Author: Terry Connor

Recently I attended a BLIND wine tasting, which was a real challenge. I consider myself fairly good at identifying wines, but at the same time, I find blind tastings to be difficult at best. Featured among all the wines we tasted was a Malbec from the Mendoza region of Argentina. I did not correctly identify this wine. I wrestled with the nose, the taste, and even consulted with some of the other tasters. I surrendered to the host. When he revealed that it was a Malbec, I turned green with embarrassment. I should have guessed correctly.

The 28th Annual Hilton Head Island Wine and Food Festival is now neatly stored away in the record...

It’s late December and I’m on the website. The weekend of January 26 and 27, the Marriot Hotel on Hilton Head will host the judging of the wines that will be available for tasting at the 28th Annual Hilton Head Island Food and Wine Festival.

Let’s start off the year with a blast. No, not a party – but a big blast of cold air called the Mistral Wind. Since I am not a meteorologist, I defer to the experts who explain the Mistral Wind to be a strong, cold and usually dry regional wind in France, coming from the northwest and accelerating as it passes through the mostly southern Rhone Valley.

  I had one heck of a year writing about wine, wine history, and places I visited. And, in between...

The first amazing fact about the Antinori family is that they have been producing wines for an unbroken string of 26 generations. The original date was 1385, when a man named Giovanni di Piero Antinori starting producing wines, not knowing that 627 years later his family would still be in business. I guess that we could call it an oenological legacy.

Mon Dieu! I thought writing about Bordeaux was going to be easy. It is not. There is so much material out there on this complex region that it would require all of us to quit our positions and work full-time just reading and tasting Bordeaux wines. That is not going to happen so let’s try to attack this subject in miniature.

  The big star of the Southern Rhone is Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It is the place that should be on everyone’s bucket list, the place where you want your ashes scattered, and easily the place where you could get lost and never even care. However, before I get carried away, I must make mention of the fact that there other important appellations in the Southern Rhone area. They are Vacqueyras, Gigondas, Tavel, Lirac, Cotes du Rhone-Villages, and Cotes du Rhone.

I wrote last time that I would go to Bordeaux; however my driver Franco insisted that we continue south, so we find ourselves headed towards the Rhone. Franco is up to something that he will not reveal. I can only hope that it involves good restaurants.

It was a Saturday in Boston and I had just left my all-time favorite wine store. I had purchased two bottles of 1993 Meo-Camuzet Nuit-St.-George for a non-competitive high price. My fault! I knew ahead of time what I was in for. I wanted a treat and I had to pay the price.