GrapeLines

Five bourbon recommendations for the season.

By: Lou Marmon

October, 2018

Autumn is a perfect time for bourbon. Its mellow sweetness is an ideal accompaniment to the cooling temperatures and falling leaves. And many distilleries schedule their special releases during the fall months. Here are five reasonably priced bourbon recommendations for the season. Each are currently on the shelves and cost…

Royal Experience at the British Embassy

A Royal Tasting Experience at the British Embassy   By: Lou Marmon   May, 2018   The upcoming Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle was preceded this past weekend by the annual open house for the British Embassy that featured tours of facilities, a chance to peruse the collection of British ultra-luxe cars (including Rolls-Royce, Aston-Martin and Lotus) as well as opportunities to…

The Art of Wine at Hess

The Hess Collection – Wine and Art Under One Roof   By Lou Marmon   April 2018

  There are few wineries that so intimately demonstrate the notion of winemaking as art than the Hess Collection. Located on Mount Veeder, the largest and highest of Napa’s five mountain AVAs, the Hess Collectionbegan with the purchase of acreage by the Swiss-born Donald Hess who had made his fortune by expanding his…

A look at some recent releases from Argentina

  By Lou Marmon

  January 15, 2018

  The first Argentinian vineyards were planted in the mid 1500s by Spanish conquistadors. Winemaking became increasingly popular in Argentina over the ensuing centuries but the quality didn’t keep up with the quantity.  The 1990s saw a dramatic improvement in their wines and now Argentina is now among the world’s…

Orange Is Not The New Rosé

Orange Wines are not going to replace Rosés.

  By: Louis Marmon

  July 31, 2017   Orange wines have become conspicuously less visible on wine-lists and retailer shelves over the past several months. These darlings of the uber-sommelier set were extolled as the “next big thing” in dozens of articles while being predicted to supplant rosés as well as deserving of their own chapter in wine…

Some 2017 Summer Wine Suggestions  

By: Louis Marmon  

June 9, 2017

  Beyond the Memorial Day barbeques are several months of warmer weather that call for a different wine drinking strategy. Cellar those big Cabernets and move to a lighter style with bright fruit and crisp acidity for balance that will work well with the typical summer foods and as a sipper to enjoy on the deck with friends.…

Award Winning Cedar Ridge Distillery

By: Louis Marmon

  May 26, 2017  

It is not particularly remarkable that a state with 90 % of its land devoted to farming would have a portion of its agriculture end up in distillation columns. What is a bit surprising is that the state that produces the most corn in the US didn’t get it’s first distillery since Prohibition until 12 years ago.  

In 2005, 9th generation farmer Jeff Quint…

Does the glassware make a difference or is it wishful thinking?

  By: Louis Marmon

  November 14, 2016

  All good magic tricks occur in the mind. Like watching Penn catch a bullet in his mouth shot from a pistol Teller is holding on the other side of the stage. Rationally you know that it cannot be true, yet there is still a part of you that wants to believe that it really happened.   There are…

A Toast To Chef Paul

Chef Paul Prudhomme was among the first American cooks to embrace their food heritage.

  By Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon  

Winter 2015

  Variety came fairly late to American cuisine, and depending on one’s generation, typical American fare like burgers, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and overcooked boiled green veggies of one sort or another loomed large. Variation, apart from treasured family…

Taste When You Can

Review of Hagafen Estate Syrah 2012 and Hudson Four Grain Bourbon by Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery

  By Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon

  Winter 2015

One of the big pleasures of booze tourism is to be found in the tasting room. A recent article by Lettie Teague of The Wall Street Journal, one of many wine columns we read and enjoy regularly, reminds us of some of the behind-the-scenes activityth…

Best Whisky of 2015

The Winner of Grapelines Best Whisky of 2015 is the Octomore 6.3.  

By Lou Marmon  

December 2015

  Released in 2014, it is the first of the experimental Octomore series to be created with barley grown entirely on Islay. At 258ppm, the 5 year old Octomore 6.3 is the Bruichladdich Distillery’s most heavily peated whisky. However those words belie what is actually happening in the glass. Master…

Books For The Wine-Lovers On Your Gift List

By Lou Marmon  

December 2015

  A few suggestions for the wine-lovers on your holiday gift list that would appreciate a good read:

  The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil is both entertaining and masterful. Authoritative but never ponderous, it explores and explains with wit, charm and respect for both the reader and subject matter. A must for any wine-lover’s shelf.  

Vino Business (The Cloudy World…

Jefferson’s Triumph

Review of the Molon Lave Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 and Kilchoman 100% Islay, 3rd Edition Single Malt Whisky.

  By Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon

  Washington Jewish Week  Fall 2015

  Somewhere Thomas Jefferson is smiling. Our third President was an unabashed oenophile, asserting that “wine from long habit has become an indispensable for my health,” and while at Monticelloconsumed an average of 400…

Review of the Pendar 2010, and Castra Rubra Via Diagonalis 2010.

  By Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon

  Washington Jewish Week  October 1, 2015

  A few decades ago the wine region that some Western Europeans looked toward for value-priced wines was, perhaps surprisingly, Bulgaria. A Balkan nation located just north of Greece and Turkey whose eastern border is the Black Sea, Bulgaria has been a wi…

The Butcher’s Daughter

Review of The Butcher’s Daughter Reserve 2012 and the Hurricane cocktail.

  By Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon

  Washington Jewish Week  September 2015

  Jews have been a vibrant part of French society for centuries. Immigrants from all over the Ashkenazic and Sephardic world—the Middle East, the Iberian Peninsula, Central and Eastern Europe—have each contributed their own special energy and…

Top 10 Value Priced Kosher Wines

Top 10 value priced kosher wines of 2015 along with reviews of Longrow Red, Cabernet Sauvignon Cask, 11-year-old, Peated Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whisky and  Glenfarclas 105 Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky

  By Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon

  Washington Jewish Week  September 25, 2015

  Last week we listed the Top 10 kosher winescosting over $30 or more a bottle. Here is our list of our