A Tasting of Grower Champagnes

The Vienna Wine Company and WineWise Oakland, California presented a tasting of 86 Grower-Producer Champagnes from Terry Theise Estate Selections and WineWise in October at Campanile Restaurant in Los Angeles.

The Champagnes are delicious, hand-crafted and estate-bottled, grown and produced by a vintner or by a family. Generally, the Champagnes imported by Terry Theise sell for about $45-100 for non-vintage and $60-145 for vintage. Theise calls these Grower Champagnes Farmer Fizz because the wines are made by a farmer and offer the individually distinctive flavors of terroir-driven wines.

Retrospective Review: Volume 1, Number 6 (June-July, 1980)

With Volume I, Number 6 in June-July 1980, we ended our first year of publication. My lead editorial was a glimpse of things to come and was titled “It’s Our Anniversary! But The Best Is Yet To Come!” In it I talked about the launch of our barrels and bottles feature which would review wines in barrel and bottle before they were released for sale. The idea which was to prove to be the wave of the future was “to evaluate some of the best wines before they begin their way through the retail trade.” I stated our intention to focus on fine wines exclusively – Chardonnay, Cabernet both old and new and other California wines such as Pinot Noir, Zinfandel and Gewurztraminer, and also Vintage Ports. And French wines, 1978 Burgundies, 1978 Bordeaux and Sauternes, plus older Bordeaux vintage reviews 1970, 1966, 1961, 1928 and 1929 and a review of Chateau Petrus from 1920-1976. These reviews of older vintages were timely because the older wines were readily available at auctions in England and then through wine merchants in Europe and the U.S. And, it is important to remember, that this was before the plague of wine fraud was to rear its ugly head!

Retrospective Review: Volume I, Number 5 (April-May, 1980)

We are currently reproducing a copy of the fifth issue of The Underground Wineletter. Below you’ll find an updated review of each article, where I will go over what we got right and what we got wrong. We will follow this format with each successive issue. So Volume I, Number 6 will be coming next. […]

Recession Busters/Best Buys

Here are 28 wines, perfect for everyday drinking, and, priced at $10 or below, offering good value to the wallet or pocketbook and the palate. Eighteen of the wines are priced below $5. All are pleasant surprises, interesting, inviting and worthy of buying again. Until the last year or so, good wines in this price range were very difficult to find in the U.S., other than Two-Buck Chuck or wines found in stores’ bargain bins. These very affordable wines fill a vacuum in the American wine market: vin ordinaire and vino de tavola for the American table. Some are surprisingly good, some could benefit from additional aging and some are just nice, early-drinking quaffers. While quality and price are generally positively correlated, this is not always the case. You don’t need to be embarrassed to serve these wines to guests or to let them be the second wine served at a party. However, keep in mind that you can’t expect these wines to be perfectly balanced with great complexity and richness. While these wines may not interest a connoisseur, they are fruity and flavorful, perfectly quaffable on an everyday basis to the vast majority of the wine drinking public. Moreover, the wines are quite food friendly.

Champagne — The Wine of Kings

Few wines captivate us to the extent that Champagne does.  Champagne is not just a wine; it’s also a state of mind.  Enjoying the luxury of Champagne is what made Dom Perignon exclaim at his first sip, “Come quickly, I am drinking the stars.” Legend has it that Marilyn Monroe once took a bath in […]