I have never found Jesus an especially attractive personality, but one of the few things he did that meets with my wholehearted approval was to turn water into wine. One wonders what the results tasted like. A great DRC Burgundy, such as La Tâche? A Pétrus-style Bordeaux? Or, given that the occasion was a wedding, a mighty Champagne like Dom Perignon or Krug? In first-century Palestine that would have made their eyes pop.

Whatever the miraculous wine was like, one can only hope it did not resemble the other stuff that has been sloshing out of the Holy Land for the last few thousand years. Most of the so-called sacramental wines are sweet, syrupy reds fit only for comparison with Coca-Cola. Had any of these been served at my wedding, I would have been grateful to see them turned back into water.  Read the rest of this entry »

With so many fine new labels coming out of Australia nowadays, it is easy to forget the ones that have been around a long time. The grandaddy of them all is Penfolds, a firm that has been in business since the 1840s.

During its first hundred years of existence, Penfolds concentrated on fortified wines and brandies. All that changed after the firm’s chief winemaker, Max Schubert, visited Europe in the late 1940s. Schubert was taken up by the Bordeaux winemaker Christian Cruse, who taught him the craft of making first-class wine. The young pupil became obsessed by the idea of making an Australian wine to rival the French classics.   Read the rest of this entry »

The world’s Pinot Noir makers divide into two schools. There are those who say “We are striving for greatness.  The greatest Pinot Noirs are made in Burgundy. Therefore our Pinot Noir will be as Burgundian as we can make it.”  Others say “We too are striving for greatness, but greatness can take many forms.  It is impossible to fake a Burgundy, so we are not going to try. Our Pinot Noir will take on whatever character our location and technique give it. If the results are not Burgundian, so what?  All that matters is that the wine be outstanding.”

The first school contains some Oregon houses, one or two in California, and many more in New Zealand. The second covers just about everyone else, including the Argyle winery of Dundee, Oregon. Read the rest of this entry »