I’ve always been a bubbly enthusiast – bar the brief phase as a neophyte, vehemently denouncing the region of Champagne out of myopic unfamiliarity (“why would you pay hundreds of dollars for sparkling bread water?!”) – but for some reason the ember has recently been amplified for at least a modicum of time. It struck me as a bit odd, since the grandes marques of the wine world are the opposite of the dark horses I like to champion, but I’ve popped open a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck’s non-vintaged brut (it was on sale, obviously), as I pound away at a daunting spreadsheet covering what I’ve deemed are the 70-or-so most important Champagne houses, everything down to oak regimes, house styles, or whether or not they were fucked over during an acquisition.… read more
Tag: Italy
On Nova Scotian bubbles, mature Friulano, and aged Californian Chardonnay
It’s an odd feeling – I’ve spent a decent spoonful of my adult life working outside of Canada, enough that I have to think twice about which boxes and lines I have to fill out on forms. Also very real: living through the lengthy process of waiting at the DMV, and wondering whether I should list my height in centimetres to throw the workers off, only to realize that it’s probably best not to potentially risk going back to the end of the line. Can Fahrenheit not?
Wine availability, politics, and markets are markedly different in Vancouver compared to San Francisco, and keeping my nose close to both is a bit of a challenge, especially with the constantly evolving wine scene in Canada.… read more
Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri 2017: On Prosecco, Italy’s power bottom
I have no real desire to flesh out this (very real) analogy to fruition, but should it end up inadvertently educating you, my job here is done!
I have even less desire to write another several paragraphs about how much I think people should ditch the tank method Italian sparkling for something yeastier and Maillard-esque. Sorry, guys: sometimes Prosecco is exactly what you need when you’re recording a drag podcast at 11AM on a Monday with your friend who’s in Barcelona (his clock: 8PM). Stop telling me to ditch pears for dough, and soft padding for the sting of overinflated volleyballs. Which were never passed to me in high school gym class, anyways.
It’s obvious that the suited sommeliers don’t flock to bottles of Prosecco at events like San Francisco’s Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri tasting, and instead, place all focus on Italy’s rightly famed reds.… read more
Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri 2017: Orvieto, the filler queen of Umbria
Spring is upon us, fellow wine humans! You know what that means: it’s time to pretend that the invisible curtain that’s been draped over every wine, coloured white and rosé – existing only to shame anyone who decided to drink anything but a red mouth flannel during the cold season – has been lifted. Prepare your eyeholes for barrages of “12 wines to pair with Sheila’s garden party” and “You Won’t Believe This Pinot Grigio I Just Tried”. (Please still invite me, Sheila.)
Orvieto, hailing from Italy’s Umbria, seems like that forgettable friend you kind of knew but lost all contact with once you entered high school, eclipsed by the region’s demandingly gruff red superstar, Sagrantino. Considering that my only memorable experience of a white Orvieto back home in Canada (and “memorable” is a generous word, here) was a vaguely melon-scented bottle that did nothing but provide a lukewarm impression on my tongue, I was drawn to the offerings at San Francisco’s 2017 Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri tasting. … read more
28 bottles of Nebbiolo to warm your lonely frigid heart on Valentine’s Day
For 2013’s Valentine’s Day, my 20-year-old collegiate self suggested Gewurztraminer to pair with Chinese takeout and Adele; Muscadet to pair with tears and oysters; French rosé to pair with loneliness; and Asti for guilty pleasures. I might be suggesting Nebbiolo this time around, but let it be known that I’m still as happily unkempt as the last of those 2013 pairings. Good job, past self. My university persona regrets almost nothing: maybe one moment involving that necklace MacGyvered from a nondescript sabred sparkling wine cork, some wire, and two mismatching chains. I wore this everywhere for a good chunk of time. Alas.
Amongst what I would expect are the inevitable and seasonal release of tedious yet informative wine-and-chocolate-pairing articles (We get it!… read more
Pairing fumes with Italy’s Fumin
No – I didn’t misspell “Furmint”, Hungary’s distictive superstar producing fierce white wines. Fumin is missing Furmint’s “T” and “R” – and trust me – many of us would gladly remove the “U” and “M” and be left with “FIN”. And we all know there has purportedly been too much “P” to remove.
Like major historic and tumultuous events that get recorded in textbooks but that people now choose to ignore, Italy’s Valle d’Aosta is a region that always seems like a brief whisper of an afterthought in most wine reference books I’ve read, and a region which has its indigenous Fumin, a black grape with the potential to create cherry-scented, dark-fruited, and muscly wines that are sometimes added to blends for colour and brawn. … read more
2016 was questionable, so here are 20 wines to pair with 2017
I ended a past blog post – themed: a review of 2015 – with the words “Welcome, 2016. I will cut you.” Though I feel like I did personally make some substantial dents in this crunchy titanium can of a year, the general consensus seems to be that we created a blueprint for goodness, but then said blueprint was stolen, lit on fire, and then puréed with an unwashed beige-coloured towel embroidered with the words “~fUcK yOu~”, styled in Comic Sans MS.
I won’t fill this post with hopes for 2017 so that I don’t build myself a bigger bowl of disappointment, but instead will list wines that remind me of an upwards trend of hope, a vague connection to the vapid consolation of Pantone’s Color of the Year, a fresh and flora-driven yellow-green named “Greenery“.… read more
16 sparkling wines to drink alone in your room on New Year’s Eve
Girl, do not limit yourself. You can pick any day! New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, or fuck: why not March 6th? I support you.
On that note of celebrations, though, I don’t understand why it’s ridiculously vogue to aggressively bluster about how you’re over partying with large crowds and noisy beats. We get it. Can you stop making me feel bad for not fitting into your definition of introvert, for once? I can be the biggest withdrawn human endlessly swaying to Björk and eating baby carrots, but maybe my version of Saturday night Chopin and Netflix occasionally involves enjoying a Hillary Clinton drag impersonator rip off four layered tearaway pantsuits in a row at a bar where I’ve made just the right amount of mistakes over the past few months.… read more
Brun-hello? It’s me. San Francisco and a throwback to 12 bottles
You guys! It’s been around three weeks since I’ve arrived in San Francisco for what I’ve been telling everyone are secret wine projects. Which they are. It hasn’t really kicked in that I’m here yet, to be honest, and the whole city just seems like a stretched-out Vancouver with Inception-like shifting of buildings. And much less green. It’s like Vancouver and San Francisco were made from the same grape – but clearly have different expressions – like Chianti and Brunello, or something.
And it’s fucking tech central, you guys. I mean – yes, obviously – but have you seen HBO’s Silicon Valley? I’m convinced that it’s not satire. Attempting to suavely grab a baby carrot while maintaining eye contact during someone’s pitch during a Stanford mixer, and then accidentally dipping your hand in a bowl of ranch dressing?… read more
The good, the bad, and the bubbly: 9 bottles to bathe in
Okay – not literally, obviously, but I’m waiting for Gwyneth Paltrow’s new beauty regime that involves using a specific wines as exfoliants and face mask ingredients. Chardonnay from Puligny-Montrachet? Fuck that, she would say, with the flick of a finger. Chassagne-Montrachet is where it’s at. Or blanc de blancs Champagne, only from the 1996 vintage. And, of course, cucumber slices. Maybe an avocado.
Anyways, here’s a random collection of bub. I’ve finally tried a legit sparkling Nebbiolo after having joked about it for so long, and then there’s also a birth year bottle of Dom Pérignon, a stunningly electric sparkling British Columbian Riesling, and a collection of other cool and uncool bottles. It’s become suddenly warm in Vancouver, and I broke the summer hiking seal on the last day of March.… read more