Smooth Tasting 2020 Bordeaux Releases

After aging, most 2020 Bordeaux wines were released last year. After sampling hundreds of wines throughout Médoc, Graves, Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Fronsac, Entre-deux-Mers, Bourg and Blaye in the Borde...

Why California’s $46 Billion Wine Industry Is Better Prepared For Climate Change Than Some Of Its Competitors?

Sunset in the vineyards of Sonoma County, CA getty Climate change poses a significant threat for all of agriculture, but it has particularly disruptive potential for the wine industry. This is because...

How Bees And Bats Help Bordeaux Create High Quality Sustainable Wines

Bees and Bats Help Produce Sustainable Wines in the Vineyards of Bordeaux CIVB Did you know that bats eat between 500 and 1500 insects per night, and that bees are responsible for 80% of the pollinati...

Gundlach Bundschu Celebrates 160 Years Of Winemaking, Grape Growing, And Humorous Tricks

Humorous Trick to Share Sonoma Valley Wines on Napa Valley Wine Train in 1990 Gundlach Bundschu In 1858 Jacob Gundlach immigrated from Bavaria and purchased 400 acres of land in Sonoma Valley, Califor...

How This Vietnamese Woman Succeeds With Her Bordeaux Wine

In May of 2021, I sat at picnic table next to the Gironde Estuary in Bordeaux for a casual spring lunch and tasted a 2020 Bordeaux wine with a deep blue label named Song by Bong. What a surprise. I la...

Vintage 2021 Part 3 – Bordeaux Entre-Deux-Mers And Others

Vineyards and Milky Way, Bordeaux, France getty This is the third part of a three part article regarding the 2021 wine vintage in Bordeaux, as well as in other regions of France. The first part—descri...

Vintage 2021 Part 2 – Bordeaux Right Bank

Grapes and sunlight LAURINE GASSIAN (FACEBOOK: LAURINE DLS) This is the second part of a three part article regarding the 2021 vintage in Bordeaux, as well as in other regions of France. The first par...

Vintage 2021 Part 1 – Bordeaux Left Bank

Vineyards in Médoc, Bordeaux, France getty During a visit to the village of Jonzac this spring, a young Bordeaux woman explained to me how to detect overall quality of the past wine vintage. ‘You neve...

Subtle And Complex Armagnac Brandy Is Little Known Outside France

Labastide-d’Armagnac in France getty Armagnac—a chef’s brandy—is both subtle and striated with flavor. French Armagnac brandy has been produced for seven hundred years—centuries longer than Cogn...

2019 Right Bank Bordeaux Wines Drinking Well Now

Vines in spring light LAURINE GASSIAN (FACEBOOK: LAURINE DLS) In an article published almost two years ago, when the 2019 Bordeaux vintage wines were poured during April en primeurs tastings, I wrote ...

Left Bank And Entre-Deux-Mers Bordeaux 2019 Wines Taste Superb

Grape vine leaf LAURINE GASSIAN (FACEBOOK: LAURINE DLS) One of two articles I previously wrote on the 2019 vintage during the en primeurs tasting of 2020 (in spring, after the vintage was fermented) m...

Insider tips on visiting French wineries beyond Bordeaux and Burgundy

More wineries in France are opening to visitors, said a French wine tourism expert.   Of France’s 87,000 wineries, only 13% were open to the public five years ago, said Martin Lhuillier, head of...

Insights From 71 Winemakers And Winery Owners

In the past decade I have met and interviewed dozens of winemakers and winery owners. Below are photographs and quotes from a few, with links to articles. More photos are at my new VinoVoices Instagra...

Chateau Angelus Drops Out Of Bordeaux’s Saint-Emilion Wine Classification Process

Château Angélus, one of four top ranked wines in the Saint-Émilion region of Bordeaux in southwest France, last week announced it had decided to drop out of the 2022 wine châteaux classification proce...