It’s not easy making wine in the Sierra Foothills, a sprawling, high-elevation region at the edge of climate disruption that’s endured wildfires, deep freezes, and high heat over the last several years. Still, it persists, with new energy and the experience of great farmers keeping its legacy alive through a... Read More| JebDunnuck.com
An aerospace engineer by training, Jeb Dunnuck grew up on a farm in rural Indiana where 2% milk was the beverage of choice and wine was hard to come by. It wasn’t until 1996, when living abroad and traveling through Europe, that he became interested in fine wine.| JebDunnuck.com
This brief article was originally published as part of our 2022 Bordeaux report, but I thought it worth sharing on its own as well. It addresses common misconceptions about score inflation and explains why today’s exceptional wines genuinely deserve their ratings. The Truth About High Scores: Great Wines Deserve Great Ratings It’s common today for both consumers and other publications to accuse critics of score inflation for promotional purposes. Yet given the pushback on high scores from...| JebDunnuck.com
Given the unquestionably subjective nature of wine appreciation, I think it’s worth taking a moment to try and define how I approach wine. When evaluating wine for publication, I use a few key points that I always try to keep in mind. A wine has to provide both hedonistic and intellectual pleasure. Wine is a beverage of pleasure, and it’s critical never to forget that. For a wine to be great, you had better want to have another sip, pour another glass, and hopefully buy another bottle. No...| JebDunnuck.com
This report covers the 2023 vintage from Santa Barbara County. As with Paso Robles further north, this was a brilliant vintage that yielded pure, balanced, elegant, yet still beautifully concentrated wines. Clearly, the stars of the show are the Pinot Noirs and the Rhône varieties, yet this report is packed... Read More The post Santa Barbara’s Brilliant 2023s appeared first on JebDunnuck.com.| JebDunnuck.com
This latest Up From The Cellar leans heavily on a bevy of 2022 Bordeaux, largely from the smaller regions and petit châteaux, while also taking in Burgundies from Chavy-Chaouet, Pernot Père et Fils, and Roumier, a handful of Rhône standouts, and the latest 2021 from Pym-Rae now from bottle. There are new releases from Tarrawatta in Australia, a few characterful wines from Georgia, and even a memorable revisit with a beautiful bottle of 1985 Cheval Blanc. It’s a wide-ranging, eclectic mix...| JebDunnuck.com
This short round-up of wines includes various selections from Italy, Sonoma, and Champagne. Readers will find a spotlight on the value-oriented Italian wines from the Frederick Wildman portfolio, as well as other Italian wines that were not able to make it into other reports so far this year, or those that fall outside of the regions I cover comprehensively, including Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Additionally, I had the opportunity to review several older vintages during a dinner Jeb...| JebDunnuck.com
The Catena family is well-known as one of the pioneers of Argentine wine, discovering higher areas in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in the early 1990s where Malbec would excel. Catena was also able to import the best selections of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay into Argentina from France and the United States. In 1995, Laura Catena founded the Catena Institute of Wine to select 135 plants with different qualities from an old Catena family vineyard called the Angelica Vineyard plante...| JebDunnuck.com
Willamette Valley 2023 and 2022 This report takes an in-depth look at the Willamette Valley’s current and upcoming releases of the 2023 and 2022 vintages. Having concluded my coverage of Sonoma, looking at the same vintages, there is minimal overlap in the story concerning the 2023 harvest. While 2023 was... Read More The post Oregon – Willamette Valley’s 2023s and 2022s. appeared first on JebDunnuck.com.| JebDunnuck.com
“A hundred times a day, I remind myself that my inner and outer lives are based on the labors of other people…living and dead…and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received.” Albert Einstein Some winemakers are more oriented toward the vineyard than others. This is true whether they own their own vineyards, buy fruit, or a little bit of both. These winemakers – and I will say candidly that I think they’re kind of rare – are so familiar wi...| JebDunnuck.com
Blind tasting has taken on an outsized role in how people think about wine evaluation. It is often positioned as the gold standard for objectivity, and conceptually the idea makes sense: take away the label, the history, the reputation, and you are left with just the wine. For professional coverage, though, it is not the best framework. An informed and contextual approach serves serious criticism better. To be clear, I love to taste blind, do it often, and will continue to do so. This is not ...| JebDunnuck.com
This report looks at the latest 2023s from Paso Robles. The vintage was defined by a cool, extended growing season that yielded fresher, more focused wines with plenty of concentration and depth. While Paso can easily produce ripe, powerful wines, the top 2023s bring a remarkable sense of freshness, purity,... Read More| JebDunnuck.com
This summer, Rioja celebrated 100 years of recognition, having established itself as a Designation of Origin in 1925. Archeological remains show evidence of winemaking in Rioja by the Romans going back 2,000 years. But while the King of Spain came for a day of visits to mark the centennial, it... Read More The post Rioja and Ribera del Duero 2017-2023: Juggling Tradition with New Ways of Thinking appeared first on JebDunnuck.com.| JebDunnuck.com
