http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room Ray Isle's Wine Blog en-us Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:02:26 -0500 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:07:00 -0500 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 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/2009/8/20/Argentinas-Great-Imported-Winemaker Alberto Antonini is one of the world's most influential winemakers, consulting on wines everywhere from his native Italy to Uruguay, California and Portugal. I recently sat down with Alberto to taste through a selection of wines he's consulti... Tastings White Wine Wines Under $20 Red Wine Winemakers Wines $20 to $40 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:50:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/8/20/Argentinas-Great-Imported-Winemaker Megan Krigbaum http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/7/30/Is-Malbec-Next-for-Long-Island People have come to think of Long Island for good Merlot and perhaps to a lesser extent, Cabernet Franc. Sauvignon Blanc is also getting a bit of buzz. In new wine regions, producers and wine writers love to proclaim the new hot grape variety every f... Red Wine Winemakers Wines $20 to $40 Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:28:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/7/30/Is-Malbec-Next-for-Long-Island Kristin Donnelly http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/7/13/Friday-Night-Tribute-to-Alice-and-Olivier-de-Moor Friday evening found me hanging out at the Lower East Side wine bar Ten Bells with a couple of friends who were in from Paris and with the wines of Chablis producers, Alice and Olivier de Moor. This pair has been making wine together in Chablis since... White Wine Wine Bars Winemakers Wines $20 to $40 Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:08:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/7/13/Friday-Night-Tribute-to-Alice-and-Olivier-de-Moor Megan Krigbaum http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/6/26/Aspen-Recap-2-Burger-Bonanza-Wines The 2009 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen wrapped up this past Sunday, but I figured I'd blog about one or two highlights from it anyway. One of them, not to blow my own horn, was the slightly crazy blind-burger-pairing-old-world-vs.-new-world-wi... [More] Tastings White Wine Red Wine Pairings Wines $20 to $40 Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:25:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/6/26/Aspen-Recap-2-Burger-Bonanza-Wines Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/6/22/A-Great-Old-Wine As I seem now to do every year, I stopped last week in Boulder before heading up to the F&W Classic in Aspen for the annual pre-Aspen wine dinner that Travel & Leisure's contributing wine editor Bruce Schoenfeld throws. As usual, it was a... Tastings Red Wine Wines $20 to $40 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:42:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/6/22/A-Great-Old-Wine Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/6/1/A-Surprise-from-Bonny-Doon I’ll admit it. I didn’t expect much from the 2005 Bonny Doon Vineyard Ca’ del Solo Nebbiolo ($30, buy this wine)—most domestic wines made with Italian grape varieties that I've had have tasted generic at best. But when I s... Wines $20 to $40 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:20:01 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/6/1/A-Surprise-from-Bonny-Doon 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/2009/4/10/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/2009/3/31/Very-Good-Viogniers Domestic Viognier—actually, make that Viognier in general—is often a disappointing grape variety, partly because when it's good, it's so seductive. Good Viognier has a floral silkiness, a kind of summertime peach ripeness and not-... White Wine Wines $20 to $40 Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:27:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/3/31/Very-Good-Viogniers 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/2009/3/20/A-Trio-of-Good-OffDry-Whites Maybe it's the odd juxtaposition of snow and the beginning of Spring, but somehow the idea of an off-dry (lightly sweet) white wine seems like the ideal thing today. Maybe it's the thought that if Spring were actually acting like Spring is su... White Wine Wines Under $20 Wines $20 to $40 Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:50:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/3/20/A-Trio-of-Good-OffDry-Whites 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