Taking the Barone Fini Pinot Grigio #TasteChallenge
March 18, 2011
Everyone likes to share a bottle of wine with a few friends, but Twitter has taken this to a new level!
The Wine Twits have created a Taste Challenge involving the Italian Barone Fini Pinot Grigio and another leading Pinot Grigio that retails at twice the price.
Anyone may join producer Giovanni Bonmartini-Fini live on March 24, 2011 at 8PM EST to blind taste and to share preferences during a Twitter powered virtual tasting. It’s called #TasteChallenge, which is the Twitter hashtag you’ll use. Participants will need to purchase the Taste Challenge blind tasting kit consisting of two bottles, each wrapped in bags numbered 1 and 2 so you can’t tell each wine apart. You will also be able to print your own tasting mats and tasting materials to help you during your tasting party.
The idea of this whole thing is that Giovanni Bonmartini-Fini is extremely confident that you will choose his wine over the one which is twice the price.
This will be the first #TasteChallenge I have participated in, and I have to say I’m really looking forward to it! Click here to order your Taste Challenge Tasting Kit.
Posted in News | Tagged Italy, Pinot Grigio | 1 Comment //Stressing the Vines
March 16, 2011
Grape vines are stressed in several ways. Poor soil, lack of water, and pruning are among the most important.
So why treat the vines so badly? Why not give them everything they want?
Common sense would suggest that happy vines make lots of happy grapes which in turn will make lots of happy wine to sell.
Posted in Facts | Tagged Chateauneuf du Pape, Winemaking | Leave a comment //Monty Python’s Flying Circus – “Australian Table Wines”
March 16, 2011
Taken from the album Monty Python’s Previous Record, 1972
A lot of people in this country pooh-pooh Australian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Australian wines appeal not only to the Australian palate but also to the cognoscenti of Great Britain.
Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavoured Burgundy, whilst a good Sydney Syrup can rank with any of the world’s best sugary wines.
Château Blue, too, has won many prizes; not least for its taste, and its lingering afterburn.
Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favourably to a Welsh claret, whilst the Australian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1970 Coq du Rod Laver, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: eight bottles of this and you’re really finished. At the opening of the Sydney Bridge Club, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half an hour.
Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is ‘beware’. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.
Another good fighting wine is Melbourne Old-and-Yellow, which is particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat.
Quite the reverse is true of Château Chunder, which is an Appellation Contrôlée, specially grown for those keen on regurgitation; a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends.
Real emetic fans will also go for a Hobart Muddy, and a prize winning Cuivre Reserve Château Bottled Nuit San Wogga Wogga, which has a bouquet like an aborigine’s armpit.
Posted in Funny | Leave a comment //Chateau Pipeau, Saint Emilion Grand Cru 2008
March 15, 2011
Grapes
90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc – I’m kind taking an educated guess based on previous vintages, since they don’t currently have an updated tech sheet for the ‘08 on the Chateau Pipeau website. They should probably get on that.
Facts
The family-owned Château Pipeau wine estate was founded in 1929.
Château Pipeau is often viewed as a decent-priced entry into good Bordeaux. The wines vary in price and rating based on the vintage, but remember what I said in a previous article about vintages? Try not to worry too much about them, unless you are buying for long-term storage.
Posted in Reviews | Tagged Bordeaux, Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, France, Merlot, Saint Emilion | Leave a comment //Leasingham Cork Closures Experiment
March 14, 2011
Ok, so what are we looking at?
Well, what this photo is showing is 14 bottles of identical samples of Leasingham Estate 1999 Clare Valley Semillon, all cellared together for 10 years.
They range all the way from watery pale to a dark brown. The bottle on the left, perfect in color (and reportedly in taste), was closed with a Stelvin (screwcap) closure! The others have a variety of natural and processed cork or synthetic stoppers.
If this doesn’t blow your mind I don’t know what will!
Thousands of bottles were sealed with different closures, including natural and synthetic corks as well as one sample under screw cap. The bottled wines were analyzed over a 10 year period by sensory and analytical methods and photographed.
"It is well known that screw cap closures eliminate cork taint (TCA) and premature oxidization, but what this trial reveals is the fact that wine does mature/age in the bottle over time under screw cap. This is the most misunderstood aspect of the closure debate. Australians have been conducting both red and white wine screw cap trials for 20-30 years, so experience tells us this is indeed the case, but this is the first trial on such a grand scale to highlight this little-known fact” said the official report from Leasinghan.
(This article is a repost which was never transitioned from my previous blog)
Posted in News | Leave a comment //Premature Fermentation
March 14, 2011
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