I recently returned from a quick trip to the Catskills. Those with toddlers will note my reluctance to call it a vacation. My daughter is 20 months now - volcano energy, scrambling about at great speeds, climbing on everything, no real sense of peril. She spent most of her afternoons there lakeside, mucking about on the shore, shoveling wet sand everywhere - much of it right into her mouth. I would try to intervene, fail, rinse her mouth out - and then she'd be right back at it minutes later. Another dad nearby offered curious consolation: "That's just what they do at that age... my daughter's first full sentence was I like dirt."

Terroir is a funny thing. Roughly meaning "a sense of place", it is a term we hear and use a lot in the wine world. It is the combination of natural elements of a region (or a single vineyard): soil composition, elevation, latitude, microclimate, etc... these site specific influences that somehow leave a "signature" on the wines from there. Or, more succinctly, the physical elements of place that give the resulting wine its particular character.

But it is an elusive thing and argued over endlessly. Many critics dismiss terroir as a myth or a marketing ploy, objecting to the use of terms like "minerality" as there is no scientific proof to connect the perception of ‘minerality’ to actual minerals in a wine. And yet, a "mineralness" is somehow present in wines from certain sites. And what critic, Matt Kramer, calls a "somewhereness" does seem to exist - for whatever reason Pinot Noir from Burgundy tastes different from cru to cru, and even more so than Pinot from Russian River Valley, or Chile's Casablanca Valley.

Come explore this elusive somewhereness with us - and decide for yourself. Flights here every Thursday and all weekend. Fun, informal, and far more delightful than a mouthful of dirt.

TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! Italian Whites and Domestic Reds. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass as always.

SATURDAY: All French Rosé Tasting:
2018 Marc Plouzeau Chinon Rosé
2018 La Raimbauderie Sancerre Rosé
2018 Chateau de Peyrassol Commanderie Rosé
2018 La Bastide Blanche Bandol Rosé
Flights $15 from 2-6pm and wines by the glass until 9pm!

SUNDAY: Wines of Greece! These grape varieties are a mouthful indeed. Roditis, Moschofilero. Xinomavro. Limniona. Mavroud. Come escape the heat with these delicious island wines. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm. And yes, there will be minerality.

See you soon,

Daniel