Posts belonging to Category Northern Italy

It is the best week of the best season – the first week in August in the summertime – so sez Dotoré. Ev kerse, this is also his birthday. An excellent reason to crack some special wines. He requests Baroli. After all, we are sitting on some oldsters and we really should check on their longevity. We did. You get to sit in. (more…)

Some of the better wines tasted recently. Ain’t summer grand?

2007 Bera Canelli Moscato d’Asti $15 (?): A Louis/Dressner Selection which almost always bodes well. This bottle was left over from summer 2009 in tBoW’s cellar and from 2008 on the store shelf! In other words, a Moscato d’Asti ain’t supposed to go past its release summer and here we have one two seasons over the limit. At three years old it was showing plenty of flavors of peaches and ripe pear juice. Light weight, delicate spritz and at this alcohol level don’t we have to get the current release? Delicious. 5% (more…)

Many wine shops are nominated as BEST of LA wine stores. These would include Dennis Overstreet’s Beverly Hills Wine Merchant [ed. yo tBoW didn't he used to be just Wine Merchant?], West LA’s Wine House, Steve Wallace’s Wally’s, Bobby Golbahar’s Twenty-Twenty, perhaps even the Marina bargain palace LA Wine Company. While local and equally well-established Woodland Hills Wine Company might only get a biased nod the fact is in order to be a C-L-A-S-S-I-C you gotta have some class.
Each shop has its pedigree: open at least 20 years; notable personality associated with the joint; and cachet for some distinctive quality whether it is best bargains (LA WIne Co), widest selection (Wine House), best selection of older vintage wines (20-20)[ed. where Bipin Desai would shop?], or simply best in one class such as Bordeaux verticals (Wally’s). (more…)