The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

Joel Butler, MW (left) and Charles Curtis, MW (right) Another year and another glorious champagne event put together by the Institute of Masters of Wine in the San Francisco's Ferry Building overlooking the Bay. This year marked the first time the grand tasting in the evening was preceded by a super fun and informative seminar in the morning. Two masters of wine (MW's) Charles Curtis and Joel Butler led a presentation entitled "Champagne: House Style or Terroir" accompanied by a terrific set of champagne juxtapositions - blanc de blancs, NV, vintage, Rosé, etc...  Typically a producer of a so-called "grower champagne" (a winery that grows their own grapes) will go after a particular terroir expression of the land they own, because they may not have enough breadth of vineyards or depth of vintages to pull from, in order to blend a consistent "house style" that transcends a specific terroir. However, with many different grower/wine-maker busines...

The 2012 annual Champagne tasting hosted by the Institute of Masters of Wine recently took place in San Francisco. The freakish 90 degree heat in October was offset by a nicely air-conditioned room on the second floor of the Ferry Building. What an enchanting view of the Bay, chilled bubblies in hand! Mesmerized. Slightly tipsy, my thoughts drifted - "is it time to try for a second kid?..."  I guess Champagne will do that :) I document this worthwhile event every year. For getting a broad swath of the latest and greatest in Champagne, to my knowledge, there is no better event in the Bay Area. And considering the $60 admission fee, this is probably the best bang for your buck of any wine tasting of the year. Teeth aching of acid overdose, a hundred bottles worth thousands of $$ of glorious sparkling sampled, a few exemplars truly moved... The best bottles are not cheap - retailing for well over $100, and the Rosé over $300, but when you are ready to live it up, it's h...