Life is too short to drink bad wine

We stayed two days at a very nice hotel overlooking the Rhone river in the town of Tain l´Hermitage where quite few of the big producers have their "home". One of them is Chapoutier who has a really nice shop/winetasting room in the middle of town. We started off with some white wines in really big nice wine glasses; Saint Joseph 2005 "Deschants" 100% Marsanne €13 P(+) elegant granite smell, short taste a bit typical the grape Hermitage 2005 "Chante-Alouette" 100% Marsanne €34 P From the hillside above town, elegant, long, flowers C ondrieu "Invitare" 2006 100% Viognier € 27 P+ This is golden syrup, refined, subtle with perfect acidity, buy more! Ermitage "De l'Orée" 2004 100% Marsanne €114 P- Fantastic good white Marsanne peachy smell with long complex aftertaste Then some really good reds based upon 100% Syrah (Shiraz); Saint Joseph 2005 " Deschants" € 13 P+ Elegant red berries with firm body and taste Cornas 2005 €25 P+

South of the main Burgundy is an area called Macon which has similar chalky soil as Burgundy and grow the same white grape, Chardonnay. It is however regionally linked to Beaujolais as St. Amour in Beaujolais and Pouilly in Maconnais are practically neighbours. The  two main towns Pouilly and Fuisse are the villages (AOC) which have the best wines. The area is like Beaujolais with small towns and hillsides. One of them leading up to the Mont Solutre 500 m tall (see picture) with its characteristic top and pre historic hunting finds.  In the town close to the Mont Solutre you will find the Atrium de Pouilly Fuisse with all the best wines from the different producers in the area. The best ones we like is the Ferret and Ch.Fuisse (see picture below). The wines are crispy dry white wines like the ones you find in Burgundy and Chablis. A good bottle would set you back around 20€. POUILLY FUISSE

In Beaujolais they make light red wine from the Gamay grape easy to drink and perfect at lunch time on a hot summer day. The wines should be drank chilled and young. No point in drinking old Beaujolais even though though some can be stocked up to 4-5 years. When drinking Beaujolais you are looking for something fruity, drinkable and enjoyable.  The best ones come from the villages in northern part of Beaujolais where the soil is granite based (like in St Amour see picture).  If the bottle is labeled Beaujolais it comes from the southern part with limestone as the soil. This wine is also often sold as Beaujolais Noveau (third Thursday in November) a wine good for the bank  accounts of the producers, but bad for the drinkers and the Beaujolais image. Good wine from the best villages like St.Amour, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Julienas, Moulin a Vent only cost about 6 to 10€ anyway and for that you get summery, flowery, silky juicy wines! There are many different producers for each of the villag

Post Oak Grill, 1100 Louisiana street down in tunnel Nice place for lunch when it’s wet and windy Ravenswood Vintners Blend, Sonoma No wimpy wines or Zinfandels from this producer! Ouises,3939 San Felipe Road, 713.528.2264 Posh place with pretendy posh people and very good wine list Etude Pinot Noir Another good PN producer, smooth, velvety, nice fruit RuthChris Steak House, 6213 Richmond Avenue, 713.789.2333 Posh place, pricy wines but very good service and wine list Barbaresco by Prunotti 2001, not the best producer but if you want Nebbiolo then what the heck… Massas seafood, 1160 Smith 713 650 0837 Downtown , Nice lunch place for fish and reasonable wine Morton steakhouse, 1001 McKinney Downtown + Galleria If you are really hungry then this is the place, the smallest steak is too big for me Cornestone Cabernet Sauvignon Big heavy and minty Trapiche Broquel Malbec, Argentina Big, elegant, smooth and perfect with the steak! Backstreet Café, 1103 South She

Winetasting is a nice opportunity to discover new producers, new areas, new combinations. It also never stops surprising you as well when you taste two different wines coming from the same producer, the same grape, the same year, the only difference being the little plots where the grapes have been growing. Burgundy had two producers; One called Roux which had some overoaked white burgundy and some nice cheap reds from Santenay and St Aubin. The village Chambolle Musigny 2005 was good and the Vougeout 1er cru "Les Petits Vougeots" 2005 fantastic with long velvety taste. The other one, Gaston et Pierre Ravaut from Ladoix, had as one would ecpect a nice selection of Ladoix. The two best Ladoix were 1er cru 2005, one from La Corvée , the other from Le Bois Roussot . The last one perfumed, light and feminin, really beautiful wine while the other was darker, more masculin and full bodied. Both at 16euro. The Corton Grand Cru "Hautes-Mourottes" had the feminin smell of