http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room Ray Isle's Wine Blog en-us Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:03:03 -0500 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:04:21 -0500 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/10/12/NYC-Wine--Food-Festival-Beaucastel-Tasting Over the weekend I had the good fortune to introduce (and then sit on a panel with) Marc Perrin of Château Beaucastel, as eighty or so equally fortunate people got to taste through a vertical of Château Beaucastel going back to 1988. The wi... Tastings Red Wine Wines Above $40 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:04:21 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/10/12/NYC-Wine--Food-Festival-Beaucastel-Tasting Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/9/22/Revisiting-a-Classic In my October column on 50 of the classic wines of the world, I singled out Castello di Monsanto's renowned Il Poggio bottling as a defining example of Chianti. So it was good fortune, or weird coincidence, or something, that Monsanto's Laura... Tastings Vintners Wines Above $40 Vineyards Red Wine Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:39:02 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/9/22/Revisiting-a-Classic Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/9/21/Wine-Week-Part-Three Obviously, last Wednesday was an epic day (as evidenced by the fact that it's taken me three days to blog about all of its goings on). The day began with New Zealand Riesling and Pinot Gris, shaded into Sauternes and then was pleasantly capped of... Tastings Red Wine Wines Above $40 Winemakers Wines $20 to $40 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:07:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/9/21/Wine-Week-Part-Three Megan Krigbaum http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/7/21/A-Little-Grenache-Geekery--A-Good-Cheap-Cabernet Chris Ringland, the star Australian winemaker whose eponymous and much acclaimed Chris Ringland Shiraz sells for a modest (ahem) $600 or so a bottle, stopped by the office the other day to pour a few of his substantially less pricey wines. (In the in... Tastings Wines Under $20 Red Wine Wines Above $40 Winemakers Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:07:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/7/21/A-Little-Grenache-Geekery--A-Good-Cheap-Cabernet Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/7/10/Best-Wines-for-Burning-Beast This weekend, Seattle chefs—including F&W Best New Chefs, like Tilth’s Maria Hines, Lark’s Jon Sundstrom and Sitka and Spruce’s Matt Dillon—will head to Smoke Farm for the second annual Burning Beast. Founded by chef... Wines Above $40 Pairings Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:45:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/7/10/Best-Wines-for-Burning-Beast Kristin Donnelly http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/5/20/Amazingly-LongLived-Riojas I had the good fortune yesterday to attend a substantial retrospective of gran reserva Riojas from some of the top producers in the region. I've long been a Rioja fan, and have for just about as long been convinced that traditionally styled Rioja... Tastings Red Wine Wines Above $40 Wines Under $20 Wed, 20 May 2009 16:25:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/5/20/Amazingly-LongLived-Riojas Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/5/18/Masseto-Wine-Dinner-at-Bouley Last week, I attended a dinner at Bouley, where winemaker Axel Heinz presented four vintages of Tenuta dell’Ornellaia’s Masseto (the highly acclaimed Merlot-based Super Tuscan), including the not-yet-released 2006 as well as the 2005, 200... Tastings Red Wine Wines Above $40 White Wine Mon, 18 May 2009 17:28:01 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/5/18/Masseto-Wine-Dinner-at-Bouley Kristin Donnelly http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/5/12/Sojourn-Cellars-Impressive-Pinots--Cabernets If you've read through our just-released June issue you may know that I spent some time a little while back engaged in a cork-taint sniff-off with a Labrador named Ziggy. A fun story to write—but I didn't get to run a picture of Ziggy a... Vintners Wines Above $40 Red Wine Wines $20 to $40 Tue, 12 May 2009 17:02:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/5/12/Sojourn-Cellars-Impressive-Pinots--Cabernets Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/4/27/2007-Port-Declaration-Tasting I stopped by briefly this afternoon at a tasting of the new 2007 Vintage Ports (here's a lengthy report from Jancis Robinson on the vintage) from some of the major houses, and walked away very impressed. Based on this group, the '07s are more... News Red Wine Wines Above $40 Dessert Wine Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:03:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/4/27/2007-Port-Declaration-Tasting Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/4/10/Taste-Washington-Report This past weekend I had the good fortune to attend Taste Washington, an extravaganza of Washington State wines put on in a few places around the country every year. I was at the mothership incarnation of the thing, in Seattle, a mighty cool town (lik... Chefs White Wine Red Wine Wines Above $40 Pairings Wines $20 to $40 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:22:27 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/4/10/Taste-Washington-Report Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/3/26/Five-TopNotch-Chardonnays-Shafer-Varner-Newton Having just finished a column on unoaked Chardonnay (which will be out in our May issue), it's been refreshing to turn around and taste some very good California Chardonnays that do use oak. After all, oak is hardly a black-and-white question&#82... White Wine Wines Above $40 Wines $20 to $40 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:16:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/3/26/Five-TopNotch-Chardonnays-Shafer-Varner-Newton Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/2/27/Four-Good-Reds A little France vs. California match-up for the weekend, for no good reason other than that the wines were in our tasting room, they were good, and writing about them seemed like the thing to do. So nice to have one's purpose in life be so clear,... Red Wine Wines Above $40 Wines Under $20 Wines $20 to $40 Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:00:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/2/27/Four-Good-Reds Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/2/19/Martinborough-Pinot-Noir Not long ago I was in New Zealand, and got a chance to visit a number of winemakers in the Martinborough region. Martinborough has a simple problem—it sounds a lot like Marlborough, the much larger and more well-known region on the South Island... [More] Tastings White Wine Red Wine Wines Above $40 Vineyards Wines $20 to $40 Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:23:26 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/2/19/Martinborough-Pinot-Noir Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/2/13/Its-Valentines-Buy-Someone-Some-Burgundy I suppose you could spring for the usual rosé Champagne or box of fancy chocolates, but why not a bottle of Burgundy instead? I can't think of any good reason. Also, I was at the Frederick Wildman Burgundy portfolio dinner at WD-50 the other... Tastings White Wine Red Wine Wines Above $40 Wines $20 to $40 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:23:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/2/13/Its-Valentines-Buy-Someone-Some-Burgundy Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/2/12/A-Pair-of-Terrific-California-Chardonnays I've decided that I'm in love with a clone. Specifically, the Rued clone of Chardonnay (yes, that's what it's come to). It's a selection that originally came from a vineyard Warren Dutton planted in Sonoma's Green Valley in 19... Wines Above $40 White Wine Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:10:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/2/12/A-Pair-of-Terrific-California-Chardonnays Ray Isle