Wine makes a great gift for the holidays, and how you present it can make a significant statement to the recipient. Do you want to be regarded highly? Do you want to become a special friend? Do you want to firm up a so-so relationship? There’s nothing wrong with giving someone a bottle of wine. […]
Author: Jim Campanini
Star-studded match: Isiah Thomas and Cheurlin Champagne
Is that former NBA Hall of Fame great Isiah Thomas now wearing the Cheurlin Champagne polo jersey? Yes, it is. And why not? Thomas, 57, is no stranger to the French bubbly – even if in an odd way. For years during his illustrious career with the Detroit Pistons (1981-94), Thomas said he enjoyed his […]
Wine gift of champions can be yours at WCAP’s Salvation Army Auction
The annual WCAP Salvation Army Radiothon is Saturday, Dec. 8 and there’s a nice holiday auction gift on the docket for wine lovers. On Thursday, I interviewed former NBA great Isiah Thomas, who has launched a wine importing business, ISIAH, and is partnering with the prestigious House of Cheurlin Champagne of Aube, France to bring […]
Zoning in on Bobby Zohn's 90-point wine specials
Bobby ‘BZ’ Zohn pours from his 90-point wine list at the Wine ConneXtion. Bobby “BZ” Zohn was back in North Andover last weekend at the Wine ConneXtion, pouring from his list of “90 points and above” wines based on ratings received from Wine Enthusiast and Decanter magazines and top-flight reviewers James Suckling and Robert Parker. […]
No need to whine — here are answers to wine quiz
, The Wine Novice Several weeks ago, I published the final exam questions for the Vino Rosso Italian Wine seminar I presented to students at the Nesmith House. I purposely left out the answers, but several readers — rather annoyed — complained. As I said at the time, if you want to learn about Italian […]
Wine Novice's selections for Turkey Day
, The Wine Novice Thanksgiving is truly an all-American holiday and, naturally, the pairing of food and wine should be all-American too. At least that’s what I used to think. Not anymore. We live in a melting pot of a nation, so why shouldn’t the holiday dinner table feature a melting pot of wines? With […]
Some fine wine choices for Thanksgiving
, The Wine Novice Did Thanksgiving just sneak up on us this year? I don’t know about you, but I’m off by a week. To me, Thanksgiving always seemed to fall on the last Thursday of November but this year it arrives a week early — on Nov. 22. Whatever, it’s time for the annual […]
Discover Umbria in Montemelino, Orvieto Classico
, The Wine Novice When you think of the world’s great wine regions of the world, no one is going to jump up and shout “Umbria.” It’s neither No. 1 or for that matter No. 100. Yet it’s a gem of an undiscovered place. Umbria is central and southern Italy’s only landlocked region, bordered entirely […]
Romeo & Juliet would tell you wherefore you'd love these wines
, The Wine Novice If star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet could have shared a final glass of wine, maybe they would have reached for Famiglia Pasqua’s Passione e Sentimento Rosso. It’s a red wine made from Corvina, Merlot and Croatina grapes grown in vineyards located not far from the Verona balcony where Juliet was serenaded […]
These wine novices in a class of their own
The Nesmith House was glamorous and full of life for the first class of “Vino Rosso: The Incomparable Red Wines of Northern Italy.” Nineteen enthusiastic oenophiles met Thursday in Lowell to learn about the four pillars of prestigious Italian wine – Super Tuscan, Chianti, Barolo and Brunello – from the Piemonte and Toscana regions. We […]