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All you wanted to know about wine, but were afraid to ask.
Our annual wine issue—wherein we bother the fine Somms of this city with inane questions and pester them until they answer—is just hitting the shelves this week. We’ll roll out the content online as well in the coming weeks but to get you intrigued we offer you a teaser—Chambar’s Kelcie Jones running the gamut.
My partner (Michael Littleford, Sommelier at CinCin) and I watched all six seasons of The Sopranos for the very first time (mostly in tandem with our pals Kurtis and Wendy, too!). We found that the show was difficult to get into at first, but the character development was rewarding with time, kind of like dry Riesling. If you can accept that you might hate it ’til you love it, find a bottle of Grosset Clare Valley Riesling and pat yourself on the back.
The most celebratory of wines, and the wine that tastes most like sourdough itself, of course: Larmandier-Bernier ‘Latitude’ Blanc de Blancs Champagne. The toasty brioche notes might outshine my humble, glutenous creation, but it will be worth it.
Natte Vallij Cinsault has one of the most lovely and timeless labels you ever did see, and even though it is under $30 on the shelf, could pass for pricey Pinot Noir to any himbo at the party.
My pals know that I have every other vice around, so I never gamble. Instead I’ll save my lotto money and put it towards a bottle of Jamet Cote Rotie. The label looks, to borrow from the French, slightly ‘moche,’ but it is pricey, and deeply worth every penny.
I believe the spirit of Vancouver Island is strong enough to keep the vultures from turning their wine into mass-market Walmart juice. Eventually they will accept me as one of their own and I’ll be invited to move there and start a commune.
Chartreuse. Green AND Yellow. Big bottles of it.
I don’t want that guy getting drunk at my dinner table… and so I will serve a pristine bottle of Domaine De L’ecu Orthogneiss Muscadet to all my other guests. Conspiracy banker bro can have water while he thinks about his choices.
Remove: Malbec. It just doesn’t ripen nicely here, and it doesn’t make interesting wine here either. Replace with: Furmint. Why not? Let’s see what happens.
Anybody who doesn’t say a yeti mug is fooling themselves- these are the most indestructible temperature-controlled drinking vessels out there. Mine is full of Tiberio Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo.
Last February, *just* before the world locked down, I had the opportunity to meet the indomitable Emanuela Prinetti and taste her thoughtful, graceful, and ethereal Chianti Classico wines. We talked at length about Murakami- he name-drops her wines in one of his novels- and so I would probably settle in with a copy of Norwegian Wood & a bottle of her Riserva. More wine producers should be approaching wineries like she does- as a holistic, environmental, food-producing entity.