Learning about wine
Methode traditionelle: how is champagne made?
How is Champagne made? What is the traditional method, or "methode traditionnelle"? How do bubbles get into wine? So many questions, so many answers. Sparkling wines like Champagne, Cava, and Franciacorta are made using the traditional method. In short, this...
Besides the many classifications, rules, and exceptions to the rules, the region is extremely fragmented. It consists of many small plots of vineyards. This is a relic of the French Revolution. Before that time, most vineyards were owned by the...
I'm taking you to Paris. The Paris of 1976. I have no idea what the city of love looked like back then, but I do know that Galeries Lafayette was already there. The department store first opened its doors in...
It's 7:30 PM on a Tuesday evening, and I walk into Wijnhandel Peeters. I'm here for the first lesson of my new wine course: WSET Advanced Level 3. Perhaps not entirely by the book: first get your SDEN-3 certificate and...
The forgotten grapes of Champagne
The members of Club des Vins are now trained to recite the three Champagne grapes at any given moment: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Until one of them gently but firmly points out to me that many more grapes...
Wine101: The wine words that come up in the wine cellar, deciphered.
Chaptalization—what? Chaptalization. And also pupitres, sur lie, and carbonic maceration. These are some rather pungent terms that occasionally pop up during a wine tasting or in a restaurant. In the first blog post in this series of wine words, I...
Historic moment: I tasted Vieilles Vignes Françaises 2006
I still can't believe it. Yesterday I tasted a Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Françaises for the first time. Champagne, that is. Okay—you might be thinking—you were drinking champagne again? True, but this was so much more than that. It was a...