampelography, and her own project, Lagier Meredith Vineyard in Napa Valley, which she owns with her husband Steve Lagier.

Guild: Dr. Meredith, as a professor at UC…

With the year drawing to a close, we asked our 2011 TOP|SOMM and Top New Somm finalists to highlight five favorite, impactful new releases from the past year, regardless of price.  Selections from each finalist are not listed in any particular order.  Price is approximate retail, with importers in parenthesis where appropriate.

Ian Cauble (The Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay, CA) TOP|SOMM 2011

1. Jean Paul Brune, Terres Doree…

I was really pleased with the response to my first article here on wine flavour chemistry. Some of the comments raised interesting questions, and to do these justice I thought I’d use them as the basis for this second piece.

‘As amazing as this article is we must not for forget the statement that the interaction between the wine and the taster has a huge influence on the final outcome and ultimately the perception…

Tom Stevenson opens the pages behind his Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia, its perceived location in the geography of wine literature, its historical connection with the very first edition of Johnson’s The World Atlas of Wine, and highlights what’s new in the 5th Edition, which was published by DK on 31 October 2011.

I would never dream of writing anything as self-indulgent as this had Matt Stamp…

Did you know: Berry Bros. and Rudd started out as a coffee shop?  A single living tree may have sired every coffee plant in the Western Hemisphere?  German coffee-drinkers disgrace the national pastime of beer?  French coffee is terrible?  Read on!....

The Origins of Coffee

In the beginning, the Coffea arabica tree grew wild on the mountainsides of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) but the precise moment that man ascertained…

Have been thinking about wine lists lately.

My wife rolls her eyes when I ask for the wine list. Not because she thinks I might spend too much (she already knows that!) but because she’ll be deprived of my sparkling conversation while I try to make sense of the offerings, with two things in mind. Numero uno, obviously: is there anything we might want to drink? Numero two-o, with more at stake: is there an intelligent…

Winemaking can be traced back thousands of years to ancient societies in China and the Middle East, and that has given rise to a lot of romantic ideas and myths about wine. There’s the general idea that wine is a “civilized” beverage, in part because one of its origins was the ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean societies – like Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome – that are often thought of as the basis of Western…

Out there in the real world beyond the damask, the Riedel and the head chefs' egos there may still be a few who believe that the world is flat. There are certainly those who, astonishingly enough in view of the contrary scientific evidence, persist in believing in Intelligent Design, whom we used to call Creationists. There may indeed be some left who still consider it a good idea to sell arms to corrupt and oppressive…