by Marc Hinton
It has come to my attention how much wine styles have affected wine tasting by professionals and how little we (wine tasting reviewers) realize that consumers need just the facts. It became evident during a conversation I had recently with a fellow wine tasting colleague. They were second-guessing their own qualifications while reviewing a wine of extremely high caliber that had been produced in a style that this particular producer had not embraced in the past. The idea for this episode of "I Don’t Buy That" presented itself when we were comparing notes on some wines we both had recently reviewed. There were two new wines from the same producer with a considerable price difference. I had given a better score on a wine that was half the price from a high profile producer that had rece...
by Marisa Dvari
Are you curious about what wine to order with your cheesecake? Intimidated by five-hundred page wine list at a top restaurant? Downright scared when the sommelier comes charging toward your table? Relax. Authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have created a resource that helps even the ‘average Joe or Jane’ understand the principles of wine and food pairing. They take the conventional, canned, old-school advice of “red wine with meat, white wine with fish” to an entirely new level, based on insights learned from their previous books on cuisine, as well as interviews with America’s top, cutting-edge sommeliers. In many ways, the format of What to Drink with What You Eat resembles a substantial wine/food pairing encyclopedia specifically designed to be quickly skimm...
by Ron Kapon
A romantic past- An exciting present- A golden future. Grape cultivation first appeared in the Black Sea area around 8,000 years ago. From there it spread south-eastwards to Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt, and then across the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy. Cypriot Archaeologist Dr.Vassos Karageorghis stated- “the archaeological evidence permits us to say that the cultivation of the grape vine started in Cyprus some time in the second millennium BC”. When the Greeks settled in Cyprus around 1200 BC, it is likely they found wine already there. Thus, it is likely that there has been a wine industry in Cyprus continuously longer than anywhere else in the world. Legend has it that the first mortal to be taught to make wine was Ikarios, whose teacher was Dionysus, the God of wine. Homer a...
by Richard Manton
Move over media room, adults are seeking their own space and one of the hottest trends in upscale housing today is the addition of wine storage in the form of closets, rooms or wine cellars. This coincides with Americans growing fondness and appreciation of the whole wine experience. Wine consumption has been increasing in the United States 2- 5% per year for the past decade and according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) the United States will overtake France in wine consumption in three years. Yes, in a few years American consumption will be approaching four billion bottles per year. As Americans become more aware of wine, its’ health benefits, sophistication and complexity they are also experimenting with more varieties. More people are collecting wine as...
by Marc Hinton
The biggest and best wine Expo in the United States has now come and passed for this year and Enobytes was present. Our East Coast Tasting Judge attended and his observances were recorded by an interview that consisted of questions prepared by an envious West Coast Tasting Judge and the answers may or may not have been altered to protect the innocent and down play the debauchery. J Mac, our East Coast Bureau representative attended the function that Enobytes was so graciously invited to by Ed Hurley and the wonderful folks at Resource Plus. Arriving at the Expo via the “T “, our tasting judge chose the wisest method of transportation available. A decision supported by all involved and recommended for anyone who attends a wine tasting event where the option of public transportation i...
by Pamela Heiligenthal
I don’t know if you have had the experience of having to return some wine to your local supermarket lately but it seems to fall into two categories. (1) They have the “Wine? You’re trying to return an opened bottle of wine?” I usually reply “Yes, it was corked; so I would like a replacement bottle”. They usually retort with “Of course it was corked; I can see the cork has been pulled out, anyway it’s against the law to give refunds on alcoholic beverages”. If you are lucky you might get the other response (2) “I don’t really know anything about wine; I’m going to have to get a manager”. When the manager arrives they most often take scenario #1 as their position. Now you are back to square one, let’s try this again folks. If the store is lucky enough to have a w...
by Jennifer Rosen
“Cody, honey, you want your sandwich now, or a cookie? Or how about walking up the aisle again? It’s time to stop screaming now, Cody, OK?” The frazzled mom in the row behind me pleads with her toddler, offering choice after choice. Cody, exhausted to a state of mania after hours of transatlantic flight, would clearly benefit from having his choices limited to, “Either you go to sleep this minute or the other passengers will kill you.” I know how Cody feels. I get the same way when confronted by a giant wine list. Although I seldom scream and throw food, still, as it thumps down in front of me, my heart sinks along with the table. Thirty pages of wines I can’t pronounce, fathom or afford, and that’s just the Italian section. If I find this daunting, what’s it ...
by Jennifer Rosen
We're going to veer off the wine path for a moment to address a phenomenon known as Rhum. The stuff has been showing up at my door a lot lately, equipped, like Barbie, with a host of cool accessories: flasks of pure-cane syrup, lime-squeezing gadgets, odd shaped glasses. It comes in the sort of exotic bottles that clog an industrial packing line, wrapped in raffia or leather and stoppered with glass or cork. It practically screams "Important & Artisanal!" But beyond the art and the H, is Rhum any different from plain old rum? To find out, I set off on a research mission armed only with hot butter, a pair of coconut shells and a thousand tiny parasols. The story starts with the sugar cane plant, native to Papua New Guinea. A restless vegetable, it managed to work its way through Asi...
by Jennifer Rosen
You want to be a better skier. You notice that Olympic-level skiers tend to get knee injuries. So, you grab a sledgehammer and pulverize your patella. Does that sound stupid? No stupider than some of the logic surrounding wine. Take, for instance, the “green harvest.” This is a yearly spring event where vineyards lop off up to thirty percent of their crop and leave it on the ground to rot. Why? Well, as any winemaker will tell you, lower yields make better wine. Grapevines are about the only agricultural product that’s routinely tortured. While peas and corn grow lush and leafy-green, grapes are kept miserable. The idea goes way back. Being slightly less necessary than food, grapevines were historically planted in hostile areas where nothing else would gr...
by Jennifer Rosen
You think your life is complicated? Then step, for a moment, into the shoes of Vladimir Putin. You’re running a country of alcoholics. The Russian people drink over four billion bottles of vodka a year - enough to fill a cargo train stretching from Moscow to Yakutsk. To combat this problem, you figure if you raise taxes on booze, not only will your people drink less, but you can use the added revenue to fund anti-binging programs. But something weird happens. Your official distilleries are working at only thirty percent capacity, yet you hear whispers about a mysterious “third shift,” i.e., morning and afternoon for the state and night for themselves. After all, a producer nets only about two rubles from a 120-ruble bottle o...
