Recent content by Brian Loring

I'll second Mercado de San Miguel and Asturianos. And even though it's not near the Prado area, I also like El Quinto Vino.

Busted

I kinda liked the issue with the baroness of Bordeaux on the cover.... just sayin'

It's not the yeast that makes it spoof, it's the chapitalization and amelioration.

I think you have Jim confused with someone else. He's about as non-interventionist as you can get.

A winery that I think would match up well with my perceived preferences of board members here would be JK Carriere. Jim Prosser is a really good guy, and he's got a great (yet very dry) sense of humor. Check out this video for an idea of what his wines are about:

Here's another excerpt from the same blog: Why is he doing this? "Well, there is always the possibility of spoilage, and while I've discovered that, with additional bottle aging the so-called spoilage does disappear—it's hard to believe, I know, but I've seen it for myself—the fact is that...

From Matt Kramer's blog on the Wine Spectator website just last week: "Take Clos Saron, for example. Mr. Beinstock decided recently to forswear (or nearly so) the use of sulfites in his wines. This means that although he does apply sulfur to his grapevines (the last application typically a...

But within a given year, it's impossible to know if you'd prefer that vintage in a lower alcohol, lighter version - since you have nothing to compare the riper version to. Assuming that the "lesser" version would mimic those earlier wines is a crap-shoot, based on my experience. It may be...

I see people say things like this all the time. My question is, how do you know?

Are you sure? Why do you think Clark calls Randy Dunn a hero? The same Randy Dunn who's so publically called for winemakers to stop making higher alcohol wines. Could it be that he de-alcs his wine? I've seen the names on the trucks/tanks/barrels heading into ConeTech in Santa Rosa. And...

In describing the RO process above, you can see how alcohol can be removed. If you replace a certain percentage of the permeate with straight water, you reduce the alcohol level.

4ep/4eg, VA, smoke taint, etc are all removed in a similar manner. The wine is first filtered by reverse osmosis through a membrane and is separated into two parts; a permeate and a concentrate. The permeate is mostly water and alcohol, but also contains the taint as well. Then depending on...

When it comes to alcohol levels, I would imagine that there are people doing exactly what you say. But I think that it may be the folks trying to create the "13% and under aesthetic" that are more likely to fine tune than many of us who are completely comfortable making 15% wines. And as such...

I would agree with you for the case where someone wanted to push things too far. But given how wildly chemistry can fluctuate each year (and not in a linear, lock-step fashion) it's hard to imagine that slight alterations in things like alcohol level wouldn't mimic a natural condition. Or it...