Hoof Hearted Brewing Company, in Marengo, Ohio, got its name from a fart joke. ”Like many of the world’s most successful businesses,” Trevor Williams, the head brewer and an owner, says with a laugh. (Hint: say the name out loud.) The company’s brand identity is appealingly irreverent, sometimes crass, and ultimately hilarious. Nostalgic beer names and labels […]
There’s a lot of jargon associated with wine, particularly with winemaking. Do most wine drinkers really need to be able to tell if a wine undergoes a punch-down versus a pump-over? For those who don’t plan to get a degree at UC Davis, most of these terms don’t matter very much. One to keep in […]
As Beaujolais Nouveau Day rolled around, I hunted for a bottle of cru Beaujolais, something to compare side-by-side with the fresh 2017 vintage Nouveau announced on every wine shop sandwich board. It wasn’t a difficult pursuit; there were at least 15 cru options available, most from tried-and-true producers that have grown more popular each year.
Sommeliers tend to be opinionated people. We have given a lot of thought to grapes, regions, producers, pairings, serving temperature, and glassware, and are more than happy to vehemently discuss and debate all of them over bottles of wine. Yet certain wines are are almost universally loved by the wine community.
November may be the traditional season for Beaujolais, but this somm favorite is suitable for sipping all year round. Always made from Gamay, Beaujolais got a bad rap for years because of the barely fermented, thin Beaujolais Nouveau. Excellent Beaujolais, particularly from the region’s 10 crus, can maintain its drinkability while being complex, versatile, and […]
At the end of a season it’s particularly easy to fall into a rut, even with wine. You continue reaching for the same wines week after week, until all of a sudden you realize that you haven’t tasted some of your favorite grapes and regions for months. A wake-up call came for me last week […]
Remember the tale of the ugly duckling, the bedtime story your mom read you while you peacefully drifted off to sleep? This story has a universal message: with perseverance and luck, and in spite of the world’s cruelty, everyone is bound to find his own path and identity. Beaujolais is the ugly ducking among French […]
Ask any sommelier which wines they’re kicking back with off the clock and it’s a safe bet that cru Beaujolais is on that list. Recently, the region of Beaujolais has begun to crawl out from under the poor reputation imposed on it by the Thanksgiving mainstay Beaujolais Nouveau.
Every year around this time, the campaign begins. Like an upstairs neighbor who insists on practicing their badly tuned trumpet at 2AM, no matter where you go, you’ll encounter marketing material for Beaujolais Nouveau. On the third Thursday of November, the wine gets released, and shops everywhere flood their shelves, hoping the aggressive marketing campaign […]
