I went to the big Michael Skurnik / Terry Theise tasting last week, the only tasting in NYC where one can gaze upon Robert De Niro's father while sampling wine. arrived quite late and had nowhere near enough time to taste everything. Sorry, back to the Theise Champagne Tasting. It is 80% 2006 grapes. MORE >>

Not that it matters in order to appreciate the wines - they taste and feel good, and they makes great company for fresh seafood, cheeses, and other foods. recently went to Vins du Jura , a tasting featuring 20 producers from the Jura region of France. In the hands of a good producer, sous-voile wines are completely delicious. MORE >>

Greg Dal Piaz from Snooth organized a tasting last week to sample nine Bordeaux wines from the 2004, 2005 and 2006 vintages, and below are some of my tasting notes. 2004 Chateau Sociando Mallet Haut-Medo c Full bodied, animal, barnyard, chocolate covered cherries, cherry liquore, dry leaves, $50. MORE >>

The first of the Zin's I recently stocked up on is the Rancho Zabaco Dry Creek Valley 2004 Reserve. The 2004 vintage is 96% Zinfandel and 4% Petite Sirah. Much more jammy than the Paso Robles Zins I recently tasted and more like those Zins I had difficulty handling years ago. Deep dark fruit aromas with some cherry. MORE >>

Is there room for another blind tasting panel? think it will be interesting to gather bloggers and other people with whom I enjoy sharing wine, taste and discuss together with the goal of being able to say something meaningful about a group of wines. Five - that's pretty manageable for an amateur blind tasting panel. Just mute. MORE >>