The effect of Covid19 on drinking habits is real: the vast expansion of Direct-to-Consumer wine shipments, subscriptions, and online vendors; younger drinkers opting for wine over beer and spirits; and more consumption of domestic vs. imported wines among others. And some new trends and discoveries…

Yes, New Year’s day is more than a week behind us, and in any event, the dawn of 2021 wasn’t a terribly celebratory event. But I have a bottle of something very special in front of me, and I have to announce it as my…

My 2020 wines of the year—a white, a red, a Champagne, and a rosé—are a slam dunk. Without further ado, here they are: WHITE: Gundlach-Bundschu Estate Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2019: This hits it out of the ballpark. Aromatic, balanced, crisp and rich, it’s dry unlike many…

Thanksgiving will soon be here, and you're probably starting to put together your menu. And as it looks like most of the country will be in what amounts to another Covid19 lockdown, wine and family sound like just the ticket.  So, I politely suggest that…

Wine Flair's Wine of the Week,  an Australian number called Beyond Broke Road Pinot Gris 2018, is probably one that creates a little confusion.  That's because Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape, genetically. So why the name difference? And what's the difference…

Wine-Flair Wine of the Week is Don Zoilo Williams & Humbert Oloroso Sherry, 12 Years Old. Many Americans have heard of Sherry but relatively few have ever tasted it, and I’ll wager that most of those few have only as “cooking Sherry,” found on a…

Ok, an unusual name for this Wine Flair Wine of the Week! A play on prohibition, evidently (I was not there) in the '20s you could get access to booze in a Speakeasy through a strong-willed woman, a "Whisper Sister." In this case, it was…

Welcome to the Wine-Flair Wine of the Week!  Yes, I know it sounds like a disgusting cheese. Or maybe a quiche from Germany. It's actually a delicious red wine made from a grape that's originally from upper Styria, now Slovenia, once part of Yugoslavia. The…

I know you can get this at Wine.com, but I think (and hope) you can find it at many more outlets. If you do, buy some. Especially if you haven't tried French wine, and specifically Bordeaux, but would like to...out of curiosity, if nothing else.…

OK so this Wine-Flair Wine of the Week is about a 50-buck wine. And it's a classic Napa ballsy Cab: rich and concentrated dark fruit, balanced, lovely tannins and a long finish. Some (including me) may detect a little residual sweetness right out of the…

This wonderful white wine is the product of Randall (Randy) Graham, the quirky and unique founder of Bonny Doon, an enterprise that he created to produce American versions of the best Rhône wines. He's run into some tough times in the last few years, a…

Conventional wisdom is that Primitivo was brought to California around 1968, and scientists at UC Davis declared it the same grape and wine we call Zinfandel in the US. But as far as I can tell--and there are at least a half-dozen versions of the…