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If you?re interested in designing your own custom wine cellar there are a number of options available to you. The best news is that there are wine cellar designs for everyone from the avid do-it-yourselfer to the complete woodworking novice.
There are modular wine racks that are available in different grains and finishes, with the least expensive generally being a wood such as pine. Most modular wine rack dealers will offer other materials such as red cedar or finished wood as well. Of course you can always save some money and finish the wood yourself if you desire a particular type of finish or color for your wine cellar racks.
There are many wine racking companies that offer crown molding and skirting pieces so that you can easily combine different styles of wine cellar racking materials and types. This approach can yield some very unique custom wine cellar designs.
There are built in glass racks that are made to fit snugly within a rack system. A good place for one of these individual units would be above the table top piece mentioned above. This would add to the ambience as well as functionality of your custom modular wine racking system.
If you want something a little different than the traditional wood wine cellar racks, there are attractive metal trellis rack pieces that are very economical, yet stylish. These tend to look classier than the wood modular wine racking pieces, especially for placement in bar areas that will be viewed by visitors.
If you would like to add a table area to your wine cellar while increasing the storage capacity of your cellar at the same time, a wine bin table may be the best addition to your modular racking system. There are taller, wine tasting tables that hold just over 100 bottles or about 180 bottles of wine, and there are shorter wine rack tables that hold more than 200 wine bottles in case bins.
There are many online dealers and manufacturers of wine cellar racking pieces that also offer custom computer design services to help you achieve the exact wine cellar layout that you have in mine. With many of these professional services you can then have the plans sent to you and decide if you will build them yourself or have someone else build them for you.
With all of the wine cellar design options available to you, there are many ways to accomplish the perfect wine cellar design for you and your situation. There are many wine enthusiasts online communities and the like where you can find others interested in the same things that you are and maybe gain some other ideas about wine cellars and the design aspect of creating your own wine cellar.
Not far in African terms, but the journey from the Rhine to the Venetian and Sicilian winelands presents a huge change in wine varietals? and styles. It's surprisingly easy to access affordable imports of Italian labels that will add style? to your antipasti and pizzas, polenta? and risottos, panna? cotta and zuccotto. Importers Melgab International have an impressive list of labels, with retail prices ranging from R22 to R650 a bottle.
Having been advised by several colleagues that I missed out on a great feast of Italian specialities at Magica Roma that were matched to the imported white, pink and red wines, I can report on a few that will partner seasonal rustic Med feasts very well. Starting with a rosy sparkler from Veneto (R49), the Prosecco Raboso Sole? Novi is an easy-drinking dry?, fruity? aperitif? with alcohol? levels of just 11.5%. Delicate fish and seafood dishes are usually partnered by pinot grigio in Italy, a dry white food wine with mineral? notes, and the low-alcohol Santepietre (R49) is a good example.
Staying with products from the north, the 2005 Valpolicella Ripasso? Classico? (R80) is a dry red blend? of corvina, rondinella and a little molinara, a spicy, smooth? wine to complement meat?, poultry and some mature cheeses, or compare this with the Sicilian cultivar? nero? d'Avola, in the 2005 Chiaramonte, a dark, fruity, mouth-filling wine from fairly new producers down south.
There are super Tuscans and Barolos, chianti and merlot, sangiovese and marsalas, grappas and more on the list. Go to www.melgab.co.za for more info.
We have previously reviewed the entry level “Hard Yards” Shiraz from Sylvan Springs here on Winetastic and found it to be most agreeable. As you can imagine when a bottle of their premium Sylvan Springs Cyril’s Reserve Shiraz 2006 arrived unannounced, I was somewhat excited. It is fair to say that Sylvan Springs are currently doing a lot right at both the budget and super-premium level.
Showing a vibrant crimson hue, the aromas are currently subdued with a little vanilla oak, blackberry and cherry showing. Full flavoured but refined and impeccably balanced, the juicy Shiraz fruit glides across the palate and is well supported by spices and a hint of oak. The finish is very long, mouthwatering and leaves you wanting more. This is a Shiraz to put to sleep in the cellar for several years.
Straight after opening the aromas were a bit muted, however this is not to be unexpected from a recently bottled premium red. My reaction to the first sip was something along the lines of “wow, this is the best young red wine I have tasted this year”. After a couple of hours, the flavours became even more intense with loads of ripe blackberry fruit coming to the fore.
Score: 93/100 Price: $40 Closure: Stelvin Lux (Fancy Screwcap) Alcohol: 15% Other Opinions:Winorama Would I buy this wine? Yes, At $40 per bottle, I feel it does represent decent value for money. Squashedgrape have it for $35 if buying a case.
Our brains work in mysterious ways. Ever since I got my Fusebox wine blending kit from Crushpad Wine, all I think of when I think of the beautiful box of wine designed to create a custom blending experience is the notoriously sexual and metaphorical “The Who” song, Squeezebox. This, all told, is somewhat apt because if the Fusebox were not an inanimate object, I would want to make love to it.
I had the opportunity to join Indianapolis wine blogging pal Mark of winecanine.com and Renee, the doyenne of the Indianapolis food blogging scene from her outpost at Feed Me / Drink Me, along with a few other notables, including a wine distributor, on Saturday night. Couched in conviviality was the desire to put the Fusebox to work.
If you are interested in the Cliffs Notes version, I will simply say this—the Fusebox is incredibly well executed and an absolute smash for a party. At $120 bucks, it is well worth the money. In addition, the wine, six bottles of 375 ml blending varieties, is very, very good individually, let along as the sum of the parts. On top of that, the wine distributor in attendance wanted to distribute the Fusebox and Mark from winecanine.com, who works part-time at the best wine shop in Central Indiana, said the storeowner thought he could move an easy 150 units at the holidays. The Fusebox has my unequivocal Good Grape endorsement.
If that is not enough, Alder from Vinography is represented in the Fusebox with his Wine Aroma cards. It felt like a karmic match with the wine blogger representation. Though, as a sidebar, I will admit that I chuckled to myself at the end of the night, much drunken wine later, when I read “peeling willow bark” as a scent component on the wine aroma card from Alder. Ahem … note to Alder: stay away from your wife’s high-end, wacky-scented body lotion, my friend.
What transcends the Fusebox from the merely interesting to the compelling is both the organization and the quality of the wine. It is primarily comprised of six 375 ml bottles of blending wine including Cabernet Sauvignon (two bottles), Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc that top to bottom are of excellent quality.
The kit also contains a mystery wine for some palate testing and all of the accouterments necessary to blend to your heart’s content—graduated cylinder, pipettes (mini wine-thief’s) and some schwag like a corkscrew and some evaluation cards, etc.
As I noted, the thing that makes this kit sing is the quality of the wine and the fact that it works. With the ingenious recipe cards, you can custom blend your own wines adding a dash of this and a dash of that and it is a true aid in helping to understand how components add different qualities. We all know that Petite Verdot and Cab Franc are frequent blending partners, but if you have a bit of Cab and you add in the Petite Verdot and the Cab Franc it brings the whole picture together for your palate.
The other masterstroke of this kit is the recipe cards they include. They offer blending suggestions to mimic a 2002 Joseph Phelps Insignia, 1996 Lafite Rothschild, 2000 Chateau Margaux, and a 1997 Opus One, amongst other things.
Those at our party all took turns creating blends from the recipe cards and sharing. It’s vicariously thrilling to put a blend together and imagine for a moment that it may approximate a wine that retails for $2000 +
If I had to give one recommendation for the kit, it would be to include tasting notes for the marquee wines on the recipe cards so users of the kit could subsequently take some of their own notes on the created blend with a baseline. I kind of want a little more context to why my blend is supposed to equate to a very premiere wine, but, in the end, that is just a quibble.
Next time, I am going to buy a kit to do on my own blending, at home, as a self-study aid, you will want to, as well. The Fusebox is fantastic for a party, but probably equally as valuable, in a different light, as a way to hone your palate chops in a more intimate setting. In fact, I hope and fully expect Crushpad to change it up every year to keep customers coming back and trying different things.
Either way, using the Fusebox in a crowd or in your kitchen with your significant other, it’s a smash hit. Make sure to turn on “The Who” and croon with me, “Come on and tease me like you do, I’m so in love with you, Mama’s got a Fusebox …”
I had the opportunity to taste the 1994 Smith Woodhouse Colheita Tawny Port this week. What a nice way to usher in spring in the Midwest. The single harvest port is a lovely, translucent red amber color and a leisurely sniff yields hints of plums and cherries. A taste confirms those notes with a little bit of oak and walnuts. It's a rich, well-balance wine, perhaps a little on the sweet side.
A neighbor of mine just started working in a cheese store and we paired the port with a creamy, truffle brie. The richness in the cheese was perfect and cut the sweetness in the port. Tawny port is also a classic accompaniment to creme brulee.
The wine purveyor suggested serving it slightly chilled in the summer (a Portuguese tradition), but I haven't tried that yet.
The 1994 Smith Woodhouse Colheita Tawny Port is available throughout the United States and Canada. Suggested retail is $46. Aged port wine will keep for four-six weeks once opened.
For more information on Smith Woodhouse port wines, visit their Web site.
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Latest news reports suggest that drinking two glasses of wine a day can increase your risk of mouth cancer by up to 75 per cent. See, for example, Cancer drinking danger. Hardly a day goes by without one of these scientific horror stories. And if it's not a horror story then it's wine as a miraculous cure-all.
An order of Sardinian nuns is the first convent to practise organic? viticulture?? in Italy.
The Compagnia delle Figlie Evaristiane grows hardy indigenous varietals? including Cannonau, Monica and Vermentino on an inhospitable stretch of the west coast of Sardinia.
The community focuses its efforts on supporting youth from disadvantaged backgrounds.
'We like to think that our vines are like the vegetables in the backyard of the convent,' said Mother Superior Margherita Piludu, 'we've never needed chemical fertilizers or fungicides to grow them. We pursue the same philosophy in viticulture.'
There are those who cling to the 'romance' and 'tradition' of popping the cork prior to imbibing. Then there are those who think such 'romance' and 'tradition' are ridiculous if these totems potentially mean stinking, spoiled wine. Both camps have valid points. I'm a sentimental, shmoopy sucker for the romance involved in popping the cork. But then, If I've dropped 40 or 50 clams, and my just-popped bottle of wine smells like a box-full of soggy, old Boys Life magazines, I set up camp amongst the pro screw-cap crowd.
Must the wine lover chose between faulty corks and sterile Stelvins when it comes to bottle closure? Would that there were a closure, which could preserve in an aesthetically appealing manner. Thank the cosmos for Vino-Lock. This glass stopper is much prettier than a Stelvin and, of course, more reliable than cork oak bark cylinders.
Just a few weeks ago I took home the first glass-stopped wine to appear in the wine shop. I loved it. And the wine wasn't too bad either.
Cusumano IGT Sicily Merlot 2006 ($12) - A simple, exuberant Merlot made more appealing by its aesthetically cool glass stopper. This inky-purple wine offers scents of cherry jelly and baked strawberry. Its flavors a simply tangy fruit. Cusumano Merlot is nothing if not pleasant and eager to accompany pizza.
Nearly every day in San Francisco there is a farmers? market to check out, offering not only plenty to taste and buy, but sights, sounds and people-watching.
One of the advantages of living in a major wine producing country or area is the easy access to the vineyards, to the producers and the ability to keep 'in touch' with developments, check out the latest releases and watch the vintage conditions. Such writers over at Catavino (Spain) and Lenndevours (Long Island, America) have a distinct advantage over the likes of me in the UK.
Granted, the UK does have a wine industry (and I have a vineyard within walking distance of my home, that I have yet to visit!) but it doesn't really rank that highly in global terms. Blogging may be about finding a niche and English wine is certainly that, but generally I don't enjoy the wines that much.
Similar, I expect, to writing on another under-dog of the wine world, Sherry. As there is so much more to the world's most famous fortified wine than Bristol Cream, a delight to discover a blog specialising in the subject. If you have any interest in Sherry than a visit to Vinos de Jerez etc... is suggested.
Penned by Justin Roberts he describes Vinos De Jerez etc... as being
about as fashionable as sherry is at the moment"
about time this changed!
Recent posts have concentrated on comparing two wines of a similar style - two Pedro Ximénez and Tio Pepe vs La Ina for example. Lucky for us that Justin is based in Jerez de la Frontera, a better location for covering Sherry you couldn't hope to find!
96-100 points Parker: "This tiny (5 acres; 4,000 bottles produced) jewel is the ultimate vin de garage estate. A blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon from 46-year old vines and incredibly low yields of 18 hectoliters per hectare, the 2006 flirts with perfection. It possesses amazing power, precision, elegance, purity, richness, and just about anything else anyone could desire in a young Bordeaux. It will require 5-6 years of bottle age, and should evolve for three decades or more. Bravo!"
For an entry level wine, this is extremely delicious. Crystalline and pure, this smells of a sticky childhood afternoon (with mustard fruit and toffee apple). Vibrant, juicy and precise, this should carry a dental warning and come in a bigger bottle. . .
2002 Grosset Watervale Riesling ? A little bit shy on the nose, but some citrus and floral characters can be noted. Palate has racy acid but is beautifully balanced. Full and long. Lovely wine, drinking well now. 91/100
1989 Jeffrey Grosset Polish Hill Riesling ? Honey, toast and ginger on the nose. Palate is tired, with some prickly acid and rapidly fading intensity. 81/100
1995 Penfolds Yattarna Chradonnay ? Honey, butter, some caramel and pine aromas. Nice richness to the palate with good carry across the palate. 88/100
2003 Te Kairanga Reserve Pinot Noir ? Stalk, liquorice, raspberry and sour cherry. Interesting texture, with lots of rich fruit leading into a dry finish. Not really my preferred style. 86/100
1968 Lindemans Reserve Bin 3820 Auburn Burgundy Hunter Coonawarra Clare ? Sweet perfume, leather, earth and raspberry. Soft, delicate palate. A lovely, fully mature wine. 89/100
1996 Henschke Lenswood Abbotts Prayer Merlot ? Briary, ash, graphite and chocolate. Medium bodied, with medium length but some alcohol sticks out and disrupts the line of the wine. 85/100
2001 Domaine Bruno Clavelier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru La Combe d’Orveaux Vieilles Vignes ? Lovely perfumed nose, black fruits, some earth, cherry and floral notes. The acid on the palate stands out a bit, although the structure seems good otherwise. Short to medium length, probably just struggled among the bigger wines surrounding it tonight. 87/100
2001 Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz ? Sultana, smoke and earth. Palate is dry and spicy, with the acid sticking out over the fruit somewhat. Disappointing. 85/100
1996 Leasingham Cabernet Sauvignon Classic Clare - Mint, blackberry, vanilla and blackcurrant. Rich fruit to the palate, long and bright. Very young still. 88/100
2004 Henry of Pelham Riesling Icewine ? Nice nose of peach, apricot, citrus peel and mandarin. Palate is rich and very sweet. Quite simple, but enjoyable as long as the massive sweetness isn’t an issue for you. 89/100
NV Buller?s Rare Muscat ? Raisin, spice, tea leaves and some alcohol showing. Softly sweet on the palate, not as complex as previous bottles but still very nice. 90/100
It is the time of year for lists. It seems everyone has posted their choices of top or bottom notable events for 2007. In my never ending struggle to be different, and characteristically putting myself on the line, I offer no look back. Instead, I proffer these prognostications.
I have shared my thoughts on future advancements. There is the near certain likelihood that we will see ever more control over everything having to do with growing and making wine. The future is about dialing in character. As well I have glimpsed a future where VineBots revolutionize the vineyard. These are things to come in the long run, but what about in the near future? Here then is my list of what 2008 may offer us.
1) The Internet
This is pretty obvious to someone reading these words on the Internet, but there is more to it than you may think. There has been an ongoing battle behind the scenes regarding who can buy wine from where and have it shipped. Some, backed in large part by the Wine Distributors, want to limit these options. They point to underaged drinking and other red herrings to support their platform of fear. They are losing ground.
More and more wine will be sold over the Internet, and 2008 will be a year of critical mass. I don't mean to imply that more wine will be bought on-line than not, rather I am foretelling a huge rush towards selling on-line. Those already well entrenched will see record sales, those late to the game will be rushing to catch up, and new players will take the center stage (I am even thinking of entering the arena).
Look for big changes at the local level. 2008 may well be the year it becomes common to order your wine on-line from your local store, who will then deliver it for free. As with all Internet businesses it is hard to compete on cost, so it is always better to compete on service.
2) Bye Bye Big Fruit Bombs
Watch for the 2008 harvest to be one where people start talking about terroir and character, and get away from the highly alcoholic wines that have dominated the market for the last few years. There has been a huge amount of press decrying the amount of alcohol in wines, and at least some winemakers are likely to react to the changing sentiment.
Europe is even more likely to market their wines to the US as being food friendly, highly individual wines that emphasize where they were produced.
For the record, I love huge alcoholic, intensely fruity... Zinfandels. I don't look for the same traits in my Cabernet Sauvignon.
3) Baby Steps
The wine vine's genome has been unlocked. While the lay press in particular has been writing about the amazing, and somewhat improbable potential of this, I think most of that potential is still a long way off. The human genome was mapped in 2003, and the world has not dramatically changed, yet.
What we will see this year are the first practical applications being announced. Even these will almost certainly still be at the research stage by the end of the year, but news will be made. Look for disease resistance to be a top priority.
4) The Year of the Container.. or at least the closure.
There is a quiet revolution about to hit our shores. Heavy, expensive, and fragile glass bottles will no longer be the only option for wine lovers. Already we have seen alternative packaging popping up for lesser quality wines, but just as with the screw top, a top producer will take the plunge and change the way we look at packaging.
Speaking of screw tops, they are no longer the only game in town. Nifty new players are starting to make inroads. My favorites of these are the glass enclosure. Sterile, easy to remove and even easier to recycle, there is a lot to be said for them.
And speaking of recycling...
5) Green, Greener, and Greenest
I am hardly going out on a limb to point out that environmental concerns are dramatically changing the market. Organic and Biodynamic are going to be big buzzwords this year.
Let me stick my neck out here and just say to watch out for these terms. Taking care of the land and paying attention to sustainability are important. Ignoring the technical advances of the last 100 years and burying cows heads at the full moon are not as important.
If you like the wine, then by all means support their efforts, but don't fall for hype, and certainly don't settle for less out of green guilt.
Carbon footprint is a term you will hear more in 2008, and one of my favorite ways for a winery to do this (besides geothermal cooling/heating , which only I seem to know about) is to start selling their wines in plastic bottles. Plastic is lighter, cost less to ship, uses less fossil fuels to ship, and it doesn't break as easily.
----
And there you have it. My list may be half as many items as most lists these days, but there is more than enough there for you to ruminate over for the year to come. As always I welcome comments, criticism, and above all, investors that want to back my harebrained schemes.
99-100 Parker: "Domaine de Pegau?s magical 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee da Capo is a magnificent offering. Tipping the scales at 16.1% alcohol, it boasts a blockbuster nose of dry vintage port intermixed with pepper, herbes de Provence, and roasted meats. Frightfully concentrated with layers of glycerin and fruit, it should prove to be one of the appellation?s greatest classics. More backward than either the 1998 or 2000 Capos, it is an enormously endowed, hugely concentrated, exhilarating effort that will last for three decades or more. It is a strong candidate for the ?wine of the vintage.? Anticipated maturity: 2010-2035+. When I asked Laurence how she would describe this beauty, she said, ?It consists of 80% of a great vintage of Chateauneuf du Pape, 20% a vintage port, and the rest some Syrah and other things we throw in for complexity.?
This was the third masterclass I attended at this event.
The five wines were served blind, with the only information provided that they were Shiraz and each was from a different region. Wines were revealed at the end of the tasting.
Wirra Wirra Woodhenge Shiraz 2004 Crimson colour. Perfumed with violets, and rich chocolate and
Tecnorati
We have previously reviewed the entry level 
Must the wine lover chose between faulty corks and sterile 
