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Wine Ebooks:
| | The Complete Grape Growers Guide. |  | | A Complete Guide For Growing Grapes. Converts Very Well At A Reasonable Price! Growing Grapes And Making Wine Is A Very Popular Topic Right Now.
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| | Fool-Proof Wine Values. | | | Learn How To Easily Find Wines Of $50 Quality For $10 Or Less. Impress Friends With Your Expanded Wine Knowledge. Eliminate Your Dependence On Wine Salespeople. And Take The Hassle Out Of Buying Wine.
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| | Making Wine From Home. | | | A Fun And Very Informative Book On Home Wine Making. The De Facto Standard For All Home Wine Enthusiasts With Recipes, Advice And Tricks.
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| [03/11/2008, 06:08] | Torbreck Run Rig Shiraz shows its class | |  By Campbell Mattinson
Publisher, The Wine Front
Torbreck’s top shiraz – the Run Rig Shiraz, priced at well over $200 per bottle – is probably Australia ’s most hedonistic wine. It leaps out of the bottle like a rattlesnake, all fanfare and bite. It is, always, dangerously drinkable. It is thick with flavour and accented by sweetness, its spicy, gravelly, smoky complexity ramping its class through the roof. There’s always been a question mark though: this tastes so bloody good the day it is released – what happens if you stick it in the cellar? Is it Australia ’s best early-drinking wine, or will it develop and evolve if given time? A tasting in the Barossa Valley recently of every vintage yet made of Torbreck Run Rig Shiraz (including the just-released 2005) threw a crust of clear answers. The full article is available to subscribers only. Click here for the full article. | | | |
| [04/12/2007, 19:44] | Wine rip off Britain | | How many times have you bought a wine based on a promotional price? Or bought multiple wines you didn’t really want because of a three for two type offer? We may be all falling for “artificial promotions” that are anything but a good deal. According to a fascinating article in The Guardian, brought to our attention by regular Bottletalker Wine-Scribbler, up to 80% of sales of some wine brands are generated through “half price” offers that are anything but genuine. There are some good quotes in the article from wine industry insiders confirming that what have long been speculated to be dubious “offers” are exactly that and give no real value to the wine drinker at all. Read more for the full story. | | | |
| [04/18/2008, 11:50] | Château Tonnelles, 2004, Fronsac, France | |  More banging on from me about how we should look to the independent merchant for the more interesting wines - small producers, interesting flavours, unknown grapes etc etc but such purchases do not have to be the idiosyncratic, often you just need something decent and mainstream but still retaining that small producer mentality...  Wine Tasting Note: Château Les Tonnelles, 2004, Fronsac, France.
Available from Bordeaux-Undiscovered [more] for £7.99 (normally £11.99).
Very French (for which read Bordeaux) in style and structure - the aroma has a lovely fruity edge that needs a little teasing (swirl/decant) to really reveal itself - don't forget that aroma offers so much to the overall enjoyment of wine - is that blackcurrant, blackberry, leaves, undergrowth?
The Bordeaux Undiscovered website states that this 'drinks well on it's own' but I disagree - it's a classic French food wine - unless you enjoy hearty tannins - and in that regard is highly recommended with a simple roasted game bird. In this case it is stuffed with herby sausage and served with a potato-parsley-garlic mash and a broad bean puree (the latter left over from the Pappardelle with Broad Beans and Rocket dish). The wine is 100% Merlot. Alcohol 13.5%.
Scribblings Rating - 90/100 [3.75 out of 5]
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| [04/18/2008, 16:27] | Diageo reveling in its Hillary moment | |  Beverage giant Diageo is enjoying the burst of free publicity that its Crown Royal whiskey got when the campaigning Hillary Clinton downed a shot of it in an Indiana bar.
Not one to miss an opportunity, Diageo is using the incident to promote one of its smaller brands, Jeremiah Weed Bourbon Liqueur by sending bottles of the sweet, 100-proof beverage ? reportedly a favorite of fighter pilots ? to the three major presidential campaigns.
While Crown Royal hails from Canada, Jeremiah Weed is at least made in the United States, in Connecticut. (So it's not really Bourbon ? ask any Kentuckian.) It's not likely to happen, but it's fun to speculate about what would happen if Hillary's beer-and-a-bump, just-folks strategy catches on. Nothing breaks the ice like a little Tequila followed by jello shots.... | | | |
| [05/15/2008, 18:59] | Postcard: Beijing street food | |  For those phobic of these eight legged creatures, New Zealand is the place to be.
It's thought that Scorpions evolved in one place (in the Northern Hemisphere) and then spread throughout the world (like Humans out of Africa), though they were too slow to reach Aotearoa.
Image credit: Thanks again to by dear sister for the photo. | | | |
| [05/04/2008, 01:20] | Japan's Coco Farm and Winery | | 
Compassion and California wine-making skills have combined to create a home for 90 mentally disabled "students" of all ages and to craft some surprisingly good wine. Coco Farm, founded in the 1950s, has been making wine since the 1980s, using mentally-challenged students to tend the vines, harvest the grapes, and perform a range of responsibilities from labeling to scraring crows away from the vines. In 1989, the winery brought in Sonoma wine-maker, Bruce Gutlove and the quality of the wine has been improving. So much, in fact, that Coco Winery's sparkling wine, "Novo," was served at the recent G-7 Summit of world leaders.
Coco Farm and Winery is located about one hour north of Tokyo. Because of its small production-just 150,000 to 180,000 bottles annually-Coco wines are not available in the United States. However, the winery welcomes visitors and has a tasting room and cafe.
(photo © istockphoto) See full article.
Related Entries:
Winery Goes Green - 28 June 2006 Australian Winery inSouth Africa - 22 February 2007 Big Winery Forces Little Winery Into New Label - 27 February 2007 Wollersheim Winery Ruby Nouveau - 06 November 2007 
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| [05/10/2008, 12:10] | Put A Cork In It? | |  Fewer sales reps are more paranoid these days than cork salespeople. They barrage you with emails damning all other types of closures. At trade shows they meet winemakers with frigid stares that have changed over from cork to something else.
The battle is fully engaged on what is the best closure for a wine bottle and as always, in the heat of battle there is often more confusion than fact. Much as a war correspondent sees through the smoke of conflict, writer George Taber has cut through all the brouhaha to offer us a clear look at the cork conflict in his book, To Cork or Not to Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science and The Battle for the Wine Bottle. Taber is also the author of Judgment of Paris, which is bound for the big Hollywood screen. The journalistic temperament that Taber brings to his book, a rarity in wine writing, should be no surprise as he is a twenty-one year veteran of Time Magazine.
The combat is about the dreaded TCA (2,4,6 trichloroanisole) that destroys anywhere (depending on whose giving the stats) from 3% to 15% or so of every bottle of wine sealed with a cork in the world. These are the so called “corked” bottles as wines spoiled by TCA have a distinct musty character that can range from the wine seeming just not quite right, to bottles that almost make you gag. What makes TCA the nightmare of winemakers it that most affected bottles are consumed by unsuspecting consumers that are unaware the the wines are actually spoiled, instead thinking that whatever the winery is just doesn’t make very good wine. This dramatic rate of failure combined with disastrous PR has turned many wineries away from natural cork to closures like screwcaps, crown caps and glass stoppers.
To Cork or Not to Cork is a must read for wine professionals and aficionados alike. Don’t expect to have the best closure revealed in the last chapter as Taber presents the whole story without judgment as you would expect from someone with his journalistic credentials.
As Taber points out, all closures currently in use have potential issues so the jury is still out and the closure of the future probably is not invented yet. My major issue with many cork fundamentalists is the constant reference to the tradition of cork and the romance of the ritual and sound of pulling a cork. Screw tradition, the argument should always be about wine quality not superficial issues like romance. What’s romantic about a corked bottle of $50 wine?
Perhaps in the end the solution will be different closures for different wines. After all, cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir age very differently and what is good for one may not be good for the other. Put a cork in it? The answer seems to be sometimes yes and sometimes no. Whatever happens in the future, the century old monopoly of the cork is over.
Technorati Tags: TCA, wine, corked wine | | WorldWine Tags: TCA, wine, corked wine, | | | |
| [05/16/2008, 15:30] | Wine & Spirits Hot Picks Next Week | |  Just a reminder that next Thursday (May 22) Wine & Spirits magazine is coming to town with their Hot Picks event, to be held from 7-10 pm in the chic MODAA gallery in Culver City. You can click on the logo to the left for more information and to purchase a ticket online.
For $75 you get a year's subscription to the magazine as well as the chance to taste some great wines selected for their excellent taste and great value--which is bound to appeal to a GWU$20 reader. These wine picks are highlighted in the June issue of Wine & Spirits, which features the 100 top values in wine and goes on sale the same day.
You will also get a chance to talk with some of LA's up-and-coming wine professionals, and mingle with local retailers (like Jill from domaine547, one of the event's partners). I'll be there, too, so if you recognize me come up and introduce yourself.
$5 of every ticket purchased goes to benefit Surfrider's efforts at water conservation and preservation.
Great wine, a worthy cause, and the inside track on some wallet-friendly options for your next shopping trip--all for $75. See you at the MODAA Gallery next Thursday night. | | | |
| [01/01/1970, 02:00] | Twisted Oak Wines Are Good. They Are For Sale. | | | For those of you who aren't aware, the blogger Jeff Stai (El Bloggo Torcido) also runs a winery. And the Twisted Oak wine is excellent. I've had a lot of their stuff at different wine events and the Twisted Philly event they setup for us, and it's all been good. Not ... | | | |
| [04/23/2007, 09:44] | Not ink, not alcoholic, no wood | | | Whilst in Bordeaux I took the time to speak to Thierry Manoncourt at Chateau Figeac to ask him about his life and how things have changed during his stewardship of the estate since the 1940s - he will be ninety in September this year. The interview will be podcast in the near future (in [...] | | | |
| [04/26/2008, 16:17] | Wine Tasting: Little Black Dress 2006 Pinot Grigio | |
Today, we're tasting another good wine to serve for all of those summer patio parties-the Little Black Dress Pinot Grigio. Little Black Dress Wines were introduced by Brown-Forman in 2006, the 80th anniversary of the Coco Chanel's little black dress. The collection includes a Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and Merlot. Although marketed toward women, these wines are versatile and enjoyable for any wine lover.
The Pinot Grigio is a straw-colored wine, made of 84 percent Pinot Grigio grapes, 10 percent Chardonnay, and just a hint of Muscat and Vigonier. The wine is light and crisp with hints of green apples, pears, and peaches. The Muscat lends a spicy touch and the Viognier a fruity floral note.
Little Black Dress wines are available throughout the United States and Canada. The Pinot Grigio retails for $9.99.
(photo courtesy of Little Black Dress Wines) See full article.
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The Wine and Salad Problem - 03 August 2006 Go Low on the Wine - 23 December 2006 Fav Cheap White Wines of 2006 - 26 December 2006 Wine & Cheese for a Cause - 04 May 2007 
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| [03/18/2008, 21:50] | Racking (my brain) | | | I’m trying to find out how the term “racking” originated. The French term for racking is “soutirage“, but in the sources I’ve looked at, I’ve gotten no indication of where or how this term came about. “The Rack”, of course, was a medieval torture device (thus, “racking my brain” translates as a form of torture for one’s brain in retrieving information from it—very applicable to me, I’m afraid), but racking wine isn’t tortuous. If anyone know the answer to this question, please let me know….. Anyway, here is racking, VISUALIZED. I think this a somewhat opaque term to someone who actually hasn’t done it, so when I was racking some tank-fermented sauvignon blanc the other days from it’s primary lees, I remembered to take my camera along. So the first photo was taken when I had mostly emptied the tank. Two things to take note of here: the tartrates lining mostly the back of the tank, and the color of the wine. Potassium bitartrate can be formed in a liquid of alcohol, water, potassium and tartaric acid, the main acid in grapes, grape juice and wine. It tends to form and fall out of solution in it’s solid, crystalline form usually when the solution is chilled. General winery practice when making white wine is to chill the wine at pretty low temperatures (as low or slightly lower, even, than 32 degrees F) to make the tartrates “drop out” of solution, thus preventing any cloudiness, flakes, or crystalline chunks from forming in the bottle. This tank has four squared sides, and only the back side is refrigerated, so the tartrates formed there mostly as it is the coldest area and also because the texture of the stainless steel encourages crystal formation. These tartrates are actually very hard and I will need to steam this tank quite a bit to “melt” the tartrates and clean the tank. Also, potassium bitartrate is what “cream of tartar” is made from—a tidbit for all of you baking fans out there. Now, regarding the color—it looks pretty brown, but that’s mostly because we are also seeing the color of the lees at the bottom of the tank. The wine is actually a nice, true light yellow—no browning and a very fresh, pretty color. 
The next photo shows the primary lees left on the bottom of the tank after I have taken the wine from the top. This stuff is goopy and thick. It looks like silly putty and acts like mud.
The last picture shows the wine that I have blended with the barrel-fermented portion in a second tank. See the difference in color?  | | | |
| [10/19/2007, 18:44] | Hey, NZ! Hold Everything. | |  I've often wondered why New Zealand was anointed/anointed itself as the land of Sauvignon Blanc. To be sure, NZ SB has been quite successful as an import to the US wine market (and certainly names like 'Monkey Bay' don't hurt its mass appeal to the garanimal-wine-loving crowd). However, I think this success has come at a price. Kiwi Blanc has overshadowed every other grape variety. And this is a very sad thing.
Think about it. When was the last time you sampled a New Zealand Riesling or Gewurztraminer? These grapes have found a very cozy home on the Islands way down under. In fact, while I find most New Zealand Sauvi Blanc, easy-to-enjoy, I also find it a tad bit uni-dimensional (see here for a great descriptor of NZ SB). I have discovered extraordinarily sublime Riesling and intoxicating (in the figurative sense of the word) Gewurz. Think I'm nuts. Take this little NZ non-SB challenge: Huia Gewurztraminer 2006 - A chewy, thick wine, which echos the Alsatian style but with a bit less earth Villa Maria Riesling 2005 - A remarkable feat of a wine. This Riesling stews together new world heft with teutonic crispness. Am I alone in thinking the OenoKiwis might want to diversify their white wine portfolio? 
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| [03/03/2007, 10:54] | Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 | |  I have been drinking quite a lot of 1996 Penfolds 407 recently and maybe that colours my impression of this wine, but I drank it young and loved it, and now I like it even better. An outstanding wine with plenty of years to go. I don’t taste wines blind generally and I don’t care to. I even read other people’s tasting notes before reviewing but I still manage to form my own opinion. I could give you a dozen reasons for not tasting blind and I am sure advocates of blind tasting could give me a dozen reasons why I should! Be that as it may I’ll stick to my guns for now. ‘That’s me in the corner.That’s me in the spotlight…I thought that I heard you laughing.’ I already know I am out of step with many on this wine but so be it.
Full red purple. Aromas of blackcurrant pastille, licorice, tobacco, dried herbs, mint and delicate spicy cedar vanilla oak. On the palate medium to full bodied with blackcurrant, tobacco, star anise, coffee and some gamey earthy flavours. Tight and compact with firm fine grained tannins and clean fresh acidity. Finishes dry and long with blackcurrant and tobacco flavours. A brilliant wine, one for the long haul, and one I am most certainly going to purchase for the cellar. | | | |
| [12/10/2007, 02:03] | A Taste of Argentina: Two Wines from Patagonia | | This was originally going to be one of those quick and dirty reviews. Two Argentinean wines, a snack provided by Chef Tim (that would be Tim Ellison, one of our favourite local sommeliers and co-founder of the BC Wine Appreciation Society), followed by a fast dash through the Cambie Liquor store to stock up on a few winter staples like Cognac and Champagne. Oh well, things change.
 Uncharacteristically for a Saturday, there was plenty of parking ? must be something to do with the snow. Vancouver + Snow = Mass Panic.
Tim and I do our usual three-kiss-on-the-cheek greeting ? that?s right cheek to right cheek, left to left, and right to right in case you?ve ever wondered. The beef he?s carving with Melissa Popp from Hills Foods smells wonderful and the Chimichurri Sauce looks even better. Both wines on offer are from Bodega del Fin del Mundo from Patagonia, Argentinean ? Southern most White and Southern most Red. Hmmm. White and Red. That tells me a lot, but what the heck.
Turns out our white is a 60/40 Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay blend. Surprisingly crisp with a pleasing length to the finish ? not huge but pleasing. Today, however, this wine seemed just a bit too citrus without food ? or maybe I?m just cantankerous from the snow. Still, at the price point of $12.95, this is one worth stocking for when you need a sipper with light nibblies. I?m already thinking summer sailing and it?s only December.
The red is 70/15/15 Merlot, Malbec, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Once again priced at $12.95, this is one good value. A hint of tobacco and a nice, round mouth feel. I was surprised I liked it as much as I did. And it went fabulously well with the beef ? although I had to check that particular pairing twice just to be sure. Tim and  Melissa Popp from Hills Foods were happy to provide a photo op for the results of their combined cooking talents.
Tasting Aftermath at the Computer
Arriving home, I thought it would be fun to find out  more about a winery located ? literally ? at the end of the world. One thing lead to another ? like good surfing usually does. I spent, let?s just say ?a while,? including a browse about through the Hills Foods site (who generously provided today?s beef) ? some great recipes and cool organic meat products. But here?s the summary about the wines.
Bodega del Fin del Mundo was founded in 1999 when the owners planted vines on a deserted plot of land in Patagonia, Argentina. First problem ? no water. From the pictures on the website, there?s not only no water, there isn?t much of anything here ? think bleak, windswept, and desolated. Twenty kilometers of irrigation canal with computerized pumping system later, there was water, but now each plant needed its own windbreak to protect it from the gales that swept across the land on a seemingly daily basis. These folks clearly have plenty of the stubborn gene.
In 2002, their first vinification produced 30,000 bottles and netted a silver medal for Malbec. The owners began constructing a new, contemporary winery so they could move out of the small warehouse they?d been using to date. By 2004 were winning gold and silver medals at the Brussels Wine Expo and the Mondial du Pinot Noir in Switzerland, and their list of medals gets longer every year.
Also interesting, Bodega del Fin del Mundo continues to consider itself an experimental vineyard and is researching the viability of grape varieties seldom associated with Argentina ? Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Aspirant Boushet, and Viognier.
And here?s a bonus, Tim even shared his recipe for his Chimichurri Sauce. Check it out. Thanks Tim!
TIM'S ARGENTINEAN CHIMICHURRI SAUCE
A light oil and vinegar sauce with chopped parsley, cilantro, and garlic. Use as a garnish on your favourite cut of grilled beef. Makes 1 cup and would be wicked with fish and chicken too.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil
1/4 cup red wine or sherry vinegar
1 med white onion, minced
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped
2 tbsp oregano, fresh, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp chili pepper flakes
1/4 tsp black pepper, coarse grind
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste
Method:
Whisk together oil and vinegar in non-reactive bowl.
Add the rest of the ingredients and combine thoroughly.
Season with salt to taste.
Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours to allow flavours to develop.
Serve as a garnish with all types of grilled meats and fish.
Will keep covered in the fridge for 2-3 days. | | | |
| [05/07/2008, 16:35] | Tea Time: The Queen Mary v. The Georgian | | | Jonathan Kauffman went to visit Pietown and eat Frito Pie, so I get to (gulp) hold down the food review fort. The topic: the organized and potentially delightful frivolity that is afternoon tea. A Tea Two-fer: Taking on the tradition of afternoon tea in this issue of the Seattle Weekly | | | |
| [04/14/2008, 11:26] | | | | i want to punch up the grappa i'm currently storing with maybe a fruit or rind infusion. have you any experience with either creating new infusions or tasted infused grappas before? let me know. | | | |
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A magnificent Malbec! It picked up a trophy at the inaugural Wines of Argentina Awards held in Mendoza in 2007, having wowed the international panel of judges - included among them wine expert Jancis Robinson, who gave it an impressive 17 out of 20. This mulberry and spice-flavoured red wine was made by Herve Fabre, who was originally involved in the Bordeaux wine trade, before he and his wife fell in love with Argentina and moved there to establish a boutique winery. Herve's experience in producing top quality wines shines through in this tremendously rich, silky-smooth wine. Ripe blackberry and bramble aromas merge seamlessly with spicy oak and vanilla flavours. Full bodied, yet seriously smooth and warming. This 89 Parker point wine is sure to survive for many years to come. Definitely a wine to enjoy with fine food ... try it with rare roast beef or a juicy steak.
Price: 11.99 GBP
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"Wonderfully succulent, rich berry fruit with hints of spice box." (Parker). A must-have wine from this superb estate, once provider of the second wine of Cos d'Estournel. "Blackberries ... herbs ... hints of spices." (Wine Spectator)
Price: 19.15 GBP
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Enjoy six bottles of "the world's finest dry white wine" (Scotland on Sunday)
Price: 36.99 GBP
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"Sauvignon Blanc continues to go from strength to strength" says Hapers wine magazine ...
Price: 36.99 GBP
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