Willow Crest “Estate Grown” Pinot Gris, Yakima Valley, Washington State.
July 18, 2012
Grapes
100% Pinot Gris
Facts
- It’s very rare that you’ll stumble across single-vineyard, “estate-grown” wines for under $15, but if you do, you should jump at the chance to pickup a bottle! The simple reason is that the more specific a wine gets (with its place of origin), the more expensive it usually gets. Not with Willow Crest though, as most of their wines completely annihilate the competition in the price-to-quality ratio game.
- Even though David J. Minick (owner of Willow Crest) has only been operating the winery since 1995, his family has been in the “grape business” since 1982. Truly believing in the mantra of the best wines being indeed “made in the vineyard,” Willow Crest only use estate-grown grapes, which carefully tended to and harvested by David himself.
- Pinot Gris has long-since outpaced Chardonnay as the most planted white wine in Oregon, and is currently the #3 white grape in Washington, after Riesling and Chardonnay.
2012 Highest Grossing Wine Brands (Over $20).
July 17, 2012The annual “Top 20 Wine Brands” report is always an interesting read, at least if you’re a wine nerd like me! :) Even if wine doesn’t consume your everyday existence, it’s still worth-while getting acquainted (if you aren’t already) with the movers-and-the-shakers within the top selling wine brands in the U.S.
Key Points from the Report:
(For some reason I always feel the need to read this list in the style of (now defunct) English TV show “Top of the Pops.” Click here if you have no clue what I’m talking about.)
- In at #1 is the only non-Californian brand in the top 20 list (over $20): Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, from Italy. In-case you didn’t already realize, Santa Margherita leads the pack by more than double the sales of its closet competitor: Sonoma Cutrer.
Can White Zinfandel Ever Be “Cool” Again?
July 17, 2012
It seems that we have a small “underground wine revolution” on our hands, ladies and gentlemen! A handful of wineries in California have taken up the challenge to take White Zinfandel out of the depths of wine-obscurity, and restore it to its former glory…actually…it never had glory in the first place…but I think you catch my drift…
Montevina in California’s Amador County is one of the wineries who has picked up the “pink gauntlet.” Winemaker Chris Leamy even makes the point of walking into his tasting room on a regular basis (when its full of visitors) and pouring himself a glass of his own white Zin.
“When they hear it’s the winemaker and it’s white Zin, you can track our sales going up. I think there’s still intense snobbery about rose. Americans as a whole are embarrassed to have something pink in their glass. It’s a shame.” says Leamy.
Turley Wine Cellars have also taking up the task of making pink wine cool again, after the recent announcement of their newly-released white Zinfandel.
“We felt there was no reason why white Zinfandel couldn’t be a serious wine,” Christina Turley told the San Francisco Chronicle, who last month reported on Turley’s efforts to make white Zin respectable. “Plus, we all love the idea of something with a good heart and a bad reputation.”
Posted in News | Tagged California, White Zinfandel | 3 Comments //"Trisha"/ How to Make a Wine Cork Portrait.
July 16, 2012
This is another excellent video by world renowned “cork artist” Scott Gunderson. “Trisha” is a portrait made of 3,621 used/recycled wine corks.
Click here for Scott’s Facebook Page.
“Trisha”/How to make a wine cork portrait. from Scott Gundersen on Vimeo.
Posted in News | Tagged Cork, cork mosiac, Corks, Scott Gunderson | Leave a comment //Top 20 Wine Tattoos: When a Love for Wine Goes Too Far!
July 15, 2012When I say “top 20 wine tattoos,” whereas some of these are awesome, most are just plain awful…but then again I’m not a “tattoo-guy.”
These are the best wine tattoos I could find from the far depths of the Information-Super-Highway. I didn’t include every tattoo I found, as there were at least a couple that even I would have a difficult time posting (i.e. I don’t want this turning into a pornographic wine website)!
Enjoy!
Indeed!
With a Petrus tattoo on one arm and a tribal tattoo on the other, this guy is a walking contradiction!
The Champagne with no name…
The awkward moment when this guy gets to be 75 years old, and his bright and juicy-looking grapes start to look like they’re affected by Botrytis (wine-geek joke).
Posted in Funny |
Tagged best wine tattoo, tattoo ideas, top wine tattoos, wine tattoo, wine tattoo ideas, wine tattoos |
4 Comments //
Rosemary and Clementine Roast Chicken Paired with Rendez-vous Chardonnay, Clarksburg, California.
July 13, 2012
I would like to point-out that this recipe made my house smell AMAZING! Of course, that wasn’t the best thing about the meal, but it’s always a pleasant byproduct!
I have to admit that I’m usually pretty lazy when it comes to roasting a whole chicken, and I’m sure I’m not the only one (I’m talking about you)! The chickens that enter my house, 99% of the time, are entering already roasted i.e. I buy them that way. I actually used to roast whole chicken a lot more when I first moved to this country, for the main reason that we didn’t have much cash (since I wasn’t “legally” allowed to work for the first 6 months). Whole chickens are extremely inexpensive (almost too inexpensive, in-fact), with the additional bonus being that you can at least get another meal’s worth of leftovers out of them. I think the only reason people don’t buy whole chickens as much as they probably should, is that they don’t feel comfortable carving it, either before or after it’s cooked.
Posted in Pairings | Tagged California, Chardonnay, Clarksburg, Rendez-vous, Rendez-vous Chardonnay, Rendez-vous wine, Rendez-vous winery | 2 Comments //
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