Following your late afternoon arrival and settling in, we serve a Champagne reception, followed by a “ fine wine dinner&# with us at La Madèlene - 4 courses of typical Provencal fare prepared expertly by Jude and each course accompanied by a different fine Rhone wine from my cellar chosen carefully to pair with the food. MORE >>

braised short ribs ( Slope Farms , of course) with Chipotle peppers inflected liquid. This is totally unlike the 2000 I had not too long ago, which was delicious and compelling, but much more rustic. You know that I'm joking. If I were to list 25 wines that I want to drink in hot weather, I cannot imagine that Cornas would appear. MORE >>

The tasting started with the Perrier-Jouet Blanc de Blanc 2000. So the wine served with the first course was Perrier-Joeut Grant Brut to pair with the Stracciatella - creamy pugliese mozzarella with fava beans, lardo, and fettunta. The second course was Trota alla griglia, which was trout with crispy fingerling potatoes. Cheers! MORE >>

During the course of it, he nearly sets his suit on fire and leaves such a mess trying to open a bottle that he says, “It looked like Freddy Krueger had entered the competition.&# “[Simon] Staples has remortgaged his home three times in the last 10 years (in 2000, 2005 and 2009) to buy Bordeaux. If so, hit the comments. MORE >>

Of course she had the upscale clientele to raise her prices dramatically for her ‘93s, therefore not having to pay too dear a price for destroying three-quarters of her crop (or whatever the percentage was) by her zealotry, but the entire incident serves to show the potential down side of biodynamism if taken too far. think not. MORE >>