by Dame Liz Palmer
The list of the benefits of champagne is long and keeps growing. Already well-known as heart healthy, champagne in moderation might help you lose weight, reduce forgetfulness, boost your immunity, and help prevent bone loss. Here are six reasons to stock up on champagne for the holiday season: Heart Health Champagne is just as healthy as a glass of red wine. Most of the champagne production is made from red and white grapes which contains resveratrol. This is an important antioxidant that prevents damage to your blood vessels, reduces bad cholesterol, and prevents blood clots. Champagne also contains polyphenol antioxidants, which further protects the heart. This helps to reduce the risk of heart problems and strokes. It can lower your risk of diabetes A 2009 study in Canada...
by Dame Liz Palmer
One of North America’s leading experts on Champagne, Liz Palmer wrote The Ultimate Guide To Champagne with a strong personal passion for Champagne and the region. This ground- breaking book has received critical acclaim by the industry and promises to WOW the reader. Liz Palmer’s first book takes wine lovers to the heart of Champagne with the launch of The Ultimate Guide To Champagne. One of North America’s leading experts on Champagne, Liz Palmer wrote The Ultimate Guide To Champagne with a strong personal passion for Champagne and the region. This ground-breaking book has received critical acclaim by the industry and promises to wow the reader. There is much more to champagne than the drink - Champagne is named after the region where it is grown, fermented and bottled. Thi...
by Alex Richardson
We categorically do not condone leftover wine. But if you do a have a drop or three languishing in a bottle somewhere, we're even more strongly opposed to tipping it away. Wine is a fabulous ingredient in cooking, from French classics like coq au vin, to Spanish tapas treats like chorizo cooked in a heavy red. So if you have a tipple that's going spare, why not incorporate it into a yummy meal? Here are a few of our favourite recipes for leftover wine, ranging from the traditional, to the unusual… 1. Pinot Noir Butter with Blue Cheese Biscuits, How Sweet It Is We came across this amazing recipe on the Traveling Vineyard Facebook feed (another must-visit spot for anyone searching for amazing wine ideas and inspiration) and it's about to seriously blow your mind if you're a chee...
by Susanna Gaertner
Here’s a light and lovely red that has all the charm of a Beaujolais but is made right here in California. I admit that I knew nothing about this grape variety, which is also known as Napa Gamay or Napa Gamay 15. At its point of origin in the Longueduc-Rousillon region of southern France, it is also known as Gros Auxerrois. According to winegeeks.com, “Valdiguié is just one of many grapes that were once famous in France due in part to their high productivity. Today the Valdiguié has become an extreme rarity, and can be found more often in California than it can in its native home of southern France. During the 1800s the Valdiguié enjoyed great success as a varietal that had a high yield, ripened reliably, and contributed some fruit and modest acidity to the blends of the Midi,...
by Dean Morretta
For some, winemaking is a calling. Loredana Vivera realized hers while overlooking her family’s vineyards on Mount Etna in Sicily. She’d go on to practice her calling at the family’s Vivera Winery, crafting numerous Sicilian wines including the “Altrove” Sicilia Bianco, which I look forward to sharing with other women in wine.Loredana and I recently discussed her winemaking background in a transatlantic email conversation. The Vivera family purchased an estate near Mount Etna in 2002, but this was hardly the beginning of women in wine for the Viveras. Loredana’s mother had vineyards for generations within her family. The 2002 purchase was the realization of a dream, and they settled into the northeastern side of the volcano, building a winery there.The whole family got inv...
by Dean Morretta
When winemaker Gilbert Gruet came from Champagne to New Mexico in the 1980s for a family vacation, he likely sought the scenic beauty that earned the state’s nickname “Land of Enchantment”. What they found, however, was great terroir and a burgeoning wine industry. The family planted roots, and their 30 year catapult to becoming one of America’s greatest producers of Methode Champenoise has transformed this land into a “Land of Sparkling”.Gruet Winery’s Brut has been a staple at Vintology Wine & Spirits and my family events for years. The ‘coming to America’ story has been the special touch when I’ve toasted with Gruet at many Thanksgivings. On my recent tour of America’s southwest wine regions, Gruet was my number one priority.I pulled off Pan American Freeway in...
by Dame Liz Palmer
The Champagne region has announced the start dates for the 2016 harvest. Commencing today (September 12) through to September 26h there will be over 120,000 pickers, porters, loaders and press operators descend on the vineyards of Champagne for the harvest – the moment every winegrower has been waiting for.Each harvest is different in terms of grape ripeness, potential alcohol levels and natural acidity – so picking the right moment to harvest is essential.A ripening observation network for the accurate timing of harvests.Twice a week, just as the grapes start to change colour (véraison), samples are taken from some 450 control plots spread throughout the Champagne area. The selected clusters are then checked for rate of colour change; average weight; estimated sugar and total acidit...
by Susanna Gaertner
Cauliflower and Broccoli with Spicy Mint SauceBroccoli and cauliflower make fine bedfellows when covered with this exceptional sauce, which can also be used to spice up other vegetables ordinarily labeled bland or boring. Quantities do not need to be exact...start with what's written here and then increase, decrease, or leave out according to your preferences. This is a great way to use up that jar of left-over mint jelly.Ingredients:1 lb broccoli florets1 lb cauliflower florets1 onion or shallot, chopped1 cup cider1 small tart apple, chopped2 Tbsp olive oil2 Tbsp flour2 carrots, chopped2 cloves garlic1 tsp dill½ tsp thyme2 tsp mint jelly1 Tbsp soy sauce1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauceSteam broccoli and cauliflower until just done and shock in ice bath to stop cooking.Saute onions, carrots, on...
by Lazar Stevic
Wine and Chocolate - A Match Made in HeavenCalifornia is renowned for its world famous vineyards and stunning cellar doors. The sweeping hills and valleys threaded with vines and haloed in endless sunshine means that the wine to come out of California is always of exceptional quality. We all know that when it comes to wine and chocolate, it is a match made in heaven. Nothing beats the taste of pure indulgence of pairing the sweet taste of pure chocolate with the heady fragrance of a sunshine state wine. At Santa Barbara Chocolate we believe that our customers deserve only the best, which is why this guide is designed to help you perfect the pairing of wine and chocolate.The Golden RuleThe golden rule when matching wine to chocolate is to ensure the sweetness of the two tastes harmonizes in...
by Minnesota Uncorked™
It’s never been more popular to drink the pink stuff, and with good reason. You might assume that dainty light pink bottle of wine isn’t for you –– that it’s sickly-sweet, for people who don’t really like wine. Forty years ago you might have been right, but in the midst of the resurgent popularity of dry European-style rosés, pink wines have something to offer almost any wine drinker.Rosés are not only a perfect, refreshing wine to sip in the spring, summer and fall, but pair excellently with many foods. Rosés, especially dry ones, are usually made with red grapes, but the skins are sorted out of the mix after the grapes are crushed. This brief contact lends the wine its pinkish hue, and stops the wine from having the heavy tannins imparted by the skin of red grapes. Because...
