Wine Blogs in English
September 12, 2008
Vino Barcelona Spain Come of Age
I suppose it's finally official. Spain is no longer trendy; it's mainstream. It took tennis sensation Raphael Nadal, Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre and, more improbably, Woody Allen this summer to put the land of writers like Cervantes and galleries like Bilbao fully on the map for suburban North America.
Suddenly even populist movie critics such as Roger Ebert are drooling over the setting, not just the sexy stars, of Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. "The city is magnificent," the famous thumb recently typed. Certainly the regional Catalan government, which partly, and controversially, funded Allen's hit movie, must be muy satisfecho with the investment.
Source: Avenue Vine
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
September 5, 2008
Agave Leaves a Mark On Brown-Forman
Brown-Forman experienced the same changing trends as other spirits companies in the recent period, namely a worsening economy and shift to the off-trade, but one thing was notably different: agave. A combination of bad weather and questionable farming practices left Brown-Forman short on the agave fruit that is vital in producing tequila in the first quarter.
CFO Don Berg said the company understood the volatility of an agricultural product when it acquired Casa Herradura. However, Brown-Forman experienced an abnormal loss rate of 25% in the quarter which is not entirely unique to the company. The recent agave glut has driven prices down. As a result, many farmers are leaving fields untended and instead producing corn which is in high demand.
Source: Avenue Vine
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
The Theft of a Noun
I suppose there is probably no possibility that the term "Port" will be removed from the list of placenames that the U.S. and he European Union have agreed will not be used on products originating from the States. What a...
Source: Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
Tempier thrashes Ott in war of the rosés
Domaine Tempier, venerable rose from Bandol, emerged victorious against arch rival from Provence, Domaines Ott, in a war of the rosés on the official Dr. Vino Deck this past weekend. First up was the Ott (Chateau de Selles bottling), with its sleek and stylish bottle that vaguely resembles a pink bowling pin, boasting a [...]
Source: Dr. Vino's wine blog
Categories: Wine Blogs in English
Francis Ford Coppola 2005 Diamond Zinfandel
[...a bottle of wine and thou] If you like Red Zinfandels, this really is an excellent, highly drinkable iteration. In fact, if you’re trying to seduce someone over to Red Zins, this would be a great introductory bottle.
Source: Gourmets of Wine
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
Temptation Zinfandel 2005
[Box Wines] If you favor big Zins, Temptation Zinfandel 2005 might punch your ticket. It has a moderately strong berry aroma, and a warm, fruity flavor with black cherry and chocolate notes.
Source: Gourmets of Wine
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
Banfi denies journalist’s accusation
The Mariani family, owner of Banfi, issued the following statement yesterday in reponse to a report published by journalist Cecilia Marzotti in La Nazione on Wednesday, September 3. The September 3, 2008 report from an Italian journalist is an undocumented accusation that any Brunello wine might contain grapes other than Sangiovese. The Siena prosecutor’s office has not [...]
Source: Vino Wire
Categories: Wine Blogs in English
C tes du Rh ne: The modern side to the French wine
C tes du Rh ne: The modern side to the French wine industry (International Herald Tribune) Few wines can match C tes du Rh ne in exemplifying the myriad changes that have transformed the French wine industry in the last 20 years.
Source: Wine Directory News
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
Cru Images - Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz
Grant Burge Wines
Source: The Cru
Categories: Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
It don’t get more natural than this
Above: Patrizia and Dora of Sanguineto, producers of a natural, traditional-style Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. I’m posting today from Bolgheri, where I’m visiting a few wineries. I can’t get online but for a minute: no wifi or other connection, just a shared computer at the hotel’s front desk. But I wanted to share these pics snapped [...]
Source: Do Bianchi
Categories: Food Blogs in English, Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
Family Management & Anger Values
This blog seems to have been zigzagging on and off some trail. Not sure if it is wine or Italy, but for sure it is a glimpse inside the head of yours truly. Nothing is really bugging me lately, the usual issues of work, aging, family and civility, the same concerns we all might be facing one time or another. My intern has been ranting, but that is her way; youth has so many expectations of easy delivery and then they find out that they are beholden to the same powers of gravity and time as the rest of us. The wine business is plodding ahead; even in slow economic times there is always an opportunity to make something happen. I seem to be getting myself out on ledge from time to time, but like I recently read, if you don’t go out on a limb how do you expect to pick the fruit? So I ask for forgiveness if I can’t get permission; 'e la nave va'.
All these families, native born and foreign, assemble their fragile little kin and go about putting their lives in order, one step at a time. And it is through time that we find ourselves shifting and being tested by some of the adjustments. Humans seem to naturally resist change, whether you are Italian or American. Both countries are being faced with huge transformative issues that must be decided upon.
Tastes vary. The Italian salesperson of 30 years ago was faced with introducing Brolio and Bolla and Ruffino. Twenty years ago it was Santa Margherita and Brunello. Now it is Amphora wine from Friuli, resuscitated reds and whites from Campania, fruit bombs from Puglia and the Veneto, and extracted and alcohol driven big reds from Piemonte, Tuscany and Sicily. You ask for permission and hope like hell you don’t have to repeat too many mea culpas. But even if you fall, you must climb back up and move on up the hill.
And when the fashions advance so must this family of wine. In any event, looking back will always make it seem strange from another era; one wonders what made that wine or that clothing so darn attractive. And then one goes right on looking for the next pretty shiny thing.
Along the trail some of us stop and look back on a time that appears to be more desirable than what awaits us in the future. But how many babies have returned to the womb? In this Annie get your gun era, looking back at an age will always be colored by the lenses of hindsight. Don’t try backing the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria into the Old World.
And if we move forward, will there be mistakes made? Without a doubt. Just like those who came before us made. Sweet fizzy white wine from the Veneto seemed like a good idea, just like staying out all night with your girlfriend did. But it passed, and most of us moved beyond it. Every generation likes to think they discovered sex or red wine. “Those who forget history…connect the dots.”
And like those who forgot history, have they also have conveniently misplaced their better judgment about the sanctity of life? Is this reverence just something to direct towards the unborn? Our children, of all ages were not brought into this world to kill and die. When a society truly reveres life then they will value families. Managing their anger might lead towards a world in which we don’t feel compelled to send our babies across the world to do our misdirected bidding, in this time or 40 years ago. To value that unborn soul only to send one’s son or daughter to the gates of hell is something I cannot fathom. It’s a horrific trend in the time I have spent on earth. My Italian friends ask me what it is we hope to do with these dissonant concepts. I point them to their history and remind them they have not been untouched by the same waves of inexplicable behavior in a supposed civilized society asking neither for permission nor forgiveness.
And the torch is passed to the next generation and it begins all over again. Learn to swim, learn to drive, learn to drink, learn to love, learn to forget. And round and round and round we go.
A Republican and a Democrat were arguing about the American flag waving in the wind. The Republican said: "The flag moves." The Democrat said: "The wind moves." Back and forth they argued. Coming upon a giant duck, he said, "Partisans! It is not the flag that moves. It is not the wind that moves. It is your mind that moves!" The partisans were awestruck. The duck then asked them to get off of his diving platform; and a new Zen Koan was born: Nothing above me, nothing below me, so I leap off.
written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy
Source: On the Wine Trail in Italy
Categories: Wine Blogs in English
High Tech Wine Fraud Prevention
The latest tool in the battle against counterfeit vintage wines is rather high tech. Antique Wine Company in London asked Guegan’s Centre for Nuclear Studies to create technology that zaps bottles with ion beams generated by a particle accelerator. The beams are meant to determine how old the glass in the bottles is and [...]
Source: Serious About Wine
Categories: Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
It Ain’t Easy, The Daily Grind of Selling Wine
After a life working behind bars and in restaurants (and feeling like I was pretty damn great at it), two years in wine retail just about killed me. Well, more accurately I just about killed. Never had I seen people so uptight about something so unbelievably trivial as those that pepper the wine business. I [...]
Source: The Wine Offensive
Categories: Wine Blogs in English
Wine of the Week: Flying Fish Merlot 2005 (WA) $12
Wine of the Week: Flying Fish Merlot 2005 (WA) $12 The 2005 Flying Fish Merlot, from Washington’s Columbia Valley, is an attention getter! From the dark purple, ink-like hues to the unmistakable mocha tones - this wine was a…
Source: Wine Directory News
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
A Real Nigerian Wine Scam
Anyone who has an e-mail account and has checked it at least once in the last 10 years has probably received an e-mail that begins:
DEAR SIR,CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL
HAVING CONSULTED WITH MY COLLEAGUES AND BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE NIGERIAN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF $47,500,000.00 (FORTY SEVEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS.
Known as the Nigerian Scam, or more properly an Advanced Fee scam, this sort of fraud has been incredibly successful, despite what may seem to some as its completely over-the-top implausibility. Apparently a lot of compassionate (and in particular elderly) Internet users have lost a lot of money to the scammers, many of whom are actually from Nigeria.
In jest, inspired by an e-mail from my friend Jack, I created little post about a year ago entitled The Nigerian Wine Scam as a joke. Maybe not a very well executed one, but some people got a chuckle out of it.
But now, reality has again trumped my own vain efforts at humor.
There really is a Nigerian Wine Scam. Not of the e-mail variety, of course, but of the much more dangerous bottled variety.
Nigeria is home to some excellent sounding wines, with names like "Bacchus Tonic Wines," "Eva Wines," and "Blue Cocktail Wines." Unfortunately while these are legitimate brands of alcoholic beverages, someone in Abuja, Nigeria has been re-using the bottles, corks, and labels of these brands to produce fakes that are not only not as tasty, they are downright dangerous.
Reportedly concocted of "caramel, vanilla flavour, red and blue colouring substance, alum grains, gum Arabic, among others" according to The Punch, a Nigerian Online Newspaper, these "wines" also contained sachet water -- water from small, often hand tied, plastic sachets that have become popular sources for drinking water in Africa in recent years.
These sachets are widely regarded by the scientific and medical communities as being extremely unreliable in their manufacture (not to mention completely unregulated), and tests have shown that sachets can contain everything from extremely high levels of toxic heavy metals to all manner of water borne pathogens and microbiological contaminents (can you say faecal coliforms?).
To wit: the dangers to anyone who might opt for a glass or two of Bacchus Tonic apparently include entero-gastritis, diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, cholera, and organ damage. Not to mention a pretty disgusting taste in your mouth.
So next time you get an e-mail offering you the chance to receive a one time shipment of Grand Cru Nigerian wine, just hit delete.
Source: Vinography: a wine blog
Categories: Wine Blogs in English
Quick Fix: Quick lamb stew serves up flavors of India
Quick Fix: Quick lamb stew serves up flavors of India The pungent aromas and intriguing flavors of Indian cooking are part of the London scene where we lived for many years.
Source: Wine Directory News
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
Michael Mondavi to Release Signature Wine
Folio Fine Wine Partners announced today that Michael Mondavi will release his first signature Cabernet Sauvignon, M by Michael Mondavi, this fall.
"My winemaking philosophy evolved from a deceptively simple statement my grandmother used to say to me: 'Make good wine,'" said Michael Mondavi, founder, Folio Fine Wine Partners. "By that, she meant make wine that invites a second glass and so my goal was to create powerful, yet elegant, wines from the highest quality Napa Valley grapes that could be enjoyed on their own or with a meal." “When I saw the land that would later become my Animo vineyard, I knew I'd found the place that would mark my return to winemaking,” Mondavi said of Atlas Peak, Napa's most elevated appellation.
Source: Avenue Vine
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
Wine Reports: Moillard 2006 “Les Violettes” C tes du Rh ne ($10.99)
Wine Reports: Moillard 2006 “Les Violettes” C tes du Rh ne ($10.99) Not overly complex, but this negociant Rh ne is a nicely balanced food wine and a good value.
Source: Wine Directory News
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
Rome This Summer Here are two great ideas to keep
Rome This Summer Here are two great ideas to keep you busy during your stay in Rome. Enjoy. Wine Fest Get your suitcase, your sun hat and your bottle opener.
Source: Wine Directory News
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs in English
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