Acid vs Teeth: Dental Strategies for Massive Wine Tastings

REN: Stimpy, I've been a fool. I should have brushed my teeth, but now my teeth... they are gone! And all I have left are stinky holes.
REN: Stimpy, I’ve been a fool. I should have brushed my teeth, but now my teeth… they are gone! And all I have left are stinky holes.

Almost the end of day one of the magical Grands Jours de Bourgogne, and I’d made it without any dental trauma. Each day’s events are loosely organized by Burgundy regions; Monday is a 9 to 5 orgy of Chablis ingurgitation.  As nothing else in Burgundy should compare in terms of acid (surprise: there’s no Aligoté Day), this was the day that worried me the most — over 100 high-acid wines tasted in one day.

If you’ve ever experienced acid-induced dental sensitivity, the feeling I’m talking about, you’ll know why I was scared.  Dental pain is the weirdest, most vivid pain, somehow.

It was a woeful, cautionary tale witnessing so very many winemakers with seriously mangled teeth. In some instances, you could clearly smell the old ashtray that was their mouth after, say, 30 years of smoking … which, alongside an unlimited wine (Click to Read more)

Dark Secrets of the 100 Point Wine Scale

Even if the 100 point wine scoring system is not going away anytime soon, wine consumers are getting wise to some shameful flaws. Yet another ghastly pair of endemic faults which are seemingly never discussed?

Glass ceilings for certain wines, and perhaps more insidiously: the invisible, deleterious effects of moderation drinker rationale.

DO NOT QUESTION THE GLASS CEILING, MOVE ALONG

“Once the Wine Spectator wrote a story on Beaujolais.  The top wine had a score of 86 or 88.  I sent them a note saying I’d read the article and thought the wine might be to my taste, ‘But could you please tell me the names of people who really know how to make Beaujolais as I’d like to taste some 90+ point wines.’  They wrote back saying ‘You don’t understand. (Click to Read more)

The Lightest Nebbiolo in the World

Mute that damned phone; turn your computer’s volume up.

Take a deep breath.

Let me take you somewhere magical for five minutes. (You’ll want full-screen video).

Welcome to one of the most beautiful places on this Earth: Valtellina. Sorry for the abrupt ending; this is an excerpt of a larger film by the celebrated Italian director Ermanno Olmi. Valtellina is probably the least known high-quality wine producing region of Italy. I wish I could send you the smell of burning wood, wet earth, stone, and porcini mushrooms just now to accompany these images.

Valtellina is where Nebbiolo (aka ‘Chiavennasca’ for locals) grows on the slopes of the Alps. This is as mountain Nebbiolo as you’ll get. You can see (Click to Read more)