The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

I don’t feel the urge to write about every great meal anymore. It usually takes something that genuinely moves me — something that lingers well after the night ends. This dinner did that. The food, the wines, the people, and the ease with which it all came together made it one of those rare experiences. Long after the plates were cleared and the last glasses emptied, it was clear this was a night I’d remember for a very long time. I’ve been to a lot of great dinners over the years. Some were extravagant, some were historic, some were just plain fun. This one has to rank at or near the very top — not because it was planned to be legendary, but because it became legendary almost by accident. The caliber of the wines, the quality of the cooking, and how well the pairings actually worked pushed this into rare territory. And the best part is that none of it felt like a show-off. It was the right group, the right energy, and our familiar Domaine-du-Chevsky potluck format — where everyone br...

Iron Chevsky and Erwan Faiveley (right),  with his outstanding 2013 Corton-Charlemagne. At the 2015 Frederick Wildman Burgundy portfolio tasting in San Francisco, I got a chance to sample some very good wines from the upcoming 2013 vintage. Some (like Olivier Leflaive) are currently being bottled while others are a few months away. But the vintage characteristics already shine through. And I very much liked what I saw, at least from the top producers at this tasting. I generally preferred the reds here to the 2012's. While the 2012 is hyped by many as a great vintage, I personally don't think so. The 2012 reds are fluffy, juicy and plush - but they seem to lack structure. The 2013's on the other hand have it - they are more serious and angular, with nice ripe dark fruits reminiscent of black tea, with tart acidity and fine tannins. The acidity seems to stick out just a bit on some of the reds at this early stage, but I think it will integrate nicely in the coming mon...

September 2014 marks the fifth anniversary of Tango , the mobile tech company in Mountain View, where I am the VP of Engineering. As mentioned previously , besides my main job, I also run the "Tango Winos" wine tasting club there as an extracurricular activity and as a management "thank you" to employees. We do this quarterly, paid 100% by the company, with focus on higher-end great wines of the world, something that employees will not usually (perhaps ever) drink. Forty people attended the latest one, which is a lot for barely a 200 person start-up. The tasting, served with catered dinner, was a ton of fun for everyone, and is the only corporate wine tasting event of such caliber anywhere in the Valley, AFAIK, which makes me particularly proud to do this at Tango. What made this tasting even more special was the 5th anniversary of the company, so we upped the ante with famous bottles at $200-$500 each! I prepared a venerable array of 7 wines, 3 bottles each, ...

Most wines don't age well - they just decline, especially white. White Burgundy, on the other hand, particularly 1er and Grand Cru actually needs a few years to hit its stride. Meursault, one of the great Chardonnay villages in the world, one whose grandeur and style was the target of the legendary pioneers of California wine industry in the 1970's, such as Mike Grgich and Chateau Montelena, gives greater pleasure as it gains in maturity. But how long should you wait? And how long is too long? From the mailer by Ross Bott, the organizer: Meursault is in the geographic center of the Cotes du Beaune region of Burgundy, with Pommard two kilometers to the north and Puligny Montrachet two kilometers to the south. It totals just under a thousand acres of planted vines, almost all Chardonnay. About 200,000 cases of wines are produced each year, of which 98% are white. The vineyards of Meursault itself surround the town, with the premier cru vineyards just to the southwest and the re...