There’s no doubt in our minds that some wines — especially, simple but cheap and delicious bottlings – are best appreciated when enjoyed like a regular drink (e.g., beer), without much analysis.  
The Château la Touche Muscadet, a completely dry white from the Loire Valley’s western end, is most definitely one of these wines.  While nothing fancy, its light body and excellent structural quality made it extraordinarily pleasing to kick back […]

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For today’s posting, I thought I’d switch things up a bit and write down my thoughts about our Weekend Wine as I’m tasting it.  Today’s bottle is Domaine Filliatreau’s La Grande Vignolle 2005, a Cabernet Franc from the Saumur-Champigny region of the Loire Valley.  Here goes…
I’m sitting next to my glass right now, and as I tilt it […]

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The Domaine de la Pépière Cuvée Granit 2006 is classified as a Vin de Pays (the link is to Wikipedia), which is a classfication level below that of the French wines, appellation d’origine contrôlée, that we’ve reviewed in the past, and the wine hails from a poducer known more for its whites — Muscadet, to be precise — than reds.     
Still, we found this blend […]

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It has been sweltering hot in San Francisco in the past couple of days.  Of course, as some of you may know, “hot” in San Francisco doesn’t have quite the same meaning as it does anywhere else.  For example, I remember when we first moved to the Bay Area from New York City, and we overheard someone characterize 80-degree weather as a heat […]

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