by Bernard Kenner
Spanish producers have recently invested in making wine that combines modern skills and technology with traditional tastes. I personally feel that Spain has great wine and great values, especially from regions that have been under the radar here in the US. And just like Priorat, once these regions are more recognized for the quality that they offer, you can expect their notoriety and demand to grow. Since Spain is 3rd in world production, there is certainly a lot of juice to choose from.I have never met a winemaker or an importer who did not think his wine was unique, delicious and a good value, even though (to be truthful) not all are. Furthermore, just because a wine is "industrial" does not make it bad or well priced, and for that matter, just because a wine is "handmade" do...
by Stephen Wilcock
Temperature is probably the most crucial factor to appreciate any wine at its best.There is an adage that the English drink their white wines too cold and their red wines too warm. The temperature a wine is served can show the wine off to its best advantage and will allow us to appreciate the wine.The best guide is to consider how the wine was made. A wine that is fermented in stainless steel at low temperatures to retain freshness should be served at a cool temperature, 8 to 9 degrees Celsius, to show these qualities; a wine fermented in oak or oak-aged would benefit from a higher temperature, say 14 degrees Celsius.The domestic fridge temperature (between 5 and 8 degrees Celsius) might be too cold. So the best way to serve white wine from the cellar of about 13 -14 degrees is to put i...
by Brenda Cranmer, Csw
Each year hundreds of Pinot Noir fans gather in McMinnville, Oregon for a weekend-long gala celebrating one of the world’s most appreciated grape varieties. 2012 marked the 26th annual International Pinot Noir Celebration, otherwise known to the fans and attendees as “IPNC.” The three days at Linfield College are designed to be spent eating, drinking and learning, but the friends that you make there are the top take-aways.The program divides attendees into two groups for the featured events. Each day begins with a breakfast on the lawn. They call it continental breakfast but it is much, much more. After that, Group A will spend a day visiting a local winery in the Willamette Valley while Group B spends a day at the “University of Pinot” attending a Grand Seminar in the morni...
by Vera Czerny
When you mention Victor de la Serna's name in Spain - especially among the wine community, people will nod their heads in respect.Victor de la Serna is considered to be one of the top three most influential wine experts on Spanish wine.Yet, he wasn't always winemaker. Starting as a journalist, just like his father, he created quite a resume over the years!Mr. de la Serna is a very respected wine and food writer, restaurant critique and editor in chief of famous www.ElMundovino.es - a collective Spanish wine blog that seriously discusses wines.This blog was started by Spanish newspaper El Mundo (Victor de la Serna was one of the deputy editors).So you can imagine, when he announced releasing the first vintage of his own wine, the fellow wine society became alert. Everybody, who knew Mr. de ...
by Ron Kapon
The 11 Finger Lakes are located in the west-central section of Upstate New York. The lakes are long and narrow. They reminded early mapmakers of human fingers, hence the name. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in America. Both are close to 40 miles from end to end and about 3.5 miles wide. At the north end of Seneca Lake is the city of Geneva, home of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. At the south end of the lake is the village of Watkins Glen, New York, famed for auto racing and waterfalls. The nearby Seneca Lake Wine Trail featured 32 wineries. The city of Ithaca, New York, site of Ithaca College and Cornell University, is located at the southern end of Cayuga Lake. The Finger Lakes region is a cent...
by Kris Mcdowell
It’s that time of year when the outdoors beckons, inviting you to spend more time under a blue sky, relaxing and enjoying time with friends and family. You’re probably going to be out there for a while and will need something to drink. Why not make it a beer? When the weather heats up my choice of beer turns toward something lighter and more refreshing than I’d lean toward in the cold of winter. Pale ales, pilsners, Kolsch, sour and fruit beers are all styles that pair well with a warm summer day. If you’re new to beer or interested in branching out a summer gathering can be a great time to pick up something different and share it with others. You might just find a new favorite along the way. In Portland, Ore. or Beervana as it is known by some, we have a wide selection of beers o...
by Debra Villasenor
The truth is, wine will aerate on its own, as soon as you pour it into your glass. And the truth also is – that may not be enough.Hence the invention of wine aerators.Many wines can benefit from aeration (exposure to air), and some benefit more than others. Red wines, and particularly younger red wines, can often benefit the most from aeration, and provide better aromas and flavors after some amount of air exposure – whether in the glass, by being decanted, or through the use of a wine aeration device. The best way to sort it all out is by tasting and deciding for yourself how much aeration to give a particular wine, but there are some rules of thumb that can be useful to keep in mind.First of all, wine aeration is not always recommended. If a wine is delicate in some way – whether b...
by Ron Barker, Cigarvolante Llc
(This is an article from the American Thinker that should be of interest to the wine community. Freedom is not defined by the ability to stop others from doing those things that you don't approve. Links and credits included at the end of the article.)Bureaucrats Bully Family Farms in D.C. ExurbsBy Mark J. FitzgibbonsFauquier (/fɔːˈkɪər/) County, Virginia has become a new battleground against the sprawl of Washington-style government bullying. Under the guise of business zoning authority, Fauquier is now depriving an agricultural community of its liberty to live the farm life when a little commerce is, and even is not, involved.The county, you see, wants to regulate and fine farm residents on grounds of holding pumpkin carvings, birthday parties for little girls, and Boy Scout jambore...
by Richard Mark James
Languedoc: Minervois, red white rosé 2010 and 2011It was perhaps reassuring to see some familiar names cropping up among my favourites at this year's Minervois tasting and over lunch afterwards, such as Château La Grave, Sainte Eulalie, Borie de Maurel, Domaine Cavaillès and Gérard Bertrand. These sprawling and mostly picturesque wine-lands stretch from St-Chinian country to the east across to Carcassonne in the west and Narbonne to the south, signed and sealed by the Canal du Midi flowing along its substantial bottom (roughly speaking). To find your way around this vast wine region more easily, pockets of quality are found here and there around Minerve or St. Jean de Minervois, for example, or in the Montagne Noire foothills in villages like Trausse-Minervois and Caunes-Minervois, and...
by Richard Mark James
Featuring Barboursville, Boxwood, Breaux, King, Veritas, Michael Shaps, White Hall, Williamsburg...For non-Americans reading this whose US geography is about as good as mine, the state of Virginia is on the east coast surrounded by, to the north, Maryland and D.C (Washington isn't far from vineyards in the far northeastern corner), North Carolina and Tennessee to the south and Kentucky and West Virginia to the, erm, west! There's some wine-growing history here, as apparently the first vines were planted back in the early 17th Century. That slightly famous Virginian enophile Thomas Jefferson farmed European grape varieties here as part of his various adventures in all things vines and vino (although he didn't actually make any wine I'm told), although it was wines made from native American ...
