No, this is a serious, challenging wine to accompany the best food.
After the invention of the balloon-expandable stent for heart surgery in 1985, Dr. Julio Palmaz, and his wife Amalia, decided to take on a tougher challenge — making wine.
If you're feeling competitive, you may want to take up the So You Think You Can Taste Challenge: four wines, poured blind ($15pp).
Majestic won the high street chain of the year award last week at both the International Wine Challenge and Decanter World Wine Awards' dinners; it has become almost as invincible as Oddbins once was.
"I can hand-sell a Syrah or a Tempranillo," says Hart, "but if they buy, they're maybe going to buy a bottle; they're not going to buy a case". In spite of these challenges, local wines are improving.
Here, the diversity of dishes became a challenge for the wine steward.
On this particular night, one friend has unearthed what he thinks is the most impossible challenge - a wine from a small vineyard and of a rare vintage.
Now, thanks to a survey by the International Wine Challenge, we also have a list of the specific ways in which we fall short.
The challenge of making wine in Maryland, as in many regions on the Eastern Seaboard, is excess moisture, which fosters the growth of fungal diseases.
The tasters at this year's International Wine Challenge, discovered that while cork taint is on the decline, the problems affecting wines sealed with screwcaps have probably been underestimated.
