Mourvedre, or “Mataro” as it is known in its native Spain, is a thick-skinned, slow-ripening red grape that has until recently languished in relative obscurity. Lacking the star power of varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir, it has typically played a minor, supporting role in the winemaking process. When blended with other grapes such [...]
On Friday we unveiled a new design for our webshop, the Petit Tonneau Online Wine Boutique. Overall it’s much more clear and bright that the previous design, and also benefits from a reorganized global navigation menu and a newly-built “top page” for wines. We’re adding news wines and food pairing recipes all the time, so [...]
Just added this Online Wine Buyer’s Guide today and will be updating it periodically. I’ve included the well-known English/Bilingual sites for now and will follow up with Japanese sites later. Enjoy!
These are some of my favorite books on wine: A fantastic resource for educating oneself about wine. Broad in scope, well-written and very informative, this is one of the best wine hooks I’ve read. Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2009 Edition When you just want to know everything about everything about wine, this [...]
It’s November and that means Beaujolais Nouveau for the wine world here in Japan. While in many other countries (especially France, perhaps) the entire spectacle has become passe, in Japan we love our annual rituals and comfortably familiar events, and so dutifully exult in the 解禁 or “lifting of the ban” on Beaujolais Nouveau wine [...]
I picked up this exceptional Pinot for around 50% off the list price at Enoteca’s online store. (They have a clearance page which changes often and offers some great deals on good wines.) Many medium- to high-end New Zealand Pinots offer an astonishing balance of acid, fruit and alcohol, and this one is no exception. [...]
It’s been more months in the works than I want to think about, but we’ve finally launched our online wine shop. We partnered with local wine importer and restaurant operator Le Petit Tonneau (“the little barrel”) to launch this new web shop for their range of French wines hailing mostly from the South of France, [...]