Thirty years ago at a trattoria on the isle of Capri, Bill Ward had a lusty homemade red that rocked his world. Ever since this "so that's what wine's all about" moment, he has been seeking similar experiences, always aiming to approach wine with an innocent eye. He's been writing about travel, food and wine for more than a decade and won a James Beard Award in 2004 for a series on Italian regional cuisine. His column, Liquid Assets, runs every Thursday in Taste.
Email him to talk about wine.
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Loving wine in spite of/because of its flaws
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DiggThe more wine you drink, the more flaws you find -- and that works two ways. Seasoned wine drinkers not only encounter more flawed wines, especially when sampling older vintages; but we also develop more ability to recognize cork taint and brett in particular.
I don't mind a little brett -- I consider "barnyard" a compliment for the most part -- and most of my quaffing friends agree. But we differ mightily when it comes to TCA: I can enjoy a wine with smallish amounts, while some of my pals don't even want to be in the same room with it.
Upshot is, I'm glad to see more wineries switching to screwcaps, because having a spendy bottle prove undrinkable is never fun. And I'm thankful to my friend Joe for passing along this article, which is the best explanation of cork taint I've seen.
And I was happy to come across this piece on studies designed to eliminate brett -- if only because the photo is so well-chosen.
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