Kris Chislett

News December 4, 2011

This Week In Wine–12/4/12

    Fighting the Funk in Funky Wine Scientists in Australia have sequenced the Brettanomyces genome – a breakthrough that will ‘future-proof’ the industry against spoilage by the yeast organism known as brett. Brett is widely know to spoil wine with medicinal or metallic flavors, often described as “funk”. ‘Sequencing the brett genome, which reveals its genetic blueprint, means the Australian wine industry can future-proof its strategy against brett and the risk of spoilage,’ Australian…

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Reviews December 2, 2011

Alvear Solera 1927, Montilla, Spain.

Grapes 100% Pedro Ximenez, (but just call it “PX” if you want to sound cool and trendy…and I know you do). Facts Kind of like Port, I find Sherry-style wines more suited for chilly weather. It always reminds me of Christmas for some reason… Established in 1729, Alvear is one of Spain’s most prestigious and internationally acclaimed Bodegas. The family is in its eighth generation. | Sherry wines go through a Solera aging system. A…

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News December 2, 2011

Where I’ve Been.

Some of the more frequent visitors to this website may have noticed that my posts have been a little few and far between over this last week. I have good reason, if you care to know what I’ve been working on: – I’ve enlisted a little help in giving the website an overhaul. Nothing crazy, it’s all "back-end” stuff, and there’s probably going to be no major changes that you’ll even notice. The reason being,…

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Funny December 2, 2011

The Quick Brown Fox…

Although “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is considered to be the shortest sentence that includes all the letters of the alphabet, alcohol lovers came up with one of their own “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.”

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News November 29, 2011

What Exactly is a “Good Year” for Wine?

I was recently faced with a minor problem. A guest had ordered a bottle of ‘07 Napa Cabernet ($70) from my wine list (that’s right, in case you didn’t know, I run a restaurant/wine bar). The problem arose when the guest realized the bottle (after it had been poured) was in fact not from the ‘07 vintage as the wine list had stated, but actually ‘08. Did the Server explain the vintage discrepancy before the…

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News November 27, 2011

This Week In Wine–11/27/11

  China Basketball Star to Sell ‘Yao Ming’ Wine Months after retiring from basketball, Chinese sporting hero Yao Ming is venturing into business by setting up a wine company to meet a growing thirst for the tipple in his home country. Yao, 31, is China’s first global sports superstar with a personal brand valued at more than US$1 billion. Yao Family Wines will sell vintages using grapes from the famed Napa Valley region of California,…

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Facts, Funny November 26, 2011

Never Have Truer Words Been Spoken…

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."…

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Reviews November 25, 2011

The Police “Synchronicity” Red Wine Blend, Mendocino, California.

Grapes Carignane, Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache and Viognier (probably in that order, %’s unknown). The term “Synchronicity” refers to a “meaningful mix of seemingly unrelated events resulting in a significant sum”, which was the inspiration for this red wine blend of grapes which aren’t commonly seen together.   Facts Quite unbelievably, Sting is actually hand-harvesting all the grapes himself from this “Synchronicity-blend”. He also serves as winemaker; and can regularly be seen in the…

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Facts November 24, 2011

My Top 10 Reasons to Love Wine (If You Don’t Already) – #1

#1 Variety My top reason to love wine! They say variety is the spice of life, and there are literally hundreds of thousands of wines produced each year, from a vast number of wine producing countries, from a plethora of grape varieties, from a multitude of vineyard regions, from……I’m running out of clever-words, but you get the idea! There is nothing more sad to me than people who limit themselves to one grape, or region,…

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