September 2012
1 post
Another Coast Entirely
There’s always a reason to drink bourbon. Whatever your context, there’s an argument: it goes well with dust and transition and people in a hurry; even the cheap stuff sands the edges and shades the glare. It blunts boredom and invites sleep. There’s no better booze when you’re tired of technicolor.
I drained a liter or two of it during a recent period of shapeshifting,...
July 2012
2 posts
Vodka, pour les Américains
I’m back in Paris after a week following an odd trail across France: the path of a bottle of Grey Goose from start (in a Picardy wheat field) to finish (in a factory in Cognac). I’m not a vodka person, really, but I am an American who generally associates France with luxury, and for Grey Goose, that’s half the battle won. Of course, it helps that the spirit holds up its end of...
Yuzu + John Lee Hooker
Now on Serious Eats: my interview with Greg Seider at The Summit Bar, where you must go if you have a thing for outstanding booze.
June 2012
3 posts
Plus: G&T on Tap
My first look at Gin Palace, from the kids who brought you most of the other fancy bars in the East Village.
Now Serving Elsewhere
New on Serious Eats, my “first look” at Middle Branch, the latest entry in Sasha Petraske’s suite of cocktail lounges.
It's Worth All the Traffic
It’s funny to watch wine people deal with California. In public discussions (you never know what people drink in private), there seem to be only naysayers and defender-evangelists, as though merely enjoying the occasional West Coast wine marks you as insufficiently geeky. There are two columns from which to choose; you’re to tick one box, then double down.
Before I fell in with this...
April 2012
2 posts
They Had Great Sandwiches, Too
Eventually, someone will ask. What’s the wine that got you into wine? Then come the phenomenal answers. Ancient Brunellos discovered on semesters abroad and Burgundies shared with lovers who don’t speak the language. You know, mind-blowing wines, the ones built like time machines and man, what luck to meet them right there at the top of the road. I hear these stories and I almost never...
Take a Picture, It'll Last Longer
You can tell I’ve fallen for something when my handwriting gets psychotic, panicked, attended by arrows and profanity and amendments. I talk to myself. It’s less “Hmm, is that lemon or lime?” and more “Oh, shit, okay, Jesus, it’s like, baked red soil and fresh laundry? That tall grass I remember from Girl Scout camp. There’s chocolate, wildflowers,...
March 2012
1 post
Nicolas Joly & the Art of Doing Nothing
For those unfamiliar with Nicolas Joly, I’ll start not with a list of pertinent bio bullets, but instead with a challenge, recently issued by Joly himself. Smiling to a packed audience of acolytes (they’ve brought bottles for him to sign) and gentle skeptics (every Mulder needs a Scully), Joly suggests buying a bottle of his wine, and leaving it out, open, exposed to the air. For 8...
February 2012
6 posts
The Best of Truth or Consequences
Here’s a true thing about me: I love a good loop. When I fall for something, I want a lot of it and right away, until I’ve had so much of it I wear out the very idea of its existence. If I love a song, I suck the spine out by leaving it on repeat for days; no one this side of pre-school is better than I am at re-watching the same episode of television. For awhile there, I could have...
Now Serving Elsewhere
Madeira for Mothers (and everyone else, really), and Bubbles for Brides.
What to Drink When You're Drinking Before Noon
In a moment, when I say “Valpolicella works for breakfast,” let’s be clear I don’t mean brunch. It’s terrific for brunch, too, just as it is for early dinners & late night pizza and most of the times in between, but for my main thesis, there’s no reason for me to equivocate and pretend I’m solely recommending it for afternoon consumption.
...
Yes, that's Thousand Island on the Label
The bottle doesn’t specify that one should pair this well-rounded white Bordeaux with wings and a burger, so I’ll make the addendum here: one totally should. I’ve put it through its paces, pitting it against seriously unfriendly foods, only to have it play diplomat to every flavor.
Everyone gets a boost when Chateau Graville-Lacoste shows up, all rich, flinty funk and creamy,...
... and Real Pain for Our Sham Ones
I drink a fair amount of sparkling wine, but very little actual Champagne. It’s a price thing, sure, combined with a touch of sheepishness over how I’d consume that bottle of Veuve Clicquot, were I to spring for it: over sushi and a rerun of Justified. It’s not that I lack special occasions, it’s that I lack self control. I’d buy it to save, and within the week have...
Now Serving Elsewhere
New boozy posts in other corners of the internet: 5 Ways to Get Lost in Spain on Snooth (in which I track down all the non-Rioja bottles at a Spanish wine expo); They Said That About Malbec Once, Too on Grand Crüe (in which I continue to not shut up about Bonarda).
January 2012
7 posts
"It's not just older than you. It's older than...
I spent Sunday afternoon at a tasting hosted by The Rare Wine Co., an importer and retailer I love even though they’ve never sold me a single bottle. They’re largely out of my range, but man, do I love their newsletter. It’s a little manila number that describes, in sweet, witty detail, all the ones that get away. I imagine it’s fun to peruse while sipping something from...
What We Talk About When We Talk About Muscadet
I spent the afternoon hunting down a bottle of Cahors for a different project, my mind set on drinking it this evening, all on its own. All day, though, the weather’s been arguing against it. We’ve got springtime sunlight and seaside clouds; it’s warmer than it ought to be. This is a day that wants a white. But not just any.
The northeast in January? If you say so.
I picked...
Müller-Thurgau, for All Your Hyphenated Grape...
It took me a little longer than it should have to come around to Riesling. I don’t even have the excuse that I spent years burned by cheap, syrupy versions, and that I finally saw the light once someone introduced me to the dry gold of the Mosel. No, my first real interactions with Riesling were with the good stuff, poured by evangelists who tailored the experience to my (misguided) fear of...
It's the Small Things
Don’t bother with this one if you’re looking for a gift for a wine snob (let’s not give those folks gifts, anyway), and don’t buy it for yourself if you say things like “you know, you don’t really need anything other than a simple wine key.” You’re not wrong, but it doesn’t make this thing any less fun to use:
My favorite stocking...
3 tags
In Defense of Dessert Wine
When it comes to dessert wine, the people I know break into two groups: hatred and indifference. I’ve been in both of these camps. The hatred stems from associations that a suburban upbringing gives you for sweet alcohol (Franzia; Tupperware parties; high school hangovers; Arbor Mist; pinkness; baby showers; things your stepmother drinks while listening to Joni Mitchell). The indifference...
5 tags
Soave: Let's Drink More of It
So, I spent the summer and fall forgetting to drink Soave. Last winter, I attended several lovely “drink more Soave” rallies (tastings, I think they’re actually called); enough, you’d think, to have me not only drinking Soave, but also learning to pronounce it, writing about it and demanding that every local wine store carry more of it. I won’t go on about what I...
5 tags
3 Flights to California
I love Zinfandel. I’d declare it my favorite domestic varietal, except that — no, you know what? It’s my favorite domestic varietal. I was going to claim that I haven’t had sufficient exposure to the good stuff to really call the game, but I’ve met enough genuine heartbreakers to know Zin’s the one to beat. It works out well, too, as I often find myself...
September 2011
1 post
On the Value of Faking It
Let’s just get it out there. I am a wine fraud. Not of the scandalous or glamorous variety—I don’t trade in counterfeit Bordeaux or misrepresent the value of my wine collection (let’s not honor the six dusty bottles in my wine rack by calling them “a collection.”) No, I’m the standard-issue wine fraud, the person who has loved wine for over a decade, but...
