grape: Cabernet producer: Jacob’s Creek country: Australia region: Coonawarra, which is known for its deep red “Terra Rosa” soil that gives its wines a lot of intensity and concentration year: 2009 yum factors: Had this at a 9-wine Jacob’s Creek dinner last night at the Bouley Test Kitchen and this was my favorite by far. I usually don’t taste black olive … Continue reading
Basically, last night was amazing. Not because I saw The Heiress, not because Jessica Chastain had a sub play her role, not because Matthew from Downton was speaking in a less-dreamy American accent, and definitely not because the lady next to me shook her Raisinets out of a box for the entire play. No, leave … Continue reading
Let’s make one thing clear: Carson is going to be the savior of Downton this season. He already paved the way in the first two seasons with his impeccable butlering skills. He always kept the kitchen running smoothly, Mary happy, and – most importantly – the wine properly chosen, stored, and decanted. After a hard … Continue reading
Post-holiday winter merriment begins. This is a Cab from Howell Mountain. When you grow grapes on a mountain, the wines take on a kind of rugged, funky character. It’s also really tannic and big. Some call the wine mountain juice, and this Red Cap is a good example. I think Ladera is even funkier, but … Continue reading
The grapes just keep on coming! What with Christmas, New Year’s and your general grape guzzling, I’m pretty sure the last month of 2012 was the grapiest month of all. Keep it up, grapefriends! Our clear Grapefriend of the Month is Jordan from Edmonton – I think you’ll see why in this month’s gallery! As … Continue reading
For best-of lists, most people get all well, well, well look at the old amazing wines I drank, 1000’s of dollars worth, and say stuff like “it’s drinking well now.” That’s not really grapefriend though. Partly because I don’t have the money, partly because you probably don’t either, partly because sometimes I love non-expensive wine. … Continue reading
For those of you travelling out of DC today, here’s a little silver lining: the Starbucks at Dulles now serves wine (and reportedly LAX is getting one next year). In non-airport land, these “Starbucks Evenings” places are now in LA, Atlanta, Portland, and Chicago. The variety is actually really good; they all have one sparkling, … Continue reading
Now that Fizzmas is over, we return to our usual favorite topic – wine (of the non-sparkling kind)! The latest news is that Jeff Koons designed the newest Mouton-Rothschild label. Mouton is a first-growth Bordeaux that has been commissioning cool artists to do their labels since 1945, so Koons joins a club that includes Warhol, Dali, … Continue reading
We all know Andrea Bocelli for his songs, but most people probably have no idea his family’s been making wine for 130 years in Tuscany. I didn’t, but got to taste them a few weeks ago with Andrea, his brother, and his sister-in-law who run the vineyard. As Andrea put it, “My role is to … Continue reading
Huge month of everyone getting their grape on! We had a lot of grapefriends drinking some good grapes with their turkey, but holiday drinking is never included in the Grapefriend of the Month competition. So here’s what everyone drank every other day in November, at least the ones they tagged me in… Stephanie in Aurora, … Continue reading
