“What Practice Makes.” Truchard Tempranillo 2007
Ever since last weekend, when I brutally shoved a cork down the neck of a 21-year-old bottle of Left Bank Bordeaux, I’ve been practicing with the cork puller, the one […]
Monthly Archives: August 2017
“We need to talk.” The Week in Wine, August 21-27, 2017
My first full week of teaching down, I am reminded of how much stamina is required to teach all day long. I easily hit 10,000 steps on my Garmin by […]
“One of those days.” Napa Cellars Merlot 2014
By the time I got home from the class I taught last night, it was 11:15pm, and soon after little Zooey was crying in her crib. I got to the […]
“Oh wow.” Schramsberg Cremant, 1980
The first wine at the tasting is typically a sparkling, at least in my house, and if there is one to be had. I pair sparkling wines with everything, from […]
“The Tragedy of Cooked Wine.” Robert Mondavi Cab Sauv 1979
I should have known from the frayed, ripped, tattered label that clung to the bottle, no longer by its own accord but instead with a piece of clear tape, that […]
“When it rains, it pours.” The Week in Wine, August 14-20, 2017
We spent the last month without rain. I mowed yesterday for the first time in three week, with the blades set high so as not to cut too deeply into […]
“A Last Hurrah.” Review: Chateau Montelena Zinfandel 2014
Autumn is here. I can feel it on the cool of the breeze and hear it in the rattle of cottonwoods, their leaves transitioning from waxy and green to brittle […]
“Stealing back time.” Review: Chateau d’Angles Grand Vin Rouge 2013
Last night, I made coq au vin for the second time, and for the second time, I did it “the Mark Gudgel way”, meaning I let nothing set overnight in […]
“Less is more.” The Week in Wine, 7-13 August, 2017
Having tried only (TEN) wines in a week is a rare thing for me, but as school gears up the time I’d normally spend writing reviews is increasingly spent writing […]
“The Christening.” Review: Decades 5 2012
If you read the blog post before this one (and if you didn’t, then you should), then you know what an arduous ordeal it was, first building and later putting […]
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