VINEgeek

Back to Spain for Mourvèdre Monday. This one’s from Bodegas Castaño, one of the biggest producers of Monastrell in Yecla, in southeastern Spain. This wine got 90+ points from Parker for 5 straight vintages, including this one. Let’s see what’s up. Producer: Bodegas Castaño Grapes: 100% Monastrell Appellation: Yecla Vineyards: From 30+ year old vines [...]

Mourvèdre Monday finally makes it to Texas. Becker is a big name in the Texas wine scene. I’ve tried quite a few of their wines over the years with mixed results. I had high hopes for their “Prairie Rotie” — a Southern Rhône blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah and Carignan (though the name is a [...]

When I saw “Niellucciu” named as the grape on the back label — which looks to me more like a Scrabble rack than any grape variety I’d ever hear of — I bought first and asked questions later. Back home, Oz Clarke’s Grapes and Wines — a must-own book in my opinion — revealed to [...]

It’s the “Best Restaurants for Wine Lovers” issue with a directory of all their award winners. I don’t want to rehash the legitimate questions about the level of scrutiny (or lack thereof) applied to these awards. I just want to take them at face value and make some observations. 1. Apparently, you can’t have a [...]

I’ve been meaning to devote more attention to Bandol in the Mourvèdre Monday series. Bandol, after all, is the only appellation in France where Mourvèdre is the top dog grape (it must be a minimum of 50% of the blend). So I was very excited when I was recently followed on Twitter by @BandolWines and [...]