Happy anniversary to me and Paul! We celebrated with a fantastic dinner at Blue Hill Stone Barns, where we ate and drank well — and did a little inter-species mingling.

Here’s my promised Chilean tasting note, in video form. A great value wine — $10! — that’s like spring in a glass.

We’re living in the golden age of wine — never has so much good wine, from so many regions, been accessible to so many of us — but we do pay a price for that choice.

Wedding planning season seems to be in full swing — I’ve had no fewer than 5 friends announce their engagements recently. I’ve also had a few of these lovely ladies hit me up for wedding wine advice, and I thought I’d share my thoughts for them with all of you.

My thoughts on some mid-priced Bordeaux…and a really bad marketing campaign.

Sugar is by far the most misunderstood component of wine. There’s a common belief that sweet wine is bad wine, but the truth is, sweetness in wine isn’t always a bad thing, and sometimes can be a very, very nice thing indeed.

So I heard back from the fine folks at J. Emerson, and here’s what we’re going to be tasting (these are their comments, not mine):

Do Ferreiro Albarino 2006 (Rias Baixas, Spain): Hands down, one of …