One Winedrinker’s Opinion
MORE INFORMATION ON WHAT IS IN WINE
The question of what is in wine and ingredient labeling is one that The Underground has covered for many years (to read an article summarizing the question of what is in wine and the need for ingredient labeling and the issue of wine fraud click here. Yet despite all the information that is available on […]
Click here to read entire article »IT’S ABOUT TIME: WINE INGREDIENT LABELING MAYBE COMING!
BACKGROUND From my earliest days drinking wine in the 70s I would taste a wine that was very different from what I was used to tasting in that kind of wine and wonder “what is in the wine”. Later on I began to figure out based on tasting that there had to be things […]
Click here to read entire article »THE CURRENT STATE OF NAPA VALLEY
A recent article in The New York Times featured a brief history of the Napa Valley and one of its major vineyard owners Andy Beckstoffer. Mr. Beckstoffer is 80 years old and has been around Napa Valley since 1967. At that time he worked for Heublein, an East Coast-based liquor conglomerate. He helped them […]
Click here to read entire article »THE UNDERGROUND WINELETTER: WHY WE ARE DIFFERENT
Historical Background From the very beginning nearly 40 years ago The Underground Wineletter was different and spelled out very clearly our mission and how we planned on implementing it. Clarity and transparency were major objectives. In the last nine years since The Underground has been on line we have been publishing the old print […]
Click here to read entire article »THE WINE EXPERIENCE & THE JOY OF OLD WINES
Recently in a flurry of emails between several very experienced wine drinkers there were many questions and opinions about old wines including decanting, bottle variation, and different opinions on the same wine by different tasters. All the opinions were from people who have spent their lives tasting and drinking the best wines in the […]
Click here to read entire article »RESTAURANT WINE PRICING – HOW HIGH IS HIGH?
It’s truffle season and the best restaurants in the country are offering special multi-course dinners offering the rare, expensive fungus. In planning one dinner and reviewing the online wine list of a famed San Francisco three star Michelin restaurant, I was struck by the inflated pricing of the bottles. Newly released 2013 and 2014 Burgundies, […]
Click here to read entire article »WINE TASTINGS – WHAT ARE THEY ?
First, I tackled the question of Wine Writing – What Is It? (to read that article click here). Now The Underground, never afraid to venture into complex subjects, explores another enigma wrapped in a riddle: Wine Tastings – What Are They? Well, it depends. You see “wine tastings” come in many forms. They range from […]
Click here to read entire article »ATTENTION ALL WINE DRINKERS: DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DRINKING?
Do you really know the wine you are drinking? Maybe not. Consider this. Recently I received a note from an old friend who was trying to drink a cult Napa Valley Cabernet and he had this to say: I am sitting here sipping a .. …… .. ……… It tastes like black cherry cough drops […]
Click here to read entire article »ALCHEMY?…ANOTHER REASON FOR INGREDIENT LABELING?
In an article by James Duren entitled “Bye Bye Oak Barrel: Spanish Sleuths Discover Aroma Yeast” yet another case was made by researchers to put more additives in wine. Take a look: It may be the smallest of elements which have the biggest impact on flavor. A team of researchers from the Polytechnic University of […]
Click here to read entire article »WHERE HAS NAPA VALLEY GONE?
LONG TIME PASSING WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN? As I look back on the changes in Napa Valley over the last 40 years since my friends and I first started going there in the early 1970s, I cannot help but reflect on the great Pete Seeger song “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”. This song […]
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