Selecting Drinking Collecting Obsessing

J
WS
Selecting, Drinking,
Collecting & Obsessing
A WSJ Guide to Wine
Lettie Teague & Will Lyons
The Wall Street Journal

New York, NY
Contents
How to Read This Book v

ON SELECTING WINE (INTRODUCED BY LETTIE TEAGUE)
11
What You Need to Know About Grape Varieties

How to Read a Wine Label
17
How to Write (and Read) a Good Tasting Note
21
How to Break the Rules When Ordering Wine
27
How to Order a Second Bottle
32
38
How to Order Wine on an Airplane
ON DRINKING WINE (INTRODUCED BY WILL LYONS)
47
How to Make Sense of Wine Scents

Howand Whyto Do the Swirl
52
How to Match Wine and Food Without Overthinking

How to Break the Rules of Food-and-Wine Pairings
66
When, Why and How to Decant Wine
How to Serve Wine at the Right Temperature

How to Select the Proper Glassware
70
75
ON COLLECTING WINE (INTRODUCED BY WILL LYONS)
How to Develop Wine Expertise
85
57
62
91
How to Start a Wine Cellar
How to Think About Aging Wine
96
Understanding Wine Auctions and How They Work
100
Go Inside the Worlds Largest Wine Storage Facility
107
112
Why Wine Collectors Love Magnums
ON OBSESSING OVER WINE (INTRODUCED BY LETTIE TEAGUE)
121
What Happens at Winemaking School

How to Buy a Vineyard
128
How to Make Your Own Bordeaux Blend

A Visit to Chteau Lafite Rothschild
135
141
How a Burgundy Wine Domaine Became the Worlds Most

Exclusive
146
A Defense of Wine Snobbery
About This Book 159
WSJwine Offer 160
153
How to Read This Book
Is there a right way to drink wine? For some, the answer is simple:
If youre enjoying it, youre doing it correctly.
Others see the matter as more complex. They believe the utmost
enjoyment comes from making a lifelong study of the art and science
of winefrom what to drink, when to drink it and how to serve it,
to the specialized tasks of growing grapes, bottling wine and storing
the finished product.
Whether youre sure where you sit on the question, could be convinced to update your position, or just want to burnish your credentials, this book is for you.
Selecting, Drinking, Collecting & Obsessing: A Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine gathers columns from our pages into sections
that follow the progression from choosing a bottle to getting the
most out of it and then to the next levels of collecting wine and
turning it into a lifelong passion.
Each section is introduced by a member of our two-person winewriting team. Will Lyons, our European correspondent, has been
vi How to Read This Book
recognized in the Louis Roederer International Wine Writing

Awards and was short-listed for the prestigious Glenfiddich Wine
Writer of the Year in 2006. Lettie Teague, based in New York, has
won three James Beard Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.
Feel free to start from the beginning and read through, scan the
contents and pick a topic that strikes your fancy, or jump to the end.
Whatever your relationship with wine, we think youll find plenty
here to make you more curious and better informed; to inspire you
to make different, new and wiser decisions; and to make you laugh,
think and appreciate wine and life just a little bit more. Enjoy.
Signed,
The Editors
On Selecting Wine
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
What could be easier than buying a bottle of wine? After all,

its available everywhere: in supermarkets, specialty shops, restaurantseven online.
And yet wine buyers fret over their selections in a way that purchasers of beer or soda would rarely think to do. Wine, clearly, is
much more than a drink.
So, how to go about it? Some oenophiles are emboldened by the
use of wine critics scores. Others are compelled by good tasting
notes. Some situations, however, call for specialized knowledge.
Whats the best wine to choose when youve got a long plane
flight? In restaurants, should you opt for the familiar or the new? If
the time has come to order a second bottle, should you get another
like the first or try something else? If the latter, what should you
choose?
10 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons
Thankfully, centuries of wine-drinker experimentation and study

means many seemingly esoteric questions have thoughtful answers.
On planes, youre better off forgoing Bordeaux and opting for an
Australian Shiraz. (A softer, richer wine is the right choice at high
altitude.) In a restaurant, pick the obscure over a well-known bottle: Familiar labels generally get bigger mark-ups because sommeliers
know they will sell, while they fill in their offerings with lesserknown wines they truly love. As for second bottles, avoid a repeat
purchase. Not only is it boring, but its unlikely to match the courses
yet to come.
Of course, it always helps to know the names of some important
grapes. While there are thousands of varietiesin Italy alonethere
are only a few youll see over and over again all over the world:
Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot, Grenache, Pinot Noir, Syrah and
Riesling.
My advice for avoiding stressful wine choices? Start with a framework that helps guide your decisions then start exploring.
What You Need to Know About Grape

Varieties
BY WILL LYONS
I know nothing about winewhere do I start? is perhaps the most

frequent question I am asked. An obvious starting point is with grape
varieties, which each have their own distinctive character and flavor.
There are more than 5,000 varieties of wine grapes planted in the
world. Luckily, for those new to the subject, only 100 or so have
enough appeal to be deemed commercially viable. Luckier still, its a
relatively small number that have found international recognition.
These used to be referred to as the Noble Grape Varieties, a term
coined by the British wine trade to describe the classic grapes of
Europe (though its no longer used in professional wine exams).
Nicholas King, research and development manager at the Wine &
Spirits Education Trust, says it drifted out of use in about 2003. After
using common or international, the educational body has now

settled on the term principal grape varieties.
Whatever the term, it refers to the eight classic varietiesChardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Grenache and Rieslingwhose flavor and character have led to them being exported around the world. Their success
has, in many ways, been detrimental to their reputation: the level of
planting being such that quality has inevitably been diluted.
Wherever you are on the wine journey, whether a connoisseur or a
novice, an understanding and appreciation of these varieties will benefit you enormously.
I rather like the old term for them as, in their finest form, these
grapes are capable of producing wines that are among the very best in
the world. Heres my guide to what every wine drinker should know.
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Principally associated with the red wines of the Mdoc in Bordeaux,

this variety has been planted all over the world. A late ripener, its
small red berries produce wines that when young have a concentrated, dark color and taste predominantly of blackcurrant. Young
Cabernet can also have a spicy, herby character and a lot of tannin.
With age (and the very best will be long lasting), they develop secondary notes of cedar. Often blended with other varieties, Cabernet
Sauvignon is also grown in Australia, Chile, South Africa and California, where it is very successful.
Selecting, Drinking, Collecting & Obsessing 13
(Jean-Manuel Duvivier)
CHARDONNAY
Due to the fact that it can be grown successfully almost anywhere,

this white grape variety from Burgundy is a global superstar. It can
be all things to all men, from rich, buttery and nutty in Burgundy to
taut, clean, crisp and dry (most notably in Chablis); sparkling where it
is part of the Champagne blend; and ripe with a nose of exotic fruits
in warmer regions. Sublime in Burgundy, Chardonnay is also successful in Australia, California, New Zealand and Italy.
GRENACHE
Powerful, low in acidity, high in alcohol, this hearty red-wine grape

is the staple for Chteauneuf-du-Pape, where it finds its greatest
expression. Extensively planted, it is believed to have originated in
Spain before being introduced to the Rhne valley, where it produces
rich, fruity wines. Often blended with Syrah and Mourvdre, you
will also find Grenache in Australia, California, Spain, and throughout the Mediterranean basin.
MERLOT
Soft, supple and fruity, Merlot is the yin to Cabernet Sauvignons

yang. Mainly grown on the Right Bank of Bordeaux, it is the principal variety of Pomerol and is often blended with Cabernet. It produces red wines that are packed full of fruit notes such as blackcurrant
and plumswines that can be high in alcohol but, due to their soft
tannins, can be drunk young. Outside of France, it is grown in northern Italy, California, Washington state and Chile.
PINOT NOIR
Delicate, early-ripening and, with thin skins, difficult to grow, Pinot

Noir grapes find their natural home in Frances Burgundy region.
Here, the variety produces texturally light red wines that have aromas
of raspberry, cherry, violets and sometimes game. It is also success-
fully grown in cooler regions such as Oregon, Germany, parts of

Australia, California and New Zealand, where it achieves greatness.
As well as producing red wines (for which it is rarely blended), it is
also grown in Champagne and blended with Chardonnay and Pinot
Meunier.
RIESLING
This ancient variety from Germany is particularly popular with

oenophiles. In Germany it produces wines that are crisp, light and
fruity. Their nose can range from pungent perfume to flowers, limes,
lemons and, with age, petrol. Their charm is the way they can marry
acidity with either dryness or sweetness on the palate. The very best
are always refreshing. Riesling is also grown in Alsace, Australia,
Oregon and California.
SAUVIGNON BLANC
Refreshing, grassy, aromatic, scintillating, light, directthere are

myriad descriptors suitable for this white grape variety. Now widely
planted, it was originally grown in Bordeaux and the Loire, where it
produces a crisp, dry style. Today it is best known for its new spiritual
home in New Zealand, where it overflows with ripe, tropical characteristics such as gooseberry, pineapple and green pepper.
SYRAH OR SHIRAZ
In France, Syrah produces a dark, brooding red wine, packed full of

tannin, that smells overwhelmingly of pepper and can age beautifully.
In the northern Rhne it is found in such famous appellations as Her-
mitage and Cte-Rtie. In Australia, where it is known as Shiraz, it

produces an altogether different wine, replacing its savory northern
Rhne notes with dark fruit, chocolate and licorice. Widely planted
around the world, this variety produces big, bold red wines that are
best drunk with red meat.
This article originally ran on March 27, 2014, under the headline Get to
Know the Global Superstars of Wine.
How to Read a Wine Label
BY WILL LYONS
Wine labels can be a little like cryptic crosswords: unfathomable,

infuriating and intimidating.
Browsing the shelves of one of my favorite local wine merchants,
a cozy little shop in London where the wines are stacked in bins that
stretch from the floor to the ceiling, I was faced with a scrambled collage of labels. There were wines with chickens on the label, wines
with etched drawings of Neo-Gothic houses, brightly colored
Impressionist-style labels, watercolors depicting far-off vineyards or
simply the name of a French village written in attractive, bold font.
Some wines had the name of the grape variety clearly marked across
the label, but on the whole the display presented a pretty mysterious
picture.
No wonder most people were wandering around in silence, I
thought, afraid to reveal their lack of knowledge. The subject of wine
can reward a lifetime of study, but for those coming to it for the first
time, it must feel like a puzzle.
The good news is that armed with just a few simple rules, you can
decipher the most complicated of wine labels, helping you avoid the
pitfalls of confusing a sweet with a dry wine or a full-bodied red with
a light, fruity Beaujolais.
Of course, there are myriad exceptions. But when it comes to
European wine, the first puzzle to solve is that wine producers use
location as the descriptor of the taste, style and character of a wine,
and not grape variety. If it says Burgundy on the label, it will be a
Chardonnay if it is white, or a Pinot Noir if red.
As a rule of thumb, the more specific the location, the higher the
quality of wine. For example, Meursault in Burgundy is the name of a
village with a particularly strong reputation for producing Chardonnay. Saint-milion is a village outside of Bordeaux, whose neighboring vineyards are known for producing blends of Merlot-dominated
red wine. So a wine with Saint-milion on the label will be more
interesting than one that is labeled as a generic Bordeaux. Every
region uses a specific blend of grape varieties, which, with a little
application, one can learn.
The year the wine is made is referred to as the vintage. Most wine
is made to be drunk straight away, certainly within five years of its
bottling. Fine wine benefits from bottle age, as it develops tertiary
characteristics and more mature, complex flavors. These wines can be
cellared for 10 to 20 years.
The numbers on the bottom right-hand corner of the label are the
alcohol percentage. Labeling rules can vary by country, granting the
winemaker a tolerance of around 0.5%. So its worth remembering

that if it is as high as, say, 14%, it could actually be 14.5%. Regular
readers will know that I favor drinking wines with an alcohol level
of 11%-13.5%, which sadly, due to modern viticultural practices that
favor a fuller, riper style, are becoming harder to find.
Labels also offer a slew of other information, from the name of
the individual vineyard and the winemaker, to whether the wine has
been bottled at the winery, to whether it has been produced from
old vines, or vieilles vignes (older vines produce fewer grapes, with
more concentration and flavor). All of these tend to suggest the wine
has been made by an individual winemaker from fruit grown in the
estates vineyards.
Aside from the label, one can also identify European wine by looking at the shape of the bottle. All Bordeaux wines come in a highshouldered, straight bottle. The glass is green for red wine and clear
for white. Speaking generally, outside of France, these high-shouldered bottles are used for a plethora of styles, including Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec.
Gently shouldered bottles are found in Burgundy, the Loire and
the Rhne. Outside of France, these are alsobut not without exceptionused for bottling Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Long, thin bottles are used in Germany and Alsace. These invariably contain Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Gewrztraminer.
In Germany, green bottles indicate the wine comes from the Mosel,
and brown from the Rhine, where the wines tend to be drier.
These general guidelines will help in understanding a wine label
and, more importantly, take you a step toward solving the perennial
puzzlehow good is this wine?
This article originally ran on July 22, 2011.
How to Write (and Read) a Good Tasting

Note
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
If price is what most wine buyers notice first, the second must be the
wine-tasting note. In fact, Id bet a few good lines of prose tacked on
a store shelf sells more bottles than a low price or a high score. Tasting notes help would-be buyers by telling them what the wine tastes
like, smells like and pairs with (chicken, meat or fish), not to mention
when to drink it (now or in 10 years). And yet, wine-tasting notes
are often mocked and lampooned as pretentious and silly, or both.
One former sommelier turned blogger recently raised this brand of
mockery to a high art when he awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Wine
Reviews. Ron Washam, who calls himself the HoseMaster, noted
in a guest post on Tim Atkins wine website that Wine Spectator
critic James Molesworth had mastered the form. Mr. Washam posted,
tongue firmly planted in his cheek:
Molesworth has created what can only be described as an amazing

body of work in very short sentences. With the precision of E.E.
Cummings, the opaqueness of Donald Barthelme, combined with an
intimate and commanding knowledge of fruit rivaled only by Del
Monte, Molesworth entices us into a world where wine isnt just a
beverage, its the key to unlocking the secrets of the human soul.
Mr. Washams post goes on to offer this sample James Molesworth
tasting note: Ripe and lush, but very pure, with gorgeous yellow
apple, white peach and Cavaillon melon fruit aromas and flavors,
lined with honeysuckle, heather and quinine and sailing through the
long, stone- and mineral-framed finish.
While this write-up may be a touch florid, it shows a remarkable
attention to detail (not to mention expertise with fruit). It also makes
me curious to taste a wine that inspired this kind of prose.
Its not the type of language that most wine retailers employin
fact its the sort that many eschew. Lorena Ascencios, head wine
buyer for Astor Wines & Spirits in New York, said that elaborate
descriptors mean little to her customers who simply want a good
bottle of wine.
Although Ms. Ascencios writes most of the tasting notes that
appear in the store, she encourages her staff to contribute staff
picksand lays out only one rule: The write-ups cannot bash other
brands. Ms. Ascencios discourages brevity because a longer note
seems more sincere.
She uses simple words, like rich or light-bodiedthe kind
of language that non-oenophiles can understand. She also indicates
whether or not a wine is oaked. Customers always want to know,

she said.
I can personally testify to the power of Astor staff prose. Ive purchased wines I didnt know I wantedobscure Italian reds, smallproducer Champagnes and several cheap roseson account of enthusiastic, sometimes long notes. More often than not it turned out quite
well.
Ive also been moved to action by the tasting notes written by buyers at the K&L chain of California wine stores. As at Astor, K&L staff
members can write almost anything they choose, but unlike Astors
website, the K&L website also includes wine critics scores. Its the
tasting notes that are key, K&L vice president Trey Beffa told me.
We try to refrain from pointing wine, he said, referring to the
practice of citing the points without prose.
At the Wine Spectator, a publication famous for its numerical
scores, the magazines executive editor, Tom Matthews, maintains
that words matter just as much as numbers. In fact, Mr. Matthews,
who estimates that he has written more than 10,000 tasting notes in
his 26-year career, called tasting notes a real art formeven if they
are easy to parody. Whenever you try to translate a feeling into
wordswhether its about wine or music or artits easy to make fun
of, said Mr. Matthews, who gamely tweeted about the Pulitzer that
Mr. Molesworths work in his publication earned.
Meanwhile, Mr. Molesworth said that he was flattered by the
award and that some people even emailed to congratulate him, not
realizing it was a prank. Tasting notes are meant to inspire, he said.
In fact, Mr. Matthews said he encourages his staff to keep it personal
and fresh, in their notesalbeit at 50 words or less (shorter than this

paragraph). He advises his staff to write much less if the wine gets
a low score. The lower the score, the shorter the note, said Mr.
Matthews. But even a perfect 100-point wine isnt to receive more
than 50 words.
I told Mr. Matthews that Id read restaurant reviews where the
number of stars and the actual description of the meal didnt seem
to match up. What did Mr. Matthews do when the wines score and
note were far apart? In the case of a discrepancy, the staff did a remedial tasting that involved re-tasting and rescoring the wine, said
Mr. Matthews, adding that such variances tended to happen with less
experienced tasters.
Some critics use words as if they were scores. English wine writer
Clive Coates rates wines Fine or Very fine plus or Very good
plus or Disappointing, at the end of his tasting notes, whose style
could best be described as anti-Molesworthian. Here is the very
practical Mr. Coatess complete entry on Domaine Louis Jadot Clos
de la Roche in his book, My Favorite Burgundies: Full colour.
Rich. Concentrated, closed nose. Full body, concentrated, tannic,
backward, and very profound on the palate. Very lovely fruit. Lots of
energy. Splendid finish. Very fine plus.
The whole point it seems to me is to convey information. Not
emotion, Mr. Coates wrote in a recent email. He admitted his notes
were utilitarian, even boring, but he believed a reader only needed to
know a few basics: The size of the wine, its balance, its elegance and
its potential for aging. As for those fanciful, Molesworthian writeups, Mr. Coates felt that notes with a plethora of adjectives simply
said too much. I want to be able to taste the wine in my imagination, he wrote.
Of course, some wine drinkers have better imaginations than others, and after many decades as a wine critic, its likely that Mr. Coates
can fill in the blanks of just about any utilitarian tasting note. But for
those of us whose range of reference is smaller, a more elaborate note
might be useful.
As a reader, I look for a few basic facts in a tasting note (thats pretty
much all I tend to write as well; Im more Coates than Molesworth,
alas). But I was gratified to find the same is true of Eric LeVine, the
founder of CellarTracker, a website with a repository of over 3.5 million tasting notes written by passionate amateurs. Mr. LeVine said
that the most useful things he found in a note were mentions of
whether or not a wine was ready to drink, as well as its structure
and personality. He looked for notes about fruit, acid and tannin. Mr.
LeVine also wanted to know about pleasuredid the note-taker
enjoy what he or she drank?
My friend Richard said he reads notes by amateurs and professionals but never retailers (theyre just trying to sell me something).
There is one thing that he cares about most: aroma. He likes to read
about the aromas that others had found and see if he could locate similar ones. Whats really unique about tasting notes is what people
smell; there are things in there that are delightful, Richard said.
I thought Richard would appreciate hearing the James Molesworth
tasting noteit was, after all, full of aromas. Richard paused, then
chuckled a bit. Wow, Im impressed. Theres someone who wants to
be F. Scott Fitzgerald, he said.
Maybe thats the real story of wine-tasting notesand why we hate

and love them so much. From wine writers to retailers to regular
wine drinkers, we all hold a secret desire to be F. Scott Fitzgeraldin
50 words or less.
This article originally ran on Sept. 28, 2013, under the headline WineTasting Notes Dont Need to Overflow.
How to Break the Rules When Ordering Wine
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
As wine drinkers have grown more discerning, not to mention

diverse, certain rules about ordering wine in restaurants may no
longer apply. For example, a man is no longer considered the automatic recipient of a wine list; women are (more) frequently regarded
as eligible, too. In fact, I was handed the list just the other week (full
disclosure: my male companion was frantically waving the sommelier
away).
Cowardly dining companions aside, one reason women may be
getting the wine list more often may be that there are more female
sommeliers working the floor. Belinda Chang, wine director at the
Modern in New York, estimates there are 30% more female sommeliers now than when she started out in 1995.
Ms. Chang (who says she is handed the list 50% of the time when
shes dining out) takes a direct approach to determining the gender
of The Decider when shes working. She simply approaches the table
and asks, Whos in charge? Half the time, said Ms. Chang, The
man will point to the woman. (Though for some couples, this sentiment may apply only to the question of wine.)
Ms. Chang said she can pretty much predict who is going to end
up with the wine list. The aperitif is usually the giveaway. If a guy
orders a glass of lager, I probably wont be handing the list to him,
said Ms. Chang, who gives a manor womanwho orders a glass of
Grner Veltliner much better odds.
Meanwhile, the wine list has lost a bit of its ceremony, not to mention heft. Another rule gone by the wayside is that a serious wine list
should lookand feellike a library book. Today, a wine list may be
no more than a few sheets of paper or even the back of a menu. It
could even be a tablet computer. (Except at a steakhouse. Where beef
is king, the wine list comes leather-bound.)
Scott Monette, co-owner and wine director of the Flagstaff House
in Boulder, Colo., switched from a traditional wine list to an iPad a
few months agoa move apparently so shocking it made the local
news. With a wine list that features nearly 3,000 selections and is
updated daily, Mr. Monette said he needed to reduce his paper and
printing costs. So far it hasnt been cheaperthe restaurant spent
about $10,000 on 13 iPads. But in the long run Mr. Monette said he
expects to save money.
A smart wine list might be the reason to dismantle rule No. 3:
Sommeliers are the best source of advice. With wine lists that allow
diners to access the Internet, sommeliers may not be diners first
source of information. Electronically emancipated diners can now
look up descriptions, get the latest wine scoresand even find out
how much that Cabernet really costs at retail.
I asked Mr. Monette if he was afraid the iPads would stop his customers from talking to his sommeliers. And did his sommeliers resent
the change? I experienced a bit of iPad antipathy recently myself
during lunch with a wine collector who spent about half an hour
researching a bottle on his own iPadignoring both me and the hovering sommelier.
Mr. Monette wasnt worried. Though his wine stewards had been
nervous at the beginning, Mr. Monette said the tablets had actually
inspired his customers to ask better questions. According to Mr.
Monette, there was a deeper discussion between stewards and diners. (I wondered if that included such penetrating questions as Why
is this Cabernet marked up four times retail?)
This brings us to the fourth rule ripe for discarding: When in
doubt, order the second-cheapest wine on the list. The idea behind
this rule was always that the second-cheapest wine would be a pretty
good deal and the person ordering it wouldnt look like a cheapskateor at least not as much as if he or she had ordered the wine at
the absolute bottom.
Mark Ellenbogen, founding wine director of the famed Slanted
Door in San Francisco and now the wine director of San Franciscos
Bar Agricole, was dismissive of the second-cheapest-wine rule. The
second-cheapest wine is a formulaic maximum that obviously doesnt
work, he said firmly.
Obviously? Well, it certainly wasnt easy to find the second-cheapest wine on Bar Agricoles list. Thats because Mr. Ellenbogen has
organized it mostly by producersa few famous, most obscure. The

second-cheapest wines that I found were the 2009 Seoro di P.
Pecia Rioja ($29) and the 2009 Domaine de la Ppire Cabernet
Franc ($30).
In many cases, the second-cheapest wine isnt such a great deal. As
Christopher Oppewall, wine director of the Hospitality Restaurant
Group of Cleveland noted, The markups on the more expensive
wines are much less. This is pretty much a universal trutha wine
that costs $9 at retail will often show up on a restaurant list for $28.
On the other hand, on the Blue Point Cellar Big Bottle list, a magnum of the terrific 2006 Quintessa, a top Bordeaux-style blend from
Napa Valley is $275 about $40 more than retail.
My fifth and final invalid rule is the largely unspoken one that dictated certain winesPinot Grigios, Merlots and Chardonnays (particularly from California) were unfit for consumption by wellinformed oenophiles. Wines such as these were considered obvious
or starter beverages that true wine lovers learned to outgrow.
But as wine directors have discovered compelling examples of
these grapes, wine drinkers have responded accordingly. Serious
wine lists feature minerally Chardonnays from Californias Russian
River and Sonoma Coast, well-structured Merlots from Napa and
Washington state and complex Pinot Grigios from the Italian regions
of Friuli and Alto Adige.
Even Mr. Ellenbogen, whose wine list is an exercise in vinous esoterica, has a Chardonnay among his Bar Agricole offerings, albeit one
made in the mountains of Jura, France, and blended with the Savagin grape. When I complimented Mr. Ellenbogen on the selection,
he disputed that he deliberately picked the obscure. It was just that he

believed the best wine values were in the least known parts of the
world.
Thats a sixth rule, as yet unbroken: A great wine list (and a great
wine director) will always have a point of view.
This article originally ran on April 9, 2011, under the headline Some
Wine Rules Are Made to Be Broken.
How to Order a Second Bottle
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
First impressions matter the most. According to college recruiters,

corporate executives and humorist Will Rogers (among others), You
never get a second chance to make a first impression. But what may
be true about life is not necessarily true about wine. In fact, Id argue
its the second bottle that counts most of all (unless its a second bottle
of the same winebut more on that later).
The first wine prepares the palateits responsibility is pure refreshment. Its more vinous entertainment than vinous enlightenment. Or
as Michael Madrigale, sommelier of Boulud Sud and Bar Boulud,
says: The first bottle is the overture, the second is the crescendo.
(Thats the way sommeliers talk when their restaurants are located
across from Lincoln Center.)
I almost always start with a white wine that doesnt have too much
weight, in terms of fruit and oak, but has plenty of acidity. Thats
why a Chablis is so often my default choice. I might also opt for a

minerally Chenin Blanc, or maybe a dry Riesling or Grner Veltliner. Other common options include that Spanish mainstay, Albario, as well as Soave, Verdicchio and Vermentino (Italy is particularly
fertile ground for first-bottle whites).
If the first bottle is sparkling, it almost always has to be Champagnemost often a simple nonvintage, though occasionally a tte du
cuve (the prestige bottling of a Champagne house). Ill rarely start
with a cheap sparkling wine, as it seems like too great a leap to the
second, inevitably much better, bottle. It would be like risking the
vinous equivalent of the bends, the decompression sickness of deepsea divers who ascend too quickly from the bottom of the ocean.
When it comes to ros, Im of two minds. Many people I know
dislike rosthey think, as one friend of mine does, that ros signals
cheap. (Never mind how fashionable ros has become.) But I also
find that if I order ros first, I often want to keep drinking ittheres
something so seductive about a good ros that Ive even committed
the sin of ordering a second bottle of the same wine.
And it is considered a sin of sorts to order a second of the same.
People who drink the same wine twice over the course of a meal are
not only displaying a lack of imagination and missing a chance to try
something new, theyre also probably doing a disservice to the meal.
After all, how likely is it that the wine will go as well with the second
course as it did with the first?
I feel like there should be a warning posted on wine lists: Ordering the first bottle twice may be injurious to your wine education.
Alas, there are plenty of people guilty of this particular sin. At Tonys
(Marc Rosenthal)
in Houston, which happens to have a really good wine list, the

restaurants general manager, Scott Sulma, told me that his customers
ordered the same bottle about 50% of the time.
Has he noticed any particular patterns? Cabernet drinkers tend to

stay with the same Cabernet more often than anyone, Mr. Sulma
said. The people who tended to be the most adventurous were adventurous with both their first and second wines, he noted.
And what about that second wine? What sort of qualities should it
possess? According to Aldo Sohm, chef sommelier of Le Bernardin in
New York, the second wine should build on or maintain the qualities
of the first. Mr. Sohm believes that first and second bottles are equally
important, though he noted that the second wine should evolve
from the first in terms of both complexity and price. My friend Mark,
a collector, believes much the same thingalthough the last time I ate
dinner at his house, he served two wines that I consider second-bottle
types, 1998 Soldera Brunello normale and 1998 Soldera Brunello riserva. Both are rare, and both are great wines.
Not that a great second bottle always has to be a great wine. As
Mr. Sohm noted, it can also be the proper evolution from the previous bottle. That was the case at a recent dinner with friends at I Trulli
restaurant in New York. I asked one of my dining companions, a
ros-avoider, to choose the first bottle. I like to start with a nice, crisp
dry white. I think it should be something that people are comfortable
with, my friend opined. Maybe a Vermentino or a Soave.
Just then, I Trullis owner and wine director, Nicola Marzovilla,
appeared. He suggested starting with a light red. Why does everyone start with white? he asked. He had a section of his wine list, entitled Chillable Reds, for this very purpose. Alas, we were all fixed on a
white. Then try something different, said Mr. Marzovilla. Order a
Nosiola instead.
The Nosiola, a Vermentino-like white wine from Trentino, was

deliciouslight, bright and charmingand a perfect start to the meal.
(It also came with a perfect first-bottle price tag of $39. Thats another
of my first-bottle rules: It should be inexpensive enough that the second bottle can cost a bit more.) We complimented Mr. Marzovilla on
his choice.
Did many people order the same wine twice at his restaurant? I
asked. Mr. Marzovilla looked horrified by the idea and practically
threw up his hands. Why do people do this? he asked, addressing
the world at large as much as our table. You wouldnt have salad
salad salad for your meal!
The Nosiola was so delicious and so drinkable, it soon disappearedtoo soon, in fact, as our appetizers had just arrived but the
bottle was empty. We had two courses to gowould a second bottle
see us through, or would we need to plan for a third?
A third bottle presents an altogether different dilemmaand it puts
the second bottle into a different category as well. The second bottle,
instead of being the crescendo, becomes more of an intermezzo. My
friends and I discussed our dilemma. What should the price and character of the second bottle be? Should it be another white or should it
be a red? We thought it should be pricier than the first wine but not
that much more expensive since we now had to budget for a possible
third.
We pored over the wine list, weighing our options. There were
attractive Barberas, Dolcettos and other light reds that would pair
well with our pastas and provide a good transition to our next possible wine. Mr. Marzovilla reappeared and suggested a Tuscan wine
made with grapes grown on his own estate, the 2010 Massoferrato
Sangiovese. Youll love it, he saidand at $39, the price was certainly
right for a wine that might not be the last of the night. We quickly
agreed, and Mr. Marzovilla returned with the wine.
He poured us a taste and we all concurred it was deliciousmarked
by bright red fruit and a lively acidity. My friend the ros-hater loved
it so much that he declared it was a Sangiovese by way of MoreySt. Denis, a reference to a famous wine village in Burgundy. As Mr.
Marzovilla began filling our glasses, I noticed he wasnt pouring from
a regular wine bottle but a litera third larger than a standard-size
bottle. Our problem was solved. Sometimes a perfect second bottle
isnt a matter of evolution, complexity, color or pricesometimes its
simply a matter of size.
This article originally ran on March 15, 2013, under the headline Second
Thoughts: How to Follow Your First Bottle.
How to Order Wine on an Airplane
BY WILL LYONS
We all dream of flying first class. Admit it, when the plane pushes
back from the gate and begins its taxi to the runway, those of us not
quite as close to the cockpit as we had hoped begin to entertain envious thoughts about those up front, sipping vintage Champagne and
nibbling their smoked salmon and Osetra caviar.
Im one of those who still experience a little pang of excitement as
the catering trolley makes its way down the aisle. But such has been
the downgrading of air travel in recent years that food is no longer a
given, let alone wine. To compound matters, modern aviation regulations mean the oenophile hasnt a hope of bringing his favorite bottle on board.
Im always reminded of the final scene of Hannibal (2001) when
Anthony Hopkins, flying in economy, takes delivery of a Dean &
Deluca hamper complete with a half-bottle of 1996 Chteau Phlan
( Jean-Manuel Duvivier)
Sgur from Saint-Estphe, an assortment of fruits, caviar and cheese

and, infamously, a tiny pot of brain.
Not that I would recommend drinking such a delicate wine in
such a small glass at 35,000 feet. Wines taste very different in the
air; a combination of altitude and low humidity tends to accentuate
a wines acidity and alcohol. Meanwhile, the cabins dry atmosphere
will make the tanninsthe bitter-tasting compounds found in red
winemore pronounced. And its not just the wines that are affected.
The way we taste things also changes at altitude. As the recycled
cabin air dries the mucus in our nasal passages, our sense of smell
diminishes, wreaking havoc with our olfactory appreciation.
Saint-Estphe is known for producing wines with plenty of tannins and acidity in their youthDr. Lecter would be advised to
plump for something a little riper and softer to pair with his brain;
maybe an Australian Shiraz.
Which brings me to Australia and its flagship carrier, Qantas,
which has, for the second year running, picked up a string of prizes
in the annual Cellars in the Sky awards. The airline was judged to
have the best overall wine cellar, above Emirates, which won silver,
and El-Al and Cathay Pacific, which shared bronze.
Qantas says its success lies in its wine panel, created in 2003 and
comprising three Australian winemakers: Vanya Cullen, Stephen
Pannell and Tom Carson. They meet several times a year and assess
hundreds of wines, asking questions such as, does it represent a premium wine? Is it a benchmark of its style? Is it drinking well and will
it show well under flying conditions?
A spokesman for the panel says altitude dulls a wines aroma,
potentially ruining a good bottle of wine. Soft fruit and citrus flavors
are reduced, whereas wines with riper, red-berried fruit tend not
to be so badly affected. Meanwhile, a young wine can seem hard
whereas older wines tend to taste better.
With its mainly Australian wine list, Qantas has got it right. My
advice to fliers has always been to opt for those wines that are bigger,
riper and more expressive, with low acidity. Something like a Merlot,
Pinotage or Shiraz for reds or Chardonnay, Semillon and Viognier
for whites.
It does seem a shame, though, that some of the finest wines in the
world are consumed under such poor conditions. Having said that, if
I were traveling first class and were handed a cool glass of effervescent vintage Krug after takeoff, Id take it.
This article originally ran on Feb. 20, 2014, under the headline Getting
On Top of Wines Altitude Problem.
On Drinking Wine
BY WILL LYONS
There is a difference between drinking wine and tasting it. Both

have merits it is foolish to deny.
When we drink, we dont give much thought to what is in our
glass. The job of a chilled glass of uncomplicated ros, poured swiftly
from the bottle on a hot summers day, is to refresh, lift the mood
and jolt our taste buds into action as we await the arrival of food.
To extract the most possible sensory delight from a bottle, however,
needs a little extra effort.
Wine isnt as complicated as most experts would lead you to
believe, but like the appreciation of music, art or literature the more
care and attention one gives to it the more pleasures will unravel.
When I was training as a young wine merchant in London, one of
my first jobs was to prepare the wines for the lunches my employer
held for his more illustrious clients. I would be given a list of wines,
usually containing the best of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Napa

andalwaysa vintage Port to serve, and great care was taken in
their opening, presentation and tasting.
Stepping into the damp, chilly cellar to find the bottles, I would
check the labels and make sure the year and estate were correct. I
would unwrap the small coil of foil and pull the cork. This little ritual, repeated hundreds of times, never lost its appeal. As I poured a
small measure into a tasting glass, inspecting its color, I would give
it a large sniff. (It is our noses, not our taste buds, which pick up the
layers of flavor a great wine reveals.)
After checking that the wines temperature was correct, I would
carefully pour it into a decanter before presenting it to my boss.
Invariably, he would take a sip and ask What do you think?
There are dozens of ways to enjoy the taste of wine, and at least as
many occasions for doing so. Everyone will have their preference; I
am for learning the basics, then improvising. As my bosss question
illustrates, there is no better palate than your own.
How to Make Sense of Wine Scents
BY WILL LYONS
A few years after I embarked on a career as a wine critic, I found

myself in the cellars of a fairly well-known Bordeaux producer. My
wife and I were on holiday and I had surreptitiously scheduled an
afternoon appointment at a chteau not far from Saint-milion. The
only problem: The vigneron hadnt been told, and I hadnt told my
wife. So, as he poured out his first barrel sample, I thought Id better
concentrate.
Lowering my nose into the tasting glass, I managed to detect a
few telltale aromas: blackberry, red currant, vanilla and a hint of dark
chocolate. It was enough. The vignerons mood visibly improved and
my spouse later admitted that it was the first time she actually believed
that, when it came to wine, I knew what I was talking about.
Wine appreciation is fundamentally linked to smell. Much of what
we taste in the glassabout 70%is based on its bouquet. There are
more than 1,000 different aroma molecules in wine and yet, outside
the rarefied world of professional wine tasting, I suspect most drinkers
can only detect a handful.
Our sense of smell is one of our most powerful senses. But unlike
our eyes, which automatically recognize color, and our ears, which
are attuned to detect sounds, our nose needs to be trained. What I had
demonstrated in the cellars of Chteau Fonroque wasnt some sort
of magic trick but an analysis based on concentration and olfactory
memory. It isnt hard, anyone can do it. But it does take a little application and time. And as anyone who has sufficiently developed their
sense of smell and learned the basics of a wine-tasting vocabulary will
tell you, once mastered, wine will never taste the same again.
Our sense of smell comes into play not just when we sniff a glass
but when the wine is in our mouth as well. This is because our sense
of smell is based above and behind our nose. Indeed, our nose is
merely a passageway to our olfactory bulb, which is part of the limbic
system, whose other functions include emotion and long-term memory. Hence when we walk into a room and smell a particular aroma,
we are transported back to our childhood. In my case, this is always
wood polish, as my school had wooden floors.
Trained wine tasters will have spent a fair amount of time in
florists shops, bakeries, vegetable stalls and spice counters, learning
and honing their smell memory banks. I have even known one Master of Wine student who used to eat Parma Violet sweets so that he
could detect the faint trace of violet in Malbec. A more conventional
route is simply to taste as much wine as you can. But unless you are
in the wine trade or live in a city like London, which hosts a large
number of wine tastings, this is both expensive and logistically challenging.

Around 25 years ago, in the Burgundian town of Chalon-surSane, an amateur wine enthusiast named Jean Lenoir decided to
solve this problem. Convinced from the wine-tasting classes he was
hosting that more needed to be done to educate people on taste and
smell, Mr. Lenoir identified 54 aromas in red, white and ros wines.
Collecting everything from pineapple to cut hay and dark chocolate, he bottled the scents in tiny perfume bottles and created Le Nez
du Vin. Starting at 25, each kit comes with an instruction manual,
a collection of numbered aroma vials and a key to tell you what they
are.
Mr. Lenoir suggests settling down in a quiet room and blindly
smelling a random bottle. With time, your nose should be able to
identify a number of aromatics.
He divides wine aromas into three categories: primary (those that
originate from the grape variety); secondary (those that come from
fermentation); and tertiary (the aromas that emerge from maturation). Within these broad categories, there are five essential notes:
fruity (anything from lemon to blackberry); floral (acacia to violet);
vegetal and spicy notes (green pepper to thyme); animal notes
(leather and butter); and roasted notes (toast and coffee).
There are flaws to the system: Some scents are hard to identify, and
it is a different skill smelling the aromas in isolation, compared with
the crowded combinations found in a glass of wine. But for anyone
unfamiliar with certain fruit descriptors, it is extremely useful. Personally, I like to use it to keep sharp and to keep on top of the berry
scents, which are often confused. There is now a range of kits, from
wine faults and oak to coffee. Recently, Mr. Lenoir launched Le Nez
du Whisky (300).
Created in conjunction with whisky writer Charles MacLean, the
kit contains an eclectic group of smells, including tar, broiled meat
and tobacco leaf. Mr. MacLean says it is useful for identifying certain
aroma profiles. For example, if a whisky has a fruit character, one can
then ask if it is fresh, dried or tinned.
My advice would be to try to master the scent of a few unusual but
prevalent smells. Then, the next time a sommelier hands you a glass
to taste, or you find yourself in the cellars of a well-known winery,

youll be able to sniff like an expert.
This article originally ran on Oct. 17, 2013, under the headline Making
Sense of Wine Scents.
Howand Whyto Do the Swirl
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
After decades of wine drinking, there are certain things that I do

almost automatically: Check the alcohol level on the wine label,
examine the cork upon removing it from the bottle and swirl the
wine around in my glass. The latter is an absolute among
oenophilesan action as necessary as tasting, perhaps even more so
considering the importance of a wines aroma.
Swirling releases the wines aromatic compounds, known as esters,
into the air. Every wine has these volatile aroma compounds,
although some wines have more than others, depending on the structure and character of the grape. Swirling can also affect the wines
flavor. The oxygen introduced by the act of swirling binds with the
tannin molecules to make the wine seem softer, more accessible.
I began thinking more seriously about swirling after watching a
YouTube video a few weeks ago. (Isnt that where most of todays
obsessions begin?) Created by a group of physics professors and students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne,
the video, titled Modelling the swirling of a glass of wine, depicted
research team member and Ph.D. candidate Martino Reclari (unaccountably attired in a Guinness T-shirt) swirling a glass of wine and
explaining that his team had studied the shape of the wave of a
swirled glass of wine in the belief that it could be applied to their
study of cellular cultures.
While the Swiss researchers found wine swirling worthy of scientific analysis, the wine professionals I talked with seemed a bit
more blas. Swirling? Alexander LaPratt repeated when I told him
the reason for my call. I thought Mr. LaPratt, the sommelier of
New Yorks DB Bistro Moderne and the reigning Best Sommelier
in America (as the winner of the biannual competition hosted by the
American Sommelier Association) might have some deeper insight
into the subject of swirlingperhaps hed even taken a few swirling
tests in his title quest?
He had not, but he did, in fact, swirl all the time. I do it automatically. Its a reflex, he said. What did Mr. LaPratt consider the greatest
benefit of swirling? That was easy. Oxygenation, he said. Swirling
is like a kind of miniature decanting.
What about Champagne? There are conflicting theories about this:
Some wine drinkers believe Champagne should be swirled like any
wine, others believe the act is deleterious to the bubbles in the glass.
Then of course, there is the practical challengeits hard to swirl a
Champagne flute or detect much aroma from the narrow bowl of the
glass. Its funny how controversial things get when you add bub-
bles, laughed Mr. LaPratt, who does swirl his Champagne, which he
drinks out of a regular glass. But Im fine with drinking flat Champagne, he said.
The glass is of great importance when it comes to swirling. So is
the volume of wine: The glass should be no more than one-third
full. This allows the aromas enough room to circulateand gives the
swirler sufficient space to fit his or her nose into the glass. The glass
itself should be generously proportioned; the glasses that Mr. LaPratt
employs at his restaurant are large enough to fit the contents of an
entire bottle of wine.
Is there an optimum swirling glass? I put the question to Maximilian Riedel, scion of Riedel glass.
The glass must be lead crystal, Mr. Riedel said. When you swirl
a wine in lead crystal, the aromas are easier to identifythe wine
rubs the inside wall of the glass. Lead crystal is rougher than regular
glassit agitates the surface of the wine, thereby increasing the oxygen flow.
Though Riedel makes hundreds of types of wine glasses, seemingly
one for each grapeand Mr. Riedel strongly recommends having
multiple sets of glasses for different varietalsI decided Id use one
type of glass for my swirling exercises. After all, most people cant
afford that many sets of glassware. And in his book The Taste of
Wine, famed Bordeaux oenologist and researcher mile Peynaud
recommended using a single glass for tastings: Otherwise a wines
odor cannot be analyzed exactly the same way.
I decided on a Riedel Vinum Burgundy glassthe bulbous shape
and large bowl of the Burgundy stem is designed to allow the accu-
mulation of aromas. I gathered a group of friends and an eclectic

group of wines, some overtly aromatic and others not: Pinot Noir,
Gamay, Zinfandel, Cabernet, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewrztraminer,
as well as less famous grapes like Falanghina, Greco di Tufo, Torronts and Frappato.
I chose only young wines. Many older wines may not benefit from
a vigorous swirlfor example, a fragile old Burgundy is best left
unswirled.
Its also important to smell the wine before swirling to note the
difference. In most cases, we didnt find much in the way of aromas
preswirl, save for the Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, whose grassy
character practically jumped out of the glass.
Then we swirled. For how long? No one seemed to know the
ideal, but four or five seconds seemed like the right amount of time.
Some wines were aromatically reticent even after a vigorous swirl,
so for those, I put my hand over the top of the glass and reswirled.
This helps to concentrate the aromasor, in some cases, amplify a
wines problems.
I noticed that we were all swirling in the same direction: counterclockwise. Why? Because Im right-handed, offered one friend.
Because I live in the Northern Hemisphere, suggested another,
positing that people in the Southern Hemisphere swirled their wines
clockwise, just as their water went down the drain in a different
direction. (I checked with a couple of Southern Hemisphere winemakers, Peter Gago, chief winemaker of Penfolds in Australia and
Susana Balbo of Crios in Argentina, and found that both swirled
counterclockwise, though Ms. Balbo said sometimes she went the

other way, too.)
Could the direction of the swirl make a difference? For example,
did a clockwise turn emphasize fruit, while counterclockwise produced more notes of oak? I had read that some winemakers believed
that direction made a difference, but when my friends and I tried
swirling both ways, opinions were decidedly mixed. Some thought
the fruit was more vibrant in a counterclockwise direction, while
others disputed there was a difference at all.
There is clearly much more to know about swirling, which for all
its simplicity and benefits is an act whose particularsdirection and
duration of the swirl and optimal glassare unknown. Perhaps the
Swiss physicists knew more? I emailed Mr. Reclari, who replied that
he was in the middle of additional research but the results would not
be available for several months. Meantime, Ill keep swirling. After
all, as Prof. Peynaud said, The study of aroma requires considerable
application and many repeated attempts.
This article originally ran on March 3, 2012, under the headline The
Artand Scienceof the Swirl.
How to Match Wine and Food Without

Overthinking
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
While wine may be worthy of extensive, even exhaustive study,

theres one aspect that I think has received far too much scrutiny in
recent years: matching wine with food. I could eat and drink quite
happily for decades without hearing anyone ever again utter those
four consecutive words.
Its not that I dont like putting wine and food together; I do it
every day of the week. Its the ceremony that I object tothe elevation of a few common-sense principles to something approximating
great art. When did wine-and-food pairing start having to be studied
so carefullyas if it were postmodernist art or Beowulf?
Once upon a time, not so long ago, food-and-wine matching
rarely rated more than a mention on the back label of a bottle:
pair with chicken, pasta and fish. Its glorification is a fairly recent
eventin fact, Id date it to 2006. Thats when two of the most successful books on the subject were published: What to Drink With
What You Eat, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, and Perfect Pairings, by Evan Goldstein, a master sommelier and wine educator.
Mr. Goldsteinwho has educated tens of thousands of sommeliers
over the years, by his own estimationbelieves that sommeliers are to
blame for the overemphasis on overly exact wine-and-food pairing:
The modern-day sommelier feels very strongly about you having
the right wine with the right foodthey become quite draconian, he
said during a phone call last week. And its not always done with the
customers pleasure in mind. (Presumably, those sommeliers werent
educated by him.)
The book by Ms. Page and Mr. Dornenburg is quite comprehensiveevery wine in the world seems to have been examined for its
suitability to foodwhile Mr. Goldstein looks at just 12 grapes and
pairs them with appropriate recipes (created by his mother, Joyce
Goldstein, the San Francisco restaurateur and chef). Mr. Goldsteins
advice is sound and the recipes are appealing, but what if someone
didnt want to think about pairing? Could he recommend wines that
would work with most types of food?
He could. And they all shared the same attributes, said Mr. Goldstein, who offered a list: moderate alcohol, moderate to high acidity,
soft tannins and little or no oak. There were lots of wines with these
qualitiesmade from all kinds of grapes from all over the worldbut
a few examples that came to his mind first were red grapes like Bar-
bera, Gamay and Pinot Noir, which Mr. Goldstein called the silver
bullet.
Was there a sommelier who could simplify things as well? Alpana
Singh, a Chicago-based sommelier, author and almost-restaurateur
(her Boarding House restaurant is opening soon), had a useful rule
of thumb: Look for red wines that you can see through, she said.
These included the same three grapes that Mr. Goldstein mentioned
but a few others as well, namely Cabernet Franc, from the Loire, and
Frappato, a red grape native to Sicily. Im drinking a lot of Frappato
lately, said Ms. Singh.
What about white grapes? Were there any that she considered just
as versatile? Pinot Gris, Ms. Singh replied decisively. Its my Velcro of wines. It has acidity but also roundness and a little residual
sugarthats the magic fairy dust of wine pairing. There are only
a few Pinot Gris on her list right now, although there are several
Chenin Blancsmy personal all-around favorite white grape with
food.
I liked the idea of wines that were so flexible it wasnt necessary
to think about how to match them with food. But was it simply too
good to be true? I decided to stage a little food-and-wine-matching
experiment. I assembled a few of the basic foods cited on those back
labels of bottles (meat, chicken, pork, fish and pasta) and made them
simultaneously to taste with the wine (no small feat on a four-burner
stove). I made a pan-fried steak, a piece of sauted salmon, a link
of grilled pork sausage, a braised chicken breast and a pot of cheese
tortellini and paired them with some of the food-friendly grapes suggested by the experts: Pinot Noir, Gamay, Barbera, Pinot Gris and
Chenin Blanc. While the cooking wasnt completely successful (see:

four-burner stove), the wine pairings all workedalmost.
The Gamays (the grape of Beaujolais) were definitely the most
food-flexible of all, with just the right measure of acidity, earthiness
and fruit. Of the three I tried, the 2010 Julien Sunier Rgni, a cru
Beaujolais, was particularly goodsubstantial yet lithe. The two Barberas were almost as versatile, especially the bright and juicy wine
from Elio Perrone. The Pinot Noirs ran a close third. The lighter
examples from Oregon and Burgundy were a touch too delicate for
the steak, but the velvety-textured 2010 Arista Ferrington Vineyard
Pinot Noir, from Californias cool Anderson Valley, overperformed,
with a bright bolt of acidity balancing all its rich, ripe fruit.
The two white grapes, Chenin Blanc and Pinot Gris, went well
with almost everythingthe pork, the chicken, the pasta and the
salmon all fit, and the wines were rich and viscous but also minerally
and clean. (I tasted both domestic and imported examples of each
grape.) The only sticking point was, unsurprisingly, the steak. While
the wines voluptuous texture matched the steaks richness, their minerality proved a bit of a jarring contrast, particularly in the case of the
2011 Chidaine Vouvray Les Argiles. (A minerally white just isnt as
versatile as a minerally red.) But they both came admirably close to
universal usefulness, and I was quite pleased with my food-and-winematching experiment, not to mention the advice of my experts.
Then I had a chat with Thomas Pastuszak, wine director at New
Yorks Nomad restaurant, who said the best match wasnt between
wine and food at all but between wine and diner. I would rather pair
the right wine with the right person rather than the dish, he said.
How did how that work? Did he ask diners to fill out a questionnaire,
submit to a brief interview? It was far more practical than that, said
Mr. Pastuszak. He simply gave them a taste of the wines he poured by
the glass and waited to see which wines they liked best. More often
than not, they cared less about choosing the right match with their
food than choosing a wine that came with a good story attached.
Winemakers clearly know this to be true. After all, their back
labels feature stories about the winery, the winemaker and the winery
dogand only a few words about food: Pair with pork, chicken and
fish.
This article was originally published on Nov. 25, 2012, under the headline
Wine and Food: Pairing Without Overthinking.
How to Break the Rules of Food-and-Wine

Pairings
BY WILL LYONS
There isnt an exact science behind choosing wine at a restaurant but

Im guessing that when most of us step inside the dining room we
select the dish we want to eat first and then a wine to accompany it.
What happens when you reverse the process? Imagine asking for the
wine list first, choosing the style, country or vintage you would like
and then asking the waiter to choose a dish to go with it.
In most cases, I suspect it would throw up some pretty safe options:
oysters to accompany that glass of Chablis or perhaps a roast leg of
lamb to bring out the subtle flavors of the cru class Mdoc you have
carefully selected. But with the plethora of international cuisine now
available to us from southern India to Thailand and Japan, the traditional European-based rules of food and wine matching are no longer
the preeminent catch-all guide they once were.
Readers of this column will know that in the past year we have
explored the subjects of what to drink with seafood and whether
white wine pairs well with cheese, but what about often spicy Asian
dishes? Traditionally, European based experts, of whom I am one,
would recommend steering clear of pairing delicate wine with hot
food. A glass of beer used to be the preferred option or, if one did
have to opt for a wine, possibly a Riesling. These wines get their
structure from acidity, which, together with their mineral-infused
fruitiness, can prove an appealing partnership with delicately flavored
Asian cuisine. Moreover, in Germanys Mosel valley you can find
examples at 8% alcohol, which works well with the heat of some
Asian food.
But as more wine, mainly red wine from France, is being consumed by traditionally non-wine-drinking countries such as China,
Japan, Singapore and India, we are gaining more knowledge and
experience of what pairs well with non-European food.
Recently, I spoke with Nicolas Glumineau, technical director at
Bordeauxs Chteau Montrose, who now visits Southeast Asia several
times a year. Marvelling at the variety of recipes found in countries
such as Thailand, he also explained that from his experience Asian
consumers werent as afraid of tannins as Europeans. Moreover he
said that the tannins found in red Bordeaux match well with certain
Asian dishes based around duck and veal. I was surprised, as I always
found that spicy flavors matched with the bitter tannins of red wine
can prove an unpalatable partnership. But I was falling into the trap
of imagining the unknown from what I knew; most of my experience of Asian cuisine has come via Europe.
As Fiona Beckett, author and publisher of matchingfoodandwine.com, says, food and wine matching isnt just about matching
different flavors, it is cultural too.
In the Far East, people want to and expect to drink serious red
wines with their food. In places such as Szechuan in China they like
chilli and heat. The fact that a tannic red wine accentuates that character is a bonus rather than detraction.
Sriram Vishwanathan Aylur, chef and proprietor at Londons
Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Quilon, says the picture is complicated, given the variety of recipes and dishes found in Asia.
If you look at Indian food, you can eat in the north of India and
the south of India, and you can almost feel that you are eating food
from two different countries. It is not just about the dish being spicy,
it is about how spicy it is and how it is cooked that also make it complicated.
He points to red wines that are low in tannins, such as a New
World Merlot with plenty of fruit, as a possible accompaniment to
dishes flavored with strong spices as they absorb the heat of the dish.
From my own experience, I still enjoy matching white wines
from Frances Alsace region with Asian food, in particular Pinot Gris
(which pairs well with a variety of dishes) and dry Rieslings. But I
also feel soft, fruit-driven red wines pair well with grilled or barbecue meats in the Indian tandoori style. It seems that, given the international flavor of todays wine-drinking landscape, were learning all
the time. If you would like to drink red wine with your Asian food,
by all means give it a go. Just remember to ignore the quizzical look
from your sommelier.
This article originally ran on April 19, 2014, under the headline Breaking
the Food-and-Wine-Matching Rules.
When, Why and How to Decant Wine
BY WILL LYONS
For wine lovers, there are many established norms that always seem
to provoke heated discussion. Should you serve only white wine with
fish? Does wine need to be chilled? And, the classic restaurant tussle,
is your wine corked?
But perhaps the most universal flash point is that of decanting. As
with all matters vinous, the answer is never straightforward. On one
side are the pro-decanters, among whom I count myself, who argue
that all wine improves with decanting, while the aesthetic appeal of
a shimmering decanter adds to the theater of an evening. Others dispute this, saying decanting can actually deaden the wines flavors, losing some of its character.
The two principal aims of decanting a wine are to remove any sediment and aerate the wine. The latter will help draw out its nuanced
flavors, soften the harsher, spicier, bitter notes and invigorate the
(Anna Parini)
wine. Whether you are decanting a mature or young wine will affect
how you pour it into the decanter.
All wine that will throw sediment should be decanted; this includes
red Bordeaux, Rhne, Rioja, vintage Port and heavy grape varieties
such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Alsoand this is open to discussionyoung wines.
In my experience, exposure to air unfurls the complex layers of flavor in young fine wine. A wine that was tight, closed and rather difficult to taste can, with time in the decanter, transform its personality.
The smell changes, becoming replete with ripe fruit; the bitter tannins subside; and the wine opens up, revealing its true character.
Generally, I have found this to be the case with Old World wines
from the classic regions of Europe, as opposed to New World wines,
which change less in the decanter. White wines can also be decanted.
Old Rieslings, white Rioja and young Chardonnay all improve with
aeration.
If you prefer your white wine chilled, there are various decanters
that will fit in a fridge, or you can buy an ice-pocket decanter, which
has a small built-in capsule for ice that will help keep your wine cool.
I prefer my whites lightly chilled and find that a bottle that has been
in the fridge for an hour or two benefits from decanting, to take the
chill off.
How long you should decant a wine for before serving depends on
the age and type of the wine. When reviewing wines, I always prefer
to decant. A recent example was with an Italian red wine made by
Cantine Paradiso. On the first night, the wine was impenetrable, tasting hard, closed and bitter. On the second night, it still wasnt quite
there, but by the third evening, I could taste a host of intriguing flavors.
There are those who believe certain vintages should be decanted at
breakfast, hours before they will be drunk at dinner. Sadly, there are
no hard and fast rules on this and it is really down to personal preference. Certainly, very old wine should be decanted just before serving,
as exposure to oxygen can cause it to lose its flavor quite quickly.
Young wine can withstand up to three or four hours or, in some
cases, days. I am in favor of decanting shortly before I serve the
winethat way I can taste it immediately and track its evolution in
the glass. If it turns out to be particularly impenetrable, I can always
leave it for the following evening.
CHOOSING YOUR DECANTER
This is purely about aesthetics. The shape, size and look of a decanter
will not affect the wine inside. The traditional decanter, a glass vessel
that holds one bottle of wine, has changed very little in design since
the 18th century. There are a range of decanters on the market, from
traditional shapes, such as ships decanters and Claret jugs, to modern,
sometimes overly elaborate designs. But any vessel will doeven, if
pushed, a jug.
CARING FOR YOUR DECANTER
Decanters should be washed and rinsed with hot water after use. Drying a decanter can be particularly tricky; although the outside can be
wiped clean with a dry cloth, the inside needs a little more attention. You can drain a decanter by placing it upside down on a draining stand. Another way is to buy drying crystals; these come in a
long, thin packet and, when hung inside the decanter, absorb all its
moisture. To remove troublesome stains, there are various decanter
brushes available. For encrusted wine from the night before, fill the
decanter with a handful of uncooked brown rice, pour in hot water
and swirl around. Finally, microfiber polishing cloths will help add a
shine to your glass.
This article originally ran on Jan 31, 2013, under the headline To Decant
or Not to Decant.
How to Serve Wine at the Right Temperature
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
One of my early wine mentors, the late, great wine writer Alexis
Bespaloff, gave me a briefbut nevertheless valuablepiece of
advice: If the wine is too warm, put an ice cube in the glass, swirl
it around for four seconds then take it out. His suggestion became
what my friends and I called The Alexis Bespaloff Four-Second
Rule.
Over the years, Ive passed the A.B.F.S.R. along to every wine
drinker I knowor, for that matter, anyone Ive ever encountered
who complained that his glass of wine was too warm. Its a technique
best suited to an overly warm red, as cooling a white takes a few seconds longer, but it will make any wine brighter, more refreshing,
more vivid. Whereas warmth can blur a wines character, the right
degree of coolness brings the wine more fully into focus.
Unlike proper wine glasses or the act of pairing wine with food,
wine temperature isnt something that most wine drinkers think

much about. Even some wine professionals dont seem to consider
it overmuch, judging by the service and storage conditions Ive
encountered over the years.
Ive been in restaurants where the wine bottles were stored at a
temperature best described as balmystacked over the bar or lined
up under lights on some very high shelves. Ive even been served red
wine in a glass that was taken straight from the dishwasher to the
table and was literally too hot to touch. (This happened at a famous
steakhouse in New York.)
Correct wine temperaturein both service and storageis one of
the most crucial aspects of the enjoyment of wine. A bottle that is
too cold or too warm is a wine thats not going to be fully enjoyed.
The ideal temperature for serving isnt actually that far from the one
at which the wine should be stored. In both cases the answer varies
according to the wines color, type (sparkling or still) and even varietal.
For example, a sparkling wine should always be served much
colder than a still onein part because sparkling wines are generally
high in acidity and a high-acid wine is particularly unpleasant to
drink warmbut primarily because the cold preserves the carbon
dioxide (aka the bubbles). The colder the bottle of Champagne, the
more carbon dioxide is dissolved into its contents, and the longer
the sparkle will hold. The inverse is true too: A too-warm Champagne is a Champagne that may well be flat. (While a refrigerator is a
good short-term storage place for Champagne, long-term storage in
a fridge can also make the wine flat, as such a dry environment will
eventually dry out the cork.)
Texture and acidity are important parts of the temperature equation. Non-sparkling white wines are best stored around 50 to 55
degrees (about 10 or 15 degrees warmer than the average fridge) and
served a bit warmer if they are particularly full-bodied and rich. For
example, a big Chardonnay can be served several degrees warmer
than a Sauvignon Blancwhich in turn can be served a bit warmer
than, say, a very light Pinot Grigio.
Red wines can be stored around 55 degrees or colder and served
about 10 degrees warmer (60 to 65 degrees) though light red wines
like Beaujolais or Dolcetto can be served lightly chilled (55 degrees,
bearing in mind this is all an inexact science). The rule here is similar
to that of white wine: The higher in acidity and lighter in body the
wine, the lower the serving temperature. If you only have one place
to store wine and are limited to a single temperature setting, the classic cellar is 55 degrees.
Too-cool has a price: When a wine is very cold, the flavors are
muted, while other aspects like alcohol and tannins are likely to come
to the fore. The aromas will be pretty much obliterated as well. Try
drinking an ice-cold glass of red wine and see if you can tell much
about it. If this is a good wine then youre missing a lotof course, if
its a cheap wine its probably just as well.
As for an oxidized wine (one that is flawed or flat due to excessive
exposure to air), its better served really cold, as a high-profile New
York sommelier who preferred to remain anonymous, knows. He
was confronted with a large number of oxidative Burgundies that had
been flown over from France for a private dinner. The winemaker
didnt have replacements for the flawed wines. So we piled on the
ice, the sommelier recalled. It was the only thing we could do.
Wine temperature is also a matter of individual taste. Some people
like their beverages very cold; some dont like anything on ice. Often
this has to do with geography. Chris Baggetta, wine director of
Quince and Cotogna restaurants in San Francisco and formerly a
sommelier at Eleven Madison Park in New York, found that New
Yorkers like their whites colder and their reds warmer than their
Bay Area counterparts. Why was that? I asked. Ms. Baggetta speculated that San Franciscos more consistent climate allowed Bay Area
diners to be more sanguine about temperature while New Yorkers
were more accustomed to extremes in temperatures (not to mention
in daily life).
San Francisco diners are more open to discussions about proper
wine temperature, said Ms. Baggetta. Theyre really curious and
inquisitive about temperature variations, she said. Theyre also flexible; they will allow Ms. Baggetta to decide whether or not to leave
the bottle on the table or to put it in a bucket with ice. New Yorkers,
on the other hand, like what they like.
I told Ms. Baggetta that I hate it when a sommelier puts my bottle
of wine in an ice bucket. The wine gets too cold and its usually
somewhere far away, often out of sight. I worry that someone else is
drinking my wine (yes, this has happened). Surprisingly enough, Ms.
Baggetta agreed with my point; she said she doesnt like to have her
bottle far from the table either.
Of course I would always choose too-cold over too warm. Around
a decade ago there was a trend among New York sommeliers to serve
white wines at room temperature. A sommelier would bring a bodytemperature bottle to the table and ask in a disapproving tone, You
dont want this chilled, do you? Clearly anyone who replied in the
affirmative would be cast as a fool. Id hedge my answer: Just a bit.
A friend who remembers that period said he would always respond,
Yes! Yes! I want it cold. As cold as you can get itan over-the-top
response that he said made sommeliers think he was nuts and leave
him alone.
Geoffrey Troy, proprietor of New York Wine Warehouse, a retail
store and wine storage facility that is home to some great collections
of Burgundy and Bordeaux, believes that cold is always best. He cited
his fathers personal cellar, which was set to a constant 48 degrees
(seven degrees colder than the conventional cellar temperature).
The lower temperature kept his fathers wines so well that they
taste years younger than the same wines, said Mr. Troy, who keeps
his professional warehouse at 55 degrees in part because a lower temperature would cost much more. But if he could afford it, he would
set his storage thermostat to 48 degrees too, he said. Consider it the
Geoffrey Troy 48-Degree Ideal Cellar Rule.
This article originally ran on Aug. 30, 2013, under the headline Strike the
Just-Right Degree of Wine Cool.
How to Select the Proper Glassware
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
Some children grow up in musical families and learn how to sing or

play an instrument. I grew up in a family whose focus was glassware.
Did you ever see a glass so well-proportioned? Did you notice how it
catches the light, my father might ask, holding up a wine glass made
somewhere like Poland or France. (He rarely mentioned the wine.) A
running joke between my sister and me was that no matter what the
topic might be, my father could turn it to glassware.
My father spent decades working for a variety of glass companies,
and our cabinets contained glasses from all over the world: Ireland,
England, Austria, Finland, Germany and the U.S.
Today, my own glassware collection is much less wide-ranging.
There are three types of wine glasses in my housered, white and
Champagnealthough the red wine glass is the only one that I consistently use. The white wine glass is too small, and the flutes are too
fussy. Perhaps its a very late form of childhood rebellion, but I dont
focus overmuch on glassware.
After a few memorable encounters with some particularly impressive stemware, though, I began to think I might be missing out. And
as Aldo Sohm, chef sommelier of Le Bernardin restaurant in New
York, said to me recently, one glass simply isnt enough. Or as he
put it: Life is simple. But not that simple. In fact, Mr. Sohm went
even further, saying, You cant love wine and not care about wine
glasses.
Mr. Sohm was one of two New York sommeliers whom I met with
in recent weeks to talk about glassware. The second was Thomas
Carter, wine director of Estela, a trendy newish restaurant downtown. Both men are quite knowledgeable about glassware, and could
even be described as glassware-obsessed.
Mr. Carter is an impassioned audiophile, and he finds many parallels between the two worlds. Speakers are to music as glasses are to
wine, was one of the first things that he said to me when we met
at Estela. Although Mr. Carters restaurant is small and the wine list
is short, his collection of wine glasses is large and somewhat untraditional. For example, he likes to pour Champagne into white wine
glasses. Champagne flutes make no sense, he said. Champagne is a
wine that just happens to have bubbles.
Mr. Carter believes that a wine glass can alter the taste of a
winefor better or worseand he pulled together a sampling of
his stemware to prove his point. We had six glasses for tasting two
winesa red and a white. There was a bulbous Burgundy glass, a
straight-sided Bordeaux glass and a smaller white wine glass, all made
by the German company Stlzle, as well the 7-ounce glass from

Bormioli Rocco that Mr. Carter was using for all of his wines by the
glass. He also brought out two possible replacements for the Bormiolia glass made by Riedel and one by Spiegelau.
He began with the red wine, a Gamay from the Loire, which
we tasted from each of the glasses. The Bormioli glass was so small
that I could barely get my fingers around the stem, let alone fit my
nose in its bowl. It didnt offer much of an impression of anything.
The wine was as lacking in distinction as the glass. The Bormioli
glasss two possible replacements were a bit betterthey had larger
bowls and more room between the bowl and the stem. (Mr. Carter
explained that he initially chose the small glass to convey a certain
casual, unpretentious attitude about wine.)
But the bowl of a wine glass must be large enough to facilitate
swirling, which all serious wine drinkers do to coax the aromas out
of the glass. (Mr. Carter, a dedicated swirler, calls it kneading the
wine.)
You cant love wine and not care about wine glasses, said a sommelier.
The wide-mouthed Burgundy glass accentuated the wines bright
cherry notes, and made it seem pleasingly fruity. (Burgundy glasses
are generally believed to accentuate fruit; they tilt the wine toward
the front of the tongue.) The taller Bordeaux glass showed a higher
acid side of the wine. (Bordeaux glasses generally orient the wine to
the back of the tongue, and are said to highlight a wines structure.)
The white wine glass made the red wine seem rather herbaceous.
Some people might even call that aroma mousy, Mr. Carter
offered. That was a very good reason not to serve the wine out of this
glass, I thought to myself.
The differences were striking, and they turned out to be even
greater in the case of the white, a Chardonnay from Jura, in eastern
France. The Bormioli bombed once again. The wine tasted like
something youd be served in coach class on a plane. (Mr. Carter,
equally displeased with the glass, has since switched it out for one
from Spiegelau.) Clearly the glass from which we were tasting wasnt
doing the wines any great favors. The Chardonnay was pleasant if
simple in the smaller, tulip-shape white wine glass. In the rounded
Burgundy glass, it seemed a bit flat. But in the squarish Bordeaux
glass, the Chardonnay was round and generous, even complex.
It was an interesting, if somewhat inconclusive exercise. There
wasnt one glass that consistently showed best. Mr. Carter said it
would have been different if hed had his Zaltos, Austrian glasses with
a slight trapezoidal shape and a cultish following. Everything shows
in a Zalto, he said. Alas, his Zalto glasses were at home, not at the
restaurant. Theyre just too expensive, Mr. Carter explained.
Id heard about Zalto glasses many times. Theyre delicate, handblown, lead-free crystal glasses whose angles, the company says, are
designed to mimic the tilt of the Earth (which somehow improves the
taste of the wine, according to Zalto). The one time I drank from a
Zalto, I was worried it would break. When I mentioned this to Mr.
Sohm, he told me that the glasses werent fragile at allin fact, hed
carried two in a bag on the subway from Manhattan to Queens and
back without breakage. The intra-borough odyssey was one of sev-
eral tests that Mr. Sohm performed before signing on as the American face of Zalto glass.
Mr. Sohm said that the glasses were the most powerful hed
ever encountered. He still uses Riedel and Spiegelau stemware at the
restaurant; in fact, when I stopped by Le Bernardin one afternoon he
brought out a couple of Spiegelau glasses to compare with the Zaltos
in an impromptu tasting of Meursault and Champagne.
Once more, there were stark differencesthe bulbous Spiegelau
Burgundy glass made the Meursault seem fatter and flatter while in
the Zalto Universal glass, it was more minerally, showing a higher
level of acidity. In short, it just seemed more precise. I tried them both
over and over. The Spiegelau shows the fruit and the Zalto shows the
minerality, said Mr. Sohm.
Mr. Sohm was certainly an impressive advocate, but since he earns
a royalty from the company, I needed to try the glass again for
myselfand against the one Id been using at home. So I bought a
Zalto Universal (said to work with all winesnever mind Mr. Sohm)
for $59 from Crush Wine & Spirits in New York. I poured a simple
Dolcetto into both glasses. The wine was pleasant, if a bit muted, in
my standard glass. It was brighter in the Zalto, but it seemed a bit
simple and one-dimensional. Thats another thing people say about
Zaltoeverything is sharper, for better or worse. I thought of Mr.
Carters audio analogy. It was like hearing mediocre music blaring
out of very good speakers.
I repeated the experiment a couple of days later with a much
better winethe 2010 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chassagne-Montrachet Les Baudines. The wine was still young and showing a fair
amount of acidity. Marked by citrus notes with a firm mineral thread,

it was lovely in both glasses, but it practically vibrated in the Zalto.
My husband, who had been happily drinking from our basic glass
for years, tasted the wine from both. He preferred the ChassagneMontrachet in the Zalto, but he was even more impressed by how the
Zalto looked, and the way that it felt. I dont want to stop holding
this glass, he said.
Thats another quality of a great wine glassit must be lovely to
look at and to hold. That was something that my father knew best.
This article originally ran on Jan 3, 2014, under the headline Glassware
That Raises the Wine Bar.
On Collecting Wine
BY WILL LYONS
Wine is ever-changing: No two bottles, barrels or vineyards are

ever quite the same. Wine renews itself each year, its style, aging
potential and flavor shaped by the vagaries of each growing season.
It is against this backdrop that wine can become a collectors
dream. There are literally thousands of wines to try, and the range of
varieties, regions and food pairings to taste create what the English
wine writer Hugh Johnson refers to as a moving target.
I have been collecting wine since the late 1990s, and I always try to
follow the advice of Professor George Saintsbury who urged readers
to steer from the known to the unknown in his seminal Notes on a
Cellar-Book. I keep a copy on my desk at home and often dip, glass
in hand, into his fascinating chronicle of the vineyards and vintages
that brought him the greatest pleasure in his drinking life.
Notes was published in 1920, long before the current fashion of
classifying wine by grape variety (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and so

on) or flavor (light and crisp, or heavy and smooth). Instead, it is
through the villages of France and countless other countries that we
learn how each bottle of wine offers a flavor snapshot of the place and
time where it was made. That unique combination of soil, climate,
culture and tradition is what the French call terroir.
If the options for collection seem daunting, Id recommend a
theme that is entirely personal. Vintages from the year one was born,
married or graduated, perhaps. Or you could focus on wine discovered during a particular holiday, or a favorite Chteau, estate or
domaine.
You dont have to take Professor Saintsburys advice. If you want
to collect by grape variety or taste profile, by all meansdo. Wine is
a journey you can travel any way you like.
How to Develop Wine Expertise
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
Ive studied the French language for decades in the hope of attaining
some form of fluency. And yet all the conversation, the reading
and the travel hasnt produced a plus franaise me. My conversational powers are largely limited to discussions about wine and, oddly
enough, furniture. I know some aspiring oenophiles who say much
the same about wine; theyve taken classes, bought reference books
and tasted lots, but they cant seem to get beyond the six basic grapes.
Wine can be just as hard to learn as a language, even though the
main requirementregular drinkingseems like less of a grind than
the conjugation of verbs. Becoming a wine expert is actually just as
formidable as learning a language, requiring a similar degree of dedication and practice, as well as some form of full-on immersion. While
a student of language might be advised to live abroad, a would-be
wine expert is often counseled to work in a restaurant or wine shop.
(David Schwen)
That was how my own wine education began. While I was still a
student in college, I decided I wanted to spend my life in wineeven
though I didnt know exactly how or where. A wine importer Id met
told me that I needed to learn the business from the ground up, and
recommended me to the owner of a prominent wine store in New
York.
My year and a half in the retail business taught me far more about
wine than I could have learned on my own. I was constantly tasting
wine, and surrounded by people who knew much more than I did
(many of whom were actually my customers).
But whats the best way to gain a deep knowledge of wine if some-
one doesnt want to commit a year or more to working in a store? I

guess it depends on how much you want to know. If its just about
learning to buy a good bottle, then that shouldnt take long. But if its
about understanding wine altogether, thats a bit more involved. Is
there a form of wine education thats best overall? I put the question
to a few top wine educators and wine professionals.
The first person I called was Kevin Zraly, the unofficial dean of
American wine educators. Mr. Zraly has been teaching Americans
about wine since 1976, when he opened his Windows on the World
Wine School in New York. His book, Windows on the World
Complete Wine Course, is on its 29th edition. Mr. Zraly said that he
has sold more than 3 million copies of his book, making him the only
wine educator I know who calculates his number of followers in the
same way that McDonalds estimates customers served.
The name Wine School is a bit of a misnomer because there is no
actual schooljust an eight-week-long course that Mr. Zraly teaches
in a Midtown hotel. The weekly classes arent meant to turn students
into experts or pros, said Mr. Zraly, but to familiarize them with the
process of trying various wines. This is the key to acquiring expertise, he said. I thought for years that geography was important until
I realized its all about tasting, he said.
Its also important for an aspiring expert to visit wineries and vineyards, said Mr. Zralya point I agree with, as long as the student
gets out of the tasting room and into the winery. Seeing how wine is
actually made makes the learning experience complete. Mr. Zraly, by
the way, doesnt believe in calling someone a wine expert. Its possible to be an expert on Italian or Spanish or French wines, he said,
but there is no such thing as broad wine expertise, as the world is

simply too wide.
Mary Ewing-Mulligan, the president of the International Wine
Center, a New York wine school, and a co-author of the Dummies
wine books, believes that tasting is important, but thinks that wine
expertise can be acquired by reading. At least for a certain type of
person, she added. (Such expertise cannot be achieved by reading
Dummies books, she admitted.)
An education by the book will take longer, and it lacks the dimension of one in the structured setting of a school, added Ms. EwingMulligan, who holds a prestigious Master of Wine certification. The
MW from the London-based Institute of Masters of Wine is generally regarded as the greatest educational credential a wine professional can earn. A candidate can spend years preparing for written
tests. There are currently 314 MWs in the world.
Ms. Ewing-Mulligan finds that formal schooling is likely to be
much broader in scope than the sort of education that people undertake for themselves. People who are self-taught are more likely to
focus on wines that they like rather than a variety of wines, said Ms.
Ewing-Mulligan. That produces a more narrow sort of expert.
I thought this was an especially good point. I know certain collectors who will only drink one type of wine (e.g., Burgundy or Bordeaux or grower Champagne) and only ever learn about that wine.
The wines of rest of the world remain a mystery. For example, one
Burgundy collector friend of mine had never tasted Vermentino, one
of the most common white grapes of Italy, until he and I traveled to
Tuscany. And yet he had tasted some of the greatest Burgundies ever
mademany, many times.
Marnie Old, a Philadelphia-based sommelier, wine educator and
author of the recently published Wine: A Tasting Course, is less
than keen on structured learning that includes memorizing grapes
and regions. She thinks information learned by rote isnt easily
retained. She questioned the teaching of tasting terms and grapes
instead of focusing on larger issues. For example, Why dont people
address important questions like the difference between white wine
and red? she asked.
Ms. Olds book is full of eye-catching visuals and a lot of fun exercises (e.g., comparing sweetness levels in wine or varying shades of
red wines) but it also contains plenty of that more structured information, such as facts on countries and grapes. I guess the basics like
grapes and regions are as impossible to forgo as the tenses of verbs in
French language books.
But its one thing to know that Chardonnay is a grape, another
to describe what Chardonnay tastes like when its grown in Chablis,
France, versus Californias central coast. Thats something that can
only be fully understood by experienceand tasting.
Keith Wollenberg, Burgundy buyer at the multistore K&L Wine
Merchants of California (who said he received his wine education
on the job in a wine shop), believes that the best route to gaining
expertise is developing a relationship with someone who is passionate
about wine. Someone with a palate and preferably a cellar that outmatches your own. And if you dont have such a friend? Then
befriend a wine merchant, he said. (Wine books, he felt, were best

suited as background references.)
Of course, some wine merchants are more passionate than othersand just because a person owns a wine store doesnt mean he
or she prizes education over a sale. For example, the manager of
the wine shop where I once worked used to suggest wines that he
thought I should try. It was only later that I discovered they were all
wines that he wanted to sell. I stopped asking for his advice.
There is also a small group of wine merchants with whom I consult
regularly about wines that I dont know or I havent tried. These professionals possess a desire to share their knowledgeand to sell wines
at a fair price. So with a small caveat, I think Mr. Wollenbergs suggestion is an excellent piece of advice: Find an honest, wine-loving
merchant or friend.
The best kind of wine fluency is achieved through a mix of all these
things: wine-loving friends, a trustworthy wine merchant (or sommelier), a shelf of good reference works and regular visits to vineyardspreferably where great wine is produced. All that goes beyond
acquiring wine expertise to making wine an important part of your
life. If only I could do the same with French verbs.
This article originally ran Jan. 31, 2014, under the headline The Long and
Tasty Path to Wine Expertise.
How to Start a Wine Cellar
BY WILL LYONS
If you enjoy wine, are starting to take more than a passing interest
and have perhaps bought the odd reference book about vino varieties,
it might be time to think about beginning your very own wine cellar.
The worst habit you can get into is to stop off at your local wine
shop once a week and pick up the odd few bottles. A much better
approach is to buy by the dozen or a six pack, as most wine merchants
will offer a discount on a mixed case. Better still is to select two or
three wine merchants, order their catalogs or look online and, when
youre in the mood, spend some time selecting your favorite wines
and comparing prices. I like to do this on the weekend, with a cup of
tea and all the catalogs spread out over the kitchen table.
But a cellar isnt just a few cases of your favorite wine. It may
sound like a clich but a good cellar requires a bit of forethought and
planning to provide pleasurable drinking over the long term. I like
to break wine collecting into three categories: wines for immediate

drinking, wines to lay down that will improve with age, and investment winesthose special bottles whose value will steadily increase
year on year.
I started my own cellar soon after I left university and began working in the wine trade. I well remember buying a case of northern
Rhne Syrah to lay downI still have four bottlesand six bottles
of a well-known New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc producer. I now
buy most of my wine twice a year: during the bin end sales at the
beginning of the year, when merchants are unloading old stock at
discounted prices, and when a wine is offered En Primeur (wine
futures). This is where the wine is put up for sale from the barrel,
months before it is bottled and shipped. The advantages are that you
can guarantee an allocation of your chosen wine, you can choose the
size of the bottle it is shipped in and also secure it at a discounted
price. However, the latter isnt always guaranteedBordeaux 2010
being a case in point. Many of the wines are cheaper now than when
they were when released En Primeur.
The common practice was always to buy three cases of your
favorite wine. As the wine went up in value, one case could be sold,
the profit of which would pay for the other two. Now wine investment isnt as simple and its worth consulting an established, trusted
wine merchant before buying wine to lay down. The golden rule is
that investment wine should never be delivered to your home cellar;
it should lay in professional storage, as provenance and storage history are crucial in retaining resale value.
So, after all this, what should you be buying? A good cellar should
be a collection of your favorite style of wines, growers and years. The

latter requires a bit of understanding and research. A good wine merchant, a specialist magazine or a wine column will tell you which
years are better than others.
Within the categories of drinking now, laying down and invest-
ment, I would divide any collection into five categories: sparkling,

sweet and fortified, full- bodied red to lay down, fruity red for youthful drinking, full-bodied white to lay down, and young fruity wine
to consume.
In an ideal world, investment wines pay for future purchases and
no category is ever fully depleted, although the latter normally isnt
an issue as many collectors I know have more wine than they will
ever be able to drink! But a word of warning: Once you catch the
collecting bug, its difficult to shake off.
THE GUIDE TO STORING WINE
Your wines delivered, so time figure out how to store it. Leave
investments to the professionals, but the rest can be stored at home
using the tips below.
WHERE TO STORE YOUR WINE
A north-facing room is best, so long as it retains a constant temperature, is free from vibration, isnt exposed to direct sunlight and is
fairly humid. Below the stairs or in the garage is also suitable, as long
as the rooms are well-insulated and arent too dry. Wines for immediate drinking can be stored in a more accessible place than those that
need to be aged. As a rule of thumb opt for the coolest room in the
house.
TEMPERATURE
This is the most important element in wine storage. Wines should be

stored between 10-20C, with an ideal temperature being between
10-15C. I have found the constancy of the temperature is more

important than the actual temperature, so avoid large fluctuations. A
simple maximum/minimum thermometer, hung on the wall, will be
able to give an accurate reading.
HUMIDITY
A very dry room can, with time, cause the corks to dry out, which
can affect the seal. Too humid, and the labels will start to peel and rot.
Buy a cellar hygrometer to check levels. A caution: Apartment blocks
tend to be very dry.
WINE RACKS
Bottles should be laid down on their side to prevent the corks from
drying out. Racks should be positioned away from sunlight and
vibration, and should be spaced out enough for easy access. Cellar
tags are a good idea as they can hang on the neck of the bottle, avoiding the need to keep pulling bottles from the rack for identification.
WINE FRIDGES AND BESPOKE CELLARS
If space is a premium and your collection isnt huge, it may be worth

investing in a wine refrigerator. They come in all shapes and sizes
and can store wine at a constant temperature. For those looking for
something a little more permanent, install a spiral cellar either below
the floor boards or in back garden. Starting at around 9,500, these
watertight cylindrical systems can safely store up to 1,500 bottles.
This article originally ran on April 30, 2014.
How to Think About Aging Wine
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
Aged like a fine wine: Has this phrase become more of a marketing
tool than a relevant wine-drinking fact? Has aging wine become an
outmoded custom?
After all, nearly every wine in the world today is made to be consumed soon after its bottled. (Ive seen figures as high as 99%.) Wine
drinkers seem willing to do their part. According to Bear Dalton,
wine buyer for Specs, a Houston-based wine store chain, nearly 98%
of his customers drink the bottles they buy in under a week.
At Calvert Woodley in Washington, D.C., proprietor Ed Sands
posits that 90% of his customers drink their wines quickly, so most
of his inventory is comprised of wines meant to be consumed within
two years or so. Even at Sherry-Lehmann in New York, a bastion
of blue-chip (aka age-worthy) Bordeaux, nearly half the stores customers are buying wines under $15 a bottle, according to the com-
panys president, Chris Adams. Mr. Adams lamented that not many
wine drinkers were likely to experience the enormous pleasure that a
well-aged wine could bestow.
Mr. Adams had a point, though I couldnt help wondering how
many people would share this regret. It isnt just that a well-aged
wine can cost so much money or require a long wait (Americans
dont like their pleasures deferred)theres also the question of flavor.
An aged wine tastes very different from a wine that is young. In the
place of dazzling, bright fruit, theres subtle restraint. While the tannins may soften, the fruit may be dim a bit, too, replaced by flavors
more earthy or mineralflavors that are not necessarily familiar or
easy to like. Of course, this happens only with age-worthy wines:
Non-ageable wines that are left unopened for years usually just taste
tired, dried outand old.
All age-worthy wines have certain attributes in common, the most
important of which is acidity. Wines that are low in acidity can be
easy to enjoy while young, but they dont mature very wellthink of
the perpetual adolescents who fail to ever become adults.
White wines that are high in aciditylike German and Austrian
Riesling, not to mention Chablis, Champagne and Chenin
Blanccan improve for decades, though much depends on producer
and vintage. A wine from a too-warm vintage may lack sufficient
acidity, while a wine from a too-cold vintage may not have completely ripe fruit. If a wine isnt in balance, it wont age well.
In ageable reds, tannins are an important componentthey serve
as both preservative and frame. Tannins are derived from both barrels
and grapes and while all grapes have tannins, some, such as Cabernet,
Nebbiolo and Syrah, possess tannins that are particularly strong.

Some great ageable wines are made from these grapes (Bordeaux,
Barolo, Hermitage), though a lot of mediocre wines are made from
them as well. The difference is a matter of winemaking talent, location and vine age, and all the mysterious components that make up
terroir.
Wines that are high in extract (the components of the wine that
arent acids, water or alcohol) also tend to age more sturdily. Thats
one of the reasons that winemakers strive to make wines of greater
extraction, though it also happens to be the fashion in winemaking
right now, as winemakers try to make wines of maximum concentration, both in flavor and color. Its possible to take this too far, however: over-extracted wine can be bitter and coarse.
Most of all, an age-worthy wine needs a track recordhistorical
proof that it has actually improved over time, many times. Thats one
reason for the high cost of great Bordeaux. Great Bordeaux have a
long track recordlonger than most other wines in the world.
But none of this matters if the wine isnt well-stored. No wine is
age-worthy if its stashed in a closet or left on the floor. The latter was
actually the preferred location of a late wine writer and friend of mine
who stored everything from cheap Cabernet to first-growth Bordeaux along the edges of his living-room rug. Dinners at his house
were a fraught mixture of desire and dashed hope as pedigreed bottles
were opened and pouredinto glasses and down the kitchen sink.
The expense of storage is another reason so few wine drinkers
might think about aging wineand for restaurateurs, its much the
same. Few restaurants have the space or the deep pockets to keep bot-
tles that they wont be selling for decades. One of the exceptions is
Crabtrees Kittle House in Chappaqua, N.Y., where there are dozens
of affordable wines on the list, in part because its cellar is so large.
Glenn Vogt, the general manager and wine director, has bottles he
admits he has lost track ofand happily, he seems to have lost track of
the pricing as well. I had an excellent 10-year-old Chablis there last
year that cost $25 a bottle.
But even ownership of a cellar doesnt mean some people wont
drink their wines young. Mr. Dalton told me that he has some clients
who fly to Napa every year in private planes, buy up dozens of bottles of cult Cabernetsand drink them soon after they return home
to Texas.
This may be one reason so many Napa Cabernets are styled differently these days, made with riper fruit and more upfront appeal.
Bordeaux-trained Philippe Melka, who makes some of the most
sought-after Cabernets in the Valley (Vineyard 29, Dana Estates),
says he is making wines that are more approachable than they were a
decade ago.
Age-worthy wine may not (yet) be obsolete, but its biggest challengebeyond money, time and proper storagemay be the belief of
a buyer in a bottle, the conviction that something truly transformative can take place. Aging wine is, above all else, an act of faith.
This article originally ran on Feb. 11, 2012, under the headline Does Good
Wine Come to Those Who Wait?
Understanding Wine Auctions and How They

Work
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
Although most wine drinkers think of fall in terms of harvest and vintage, the big newsor at least the big moneyisnt in grapes, but in
bottles.
And right now, the entire wine-auction world seems to be full
of good newsat least for the sellers and the auction houses. Ben
Nelson, president of the Chicago-based auction house Hart Davis
Hart Wine Co., says that sales at his house this year are over $25
millionmore than 33% higher than last yearwith two more big
auctions to take place in the next couple of months. He estimates
that total fine-wine auction sales in 2012 exceeded $300 million. No
wonder news releases from major houses announcing sale results all
seem to contain phrases like exceeded all expectations or exceeded
estimates. The figures cited are inevitably largeoften five and six
figures.
Perhaps thats why every auction director I spoke with sounded
quite pleasedeven those who have yet to hold a single sale. Michael
Jessen, president and CEO of the newly-launched Wallys Auctions,
characterized the market as incredibly vibrant. Wallys, which is
based in Los Angeles, will hold its first auction next month in New
York. One lot that Mr. Jessen is particularly excited about is six bottles of 1993 Henri Jayer Cros Parantoux, Vosne Romane. The lot is
estimated to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.
So who are the buyers and who are the sellers in this gilded scenario? Where do they come from? The answer was inevitably all
over the globe. In my conversations with the auction house heads,
the word global came up almost as often as the phrase exceeded all
expectations.
The market may be global, but the biggest auctions take place in
three major citiesNew York, London and Hong Kong (and to a
lesser extent, Chicago, thanks to Hart Davis Hart). With the majority
of the purchasers scattered about the globe, most of the bidding takes
place online. This makes the market much more efficient, as Mr.
Nelson said, though it might make it a little less exciting for spectators, too.
Still, wine auctions can be pretty good theater, at least for wine
lovers who like to see big numbers flashed on screens and listen to
the auctioneers loving (if very brief) descriptions of the lots. Many
major auction houses hold their live auctions in first-rate restaurants,
offering lunch or dinner and sometimes tastes of a few auction wines.
Thats as close as youll get to the actual bottles, which otherwise only
appear in the auction catalogs.
And what a pleasure those catalogs are to behold. The thick, glossy
paper is flush with notes about wines and vintages accompanied by
beguilingly lit bottles of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Its all seemingly
calculated to tempt bidders to abandon fiscal good sense.
Even though many sales are taking place online, the catalog still
matters. Many customers still want to see the catalog before placing
their bids, Mr. Nelson wrote in an email. In fact, he added, many
buyers would actually wait for the catalog to arrive before placing a
bid.
Auction catalogs may be the most significant constant in the everchanging auction world, which has seen two very big shifts in the
past 20 years. The first took place in 1994, when wine auctions were
legalized in New York. As Jamie Ritchie, CEO and president of wine
Americas & Asia at Sothebys noted, this changed wine from something that was the province of a small community of collectors to a
commodity that could be bought and sold the same way as a work of
art.
The second big shift took place in 2008, when the 80% wine
import tax in Hong Kong was stripped away. This change in law
brought a flood of wine brokers and auction houses to Hong Kong,
where buyers seemed to have an inexhaustible amount of money and
an equally inexhaustible appetite for Bordeaux.
One Bordeaux was of particular interest to Asian buyers: Chteau
Lafite Rothschild. At a 2010 Hong Kong auction, three bottles of
1869 Lafite Rothschild were expected to sell for $8,000 apiece; the
wine went for $232,692 a bottle instead. Two years later, 12 bottles
of a much younger (1982) Lafite sold at another Hong Kong auction
for an impressive $42,350.
Todays Hong Kong auction market is smaller and much less flashy
than it used to be. Take, for example, the recent history of Sothebys.
The house sold $53 million worth of wine in Hong Kong in 2010,
$45 million in 2011 and about half that amount ($27 million) in 2012.
This year is shaping up to be a bit stronger than last, with total sales
of $25 million so far.
There is also much less emphasis on Lafite and Bordeaux in the
Hong Kong market. Zachys president Jeff Zacharia, who travels
to Hong Kong quite often, described the market as more wellrounded than it was in those heady daysthe same words that John
Kapon, CEO of Acker Merrall & Condit auction house, used to
describe the auction world overall.
And yet even in this well rounded market, one wine reigns
supreme: Burgundy. Buyers and sellers alike are all looking for wine
from this hallowed region. As Jamie Pollack, North American managing director of Zachys put it: Burgundy is hot, hot, hot.
Some wines warrant such praiseespecially any Burgundy produced by Domaine de la Romane-Conti (aka DRC). At a recent
Sothebys auction, a single case of 1999 Domaine de la RomaneConti sold for $159,250. Needless to say, this exceeded all estimates.
Other Burgundy domaines have racked up impressive, if somewhat
less meteoric numberslike the case of 1990 Clos de la Roche
Domaine Dujac that sold last month at a Hart Davis Hart auction for
$23,900.
Of course, numbers like these have a way of attracting the attention of wine thieves. The auction world has been rife with fraud.
Burgundy, of course, is a big target Just last week, an Italian father
and son were arrested in France on suspicion of making $2.7 million
worth of what they tried to pass off as DRC. While those
wineswhich were said to be lousymay or may not have made it to
auction, it doesnt mean that there arent many more fraudsters whose
work has yet to be found. The most famous example of a fraudulent
wine at auction was a lot supposedly of Burgundy producer Domaine
Ponsot, which was nearly sold at Acker Merrall & Condit in 2008.
The auction was stopped when Mr. Ponsot himself showed up and
denounced the bottles as frauds.
Beyond Burgundy, other auction-house best sellers include mature
Bordeaux and cult Cabs from Napa Valley producers like Screaming
Eagle, Harlan and Dana Estates (two bottles of 2007 Dana sold for
$1,792 at a recent HDH auction), but they seem like bargains compared with Burgundy.
Are there any real bargains in the auction world today? Mr. Kapon
named Classic California wines like Dunn and Montelena as overlooked and underpriced, while Ms. Pollack cited older Riojas. You
can get Riojas from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s and the value is
exceptional, she said. (Three bottles of 1920 R. Lpez de Heredia
Via Tondonia sold for $980 at a recent Zachys auction; the sales
other Riojas sold in the low four figures.)
So what does this all mean to a collector thinking of selling or a
buyer who might want to enter the market now? Sellers should know
that certain auction houses set minimum prices on the wines they
accept. Sothebys, for example, wont look at any collection worth

less than $20,000. Some houses are a little more flexible. We decide
on a case-by-case basis, said Ms. Pollack, who offered the example of
a man who asked if Zachys would accept a double magnum of 1982
Chteau Latour for auction. Although the wine was only worth a few
thousand dollars, Zachys agreed to sell the wine at auction. It turned
out the man had a multimillion-dollar cellar, which he later sold at
auction with Zachys.
Each auction house has a different commission policy, too. This
may vary from a few percent points of the total to nothing at all (as
at Acker Merrall & Condit), though no auction director would give
me an exact number. Finally, a seller should know how each auction house comes up with their estimatesthe price range where they
expect the sale price to fall. Some auction houses offer unrealistically
high estimates hoping to attract would-be sellerslike real estate brokers who overprice a house just to get the listingand then hope the
wine will sell. Its useful to check a few final sales.
The most important number for buyers to know is the buyers premiumthe not-inconsiderable sum thats tacked onto every lot sold
(and for which the buyer is responsible). Premiums vary by house:
At Hart Davis Hart, the premium is 19.5% while Zachys and Sothebys ring in 22.5% (no one knows where the half-percent business
started). Acker Merrall tops out at 23%. The final hammer price plus
the buyers premium is referred to as the aggregate amount.
Successful selling or buying at auction means doing research. In
fact, the word that auction directors invoked almost as often as they
did global was homework. A good deal on either end is virtually
impossible without a lot of study. And perhaps the cultivation of a

taste for (very) old Rioja.
This article originally ran on Oct. 25, 2013, under the headline The State
of Fine-Wine Auction Houses: Less Flash, More Fire.
Go Inside the Worlds Largest Wine Storage

Facility
BY WILL LYONS
Its a still, warm, late-summer day as the taxi driver weaves his way
through a maze of narrow country lanes deep in Englands rural landscape. Flanked either side by lush green hedgerows, the road veers to
the right up a short drive beyond which acres of gently rolling, arable
farmland stretch as far as the eye can see.
I know the way, nods the driver in his soft West Country accent.
My brother works here, he adds. They have plenty of bottles all
right; some of them he tells me are worth up to 3,000. Hes not
wrong. Lying 30 meters below us is the wine worlds answer to Fort
Knox, an enormous subterranean cavern holding more than 1 billion worth of fine wine. If you are storing your wine through a
reputed U.K. merchant, then the chances are it is probably stacked
here alongside the other 680,000 cases, in one of the largest underground storage facilities in Europe. No wonder security is tight.
They wont let me in, says the driver as we pull up at an anonymous looking steel gate, alongside a security hut. So I get out, and as
he speeds away I take a look around at the picturesque English countryside. One hundred miles west of London and I am in the middle of
nowhere. Which is just how cellar master Laurie Greer likes itwith
precious bottles of wine dating back to 1869, discretion is paramount.
Welcome to Eastlays mine deep in Wiltshire. First quarried in
the 19th century, it is now known as Corsham Cellars, owned by
Cert Octavian, one of the U.K.s largest private wine-storage facilities. When the first tunnels were excavated, much of the honey-colored sandstone was used to build the Georgian town houses in the
nearby towns of Bath and Corsham. In the late 1930s, when war
looked imminent, the Ministry of Defence requisitioned it and transformed the place into a giant ammunition store, replete with lighting, whitewashed walls and concrete floors. Since 1989, following its
purchase by businessman Nigel Jagger, its labyrinthine corridors have
been stacked not with TNT but wine, belonging to collectors such as
composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, financier Guy Hands and restaurateur Michel Roux Sr.
Its rather like an underground vault, says Mr. Greer, who has
overseen the mine since it was converted into a wine cellar. He says
it now contains wine belonging to more than 130 wine merchants,
various wine investment funds, restaurants, as well as around 2,500
private clients from as far afield as continental Europe, the U.S. and
the Far East.
The biggest change we have seen is that clients who own fine
wine have become much more knowledgeable, says Mr. Greer.
They want to know where their wine has been stored, what condition it is in, even how it is looking. For some, the cases down below
are their pride and joy.
It isnt unusual for private clients to pay a visit to Corsham Cellars,
where from above ground they can watch their cases of wine loaded
onto the industrial goods train as it makes its way down one of the
main shafts, nine meters below ground, into an area the size of 20
football pitches.
In fact, such is the attention to detail that the company has installed
three photographic studios to meet the demand of clients wanting to
see emailed photographs of their stored bottles of wine.
If this all sounds a little unnecessary, then one has to understand the
context. Fine wines remarkable bull runwhich has seen Bordeaux
chteaux wines, such as Lafite Rothschild 2000, increase in price by
more than sevenfold in the past seven yearshas focused collectors
attention on storage. Cases of wine that were once squirreled away in
an old garden shed or below the stairs, now have to be kept in optimum storage conditions if they are to retain their market value.
Most collectors know that wine stored in direct sunlight or in a
room that is too hot can damage the liquid, as can dramatic temperature swings. An average temperature of between 10 and 15 degrees
Celsius is preferable. But with the value of wine soaring, there is also
the very real threat of security.
One of the great advantages of having an underground storage
facility as opposed to an above-ground warehouse, says Mr. Greer,
is that a thief cant just take a large vehicle and smash their way in.
Breaking into Corsham Cellars would require the sort of elaborate
heist fictionalized in The Thomas Crown Affair.
Descending the 157 steps, I can see security is watertight. For
the record, anyone looking to break in would have to negotiate the
above ground CCTV cameras, before dodging the movement detectors placed at the top of the mine. Once past these two obstacles,
there is the small matter of starting up the goods train that transports
the wine into the cellareither that or its a steep climb down. Once
underground, the thief would have to locate a fork lift and then find
the rarest and most precious wine amid more than 10,000 bottles. By
which time, a separate alarm would have alerted the police.
Eastlays mine is one of a number of underground bunkers, converted from former stone quarries, that were used as massive ammunition depots in Wiltshire in World War II. Mr. Greer says the mine
was also used as a set for the filming of the early episodes of Doctor
Who. Nearby is Burlington, a 14-hectare site that was converted to
a subterranean Cold War City, which could house up to 4,000 government personnel in the event of a nuclear strike on the U.K. With
the ending of the Cold War, the site has since been decommissioned.
Back at Eastlays mine, there is a reminder of World War II with
some graffiti depicting the war leaders etched on the wall and various
humorous rhymes and vignettes.
Wandering through the passages of this cavernous cellar one wonders what the many men who spent hours underground stacking
ammunition while Europe was at war would have thought of the fact
that 50 years later it has become a giant depository of fine wine. Judg-
ing by some of the graffiti scrawled on the walls, they would have
smiled.
This article originally ran on Sept. 16, 2011, under the headline The Wine
Connoisseurs Underground Vault.
Why Wine Collectors Love Magnums
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
A magnum of wine pretty much means one of two things: twice

as much Yellow Tail on the table or a $2,000 grand cru Burgundy.
There arent many options between the super-cheap and the superlative in this two-bottle-size bottle. Or so I discovered when I went
shopping recently for wines to share with my friends. I was hoping
for something between those two poles (price-wise, not palate-wise)
in a magnum size and was surprised at how few wines I found. Why
were middle class magnums in such short supply?
With the holidays close at hand, I had figured it would be easy.
Magnums are the perfect size for large dinners and partiesthey contain about 12 glasses of wine. Theyre also the best format for aging
wine. As most collectors agree, a wine ages more slowly and gracefully in a magnum, owing to a much greater proportion of wine to
air. Thats one reason that magnums of great wines are particularly
prized.
Magnums are also much more festive than regular bottles; their
proportions alone suggest a party in progress, a bounteous, bottomless good time.
They can also serve as a restaurants floor show. According Michael
Madrigale, wine director at New Yorks Bar Boulud, when he pours
his wines by the glass from a magnum, it captures the collective
attention of the place. Its theatrical, he said. People stare. He
compared the sight of a magnum to that of a well-endowed woman.
(Though in the case of a magnum, the contents are always real.)
Even magnums of lowly Muscadet provoke similar shows of
appreciation, according to Joe Campanele, the owner of New Yorks
Anfora wine bar, who pours magnums of Clos de la Ppire Le
Gras Mouton Muscadet by the glass ($12). People get really excited
when they see a magnum, Mr. Campanele said.
But many wine directors shy away from buying magnums.
Andrew Green, wine director of Spruce in San Francisco, says its
hard to find a good supply. Often, they arent included in importers
and distributors catalogs, and need to be requested personally. Plus,
he said, a lot of sommeliers are afraid of magnums. You have to have
a real bravado to sell a magnum.
Perhaps thats why magnums are scarce in restaurants, but why are
they also often missing from stores? People may think of magnums
as ostentatious, said Jeff Zacharia, president of Zachys in Scarsdale,
N.Y., where I found about a dozen magnums priced for less than
$100 each.
Gerald Weisl of Weimax Wines in Burlingame, Calif., blamed a

limited audience for his lack of magnums. Women never buy magnums, Mr. Weisl said. Men buy them occasionally as trophies. (As
if to underscore that fact, his magnum section is adorned with a picture of that very manly 1980s man, Tom Selleck, aka Magnum, P.I.)
Bear Dalton, the wine buyer for Specs, an 80-store Texas chain,
said he has tried offering magnums of good wines, including a midprice Chteau de Saint Cosme Gigondas. His regular bottles of the
wine flew out the door, but the magnums didnt move. Furthermore,
he said, sellers dont really like dealing with the bigger bottles. There
arent really any easy ways to display magnums. You cant put them
on shelves, so they usually end up standing up somewhere in the back
of the store.
That was exactly where I found my magnums at Zachysnext to
the emergency exit and a dusty display of kosher wines. But at least
I found a few promising bottles: a 2007 Calendal Ctes du Rhne by
genius French winemaking consultant Philippe Cambie ($68), a 2007
Chinon by Catherine and Pierre Breton ($72) and a cru Bourgeois
Bordeaux, Chteau dAgassac ($65).
I acquired more bottles by shopping online. I found the Chevalier
de Grenelle, a sparkling Samur from the Loire Valley that sported a
party-perfect silverplate label ($40), from Sherry Lehmann, and from
Crush Wines I found a gorgeous saber-shaped magnum of German
Riesling from the great 2009 vintage by producer A.J. Adam ($55).
I found a great Gamay from Oregon on the Brick House winery
website and a surprising number of Muscadets from various places
(notably Chambers Wine) that were cheap. Once Id accumulated a
sufficient quantity of bottles, I set about my true magnum mission:

sharing the wines with friends.
I soon discovered that aside from wine collectors, almost no one
I knew drank from magnums, let alone purchased them, especially
women (reinforcing Mr. Weisls claim). In fact, three female friends
looked quite surprised when I showed up with my big bottle of
sparkling Samur. A magnum! they said with collective delight. I
would have loved to serve something like this at my birthday, said
my friend Monica. Why didnt she? It just never occurred to me,
she said. The wine was lovelycreamy with a bright acidity.
Another group of friends expressed more skepticism. Its one of
those big bottles, said Mary rather dubiously when she saw the bottle of 2005 Chteau dAgassac Haut-Mdoc Bordeaux ($65) in my
hand. In fact, Mary had recently dined with a friend who had chided
the waiter not to try to fool her by trying to sell them a big bottle
of wine. Although shed been led to believe big bottles were always
cheap, Mary was pleased with the Bordeaux I broughtIts much
better than I thought it would be, she said. We both agreed, though,
that the wine wasnt quite as impressive as the bottle itself.
The magnums of Clos de la Ppire Muscadet Clos des Briords and
the 2007 Calendal Ctes du Rhne that I brought to a dinner party
of six were both very big hits and, characteristically, seemed to be
bottomless bottles. The Calendal was big, lush and deliciously ripe,
while the pleasingly minerally Muscadet inspired my friend Allison
to say shed actually consider buying a magnum. Thirty-five dollars?
I could do that, she said.
There is one big downside to a magnum, however, which I dis-
covered firsthand with the magnum of Chinon that I brought to a

BYO restaurant in New Jersey. I presented the bottle with a great
flourish and my friends made all the appropriate expressions of awe.
I poured four glasses. The wine seemed dull, the fruit diminished. I
tasted it again. There was no question: the bottle was corked.
In effect, we had not just one bad bottle but two. A flawed magnum, after all, is a problem compounded. I was almost afraid to point
it out, since everyone had been so excited by the sight of the bottle. This doesnt taste like it should, I ventured. Why dont we have
something else instead? I opened a bottle of 2008 Williams Selyem
Hirsch Vineyard Pinot Noir (in a regular-size bottle) that I just happened to have brought along. It was deliciousfull of ripe, gorgeous
fruit and marked by heady aromas of cherry and spice.
And the magnum sat in the middle of the table, a still-splendid
centerpiece. Then as we were getting ready to leave it behind, my
friends wife grabbed the wine. I love this bottle, she said, clutching
it to her chest. Im taking it home. What could I say? The allure of
a magnum can be beyond common sense.
This article originally ran on Nov. 13, 2010, under the headline Magnum
Force: Big Bottles for Big Bashes.
On Obsessing Over Wine
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
Are wine lovers obsessive by nature? Or does wine make them

obsessed? Its an oenophiles version of the chicken and the egg: Its
hard to tell which comes first.
Whats clear is that wine can provoke passion and excess, even
among the most self-possessed.
An obsession with wine evolves over time and in several stages. It
often begins with a single, memorable bottle. Soon enough, the wine
lover will want more and more and will begin to collect. He or she
may start with just a few bottles, but soon enough a cellar is amassed.
Entire sections of the wine lovers house may be devoted to wine
and wine memorabiliaand they may want to speak of nothing else
over dinner. (Wine lovers can become rather single-minded conversationalists.)
The particularly obsessed oenophile may try his or her hand at pro-
ducing some wine. He or she might take a few classes in winemaking

tooperhaps even viticulture. (A truly obsessed wine lover is a welleducated oenophile.)
The most well-heeled among the obsessed go one step further:
They will buy a winery, vineyard or both. (Californias Napa Valley
is frequently the most-desired address.) Those stories can have
unhappy endings, but they also work out: My visit with a happy man
whose wine is selling well is chronicled here. Ideally, a wine obsession should leave the lover with good memories and a steady supply,
but without massive debt.
Finally, what of the dreaded-term wine snob? Is it a line not to
be crossed, a description to be avoided at all costs? Im convinced it
is not, and that a true wine lover can wear the badge proudly. Hopefully, by the end of this book, youll agree.
What Happens at Winemaking School
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
Who doesnt want to be a rocket scientist? A best-selling novelist?

Or, for that matter, a winemaker? Certain professions simply sound
more glamorous than others. Yet the aerospace industry isnt exactly
thriving, and Amazon can make any book seem like a best sellerat
least for a while. Winemaking, too, isnt nearly as romantic as some
people might think. This point was driven home particularly well
when I visited the University of California, Davis, a few weeks ago.
The UC Davis viticultural and oenology program (or V&E, as
its called) isnt only one of the oldest winemaking programs in the
country, but arguably the most prestigious. Some of the most famous
winemakers in this country are Davis grads; Ive even heard people
call Davis the Harvard of winemaking schools.
Located just west of Sacramento and about an hour east of Napa
Valley, the school is one of the largest universities in the states sys-
tem, with more than 30,000 graduate and undergraduate students.

The wine program, however, is quite small, with fewer than 100
graduates each year. Created in 1880 by an act of the state legislature,
the Davis oenology program became famous for its rigorous scientific
training and the expertise of its faculty members. The winemaking
facilities, though, were never quite as impressive. Remedial was the
word that famed winemaker and UC Davis grad (class of 79) David
Ramey used to describe the old Davis winery, which he likened to an
animal husbandry shed.
That changed for the better almost three years ago, when a
12.5-acre vineyard was planted next to a new winery. Every piece of
equipment was the latest model, often more sophisticated than those
owned by most commercial wineries. The winery is one of the five
new buildings that comprise todays oenology campus. (The various
buildings opened between 2008 and 2013.) Robert Mondavi, the late
pioneering vintner, contributed a considerable amount of the building cost of what is now called the Robert Mondavi Institute of Food
and Wine Science.
The college has benefited from the generosity of many other winemakers and wineriesJess Jackson, Jerry Lohr and Silver Oak, to
name a few. Its hard to forget any of them, as their names are on
plaques all over the schools winery. The August Busch family even
donated funds for a new state-of-the-art brewery, and their name
looms on a rather large plaque outside the facility. Even individual
fermentation tanks in the school winery will bear plaques. The aforementioned Mr. Ramey, for example, will have his name on a tank
that will eventually hold some students wine project.
(Keith Negley)
Mr. Ramey, like many Davis graduate students, came to winemaking after pursuing other interests. In Mr. Rameys case, he was an
American studies major at UC Santa Cruz. Of course some career-
changers are better prepared than others. One 28-year-old graduate

student I met during my recent oenology immersion had graduated
from college with a degree in mathematics. He left a lucrative banking career in New York after deciding that his life would be better, if
poorer, spent making wine.
His math background wouldnt go to waste. In addition to a good
palate and a certain degree of artistry, a winemaker must be able to
read and interpret data to make informed decisions (e.g., when to add
sulfur to the fermenting must, and just how much). In fact, this skill
might be even more important than the artistryas I learned in an
Analysis of Musts and Wines class, where the professor taught his students all about soluble solids and hydrometers (instruments used to
measure sugar in juice).
The schools undergraduate and graduate curricula share many of
the same requirements, including organic chemistry, microbiology
and plant science, as well as viticulture and oenology. Its a rigorous
program, and graduate students who didnt bulk up on science as
undergrads are required to take extra courses to enter the graduate
program. Some UC Davis courses are rigorous in other
respectsrequiring students to stand in the sun for long periods of
time, for instance, while examining leaves for identifying characteristics or marks.
The Viticultural Practices lab that I attended was held a few miles
from campus, in the old Davis teaching vineyard. Professor Andy
Walker was teaching 30 or so students how to identify various grapes
by their leaves and fruit. This task was complicated by the fact that
the vineyard was full of diseased vines, according to Mr. Walker.
Some leaves afflicted with leaf roll virus, for example, were covered
with spots. The leaves on the shady side of the row were also harder
to identify, said Mr. Walker, but he wanted to avoid the sunand
perhaps sunstroke. There had been a couple of faintings in the vineyard in the past, he said.
The class seemed unfazed by the twin facts of heat and old vines,
and eagerly followed the professor as he strode down the rows,
pulling out one leaf after another and pointing out their differing
traitsthe hairy leaves of the Pinot Meunier, the waxy leaves of
Grenache and the ruffled, wavy leaves of the Sauvignon Blanc.
I couldnt imagine identifying so many varieties by their leaves
alone but the students seemed quite enthused. I asked a student
named Russell his opinion of the class. Its awesome, he said. I get
to hang outside and eat grapes.
Mr. Walker recommended that the students return to the vineyard
for between four and 20 hours a week to study the vines. The vineyard is always open, he said. It was only with repeated visits that they
would understand what the professor called the gestalt of the vine.
My next class, Wine Production, was a much smaller gathering.
Professor Linda Bissons class was assembled around a sorting table
filled with just-picked Grenache grapes from the schools new vineyard. Some students were picking out damaged fruit, sticks and rocks
before the grapes went into the crusher, while others manned the
nearby hose and tank. The schools winemaker, Chik Brenneman,
hovered nearby, cautioning students to watch for out black widow
spiders, and not to stand too close to the must if they were allergic
to sulfur. A student had almost fainted from this, he said. (Fainting
is, apparently, a hazard at wine school.) Meanwhile, Ms. Bisson reminisced about the time her students missed a rock during the sorting,
and it blew the hose apart.
This type of hands-on instruction is one of the big changes from
the old to the new Davis, according to the professors, and the new
facilities have brought a big improvement, in the way the classes are
taught. Id heard a saying about Davis over the yearsDavis grads
dont know how to run a pumpmeaning that its graduates were
better with theoretical than practical stuff. When I mentioned this to
Ms. Bissons teaching assistant, Scott Frost, he dismissed it, saying that
Davis offered something much better: It teaches you how to think
about wine and the science of wine.
The strength of the schools science program was something else I
heard about again and again. A scientific understanding gave students
confidence in their decisionsand an ability to fix things straight
away if they didnt go right. As Mr. Ramey put it: If you have an
oenology background, you know what you can changeand how to
experiment. It enables you to make better wine.
An ability to make good wine is what its all about, after all. But
what about great wine? Of all the Davis students Id met, who would
turn out to be the next David Ramey, Aaron Pott, Helen Keplinger
or John Kongsgaard (all of whom attended Davis)? And what were
the traits of a future great winemaker?
Self-sufficiency was key, said Roger Boulton, who has taught for
several decades at the university and is one of the most esteemed professors at Davis. A great winemaker was someone you could pick up
and put in the desert, he added. (An odd place to propose putting a
wine professional.) He or she was also someone who had a healthy

respect for science and the scientific method. And someone who
wants the lifestyle of a farmer, of being outside.
I thought of Russell, the student I had met during Mr. Walkers
class in the vineyard. He would need to know a lot of organic chemistry, statistics and food science to earn his degree. But to be a great
winemaker, he would also have to be the kind of guy who was happy
just to stand in a vineyard, eating grapes.
This article originally ran on Oct. 18, 2013, under the headline So You
Want to Go to Winemaking School?
How to Buy a Vineyard
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
The dream of owning a winery is one that many may harbor but
few are actually able to fulfill. The expense is considerable and the
odds of success are incredibly long. Yet the list of actors and athletes,
financiers and film directors who aspire to see their name on a label
simply goes on and on.
After a recession-related pause, the number of would-be vintners
has been growing of late, according to real-estate brokers who specialize in the market. And some recent high-profile sales, such as the
purchase of cult-Cabernet producer Araujo Estate in Napa Valley,
Calif., have given prospective buyers greater confidence, according
to Napa broker Katie Somple.
But what inspires the dream itself? Its often driven by a desire to
return to the land (preferably inside a $10 million house), or to create a legacy for the next generation. Sometimes its simply a matter
of loving wine, and sometimes its about having something (more) to

own.
The countrys most sought-after winemaking address is Californias Napa Valley, followed, in no particular order, by the states
Sonoma, Santa Barbara and Mendocino counties. The Willamette
Valley in Oregon and Washington states Walla Walla are also desirable locations. New York state has seen some action of late, in the
Finger Lakes district and Long Islands North Fork.
Even though Manuel Pires was born in Portugals Douro Valley
wine region, he aspired to own a winery in Napa Valley from his
very first visit, many years ago. Why not in the Douro? Because I am
an American, replied Mr. Pires, whose family emigrated to the U.S.
when he was 15. He went on to build a large fortune in the security business. (His security-key system, Morse Watchmans, is used in
prisons and casinos all over the world.)
Anyone looking to get into the wine business basically has two
options: Buy raw land and start from scratch, or purchase an existing
vineyard. The former is cheaper, but more difficult in terms of
obtaining all the necessary permits and planting the right rootstock.
And there is always the chance that the land is no good. Finding a
great vineyard is the best, if most expensive, option. Yet it isnt easy
either. The story of how Mr. Pires, a 56-year-old self-made Connecticut millionaire, came to acquire one of the most storied vineyards in Napa is a tale of persistence, timing and luck.
Perhaps the greatest advantage Mr. Pires hadbesides his
wealthwas a formidable determination. I learned a great deal about
Mr. Pires and his particular brand of perseverance in the two days that
I spent in his company at his winery atop Pritchard Hill. (Pritchard

Hill is a prestigious address in Napa Valley; some of the regions most
famous names grow grapes there.) Mr. Pires had hoped to call his
estate Pritchard Hill, except the name was trademarked by the Chappellet family, longtime Pritchard Hill residents. Mr. Pires decided to
call his winery Gandona, which means humble man in Portuguese.
Gandona was the nickname given to Mr. Piress grandfather when, at
age 36, he returned from America to Portugal. It became Mr. Piress
nickname, too.
Although he had visited Napa many times over the years, it wasnt
until 2005 that Mr. Pires decided to invest in his dream. The first step
was highly unusual: He simply walked into a real-estate office and
asked to see some properties. No one who actually has $10 million to
spend does that, according to Holly Shackford, the real-estate agent
who became Mr. Piress tireless companion and guide. Someone in
Mannys position normally has a contact or an agent, she said. A person interested in buying a winery usually calls in advance, especially
as the potential buyer has to be vetted by the realtor to ensure she or
he has sufficient cash before a single property will be shown.
Ms. Shackford found that, unlike many buyers, Mr. Pires had a
pretty good idea of what he was looking for. For example, he knew
that he wanted a hillside vineyard. I got a map out and we started
talking about appellations, Ms. Shackford recalled. And thus began
one of many eight- and 10-hour drives in her car.
The pair drove all around Napa, but nothing Ms. Shackford
showed Mr. Pires appealed to him. There was a winery for sale right
on Highway 29 that was a turnkey operation, with a winery, brand
and staff in place. It wasnt about building a dream but buying a business, and, as Mr. Pires pointed out, he already had a business in Connecticut. There was a remote hillside property near Angwin that Mr.
Pires found interesting, but his wife, Cristina, rejected it on account
of all the Spanish moss hanging from the trees. It looked like Halloween, said Ms. Pires. And so Mr. Pires and Ms. Shackford continued looking month after month. They ventured to Sonoma a couple
of times, but Mr. Piress heart was set on Napa.
It was a pretty bleak time, Mr. Pires recalled. He was in the process
of getting his hip replaced. He couldnt walk and his dream seemed
like it would go unfulfilled. It had been almost a year, after all.
Just before Christmas, in 2005, Ms. Shackford asked her husband,
John, a real estate appraiser, to make some calls. Mr. Shackford had
many contacts in the industry, including local lawyers, one of whom
told him about a property that wasnt listed. It was a prime offering
on Pritchard Hill. Ms. Shackford called Mr. Pires and told him about
it. Though Mr. Pireswho was living in Connecticutwas just a few
weeks out of surgery, he got on a plane again.
He purchased the 116-acre parcel from the Longs, an established
grape-growing family, for $9.2 million, in April 2006. Gandona
Estate is over a mile straight up a hill, and it was three years before
anyone even knew that hed bought it, said Mr. Pires. It only became
public knowledge when he filed for a larger winery use permit. (The
property had come with a 5,000-gallon use permit, which Mr. Pires
increased to 20,000 gallons.)
A winery with a use permit is a great advantage, according to Ms.
Somple. This permit can be hard to obtain, and quite expensiveas
much as $2 million for a commercial winery with a tasting room

on the main thoroughfare, Highway 29. (Given the modest size of
his winery, Mr. Piress permit cost much less.) A different permit,
an Agricultural Erosion Control Plan, is required to plant a vineyard. Anything with over a 5% slope, you will need a permit, and
anything over 30% isnt going to happen, said Ms. Somple. (Its
almost impossible to obtain a permit for a new vineyard whose slope
is greater than 30%.)
Most of the Gandona vineyards are on slopes much steeper than
30%, but they were planted in the 1960s and 1970s when there were
no such regulations, and are grandfathered in. Mr. Pires could rip
out the existing Chardonnay vines and replant the vineyard to much
more valuable Cabernet Sauvignon without requiring a new permit.
Mr. Pires had to obtain a permit to enable his vineyard manager,
Jim Barbour, to plant 2 additional acres of vineyards two years
agoat a cost of about $100,000 an acre. Once a permit is obtained,
planting comes with its own significant costs. Its much more expensive to plant in the hills in Napa. Almost all hillside properties are
rocky, and, according to Mr. Pires, the rocks he removed from his
vineyard site had to remain on the property because of a local regulation. As a result, Mr. Piress rocks surround his vineyard as a rather
dramatic wall.
There is much to attend to in the vineyardeven with a manager
and several full-time staff members. Mr. Pires spends a great deal
of time out of doors, looking after his grapes. During my visit, the
owner and manager met over a few vines to discuss red blotcha dis-
ease that is affecting a good many Napa vineyards right now, including a few vines in Mr. Piress property.
Mr. Pires hired Mr. Barbour, one of Napas most sought-after vineyard managers, right after buying the property. He also hired superstar winemaker Philippe Melka, even though he was years away from
making a wine. A Melka-made wine commands attentionand a
good price. The first vintage (2009) of Gandona made its debut at
$190 a bottle, and the 2011 was one of the top five wines in this years
Premiere Napa Valley auction.
Its cost Mr. Pires about $15 million so far to realize his dreamthat
includes building a winery, digging underground tunnels for wine
storage and building a new house, which is almost finished. Hes not
sure his three children have any desire to follow in his footsteps. But
that wasnt the point, said Mr. Pires. Its no longer a property, and its
not just a place to live. Its my soul. That may not be how most vintners in Napa talk, but its what a man with a fulfilled dream believes.
DOS AND DONTS
Few fantasies are readily realized, and becoming a producer of great wine
is especially hard. The following are a few tips compiled from conversations
with Napa Valley real-estate agents Katie Somple and Holly Shackford.
Do decide how much you can spend. If all you have is the purchase price, then you shouldnt get into the wine business.
Dont think the wine business is about making money. Its
(almost) never about making money. Its about not losing money.
Do understand that it will take time to find the right property. Many properties are privately listed with an individual agent.
Very few appear on multiple listings. Wineries often do not want
their names mentioned at all; a winery that is for sale risks losing its
winemaker or distributor.
Do work with local consultantsengineers, planners and lawyers,
once youve found the property that you want. It will save money
and time. But make sure the local is a popular local.
Dont believe an agent who tells you that a piece of land is
plantable without an ECP (Erosion Control Plan). Plantable
land means a vineyard already has an ECP. Planting potential means
it does not have an ECP. Buyers should verify the difference.
Do start with the best vineyard that you can buy. A good winemaker or a good vineyard manager wont work with a bad vineyard.
Do figure out what kind of wine lifestyle you want. Is your heart
set on an actual working winery? Or maybe you just want a vineyard
view?
This article originally ran on Dec. 6, 2013, under the headline So You
Want to Buy a Vineyard.
How to Make Your Own Bordeaux Blend
BY WILL LYONS
A few months ago, in early spring, a group of enthusiastic winelovers gathered in the harvest room of one of Bordeauxs betterknown Grand Cru chteaux to celebrate the previous vintage. As a
15-liter Nebuchadnezzar of the estates 1985 was poured, glasses were
raised to a banquet prepared by a two-star Michelin chef. Though
2013 was one of the regions most challenging seasons on record, the
atmosphere was one of jubilation, as each of the guests had enjoyed a
firsthand experience in making the vintage.
In the list of dream jobs, being a winemaker scores pretty high. My
notebook is full of stories of men and women who have either made
a fortune and reinvested the proceeds in a vineyard or given up their
day jobs and sold the house to follow their desire to make the best
wine possible. The 80 or so people seated in the harvesters hall of
Chteau Lynch-Bages chose a third option. Without buying a vine-
yard or giving up their jobs, all have made their very own barrel of
Bordeaux wine.
This has been a blast, says Pete Johnson, a 43-year-old wine
enthusiast who has flown in from Los Angeles to take part in the
making of the past five vintages. Honestly, I wish I could spend
more time here but, at the moment, with work, it is just impossible.
One day, he says, he will retire to Bordeaux and be part of the
whole process. In the meantime, he gets his annual vintner fix by
making his own wine with Viniv, a company located in the heart of
Pauillac, one of Bordeauxs grandest appellations.
Co-owned by Jean-Michel Cazes of Lynch-Bages and former tech
entrepreneur Stephen Bolger, Viniv gives clients the opportunity to
produce, under the guidance of Chteau Lynch-Bagess winemaking team, 288 bottles (one barrel) of wine for 7,350or about 25 a
bottle.
Winemaking with Viniv involves everything from choosing the
vineyard plots and taking part in the grape harvest to managing the
wines fermentation, overseeing the barrel aging (known as levage)
and, most important, deciding on the final blend.
When I first started in Bordeaux, most people thought it would
never work, says Mr. Bolger, a Franco-American who launched
Viniv in 2007 after leaving his career in industrial minerals. One
grower said to me: How can you say that someone who has never
made wine before is a real winemaker? Another asked me to stop
demystifying the winemaking process.
My response was simple, he continues. If people are so interested
in Bordeaux, it is because they want to understand. They want to get
on the inside, they want to understand the inner-workings. Hiding

the beauty of Bordeaux winemaking is, I think, kind of counterproductive.
Were standing on the edge of Le Chteau, a small parcel of vineyards in Bordeauxs Canon-Fronsac region. Its damp underfoot and
the spring sky threatens rain but, despite the heavy cloud cover, the
landscape is spectacular. With its gently rolling hills and lush grass,
the region is far removed from the gray, flat panoramas of the northern Medoc. Behind us flow the Dordogne and Isle rivers. This is
Merlot country, where the south-facing slopes and rich clay-limestone soil produce dark ruby wines with aromatics of red fruit.
Im here to try my own hand at winemaking. Its been 12 years
since I first visited the region professionally. In that time I have tasted
thousands of wines and visited numerous chteaux and cellars. It has
been my job to evaluate, criticize and describe the wines. But in all
those years, I have never had the experience of making my own.
When I met Mr. Bolger at an event in London, I jumped at the
chance to empathize with the vigneron. So I have taken a few days
out of my tasting schedule to see what its like on the other side of the
fence.
I say winemaking butas its early Aprilthe picking, sorting and
fermenting have been done and the barrel aging is under way. Im
here to test my taste buds and try putting together a final blend. As
Mr. Johnson says: I like to say that I am a fashion designer for wine.
Im picking out the materials and getting somebody else to sew them
up. Ive opted to work on the 2012still challenging, but not as
tough as 2013.
First, though, I want to see the vines that my grapes have come
from. After Canon-Fronsac, we head into St.-milion to visit more
Merlot grapes before making our way to the other side of the
Gironde, where Cabernet Sauvignon thrives on the spectacular
gravel plains of St.-Estphe and Pauillac. Each vineyard produces
grapes that impart a different character. For example, Pauillac possesses more power than the tightknit, tough tannins of St.-Estphe.
Its a jigsaw that will hopefully come together in the blending

room above Vinivs winery in Pauillac, where Im joined by Daniel
Llose, who oversees winemaking at Lynch-Bages and has been
blending wine since the 1970s. I tell him I want to make something
quite refinedwhat the French refer to as classique. This is predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon, which has more structure than the big
fruit of St.-milion Merlot. Mr. Llose explains that, first, you have to
find the wines backbone. But he quickly adds that hes just there as a
sounding boardthe makeup of the wine is entirely my choice. I feel
a little like Im back at school having to perform for my schoolmaster.
I start off with a straightforward Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot
blend, made from vineyards in St.-Estphe, Pauillac and St.-milion.
The structure is right, but perhaps a little too Cabernet-dominated. It
needs more finesse. So I try Cabernet Franc from a parcel in St.-milionreplacing 10% of the Cabernet Sauvignon with Cabernet Franc
adds more elegant aromas. I try a third blend with more Merlot. It
doesnt work; theres too much flesh and the wine loses its bite. The
fourth is fresher but a little overcooked. And so we go on, sniffing,
tasting and swirling. Its complicated, but fun.
After an hour, we have five blends. Undecided, I sit down and taste
them all again. I keep coming back to the second. I love its smellthe
Cabernet Franc just adds something. Thats my blend. Sometimes,
Mr. Llose says, you get it right early on.
With my final wine complete, there is only one thing left to do.
Would I like to go ahead and buy a barrel? I look at the wine
and envisage myself writing a check. Then I remember the difficult
growing season The beauty of wine is that there is always another

vintage. Maybe next year.
This article originally ran on July 11, 2014.
A Visit to Chteau Lafite Rothschild
BY WILL LYONS
Crossing the Jalle du Breuil on the southern slopes of Bordeauxs St.

Estphe commune, the marshland unexpectedly clears. Here, the D2
road straightens from its northern curve, cutting through what many
regard as the heart of Bordeauxs classic Mdoc region: the vineyards
of Pauillac.
For anyone familiar with this magical stretch of road, it isnt the
immaculate carpet of vines that trail down to the banks of the
Gironde estuary that catches the eye, but a thin line of weeping willows on its bank. Oenophiles know to slow down. Barely visible
through the swaying branches are the manicured gardens and turret
of Chteau Lafite Rothschilda view little changed since the 18thcentury and one immortalized by its distinctive engraved label.
The estates 2011 is, as one would expect, reserved. But under the
cloak of its youthful tannins, black currant and a delightful, fresh
suppleness is revealed. For a wine so fine, the tannins are exquisite

and its ethereal weight is remarkable. It is reminiscent of a meal in a
Michelin-starred restaurant, where the flavors and texture are powerful, but the finish on the palate is light.
Despite the obvious quality of Lafites wines, some nagging questions remain: Why has this chteau caught the imagination like no
other in Bordeaux? What makes someone pay 43,000 for 12 bottles of the 2009 vintage, as one bidder did at a Hong Kong auction
in 2010, redefining the price of youthful fine wine? And, given the
recent downturn in the Bordeaux fine-wine market, can it retain its
elevated price?
Those familiar with this region know there are at least eight wines
that can rival Lafites immediate charm, including the four other
Bordeaux First GrowthsLatour, Margaux, Haut-Brion and Mouton
Rothschild. On the other side of the Gironde, in Pomerol and St.
milion, are Le Pin, Ptrus, Ausone and Cheval Blanc. But in terms
of investment potential, international recognition and market
demand, over the past few years, Lafite has eclipsed them all.
Since the 1990s, the estate has been under the careful guidance of
Charles Chevallier. Reserved, almost reticent, Mr. Chevallier says he
is as perplexed as anyone as to why its price has risen so dramatically. He points to the quality of the wine, which he says comes from
a process that involves precisely timing the picking of the grapes,
not extracting too hard when drawing the flavor and color out of
the skins, and respecting the house style of elegance and finesse
over brute power and high alcohol. But above all, he recognizes the
importance of the soil and its gravel, which in parts of the vineyard
stretches down more than four meters.
He explains that his winemaking team, oenologist and winemaker
Christophe Cong and vineyard manager Regis Porfilet, goes
through exactly the same procedures at the Rothchilds neighboring
estate, Chteau Duhart-Milon. The two properties are less than one
kilometer apart, and since 1962 have been managed by a single team.
But the definition and style of the wines are different, Mr. Chevallier
says. So too is the retail price, with a bottle of 2010 Duhart-Milon
priced at around 134, compared with 1,047 for Lafite.
The crucial factor in making great wine is to pick at exactly the
right time, Mr. Chevallier says. We do this by spending a lot of
time in the field. I taste, then I make a decision. We try to find the
right balance between the acidity and the sugar ripeness. From then
on, the process of making the wine is quite easy.
At the end of the maceration, we have to control by tasting also,
he adds. Those are the two main decisions in the life of the wine.
In many ways, though, Lafite has become more than a wine. As
with a number of other premium French wines such as Domaine de
la Romane-Conti, its following among wealthy collectors in Asia
has driven its price to astronomical levels. Only last week at a Bonhams auction in London, a case of 1982 Lafite sold for 21,850, or
1,820 a bottle.
I always think of Bordeaux as Formula One, says Jonathan
Malthus, owner of Chteau Teyssier in St. milion. Wherever I go
in the world, all winemakers want to show their wines against the
wines of Bordeaux. It is still the benchmark and, within our lives, will
remain so.
The linchpin to that benchmark is the 1855 classification, a list
drawn up under the instruction of Napoleon III for the Exposition
Universelle de Paris. Compiled by brokers, it ranked the chteaux of
the Mdoc in five groups of quality. Lafite was ranked at the very top.
It is this ranking, some argue, that provides a clue to the chteaus
popularity in the Far East. Demand in Asia may also be explained by
its classical label, which has never changed, its lineage and, in recent
years, by the fact that Domains Barons de Rothschild has a presence
in eastern China with year-old vineyard plantings.
Bordeaux is still the largest single area of great vineyards that
exists, says British importer Mark Walford. And it is undoubtedly
the first winemaking area to open up any country that is likely to
have an interest in wine.
But Chteau Lafite Rothschilds history hasnt always been peppered with success. Yes, the estate supplied wine to Britains first
prime minister, Robert Walpole, in the 18th century, but throughout
much of the 20th century, it struggled. Some critics argued it underperformed against its peers in the 1960s and 70s. Indeed, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last September, Nat Rothschild,
scion of the Rothschild banking dynasty that has owned the chteau
since the late-19th century, quipped that it was a millstone round the
Rothschild familys neck for 100-plus years.
This changed when the release price for the wine started to rise in
the late 90s, climbing steadily from around 50 a bottle in the mid
90s to 600 a bottle for the 2011.
But there is evidence that the fine-wine market, after a tremendous

bull run, is experiencing its own downturn. The 2011 en primeur
was one of the slowest to sell on record, with many ngociants saying
it was the hardest to sell in living memory and some arguing that too
much wine has been sold to investment funds and the Asian market
in the past five years.
This is borne out by the recent fall in price. According to Liv-ex,
the London-based fine-wine exchange, the 2011 Lafite has lost 18%
of its value since it was first offered to the market in April, falling
from around 5,500 a case to 4,500 a case. Has there been a slowdown in terms of increase of price? Yes, says Richard Harvey, Master of Wine and head of Bonhams wine department. There is too
much wine floating around, and it is not moving out of Hong Kong
quickly enough.
Others are more sanguine. The fundamentals are right, says Livex director Anthony Maxwell. There is limited supply, the quality
is increasing and demand is increasingmaybe not on a month-bymonth basis or a quarter-by-quarter, but it is increasing.
But away from the auction houses and market indexes, workers
at Chteau Lafite Rothschild are praying for dry weather. The vines
need a long, dry growing season for the grapes to ripen fully and for
the roots to burrow deep and extract the mineral elements that add
to the structure and flavor of the wines. For it is the soil, says Mr.
Chevallier, that provides the magic of Lafite.
This article originally ran on July 12, 2014, under the headline The Lafite
Phenomenon.
How a Burgundy Wine Domaine Became the

Worlds Most Exclusive
BY WILL LYONS
At No. 1, Rue Derrire le Four in Vosne-Romane, the midafternoon

sun catches the courtyard, casting a shadow across its white-washed
walls, briefly illuminating a small oval-shaped plaque that sits atop a
pair of burgundy-colored gates. Against the light one can just make
out the letters RCthe one clue as to what lies behind.
It is here, sandwiched between a stone house and an outbuilding,
that one finds the home of what many people regard as the worlds
most sought-after and precious wineDomaine de la RomaneConti. Walk past and you would miss it.
It may not be the worlds grandest architectural frontage, but these
initials represent two of the most bewitching names in the world
of wine. There are many enchanting addresses in the vinuous landscapeChteau Petrus in Bordeaux, Champagne Krug in Reims and
Chteau dYquem in Sauternesbut few can compete with the mystery and allure of Romane-Conti.
The name itself is that of a 1.8 hectare vineyard that lies just a short
walk behind the village of Vosne-Romane on a southeastern-facing hillside of the Cte dOr, a thin, 48-kilometer ribbon of land that
starts just south of Dijon and ends in the villages south of Santenay.
Split into two sections, the Cte dOr or Golden Slope divides into
the Cte de Beaune in the south, known for its white Burgundies and
delicate red wines, and the much shorter Cte de Nuits in the north,
home to Vosne-Romane. It is in the latter, on a multilayered soil of
limestone, red clay, gravel and pebbles, where the Pinot Noir grape
finds its most sophisticated and fascinating expression.
Take a stroll up to the vineyard of Romane-Conti at any time
and you are more than likely to be met by a crowd of wine enthusiasts stopping to get their photograph taken beside the stone cross
that stands on the southern perimeter of the vines. But it is neither
the cross, nor the vineyard that has given the name Romane-Conti
such resonance. It is the wines.
Not that there are many people who have had the opportunity to
taste a glass of Domaine de la Romane-Conti. Firstly, there is the
hurdle of the price. According to U.K. importers Corney & Barrow, a bottle of 2007 Domaine de la Romane-Conti will set you
back a mere 4,500, which adds up to around 56,000 for a case of
12. If, and it is a very large if, you can source a case. Production
of Romane-Conti is tinya better description would be minuteat
around 450 cases, or 6,000 bottles a year. Faced with this, it is hardly
surprising that some importers only ever sell in mixed cases, in other
words, to buy one bottle of Romane-Conti one has to purchase

a case that contains the other wines of the domaine as well: La
Tche, Richebourg, Romane Saint-Vivant, Grands Echzeaux and
Echzeaux. But I doubt anyone who received such a case would be
complaining, as all of these wines are characterized by a purity, grace
and finesse that puts them in many cases on a par with the domaines
namesake itself.
Given its scarcity and the fact that it will only ever be tasted by a
handful of billionaires and connoisseurs, why visit? The answer lies
in attempting to understand the philosophy and wine-making practices that have earned the domaine its international reputation. And
to do this, one has to speak to its winemaker: the thoughtful, donnish 71-year-old Aubert de Villaine, who, along with his co-director
Henry-Frdric Roch, has, for more than a quarter of a century, has
been at the forefront of not only restoring the reputation of the wines
of Domaine de la Romane-Conti but also of the wines of Burgundy
itself.
It is with this in mind that I press the tiny button beside the
domaines steel gates to announce my arrival for a tasting of the 2009
vintage, a year that, on present evidence, in Vosne-Romane has produced fresh, supple wines with an abundance of forward fruit. When
I am ushered into a small annexe, it is difficult to equate my surroundings with the domaines reputation. Unlike chteaux in Bordeaux, there is no grand Palladian mansion, elaborately built cellars or
an army of staff. Just a receptionist, a few men working in the winery and, after a short wait, Aubert de Villaine, who, after introducing
himself, politely asks if we can go to the cellars straight away as it is

vintage time in a few weeks and there is a lot to do.
What I have learned is that the talent that makes the wines is
not with us, says Mr. de Villaine, dipping a pipette into a large oak
barrel named Richebourg and drawing out a dark, purple wine. It
takes some years to understand that the talent is in the vineyards. The
importance of your work adds influence naturally, but, essentially,
what really gives the taste to the wine is the plot of land, the terroir.
The more you express the character of the land, the more you are
doing your job.
In Burgundy, terroir comes first. Unlike Bordeaux, where classifications are ranked by producer, to understand the wines of Burgundy, one has to first think of the vineyard, then its village, then
its producer, often written as a tiny footnote on the bottom of the
label. In Domaine de la Romane-Contis case, the crus the family has
acquired through a process that started with Mr. de Villaines greatgreat-great-grandfather, Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet, are some
of the most sought after in the whole of Burgundy. As well as owning
the entirety of Romane-Conti, they also own the larger La Tche
vineyard; 44% of Richebourg, 55% of Romane Saint-Vivant, 38%
of Grands Echzeaux and 12% of Echzeaux.
Aubert de Villaine has been working at the domaine for more than
40 years, a period during which he has honed a philosophy that is
based on respect and humility for the land he farms: What is taken out
of the soil is given back, there are no chemical fertilizers, treatments
or many of the modern wine-making gadgets available to the contemporary vigneron. An example is the reintroduction, a few years
ago, of horses to replace the use of heavy machinery in the vineyard.

The gentle action of the horses hooves, Mr. de Villaine says, does
not compact the soil as much.
The more we learn, the more we learn to use less technology, he
says. In the 70s and 80s we were tempted by using mechanization,
which was bringing a lot of shortcuts. But now we are going back
from this, and we are more manual today then we were 20 years ago.
We are tasting in the maturation cellar, which is a short walk
away at another famous Vosne-Romane estate, Domaine du Comte
Liger-Belair. Generously, Mr. de Villaine says that we are not obliged
to spit, but such is the scarcity of these wines that after the first sip
we have to pour back the remainder of our glass into the barrel.
We start with Grands Echzeaux, move onto Richebourg, Romane
Saint-Vivant, finishing with La Tche, and finally Romane-Conti.
The wines are some of the oldest in the world, dating back to the
Romans who first cultivated the vines. The monks of the Priory of
St. Vivant had acquired the vineyard, then known as Cros des Clous,
from the Dukes of Burgundy in the 13th century. In 1631, ownership
passed to the de Croonembourg family who renamed it Romane.
The Conti was added after Louis Franois de Bourbon, the Prince de
Conti and first cousin of Louis XV of France, paid 8000 livres in 1760
for it. After the Revolution, the land was sold to Napoleons bankers
before being bought in 1869 by Duvault-Blochet, who built up most
of the holdings.
So how do the wines taste? It is always hard to be completely
objective when faced with such iconic wines, especially when tasting
from the barrel, as these wines are famously difficult to taste young;
with age it becomes easier as they develop more complex, tertiary

aromas. Over the years, the adjectives used to describe the taste of the
wines have ranged from satin and silk to violets, wild cherries, raspberries and game. To which I add licorice, spice, plums and the forest
floor.
But they are special. To describe these wines simply in terms of
taste is to miss the point. Without descending into the incomprehensible, when I taste these wines, they evoke a similar intellectual stimulation that I derive from listening to a piece of challenging classical
music or viewing a beautiful work of art .
Mr. de Villaine prefers to describe his wines in terms of character,
as opposed to taste. Richebourg is a wine that every year is very masculine and arrogant, he says. I often describe it as musketeer, the
bodyguard of Romane-Conti, and a wine that wants to laugh.
Romane Saint-Vivant has two faces, he continues. One face is
very elegant and fine, close to Romane-Conti in finesse; the other
side is more abrupt, monastic even. La Tche is a wine that is always
showing tannins that usually have the character of liquorice. In the
center, it is very vertical and sharp, but surrounded by a lot of lace
and velvet. Romane-Conti is a wine that doesnt want to show off;
it doesnt have lipstick or makeup. It has a hidden elegance.
Those who know him well say Aubert de Villiane is slightly aghast
at the prices his wines achieve in the marketplace. A modest, deepthinking intellectual, his world seems a million miles from some of
the upscale cities where Romane-Conti is drunk.
These wines will always need the hand of man and the way they
are made today requires patience and a long-term vision, Mr. de Villaine says.
And with that, it is time to go. As I emerge from the cellar, the sun
is beginning its late-afternoon descent. Leaving the courtyard, I walk
to the car, parked casually across the kerb; the silence, punctured by
the echo of a distant bell, filling the medieval village with its rhythmic toll.
This article originally ran on Oct. 1, 2010, under the headline Searching
for Perfection.
A Defense of Wine Snobbery
BY LETTIE TEAGUE
America has never been overly fond of its intellectuals. Ralph Waldo
Emerson took note of this fact in a speech made at Harvard almost
200 years ago: The mind of a country, taught to aim at low objects,
eats upon itself. Even today, anyone with a higher degree or a wellarticulated belief risks being called an elitist. The same seems to
hold true in the American wine world, where an impassioned and
knowledgeable oenophile isoften as notsimply labeled a snob.
The wine-snob backlash has lately been led by a group of wine
populists fond of proclaiming that its not only unnecessary but
downright undesirable to know too much about wine. Drink what
you like and dont worry about the particulars, they like to say,
employing tasting terms like yummy and fun while comparing
wines to cigars and black dresses and even gym socks.
A wine snob can talk about wine in terms that encompass history,
geography and meteorology. Wine snobs know where and why certain grapes are grown and who does the very best work in a particular
vineyard.
A wine snob also takes notes. Wine snobs are very good at writing
things down. A wine snob is also quite good at drinkingalbeit in a
serious, note-taking sort of way.
It almost goes without saying that wine snobs are some of the very
best customers in restaurants and stores. Who better to appreciate
everything from the fanciest grand cru to the most obscure bottling
from the furthest parts of the world? A wine snob can appreciate a
winemakers noble intentions and subtle artistry and is willing to pay
the price for them, too. A wine snob keeps the wheels of wine commerce going around.
And yet, the fruits of a snobs study arent always appreciated.
Sometimes even a modest display of wine knowledge can provoke
accusations of pretentiousness or worse.
Ive been accused of this myself. It happened a few years ago when
my friends and I were dining at a bistro in Paris. (Isnt that where
all wine-snob stories start?) Wed ordered a ros that turned out to
be terrible. I (briefly, I promise) cited a few of its flaws and suggested that we might want to try something else. My friends husband
balked. Why couldnt we just drink the wine? he askeda question
that was actually closer to a demand. And furthermore, he added,
why was it that I had to talk about the wine at all?
The fact that I was simply trying to save him from drinking something lousy was seemingly forgottenalong with the fact that there
had been many earlier instances when these friends had expressly
(Marc Rosenthal)
sought my help in wine selection, including the occasion of their

wedding.
But my friends husband is hardly alone. Ive witnessed similar,
though perhaps less vehement, responses by others over the years.
Wine talk seems to trigger a particular sort of outrage among non-
oenophiles. It may be in part because the language of wine is arcane,

and the terms employed arent the sort that people normally use.
There likely arent many people outside the wine world who know
what garrigue means (underbrush in the Mediterraneanits used to
describe wines from the Rhne) or who have described something as
tasting like melted tar or damp earth and meant it as a compliment.
Perhaps what antisnobs really need is a taste of the wines that
the snobs revere. The best way to understand something better is
through personal experience, after all. And contrary to what many
might believe, the wines that snobs love arent always precious and
the prices arent always three figures and more.
A wine snob likes wines with a singular character and taste, wines
that are made in a particular place. Take, for example, Chablis.
Although its made from the Chardonnay grape, it doesnt taste like
Chardonnay from any other part of the world. This is thanks in part
to the climate and in part to the soil, a mixture of limestone and clay
and thousands of fossilized oyster shells (a wine snob could probably
even name the type of oyster). A great Chablis is pure and austere
with a shimmering acidity and mineral threadcharacteristics that
can be found in even the most basic and affordable wines as well.
A similar transparency is found in the great Rieslings of Germany,
once considered the noblest wines in the world, thought sadly much
less fashionable now (except among wine snobs). With their captivating aromas of flowers, fruit and spice, bright minerality and juicy
acidity, theyre also wines that last a long time.
Wine snobs are also fond of grower Champagnessparkling wines
made by Champagne farmers instead of the large Champagne brands.

These men and women, known as rcoltants, make Champagne from
their own vineyard holdings instead of blending grapes from vineyards all over the region, as is true of the brands. Grower Champagnes are a fairly recent phenomenonmost growers couldnt
afford to make their own winebut thanks to wine snobs who have
championed their cause, theyre now some of the most sought-after
Champagnes in the world.
A wine snob cherishes wines with a history, from hallowed regions
like Rioja in Spain and Piedmont in Italy. The red wines of Rioja are
aged in a manner unlike most other winesa tradition dating back to
the 18th century. Some Riojas can be aged more than 10 years in a
bottle before theyre released, and the very best achieve a subtle, mellow character unmatched by any other wine in the world.
The same is true of Barolo, the Piedmontese wine prized above
all by wine snobs for its power and finessetwo seemingly opposite
terms that manage to converge in the same wine. A great Barolo is
marked by an unmistakable perfumetar and roses and minerals and
earthand is styled to reveal itself over time, transitioning from forbiddingly tannic to lithe and elegant, almost Burgundian in style. A
great Barolo rewards those who will wait, although there are more
and more Barolo producers who style their wines to be more accessible sooner.
Emerson, the great champion of individualism, was a big proponent of experimentation and change: Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow,
he said. It could be the motto of every wine snob I know.
This article originally ran on July 6, 2012, under the headline Think
While You Drink: In Defense of Wine.
About This Book
Selecting, Drinking, Collecting & Obsessing: A WSJ Guide to

Enjoying Wine was published in August 2014 by The Wall Street
Journal.
The art director was Manuel Velez. The front cover poster art was
by Susan Burghart. The chapter heading illustrations were by Serge
Bloch. The editors were Beth Kracklauer, Fiona Matthias and David
Marino-Nachison.
For questions about this or other e-books from the Journal, e-mail
ebooks@wsj.com. For more news, information and subscriptions,
visit wsj.com.
Copyright 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Lettie Teague & Will Lyons

The Wall Street Journal

How to Read This Book v

What You Need to Know About Grape Varieties

How to Write (and Read) a Good Tasting Note

How to Break the Rules When Ordering Wine

How to Order a Second Bottle

How to Order Wine on an Airplane

ON DRINKING WINE (INTRODUCED BY WILL LYONS)

How to Make Sense of Wine Scents

How to Match Wine and Food Without Overthinking

When, Why and How to Decant Wine

How to Serve Wine at the Right Temperature

ON COLLECTING WINE (INTRODUCED BY WILL LYONS)

How to Develop Wine Expertise

How to Start a Wine Cellar

How to Think About Aging Wine

Understanding Wine Auctions and How They Work

Go Inside the Worlds Largest Wine Storage Facility

Why Wine Collectors Love Magnums

ON OBSESSING OVER WINE (INTRODUCED BY LETTIE TEAGUE)

What Happens at Winemaking School

How to Make Your Own Bordeaux Blend

How a Burgundy Wine Domaine Became the Worlds Most

How to Read This Book

vi How to Read This Book

recognized in the Louis Roederer International Wine Writing

What could be easier than buying a bottle of wine? After all,

10 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons

Thankfully, centuries of wine-drinker experimentation and study

What You Need to Know About Grape

I know nothing about winewhere do I start? is perhaps the most

12 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons

using common or international, the educational body has now

Principally associated with the red wines of the Mdoc in Bordeaux,

Selecting, Drinking, Collecting & Obsessing 13

Due to the fact that it can be grown successfully almost anywhere,

14 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons

Powerful, low in acidity, high in alcohol, this hearty red-wine grape

Soft, supple and fruity, Merlot is the yin to Cabernet Sauvignons

Delicate, early-ripening and, with thin skins, difficult to grow, Pinot

Selecting, Drinking, Collecting & Obsessing 15

fully grown in cooler regions such as Oregon, Germany, parts of

This ancient variety from Germany is particularly popular with

Refreshing, grassy, aromatic, scintillating, light, directthere are

In France, Syrah produces a dark, brooding red wine, packed full of

16 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons

mitage and Cte-Rtie. In Australia, where it is known as Shiraz, it

How to Read a Wine Label

Wine labels can be a little like cryptic crosswords: unfathomable,

18 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons

Selecting, Drinking, Collecting & Obsessing 19

winemaker a tolerance of around 0.5%. So its worth remembering

20 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons

How to Write (and Read) a Good Tasting

22 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons

Molesworth has created what can only be described as an amazing

Selecting, Drinking, Collecting & Obsessing 23

whether or not a wine is oaked. Customers always want to know,

24 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons

and fresh, in their notesalbeit at 50 words or less (shorter than this

Selecting, Drinking, Collecting & Obsessing 25

26 Lettie Teague & Will Lyons