Terroir Defined.
January 18, 2012
I always like to get the pronunciation of a word out of the way before we move on with the rest of the article: Terroir [ter-whah]
Very loosely translated from French (as no-one can agree on an exact definition, and there is no English equivalent), terroir means "a sense of place". It’s applied in the “wine world” to collectively reference the weather, the soil, sunlight hours, the slope of the hill where vines are planted, the macro climate of the region as a whole, right down to the meso-climate of the row of grapes and their individual canopies. Essentially, everything environmentally that affects a wine.
Posted in Facts | Tagged Terroir, terroir definiton, what is terroir | Leave a comment //Life Sentence for Chinese Smuggler of Bordeaux Wines
January 18, 2012
ShanghaiDaily.com has reported that a wine smuggler named Sun Xitai, has been jailed for life for illegally bringing over 70,000 bottles worth 45 million yuan (US$ 7.128 million) to China’s mainland.
This has been China’s biggest wine smuggling case. Despite being previously convicted in 2002 when he was sentenced to 1 year in prison and 1 year’s reprieve in the city of Tianjin, Sun Xitai continued his smuggling
Posted in News | Tagged China | Leave a comment //Banfi Collectors Club Wine Dinner – Jacksonville TPC Sawgrass
January 17, 2012
Banfi Collector’s Club Wine Dinner
Tuesday, January 24th
6:30 – 9:00 PM
$100
Experience a delicious multi-course dinner by Chef William Murphy. Each course will be perfectly paired with a Banfi wine selection. Raise your glass and make your reservation by contacting Jamie Fowler at 904.543.5105.
Banfi Collectors Club Wine Dinner – Jacksonville TPC Sawgrass
Posted in Events | Tagged Banfi, Italy, TPC Sawgrass, Tuscany | Leave a comment //Spicy Crab Cakes with Mango Puree Paired with Willamette Valley Vineyards Riesling.
January 17, 2012
Yesterday, when I mentioned to the Mrs. that I was going to make crab cakes for dinner, the first words out of her mouth were “Make them like my Mom makes them! They’re the BEST!!!”
It’s probably worth pointing out that the main 2 tricks behind how “Mom makes them” is to use zero bread filling, and to shape them roughly the size of baseballs. Delicious, no doubt; but if she were the chef in a restaurant, either she would have to charge $50 an entrée (due to the lack of filler) for her delicious crab cakes, or she would bankrupt the place within a week!
Since Mom was out of town on vacation, and I didn’t feel like calling her purely to get my hands on her “top secret” crab cake recipe, I found this recipe for Spicy Crab Cakes with Mango Puree to be a good compromise.
Seems legit…
January 17, 2012
Willamette Valley Vineyards Riesling, Willamette Valley, Oregon, 2009.
January 16, 2012
Grape
100% Riesling
Historical references to the Riesling grape can be traced back to Germany in the 15th century.
Facts
- I’ve been a fan of Willamette Valley Vineyards (“WVV” for the cool kids) for quite a while now. Yes, they’re certainly one of the largest Oregon producers (70,400 cases in 2010), but I feel WVV maintain a consistently favorable quality to price ratio. An attribute which I personally note is lacking in a number of Oregon wineries…
- Jim Bernau purchased the vineyards for WVV back in 1983. The land originally was originally home to a plum orchard and blackberry vines, and so he planted to Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. In the beginning, since he didn’t have irrigation built into the vineyard, Jim watered all the vines by hand (with the help of a few thousand feet of hose)!
← Older posts Newer posts →
