Wine and Chocolate. It can be a polarizing topic, but also a delicious one. In my experience people feel strongly either in favor of the paring or against it. I’m generally against the pairing, not because I don’t like it but, because it can be addictively delicious. Today I am risking addiction by sipping Macchia Mischievous Old Vine Zinfandel and […]
As it turns out, one visit to Namibia was not enough. Namibia has everything we enjoy when traveling in Africa: wide-open space, spectacular scenery and wild animal sightings. But it was a discovery we made as we were leaving Namibia on our first visit that made a return trip feel urgent: the Fish River Lodge. This is the brochure that […]
The seed for Department 66 wines was planted in 2008 when winemaker Dave Phinney visited Maury, France near the border with Spain. He was taken in by a very old vineyard planted on steep terrain. The more he saw of the region, the more he fell in love with it. Before he returned home from that visit he purchased a […]
Today’s cellar note has us savoring Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley. This bright, balanced Cabernet Franc has just about everything I enjoy in cool-climate Cab Franc. This wine is not a tasting sample, we purchased this wine through a wine club. 2014 Beatrice & Pascal Lambert ‘Les Perruches’, Chinon — pale ruby in the glass with translucence at the […]
Yangarra Estate Vineyard is situated on more than 400 acres of creeks and native vegetation in the northeast portion of McLaren Vale, South Australia. The climate in this coastal region 45 minutes south of Adelaide is mediterranean, making it the perfect location for southern Rhône varieties. Today we are sipping two wines from Yangarra, both were provided to us as […]
Three wines, of course, cannot comprehensively survey the diversity of a whole continent full of wine. But three wines can be a starting point for the exploration of Australian wine and highlight its diverse regions, grape varieties and styles. And possibly pique your interest in Australian wine. We received all three wines as tasting samples. 2017 Tyrrell’s Wines Semillon, Hunter […]
As a wine lover living in California, where the shelves are filled with local wines, it might be easy to overlook the fact that 49 other states in the US also make wine — not to mention the rest of the world. But we are inclusive and curious with regard to wine region and grape variety and recently welcomed the […]
Today’s cellar note has us sipping a wine made in Valpolicella, north of Verona, near Lake Garda in northern Italy. Amarone della Valpolicella is a wine with ample body, intense flavors and a warming finish. It is just what you want to sip on a rainy, cold winter’s evening. We received this wine as a tasting sample. Valpollicella is located […]
Today’s cellar note continues our experience with Cru Beaujolais. After years of thinking we did not like Beaujolais, we are discovering that when it comes to Cru Beaujolais we are almost never disappointed. We now look for them on restaurant wine lists and instead of dreading that a Beaujolais might be included in a wine club shipment, we look forward […]
This month’s Argentine wine theme for Wine Pairing Weekend pleased me to no end. A few months ago we received tasting samples of the Reserve range of wines made by Domaine Bousquet at their winery in Tupungato, Mendoza. It was an easy decision to feature these wines for Wine Pairing Weekend. We have tasted most of the wines made by […]
We enjoy wine, food and travel. Pull That Cork is a chronicle of our wine adventures, the food and wine pairings we create and our travels which are increasingly organized around wine.