by Ron Kapon
The lore of champagne is filled with courageous acts and bold people. Napoleon was a great lover of champagne and personally protected his favorite champagne house from invading armies. Churchill used champagne to elevate his spirits during England's "darkest hours" of World War II and today has a prestige cuvee named for him. The pop of the champagne cork was heard resounding through James Bond's greatest adventures.The first wine was made in Champagne about 2,000 years ago. Champagne was already famous in the middle age. But it was not the same wine we drink these days. At that time wine was red or white, not sparkling and quite similar to wine from Burgundy. People used barrels to ship their wines. They noticed that the next spring season following the harvest, the wine tended to foam. ...
by Ron Kapon
In late May 2010 the Second International Malbec Days Conference took place in Cahors, France. There were 100 Malbec producers mainly from France and Argentina, 150 journalists, 400 professional buyers and 3,500 wine connoisseurs attending this three day seminar and wine tasting. The conference compared the wines of Cahors and those of Lujan de Cuyo, Argentina. There were tastings of over 600 different wines all made from the Malbec grape variety, trips to vineyards and wineries as well as a wine tasting on a barge cruising along the Lot River. The famous Bridge Pont Valentre was transformed for the three evenings into the world’s biggest Malbec bar lounge and the nearby Espace Valentre was dubbed Cahors Lounge where for three nights guests could sample gourmet finger food from the area'...
by James Falcicchio
WINE FEATURELucien Albrecht Cremant d’Alsace Brut RoseDespite the long name, Lucien Albrecht Cremant d’Alsace Brut Rose happens to be quite the simple pleasure. This relatively inexpensive sparkling import from the lower Alsace region of France is a true delight. Reasonably priced at around $19.00 a bottle, you can’t afford not to enjoy it. It is available locally in area wine shops.In General, we have all heard of Champagne; some of us are familiar with the non-French sparklers, including Prosecco (Italian), cava (Spanish) and Sekt (German). Cremant is essentially a French sparkling wine which, like Champagne, undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle (producing its bubbles), but unlike Champagne, is not from that region of France. Alsace is a wine growing region located not f...
by Benjamin Deneke
Interview of the general director of the Boutari winery in SantoriniEconomical crisis in Greece, How does this affect the wine sales?It is sure that the economical crisis has affected the sales of wine.The boutari winery in Santorini used more than 1.100 tons of grapes in the decade of 1988 – 1998.The last ten years the winery is only using about 350 – 400 tons of grapes to produce around 250.000 bottles.That is a great degrease.Of course that has not only to do with the latest term of the economical crisis in Greece.When sales drop there are several factors that affect this kind of results.For example , 50% of the produced wines are exported to Europe and the United States.The crisis for the Greek wines was here even before the one we hear and see today.One major disadvantage for the ...
by Ron Kapon
The Mexican Mayan Riviera is, in short, a public relation dream of a name. One might think, when mulling over sexy, glitzy, romantic, star power, of the French or Italian Riviera, but here, in Mexico, is a formidable challenger that is all about the sand, sun and swimming as well as the necessary fourth "s," sex. First and foremost, let’s get the geography lesson out of the way; Quintana Roo is a state in Southeastern Mexico on the eastern part of the Yucatan Peninsula with a population of 1,135,000 million. The Caribbean Sea is to the east and the nation of Belize is to the south. If the name Quintana Roo is not familiar, look at some of the cities contained within the state; Cancun, Playa del Carmen and the island of Cozumel enhanced further by the Mayan Ruins at Tulum, Coba and Xcaret...
by Jennifer Gaydeski
The best part of my job running a wine bar, besides meeting some of the coolest people in Vegas, is tasting wines from all over the world. Every week I discover a new wine that has me shouting from the rooftops, “This is the new wine love of my life!” Then the next week my recent love affair is forgotten in the wake of another new wine that wins my affection. As of late, I find myself more and more falling into the arms of Spanish wines, whose seduction is subtle and echoes an old world charm. Spain has over 29 million acres of vines and is the third largest nation, in terms of wine production. Those 29 acres are planted with over 600 varieties of grapes. Wow! I could explore Spain for years, falling in love again and again, and still never try all the wines they have to offer. As you ...
by Jennifer Gaydeski
I am a shameless fan of Zinfandel! It all began with my twin sister, who considers herself the unofficial “Ambassador of Zin”. Anyone who knows her has heard her speak of the plight of Zinfandel, which she believes is an unappreciated grape, deserving of greater recognition among the general populace of wine drinkers. The truth is, Zinfandel vines, dating back to the 1800s, can be found in every grape growing region in California, but in spite of this fact, many wine lovers are discovering Zin for the first time.Zinfandel is a variety of red grape, which many consider native to California. However, several years ago DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in Italy. The ...
by Jennifer Gaydeski
I cradle a bottle of one of my favorite Australian Shiraz and begin to slowly pour. As the deep purple hue of this juicy wine swirls into the bottom of the glass, the guest seated at the wine bar in front of me hesitantly says, “I must admit I am a little offended that you are recommending a wine with a screw cap.” I continue to pour and then I gently push the glass towards the young woman and begin a conversation I have become accustomed to over recent years. I am honestly surprised that the debate over screw cap versus cork still rages on among a wide majority of wine drinkers. I agree that the ability to age a wine with a screw cap remains debatable, and perhaps only time will shed more light on this particular topic; however, considering that roughly 95% of wines purchased are inte...
by Jennifer Gaydeski
There are a lot of things in this world that I can live without, but dessert is not one of them! No meal is complete for me without a little taste of something sweet, or in some cases, a little sip. Don’t get me wrong. I can cut a swath through a chocolate cake that would put any sweet tooth like mine to shame, but my favorite ending to a fabulous meal is a good glass of Port, a Portuguese fortified wine from the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. The wine received its name, “Port,” in the late 17th century from the seaport city of Porto, where much of the product was brought to market or for export. The Douro Valley was established as a protected region, or appellation in 1756, which makes it the third oldest defined and protected wine region in the world. Generatio...
by Laura Ness
Grape Grandparents of MendocinoBy Laura NessCharlie Barra is one of the icons of Mendocino county grapegrowing. He’s been farming hundreds of acres up in Redwood Valley organically for 60 years, but says he didn’t know it for the first 40. It was just the way his Italian ancestors always farmed: naturally, on the hillsides, never on the flats, never near the river. That’s where you planted the other crops, like pears and hops, which were once the dominant plantings in the Redwood Valley, where grapes now rule. Hills, you see, were less prone to frost, and grapes can’t handle frost the way fruit trees and hops can. Mendocino’s agricultural bounty came to be as a result of what Glenn McGourty, Advisor, UC Davis Cooperative Extension, describes as a “Costco run” from China to Sa...
