http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room Ray Isle's Wine Blog en-us Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:41:59 -0500 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:14:00 -0500 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/10/27/Rocks-in-Your-Mouth A group of geologists in Oregon have a few skeptical things to say about the notion of "minerality" in wine, the Southern Oregon Mail Tribute reports. They've got a good point or two—that the amount of actual minerals in wine is b... News Tastings Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:14:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/10/27/Rocks-in-Your-Mouth Ray Isle http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/10/27/Black-Tea-Vodka When angry colonists threw tea into Boston Harbor in 1773, they had no idea that their rebellion would eventually lead to the American Revolutionary War in 1775, or that it would inspire the creation of another kind of beverage in 2009: Absolut Vodka... News Recipes Tastings Spirits Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:20:53 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/10/27/Black-Tea-Vodka Alessandra Bulow 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/2009/9/21/Balvenies-New-LimitedEdition-Whiskey When a friend invited me to a five-course, whiskey-paired dinner at Eleven Madison Park last Wednesday, I hesitated before accepting. I’ve been to plenty of wine- and beer-paired dinners, but sipping whiskey through a meal sounded a little inte... News Tastings Spirits Biodynamics Pairings Restaurants Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:41:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/9/21/Balvenies-New-LimitedEdition-Whiskey Jen Murphy http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/9/18/Wine-Week-Part-Two After a morning spent with New Zealand wines, I hustled off in the afternoon to a Sauternes-Barsac tasting. Sauternes and Barsac, locate in the southwestern corner of Bordeaux, are known for producing sweet wines made with the Semillon, Sauvignon Bla... Tastings Dessert Wine Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:16:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/9/18/Wine-Week-Part-Two 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/2009/7/21/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/2009/7/15/Tequila--Ice-Cream I stopped by NYC's Hill Country Barbecue & Market last night for a semi-impromptu blind tasting of tequilas (no rest for the weary, indeed). The general gist of the thing, concocted by Hill Country bar director extraordinaire Jessica Stone an... Tastings Spirits Pairings Restaurants Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:47:00 -0500 http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/tasting-room/2009/7/15/Tequila--Ice-Cream Ray Isle 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/2009/5/20/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/2009/2/19/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