Three vintners from California’s Sonoma County and Central Coast area took best of show at the South Florida Business Journal’s inaugural Fine American Wine Competition in Boca Raton.
Original post by Tim
A small Blenheim company of four is doing the seemingly impossible, turning wine waste into make-up, food and vitamins, and they are doing it without using any chemicals.
Original post by Tim
Gerry Gregg reckons his career in wine has been less a journey and more a big drink, with gulps rather than sips.
Original post by Tim
Nashik, Oct 29: Wine, be it the robust red, vintage white or the effervescent sparkling pink, has since time immemorial, celebrated good health and cheer. Known as the elixir of life, its refined quality and grace has the ability to turn the most ordinary cuisine into a connoisseurs delight!
Original post by Tim
There are 15 wines from Umbria that have been awarded the Label of excellence in the Slow Food
According to recent industry studies, women account for 60 percent of all U.S. wine consumers. Industry insider Christy Fredrick completed an in-depth study last year on women and wine, and concluded that 77 percent of women make all or nearly all of the major wine purchases for their home.
Original post by Tim
Professional golf came to Sonoma Wine Country this week. Specifically, it came to Sonoma Valley in the form of the Champions Tour and Charles Schwab Cup at the Sonoma Golf Club. Jim Thorpe won for the second year in a row. So did the wineries.
Based on what I saw of cars on the roads and from talking to a couple tasting room folks and owners, sales were way up at tasting rooms this week.
It was a bit of a perfect storm weekend for tasting rooms and a perfect example of why there may be no better asset at a winery than a well placed tasting room.
A lot of things came together for wine tasting rooms:
1. The Golf Tournament came to town bringing with it a fairly affluent, wine drinking crowd
2. Harvest is still happening, though just finishing up, which also brings folk to town
3. The weather was beautiful, attracting day trippers from around the Bay Area
The benefits of having a tasting room, particularly in a destination like Sonoma Valley, can barely be counted. Sale are all at full retail. The very existence of the tasting room is a form of ongoing advertising. The tasting room is the best source of wine club memberships
Turin - Indian wine expert Aman Sharma wasn′t even allowed a glass of water, during his overnight ordeal in a prison cell in the northern Italian city of Turin, a newspaper reported Monday. Sharma, a food and beverage buyer for Taj Hotels, Resorts …
Original post by Tim
The Napa Valley Vintners will donate $8.8 million to several charities at a ceremony to be held at Copia on November 3rd. Beneficiaries include non-profits focusing on affordable housing, healthcare and youth services.
The funds were raised by the Napa Valley Vinters
(From The Daily Reveille Sunday marked the first day in about 50 years that Baton Rouge retailers were able to sell liquor and wine on Sundays. The East Baton Rouge Parish Metropolitan Council voted Wednesday to amend the ordinance that has barred businesses from selling liquor and wine and decided to allow them to sell the previous contraband after 12:30 p.
Original post by Tim
I was under the Eiffel Tower drinking some of the best wine I had ever tasted. It had no brand name other than 12%. It was 1974 and I had picked up the jug in the Parisian version of a corner grocery, where the wine was sold by the level of alcohol, not a brand name. I know it didn’t cost very much because I basically had no money. That bottle was my ticket to lunch as my contribution to the myriad communal meals being shared by small groups of traveling hippies like me scattered on the broad green expanse surround the tower. It was great, you just showed up with some wine, bread, cheese or salami and joined into a group meal. I still remember those meals with a certain psychedelically enhanced sentimentality.
Recently I was sitting at the bar of a restaurant in Washington D.C. that I had just wandered into as it was close to my hotel, it was late and I was hungry. It turned out to be swankier than I expected and I, still wearing my standard issue Oregon attire, felt quite underdressed. First one gentleman, than another, joined me at the bar. Both were wearing dark suits, white shirts and red ties, which I now believe are the only items stocked by men’s shops in D.C.. I had ordered the excellent 2004 Giacosa Nebbiolo d’Alba, while the other ordered an expensive Super-Tuscan, which to save a few more oak trees, will remain nameless and as boring as almost that entire genre. The other ordered a bottle suggested to him with great Italian accented flair by the chef. At first we were all quiet, but by the second glasses of wine we had become friends and bottles were passed around. One was in the oil business (Cheney must have been busy that night) and the other was, not surprisingly, a lobbyist.We were all a clearly 50+ bunch, so these guys could have been sharing wines with me under the Eiffel Tower some 33 years ago. Not only had the wines we shared gone up a lot in price over the years, but also increased a lot in alcohol. That 12% wine I bought three decades ago had been the top-of-the-line jug wine, but that D.C. evening’s expense account driven meal did not bring a wine under 13.5% to our glasses. Needless to say we were best friends and exchanged cards and hugs as the evening came to a close. You can’t beat a reunion of old hippies.
The chef had recommended the 2001 Braida di Giacomo Bologna Barbera d’Asti ai Suma to my new best friend. This is a wine that combines eccentricity, exoticness, excess, and expensiveness into the perfect wine for Washington D.C. expense accounts. It’s a late-harvest, barrique-aged barbera that instead of a wine flavors, creates kind of a strange, sweet, raisiny grape stew in your mouth. Like Amarone, it may be a great combination with some delicious, stinky, runny cheeses, but the idea of matching this glob of wine with any kind of refined cooking is not very appetizing. Just to give you an idea of how over-the-top this wine is, Parker gave it 94 points, and you know what that means. I’m certainly not saying this is a terrible drink, but it certainly is nothing to match with a meal.
Those few Francs I paid for that simple French wine in 1973 brought me far more pleasure and luck than this big buck Barbera in 2007 as Nixon resigned while I was drinking that little French wine under the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, even with the increased price of the Bologna ai Suma, it brought no such luck in 2007.
Original post by Craig Camp
After a hectic harvest and as the last of autumn’s leaves fall along the shore of Cayuga, Keuka and Seneca Lakes, celebrate the holidays with award-winning wine and good friends with a trip to Upstate New York’s Finger Lakes Wine Country. ‘The halls are decked’ at the 90-plus wineries throughout the region, inviting visitors to eat, drink, shop for gifts and be merry while joining in the area’s …
Original post by Tim
After a hectic harvest and as the last of autumn’s leaves fall along the shore of Cayuga, Keuka and Seneca Lakes, celebrate the holidays with award-winning wine and good friends with a trip to Upstate New York’s Finger Lakes Wine Country. ‘The halls are decked’ at the 90-plus wineries throughout the region, inviting visitors to eat, drink, shop for gifts and be merry while joining in the area’s …
Original post by Tim
There are very few awards for that mean anything in this modern age we live in. There are so many different judging bodies and associations that most of them are marginalized before they even begin. I’ve lost my faith in 
most of them, and some, like the Oscars®, I gave up on decades ago. The Nobel prize, the Pulitzer, the Pritker prize for architecture — there are only a few that manage to cling to respectability in an age of meaningless popularity contests.
One more that I might be tempted to add to the list, and in my opinion the only one in the wine world worth mentioning, is the Tre Bicchieri awards which are given away each year by the Gambero Rosso. While I attend the tasting of most of these wines each year and don’t agree with all their picks, I’m pretty impressed with the level of quality and the selectivity of these awards. Each year they manage to sift through literally tens of thousands of wines and highlight some pretty tremendous ones. I’m sure these awards have their politics, but I’d use them as a guide for buying much more readily than any other set of wine awards that I’m aware of in the world.
Even among the most famous of wine authorities, there are few that equal the depth, the comprehensiveness, and the sheer exhaustive coverage of the Gambero Rosso. Often referred to as THE Italian Wine guide, the Gambero Rosso debuted in 1986 as an eight page newspaper insert. Within a few years of that first insert, it grew into the most respected and most complete guide to Italian wines in the world, and its trademark “uno, due, and tre bicchieri” (one, two, and three glasses) rating system for wines became Italy′s (and the world′s) gold standard for evaluating everything from Barolo to Zibibbo. The guide is now printed in English and German as well as Italian, and weighs in at roughly 900 pages and reviews about 14,000 wines produced in Italy each year.
The Tre Bicchieri designation was conferred on only 305 of those 14,000 wines this year (up from 282 last year). Unfortunately the news has only been released to Italy, so the press release hasn′t been translated into English yet, but you’ll get the gist of it, and you can see the list of wines, of course.
I’m very happy to see some of my favorites on the list again (Gravner, Giacosa, Feudi di San Gregorio, and Quintarelli, among others) Check out the list.
Thanks to Jack over at Fork & Bottle for tipping me off to the news.
Original post by Calwineries.com Blog
Lou Simon Wine & Liquors will begin a going-out-of-business sale next month to meet the Jan. 15 deadline when it must vacate under a “friendly″ agreement with Albany International Airport.
Original post by Tim
Brian Pekarcik, a Murrysville native, returned after four years in San Diego to take over Oct. 1 as executive chef at the Steelhead Brasserie and Wine Bar, the flagship restaurant of the Marriott Pittsburgh City Center Downtown.
Original post by Tim
Talk about coming full circle. Over 150 years ago, David Kraus’ great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Germany’s Mosel River Valley and settled on a farmstead near Sandusky. There, he planted acres of wine grapes. They thrived, thanks to the moderating effects of Lake Erie.
Original post by Tim
CARBONDALE - Local food and wine will be there for the tasting Thursday as the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association hosts a “Wine and Food Event″ at Blue Sky Vineyard.
Original post by Tim
PARIS — The label on the bottle of Chateau du Bois de la Garde offers advice for serving (perfect with game, grilled meat or cheese), gives the vintner’s credentials (fourth-generation wine grower) and describes the characteristics of the wine (delicate, with red fruit flavors).
Original post by Tim
A bottle of wine had been expected to go for about $150,000 Sunday, but, just hourse before the sale was to take place, the auction house decided it wasn′t quite ready to sell.
Original post by Tim
Peju just received Organic Certification for their 30 acre Rutherford Vineyard, the vineyard that produces the Peju flagship wine, the H.B. Reserve. Congratulations to Peju!
Groth Vineyards and Winery has launched a new level of wine tasting. The current tasting experience is 3 varietals, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon, for $10.
Beaulieu Vineyards is going big time with their George de Latour series of wines. The winery plans on investing $7 million to develop a winemaking facility for making the George de Latour wines. The winery is owned by one of the world’s biggest wine companies, Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines. I think the price of this wine might be going up.
Speaking of big wine companies, the Antinori Family has released its first wines from the winery they call Antica Napa Valley. The wines are a 2004 Cabernet and a 2006 Chardonnay. This winery is located up on Soda Canyon Road.
Using solar power makes sense for wineries. Winery buildings have lots of roof space or land and we know they have plenty of sunshine to grow those grapes. The latest Napa Valley winery to go solar is the Staglin winery in Rutherford. I wonder if the savings from energy costs will translate into a reduced price for their famous cult Cabernet.
Fall is in the air and now is a great time to visit the Napa Valley and Carneros. The leaves are just beginning to change color. This photo is one of my favorite places to visit. It is in the Carneros region on Los Amigos Road. It looks great now, but wait a couple of weeks.
Original post by joe
Winning an award in last year
Organisers of this year
The first-ever attempt at a climate neutral vineyard in France is underway in Bordeaux’s Medoc region, where winemaker Remi Lacombe plans to offset his own carbon emissions by investing in a carbon-reducing project elsewhere.
Original post by Tim
Welcome to a winery that not only understands their future audience, but also embraces it… The Biltmore.
I recently found it fascinating that another blogger took the time to gather opinions on whether or not children belong at a winery. (Remember, I’m a former director for the Androscoggin Girl Scout Day Camp in Sabattus, Maine… My […]
Original post by jo
Wine lovers frustrated by the Transportation Security Administration’s carry-on liquids restriction now have another alternative to flying home empty-handed or with wine-stained shirts in their checked luggage.
Original post by Tim
How about some chardonnay with those gourmet chocolates? The Frenchman’s Corner has expanded its offerings even more this fall. Now, in the back of its newly renovated kitchen shop, Jeffery Mitchell will sell wine, beer and a variety of cheeses in what he calls the Frenchman’s Cellar. Mitchell, 42, along with Frenchman’s Corner owner Marc Ast and local dignitaries cut a ribbon Friday to …
Original post by Tim
The rules of wine pairing are centuries old and etched in stone. They are the immovable laws that all wines must adhere to. Any deviation borders on blasphemy.
Original post by Tim
THE NIGHT market held at the showground on Friday has now established itself as one of the regular highlights of Wine Week, according to organisers.
Original post by Tim
Under Jess Jackson, Kendall-Jackson has grown from a small vineyard to one making 3.8 million cases yearly. When Jess Jackson coaxed his family into helping crush a load of grapes some 25 harvests ago, he had no clue he was about to create one of the nation’s largest wine empires.
Original post by Tim