Chablis must surely be one of those wines familiar to almost everyone. Ken Gargett tastes the wines of William Fèvre in Chablis and shares his thoughts here as well as a brief history of the region.
Ken Gargett recently had the opportunity to try two Saint Luis Rey Double Corona Cigars from two different boxes. They were both remarkably similar, which is not a given with Cuban cigars, especially very rare Cuban cigars.
Port is special for Ken Gargett as it was what originally led to his love of and fascination with wine. Here he provides an overview of Port styles that no wine lover should miss!
Malt lovers immediately fall into one of two camps: one does not enjoy the peaty, smoky, seaweed notes that whisky from Islay usually offers. The second group loves those characteristics. No prize for guessing where Ken Gargett falls. But what about Ron Swanson and Lagavulin from the Scottish island of Islay?
Lebanon has an extensive history with vines being cultivated there for some 6,000 years. Vines were brought to the region by the Phoenicians, who then took the wines around the Mediterranean. All of which has led to the amazing wines of Chateau Musar in the modern age as Ken Gargett reports.
Fans of Japanese whisky will be all too aware that the better offerings are extremely hard to find. Once a curiosity, then mainstream, and more recently highly awarded and much sought after (okay, now subject to a feeding frenzy), the stuff is as rare as an honest politician. So grab whatever you can whenever you can!
Yamazaki 12-Year-Old from Japan is a whisky that Ken Gargett has loved every time he has had the chance to try it. The bottle he sampled for this piece was actually one from the back of his cupboard, which he has been sitting on for far too long. When a mate saw it, he implored him not to open it. But Ken of course did and shares the experience with us here.
The Charles Joguet winery is in Chinon, France where it sits adjacent to the Vienne River, a tributary of the Loire. What makes Chinon different from the rest of the Loire Valley is its focus on red wines from the Cabernet Franc grape. And Ken Gargett has a lot to say about this!
For Ken Gargett, the Veuve Clicquot 2012 La Grande Dame is a special champagne. It walks the tightrope between dense and coiled power with delicacy, finesse, and elegance. Great intensity, finally balanced acidity, early complexity, and it is still wonderfully youthful with a long future ahead of it. But what interesting story lies behind this fantastic champagne?
Ken Gargett’s recent champagne extravaganza lunch might seem like an exercise in utter hedonism (and it pretty much was), but as an exercise in showing how versatile and how incredibly varied champagnes can be, it was a masterclass. Ken even compares the 1993 Dom Pérignon to itself!