Sharon Bowman Spring things Spring is for lightness with a bit of residual sugar, I’ve decided. Light whites, Loire whites, chenins, romorantins, weird Monts-Damnés Sancerres from hills so aslope, their aromatics explode and they persist on the palate with a heady blend of alcohol and sweetness. These things we can deal with, now that the […]
Sharon Bowman Splashes Mark and I sat at the bar and sipped Rioja while picking from a huge pile of olives on a glazed terracotta platter in front of us. There would be a long night of sipping and quaffing ahead, but here we were reconnoitering and enjoying the solidity of heavy, tall bar chairs. […]
Sharon Bowman A pair of Chinons I’d been having a hankering for some Loire cabernet franc, a hankering that had gone unsated for some time. Which is why it was propitious, then, to walk into Jay’s apartment on a bright Sunday afternoon and see a handsome decanter standing next to an empty bottle with the […]
Sharon Bowman The silence of the drams I have had so many memorable wines of late that I have felt somehow cornered into silence. How to choose! How to talk about them! But it’s important to talk about them, of course – to get their texture and weave, to remember that morning you […]
Sharon Bowman Wine for rain, wine for sun I had never thought about it before, but there is something about the delicious minerality of a Puligny-Montrachet that goes well with the rain. The other night I ran out with not one but two umbrellas (well, I was using one, and one had been loaned to […]
Sharon Bowman Overcoming grape fears Since last I wrote, I have continued valiantly affronting my prejudices. Now, of course, we all have grapes we don’t like. I know some highly recommendable people who have, shall we say, issues with Cabernet Franc or Grenache. (Actually, the most common bête noire among wine-drinking friends seems to be […]
Sharon Bowman Taste and smell I have been thinking about questions involving taste and smell lately, as, recently, an offhand comment from a friend surprised me and got the cogwheels turning. I was talking about a dish I like – a foodstuff/aromatic pairing that was once (when Alain Senderens boldly used it a couple of […]
Sharon Bowman Go forth, blindly I don’t usually taste wines blind. But last night, Chris showed up at Brad’s with a bag. Two wines were within. Somehow, a 2006 Ridge Monte Bello, previously decanted and rebottled, metamorphosed upon the table, where we were eating thick-cut dry sausage (it’s better that way, per Brad) and hacking […]
Sharon Bowman What a difference a day makes A few days ago, I opened up this one, a 1996 Ridge Geyserville. Now, as far as American wines go, I have a soft spot for Ridge. A glorious 1987 Ridge Monte Bello remains one of my most rapturous wine-tasting experiences. And not so long back, a […]
Sharon Bowman Fresh fruit Spring is here. It’s over sixty degrees out! (Fahrenheit, for those of you in the Anglo-Saxon world.) And what better way to bask in the newfound warmth than to open some fresh whites – and fresh reds. I’d chilled the 2007 Lapierre Morgon. It came out of the fridge. So […]
Sharon Bowman Wine with others, wine alone Everyone has a different idea of which things in one’s life one does alone and which must be done with others. Sometimes it seems to me that the variations and possibilities are as broad and manifold as the different types of likes and aversions in enjoying food. So, […]
Sharon Bowman Southern fraîcheur I have to say that I hadn’t thought a lot about Picpoul de Pinet in my time. I’d had it a few times and found it a sprightly, uncomplicated southern French white (from the Languedoc, for those geographically uncalibrated to the appellation). Then a couple of weeks ago, at the end […]