What Your New Year Wine Resolutions Should Be…
December 27, 2011
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Drink more bubbles. Self explanatory…
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Give Riesling a chance. It ain’t all as sweet as you think!
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Buy at least one bottle of wine each month from a grape, or region that you’re not familiar with. Open your mind!
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Do a little research on a wine before or after you drink it. I’m here to help!
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Buy from small, local, independent wine retailers. Will their prices be a few $’s more expensive? Maybe. Will you save yourself more money in the long-run, and have an overall more pleasant shopping experience? Definitely.
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If you notice someone putting White Zinfandel in their shopping cart, don’t judge them! Just, when they’re not looking, switch it out with a bottle of Provence Rose, and hide it under the rest of their groceries. By the time they notice, it’ll be too late…
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Teach more people the correct pronunciation of Meritage [Mare-it-tidge], and Moet [Moe-et]. Don’t be an arse about it, though!
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Invest in a decent set of wine glasses…and then hide them from house guests, small pets, and children….
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Sign up for the Wine Century Club (it’s free).
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Start a wine collection. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy!
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If you’re a relatively new wine drinker (i.e. less than 10 years), refrain from uttering the statement; “I hate <insert name of a wine grape>!” You don’t hate it, in-fact, you haven’t even began to understand it!
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Start to pay more attention to the serving temperatures of your wine. It makes a HUGE difference! If in doubt, use the 20 minute wine rule: Take your white wine out of the refrigerator 20 minutes before you are ready to serve it, and put your red wine in the refrigerator 20 minutes before you are ready to serve it.
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If you’re buying Californian, think outside of the “usual suspect regions”. Start with Mendocino and Santa Barbara, and go from there…
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Read this website more :)
This Week In Wine – 12/25/11
December 25, 2011
Gallo Winery Gets Russian River Valley AVA Expanded.
After years of regulatory wrangling, mega-producer E. & J. Gallo eventually emerged victorious in its quest to enlarge the Russian River Valley AVA, in a decision announced by the Alcohol and Tobacco Trade Bureau (TTB) on Nov. 16, 2011, effective Dec. 16.
As requested in the petition from Gallo Family Vineyards, the ruling expands the RRV AVA by 14,044 acres (about 23 square miles).
The AVA now covers parts of what most locals might consider Central/Southern Sonoma or the Petaluma Gap. Established in 1983, the RRV AVA was previously expanded by 30,200 acres in 2005, in response to another Gallo-backed petition.
Click here for the full article.
My Thoughts
Why? That’s what I want to know. Why has Gallo been petitioning to get the RRV AVA expanded? Was it because they truly believe that the adjacent 23 sq. miles share the exact same terrior as the existing land? Or could it just be that wines bearing a Russian River Valley appellation command a much higher price than a simple Sonoma AVA?
I’m not going to give you my truthful answer (for fear of waking up tomorrow with a horses head in my bed)…
‘Vine Talk’ Participants Complain of Not Being Paid
On the syndicated public television show “Vine Talk,” the actor Stanley Tucci leads a changing cast of chefs and celebrities in a convivial round of wine tasting. But off-camera, many of the show’s participants are battling over money still owed to them.
The show, produced by Jersey Wooly Productions and broadcast on stations nationwide since April, rented WNET’s new Lincoln Center studio to tape a first season last winter. But the New York City public broadcaster, which has already weathered a couple of tough financial years, has not been paid about $500,000, according to several people briefed on the matter who would not discuss it publicly.
Joe Locarro, the program’s director and an executive producer, said in a telephone interview that he was owed “in the six figures.” Mr. Marcus, he said, has “told me that he’s had a number of people that are interested in sponsoring the show and investing in the show. Why these people have not come to fruition I do not know.” He added that he had been working for six months to get the show’s crew paid.
Click here for the full article.
My Thoughts
<Cough>That show sucked….<cough>………. I’m sorry…I really must get that cough looked at!
Seriously though, I watched that show once and thought I was going to stab myself in the eye with a corkscrew.
How hard is it to make a decent wine TV show!?!?! If you caught my previous article on Wine on TV, you’ll know that I think it’s EXTREMELY HARD! The only half-decent wine TV show I’ve seen (at least in the past few years) was on BBC America with Oz Clarke and James May.
The one thing that the producers of this show might have wanted to consider was having a presenter who actually knew his/her subject, rather than an actor who is/was just trying to blind people with bullsh*t. No offence to the guy though; I loved him in A Devil Wears Prada!
Posted in News | Tagged New Zealand, Social Media, Social Media for Wineries, Vine Talk, Wine on Television | Leave a comment //iPad For Christmas? Give This A Try!
December 25, 2011 Posted in Funny | Tagged iPad | Leave a comment //Heart Smart “For Giving” Mount Veeder, Cabernet, 2008.
December 24, 2011
Wine: Heart Smart “For Giving” Mount Veeder Cabernet, 2008.
Grape: Cabernet
Place: Mount Veeder, Napa, California.
Price: $90 (available from www.HeartSmartwine.com)
Wine Connoisseur Dogs.
December 23, 2011
4 Wine Descriptors I Hate.
December 20, 2011
“Four? That’s a random number!” Why would he choose four!?!?”
Because I couldn’t think of a fifth one, ok!!! Give me a break!!! Truth be told, I could have probably included more, but what is about to follow are the four I hear the most….but first…a short prologue…
Working in a wine bar, I’m constantly approached by Servers with the same type of question: “Hey Kris…..I have this guy who’s looking for a red wine. He wants raspberry, but also a little plummy taste. Light on the oak, but heavy on the tannin. European, but fruit-forward. He also said he likes spice, but hates dry wine. What do you suggest?”
”He just told you all that?” I’ll enquire.
”Yes, why? What do you think he’ll like?” the Server will respond.
The truth of the matter is, people generally have no idea how to describe what they like. No idea at all! I’m not saying this to try and poke fun at the less wine-savvy. I have no idea how to describe what I like either, and I make a living out of this stuff!!!
Describing wines is possibly one of the hardest things imaginable in the world of wine. Everyone has very personal tastes, and describing those tastes to someone else and expecting them to interpret them into a wine you will enjoy, is an almost impossible task! With all of that being said, I’d like to highlight four wine descriptors I hate:
Nice.
Once upon a time, I had a wine rep that used “nice” as her description on EVERY wine she’d describe to me i.e. “…this wine is nice…”, or “…this is a nice one….” I always remember thinking “I should bloody hope so! Why would she show me a wine that wasn’t ‘nice’?”
In this respect, I think it was just her way of getting round that fact that she didn’t actually know her product, and therefore had very little else to rely on. “Nice” is just a lazy descriptor. Most wines are “nice”. Asking for “…a nice glass of wine…” achieves very little at all. I’ve had very few wines that didn’t at least contain the smallest element of “niceness”.
Dry.
Saying a wine is “dry” is about as vague as descriptors get. Different wines are dry to different people. Californian Chards are dry to some. What about Loire Valley Muscadet? Mosel Riesling? Chablis? New Zealand Sauv Blanc?
It’s not that dry can’t be used as a descriptor, it’s just the way it’s used. Most often, people will ask me for a wine that “…isn’t dry”. I know by now that they’re looking for a wine that “…is sweet”.
If this is a descriptor you wish to employ to describe the kind of wine you are looking for, try thinking about which wines you’ve tasted previously that you personally deem to be “dry” in style.
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