by Lisa Magnuson
In the 1970s the famous Antinori family took to bending the Chianti winemaking rules and created what has been dubbed the Super Tuscan. However, Tuscany is not the only wine region that the Antinori family decided to blend tradition with innovation. In 1998, the Antinori family moved beyond Tuscany and invested in Southern Italy’s up-and-coming region, Puglia (Apulia). Situated in the heel of Italy’s boot, Puglia has two major viticultural areas. The northern terrain above Brindisi and Taranto is hilly with a moderate temperature that produces mostly dry wines from native grapes such as Uva di Troia and Bombino Nero. Wines from this area tend to have good acidity, flavorful fruit, and aromatic bouquets. Salento, the southern peninsula of Puglia, has warm sea breezes and low hills. The ...
by Tom Lewis
Terroir is a uniquely French concept, meaning the combination of soil, altitude, aspect, rainfall and just about eveything which makes the local climate suitable or otherwise for growing vines. Indeed, the whole French system of wine classification is based on the concept of terroir - Pauillac and the Côte d'Or are places, not grape varieties.The New World, by contrast, tends to focus as much, if not more, on grape variety and for that reason, one tends to speak of Aussie Shiraz or Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. However, it was only a matter of time before more forward-thinking winemakers from the New World began to look more closely at the area where the grapes are grown and start to delineate growing areas more precisely, identifying those which produce better wines.Such a man is Rafael Urrej...
by Melinda Yee
* Have you ever wondered how wine professionals can smell and taste a wine and then name the aromas and flavors?* Why does anyone need to know the aromas and flavors in a wine anyway?* How can a person learn how to detect aromas and flavors in wine?These were definitely questions I had prior to my training, and I’m sure others have these questions too. I hope the tips I’ve given here will help those of you who want to learn more about how to pick aromas and flavors out of the wine.After going through the rigorous training to become a Certified Sommelier at the Professional Culinary Institute & Court of Master Sommeliers, I now realize and believe that everyone can learn to detect aromas and flavors in wine. However, it does take lots and lots of practice and repetition. Believe me, I w...
by Noble Collins
The most festive period of the year is upon us: Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas and New Year’s Day packed together within a few short weeks. Also, reluctant to give up the holiday atmosphere, we more and more stretch it out to include the conclusion of football season, right up to the Super Bowl. Then, another week or so and we have Valentine’s Day. The more intrepid among us make it through without a scratch, but most likely not without a stretch (in our waist size.)Around the world, in the richest and poorest places, folks battle the increasing cold and lengthening darkness with bright lights and their best food and drink. It is during this period when we are most often introduced to new tastes, flavors and especially libations. The emphasis is on gaiety and celebration. Four wine...
by Noble Collins
There are somewhere around two thousand different grape varieties in the world, some of which make really awful wine no matter how you treat them, but Enlightened Mankind has pretty much narrowed down the best ones and knows the secrets to making delicious quaffs from them. If you don’t particularly care for one, there are lots of others to try. If you are very lucky, someone will come along to offer you a glass of wine made from one of the lesser known varietals, and it will be magnificent. Winemakers, good ones, are as near to alchemists as we are ever likely to encounter. The winemaker determines the ultimate taste and effect the wine will have in a person’s experience. He or she uses the best ingredients, of course, but ultimately the process is as much an art as a science. Good w...
by Michael Pellegrino
A hundred years ago, New Jersey had its share of the largest and most respected breweries in the country. With Pabst, Rheingold, Krueger and Ballantine, New Jersey brewing was the seventh-largest industry in the state, generating $20 million a year by 1910. Ballantine was the No. 1 ale in the country. The beer story in New Jersey today is craft-brewing, but there is a clear bias against our State’s microbreweries. New Jersey’s laws place our five breweries at financial and marketing disadvantages as compared to our wineries. There is no legitimate basis for this bias, and the laws should be changed to even the playing field or perhaps even assist our local breweries. Jersey brewers went through a dark period that began with Prohibition in 1920. Almost all of New Jersey...
by David Boyer
There seems to still be no end in sight as to how often everyone in the wine press tells us how bad things are for wineries. And with that message repeating itself like Obama talking about health care, nearly everyone is writing about all the great deals out there. Some of it’s true and some of it is not but it mostly depends on where you have set your bar.Like me, you probably raise your bar as your palate experiences more wine and better wine. We tend to eventually discriminate against wine that is out of balance, for example, or grape varieties that we just don’t care for. The point is that the more you know about wine, the more selective you become, which raises your bar or creates your own personal benchmark. So many of the so-called “value wines” available are not necessarily...
by Adrienne Turner
What does Twitter have in common with wine?Twitter Taste Live. Yet another way to use Twitter. What better way to express your passion about wine than by taking part in a new twist on the traditional wine tasting party. Oenophiles from around the globe can now participate in tastings with either a couple of stokes of the keyboard or mobile device using their Twitter applications. It�s virtual and better than taking out your notebook and scratching out tasting notes. Sit back, relax, tweet and watch the magic of viral marketing take place. Retailers, wine distributors, wine bloggers and just regular old winos can now connect globally through the magic of technology.How does an on line wine tasting work? And how do you find one? Twitter Tate Live is the ground breaking format launched b...
by Marisa Dvari
“No!” the passionate Frenchman says, starting a heated discussion about the Poulsard grape among a group of vignerons in the opulent dining room of the two-Michelin-star restaurant Jean-Paul Jeunet. We are in the Jura region of France, a wildly beautiful and rugged expanse of land with well-trained vineyards, spotted cows, and sleek horses at every turn. Where the Wild Things Are could very well have been conceived in the Jura.Poulsard (also called Ploussard) is one of the three indigenous grapes in the Jura, and at the moment it dominates the conversation among the producers, who speak of it in the passionate tone familiar to moviegoers from the Miles character in Sideways. I am in Arbois, one of the more famous wine appellations here, to discover more about Jura and its unusual, sign...
by Kevin Lynch
Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel (1900–1983) wrote in his memoirs, “The decline of the apéritif may well be one of the most depressing phenomena of our time.” Taking anything written by an avowed surrealist and friend of Salvador Dalí seriously may be a stretch, but there is a nugget of truth in what the Spaniard observed.An apéritif taken at the onset of a hearty meal was, and to some still is, one of life’s more refreshing civilities. Enjoying an apéritif prior to a meal is the ideal time to get better acquainted with one’s dinner companions, to recount the news of the day, or just to blow off some steam. Beyond the refining qualities of a pre-meal beverage enjoyed as one peruses a menu and struggles to recall what goes in sauce gribiche, there are the numerous salutary benef...
