A few weeks ago I watched this episode of  WLTV, where Gary V’s guest,  Michael Madrigale, sommelier at Bar Boulud in NY, talks about his life and how he got into wine. I was particularly attentive when he explained how he finally discovered the wines of the Northern Rhône , a wine-region he didn’t understand at first, but is totally obsessed with now.  I was fascinated by the level of passion in his words and felt that I could clearly follow his reasoning on how his connection to Rhône wines developed.

While watching this, I also realized that my own experience with Northern Rhône is definitely limited if not non-existent (supermarket Crozes-Hermitage doesn’t do the appelation right I guess). And since passion can be contagious: right after the show, inspired by the praising of matured Syrah, I screened the web for interesting bottles. Read the rest of this entry »