Corks and Caftans

Go cheap. Go Washington. If you find yourself in a grocery store with a $20 bill in your pocket and happen to need a six pack of Bud Light Wheat and a bottle of wine but just don’t feel like swiping the plastic, I have a solution. Actually, a few solutions. Cheap wine is the [...]

I once heard a wine writer dismiss New Zealand as serious Pinot Noir producer. If I wanted proper Pinot I must look to France, like the Côte-d’Or, and portions of California, Santa Barbara perhaps. But New Zealand and Chile are not excelling at making world class Pinot. Translation: you are an asshole if you buy from [...]

*Disclaimer: I received this wine as part of a sample from Willamette Valley Vineyards* After Carey and I returned to the east coast from our trip to the Willamette Valley last March, we truly had a lot to reflect on. It wasn’t just a visit; we’d felt taken in. Every vineyard and winery we visited, big or [...]

[To see the below wine as it resides in an awesome collage about Montauk, check out this post at Holier Than Now I was commissioned to help out with.] Just a 2-acre plot behind the Bedell winery, on the craggy-looking North Fork of Long Island, is the unlikely source of a world-class Merlot.

The departure Syrah. The summer Syrah. The Pinot Syrah. Yes, this is all true, and it’s getting credited as such. I once had a great Zinfandel from a very exciting cult Napa producer—the problem was, it was a Sangiovese. But, you would have never known—this is a undesirable departure. What Anthill accomplishes with their ’07 [...]

Groth’s consummate workhorse, their Sauvignon Blanc—the only white wine Carey and I brought home from our Napa honeymoon. I was only going to be purchasing 2 cases—one to be mailed and the other to ride home with us under the plane. So I even surprised myself when I dedicated 3 precious slots in my stable [...]

When Carey and I last visited Vista Hills in March, vines throughout the valley were spottily coming to life, prematurely coaxed by the warm weather. The threat of a freeze with much of March still left on the calendar was a concern, but that fortunately did not come to pass, and a world of change [...]

Enjoy the generosity of 80% Malbec combined with the finesse and roundness of 20% Merlot. -Kermit Lynch

I am excited to announce that C+C is going to be upgrading the photo portion of our blog in the coming weeks. We are on our third (and final for a while) camera since our first post—the best decision we ever made. But, we have made a hobby out of chasing light across a wall [...]

I have an amazing wife—one who currently is sleeping on the couch under a blanket, under Eli, wearing a crazy Aztec-looking shirt, with cucumber slices over her eyes—no doubt dreaming of crash-free adventures on her new bike. I vetoed her idea of wearing a pith helmet in lieu of the nerdy ones that, quote, “remind [...]

Oregon is on the brain, as is Pinot Noir. Corks + Caftans will be northwest bound in less than a week. The itinerary is still coming together but Lange, Willamette Valley Vineyards, Stoller, and Genius Loci are looking promising so far. For me (I can’t speak for Carey, of course), this trip is about meeting [...]

Chardonnay. My mother was a light drinker from what I recall as a child. I remember her small, tulip-shaped, etched wine glass that would appear on weekends. Packed full of half-moon ice cubes and drizzled in something sweet and sticky—the 80′s wine scene as I remember it. I am convinced now that my mother was [...]