I spent last week in Seoul, South Korea being the “American judge” at the finals of the 7th annual Korea Wine Challenge…which you’d know if you’ve been following my Tweets and Facebook page updates. This international wine competition is becoming more and more serious and important with each passing year. It is encompassing new and interesting wines that reflect the interest of many exporting countries to increase their offerings in this dynamic and expanding north Asian wine market. Continue reading »

And no, I am not talking about fault lines in California, Mexico, Japan or even… of late, Chile. The ‘plates’ I am referring to have to do metaphorically with the dramatic shifting in the UK wine market and the fact that France no longer appears to be most anyone’s favorite when shopping these days. Not first, second, third, or now even fourth… are you amazed?

In restaurants, when I was first learning about wine in the late 1970s (yes, back in the proverbial day), it was all about French wine. Bordeaux and Burgundy were the pinnacles, and yes we tipped our berets to the Loire Valley, the Rhône, and a few bits and pieces of Provence and the Languedoc. We studied and consumed Italy at the peripheral level (Chianti and Barolo), enjoyed our token Germans, and locally were fiercely proud and supportive of an emerging local but, at the time, globally insignificant California wine industry. Continue reading »

Over the past few weeks I have been asked a lot about what to expect this year in terms of countries and regions who are poised to capitalize, if at all, in the current economic environment. A great but loaded question.

There are many factors which contribute to what is selling and what isn’t. A country may be ‘up’ volumetrically but ‘down’ in value. For example, if people are buying more French wine at lower prices (Alsace, Loire Valley, Languedoc) but are eschewing their normal desire to drink classified Bordeaux or Cru Burgundy, well, the cases could, in theory, climb while the actual dollars sag. This has been a case in point of the Australian market in the USA and England over the past couple of years that the Australians are keenly aware of, and in the process of aggressively addressing. A recent conversation had over dinner with some key head honchos for ‘Brand Australia’ (Wines of Australia) clearly pointed out this dynamic and addressed a few of the table’s questions on how they plan to respond. But it’s unfair to pick on the Aussies as they are certainly not alone in such a conundrum. So who is benefiting?

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The other night over a glass of crisp and zippy Sauvignon Blanc, a friend asked me what he should try next. He’s a HUGE fan of the varietal and has seemingly exhausted most of the usual suspects - California’s Sonoma, South Central Coast and Napa Valley appellations, New Zealand’s Marlborough and Hawkes Bay, Chile’s Casablanca and Curicó and, of course, France’s celebrated Loire Valley appellations of Sancerre, Pouilly Fume and Menetou Salon and Bordeaux’s Graves and Entre deux Mers. He is a true Sauvignon Blanc fan of the highest order.

In exploring his “SB holes”, I found a few missing places that I thought he should explore: Austria and environs east (Bulgaria, Slovenia and Moldova), Israel (especially in the Golan Heights) and finally, South Africa whose Sauvignon Blanc exploits are well documented over the past decade and getting better all the time. In his case, South Africa made extra special sense since his preferred style is New Zealand and those from South Africa most closely resemble their counterparts in kiwi land. While there are no “go to” regions that are as distinctively knee-jerk to South Africa, as Marlborough is to New Zealand, there are nevertheless several areas worth his exploration. And yours… Continue reading »

I have been in this business a long time. No old age jokes please, as I have heard them all - from “Pleistocene Sommelier” to “What wine goes with brontosaurus”. That said, I still get rookie-like giddiness when teaching people who are just beginning their quest.

A group of us have been down under for this past week to assist the Court of Master Sommeliers in expanding our “brand” into the Antipodes. We’ve just completed our first-ever course, in Melbourne and that group of MS’s (Team Aussie if you will) continues on to do same in Sydney. I am on “Team Kiwi”, and we are completing a session of level one (the Introductory program) and a “level two” certified in Wellington (NZ), before heading off to examine in Auckland. Continue reading »