by Vera Czerny
When you mention Victor de la Serna's name in Spain - especially among the wine community, people will nod their heads in respect.Victor de la Serna is considered to be one of the top three most influential wine experts on Spanish wine.Yet, he wasn't always winemaker. Starting as a journalist, just like his father, he created quite a resume over the years!Mr. de la Serna is a very respected wine and food writer, restaurant critique and editor in chief of famous www.ElMundovino.es - a collective Spanish wine blog that seriously discusses wines.This blog was started by Spanish newspaper El Mundo (Victor de la Serna was one of the deputy editors).So you can imagine, when he announced releasing the first vintage of his own wine, the fellow wine society became alert. Everybody, who knew Mr. de ...
by Ron Kapon
The 11 Finger Lakes are located in the west-central section of Upstate New York. The lakes are long and narrow. They reminded early mapmakers of human fingers, hence the name. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in America. Both are close to 40 miles from end to end and about 3.5 miles wide. At the north end of Seneca Lake is the city of Geneva, home of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. At the south end of the lake is the village of Watkins Glen, New York, famed for auto racing and waterfalls. The nearby Seneca Lake Wine Trail featured 32 wineries. The city of Ithaca, New York, site of Ithaca College and Cornell University, is located at the southern end of Cayuga Lake. The Finger Lakes region is a cent...
by Kris Mcdowell
It’s that time of year when the outdoors beckons, inviting you to spend more time under a blue sky, relaxing and enjoying time with friends and family. You’re probably going to be out there for a while and will need something to drink. Why not make it a beer? When the weather heats up my choice of beer turns toward something lighter and more refreshing than I’d lean toward in the cold of winter. Pale ales, pilsners, Kolsch, sour and fruit beers are all styles that pair well with a warm summer day. If you’re new to beer or interested in branching out a summer gathering can be a great time to pick up something different and share it with others. You might just find a new favorite along the way. In Portland, Ore. or Beervana as it is known by some, we have a wide selection of beers o...
by Debra Villasenor
The truth is, wine will aerate on its own, as soon as you pour it into your glass. And the truth also is – that may not be enough.Hence the invention of wine aerators.Many wines can benefit from aeration (exposure to air), and some benefit more than others. Red wines, and particularly younger red wines, can often benefit the most from aeration, and provide better aromas and flavors after some amount of air exposure – whether in the glass, by being decanted, or through the use of a wine aeration device. The best way to sort it all out is by tasting and deciding for yourself how much aeration to give a particular wine, but there are some rules of thumb that can be useful to keep in mind.First of all, wine aeration is not always recommended. If a wine is delicate in some way – whether b...
by Ron Barker, Cigarvolante Llc
(This is an article from the American Thinker that should be of interest to the wine community. Freedom is not defined by the ability to stop others from doing those things that you don't approve. Links and credits included at the end of the article.)Bureaucrats Bully Family Farms in D.C. ExurbsBy Mark J. FitzgibbonsFauquier (/fɔːˈkɪər/) County, Virginia has become a new battleground against the sprawl of Washington-style government bullying. Under the guise of business zoning authority, Fauquier is now depriving an agricultural community of its liberty to live the farm life when a little commerce is, and even is not, involved.The county, you see, wants to regulate and fine farm residents on grounds of holding pumpkin carvings, birthday parties for little girls, and Boy Scout jambore...
by Richard Mark James
Languedoc: Minervois, red white rosé 2010 and 2011It was perhaps reassuring to see some familiar names cropping up among my favourites at this year's Minervois tasting and over lunch afterwards, such as Château La Grave, Sainte Eulalie, Borie de Maurel, Domaine Cavaillès and Gérard Bertrand. These sprawling and mostly picturesque wine-lands stretch from St-Chinian country to the east across to Carcassonne in the west and Narbonne to the south, signed and sealed by the Canal du Midi flowing along its substantial bottom (roughly speaking). To find your way around this vast wine region more easily, pockets of quality are found here and there around Minerve or St. Jean de Minervois, for example, or in the Montagne Noire foothills in villages like Trausse-Minervois and Caunes-Minervois, and...
by Richard Mark James
Featuring Barboursville, Boxwood, Breaux, King, Veritas, Michael Shaps, White Hall, Williamsburg...For non-Americans reading this whose US geography is about as good as mine, the state of Virginia is on the east coast surrounded by, to the north, Maryland and D.C (Washington isn't far from vineyards in the far northeastern corner), North Carolina and Tennessee to the south and Kentucky and West Virginia to the, erm, west! There's some wine-growing history here, as apparently the first vines were planted back in the early 17th Century. That slightly famous Virginian enophile Thomas Jefferson farmed European grape varieties here as part of his various adventures in all things vines and vino (although he didn't actually make any wine I'm told), although it was wines made from native American ...
by Messina Hof Winery
I had the opportunity to go on a John 15 tour, led by Merrill Bonarrigo, last Thursday. Merrill spoke about John 15; how it relates to her life, the vineyard, and just how relevant this scripture is to all of our lives.“It was that one little step- that little leap of faith we took that has allowed us to do what we do today and we are so blessed, “Merrill said, “it is not one of those things you plan; God provided one opportunity after another.”Merrill said becoming a vine tender, herself, taught her the true meaning behind the scripture in John 15 and it all relates to love.John 15 describes the age old tradition of preparing the grapevine for quality fruit production in order to assure a bountiful harvest and the role of the Father and family in that process. John 15 covers every...
by Richard Mora
Why drink rosé wines? There are many reasons, here is some background for those that don't understand how good dry rosé is Shop our Dry Rosé specials with discounts of 20% for the summer1-Rosé : The hotter it is, the better it tastesWhite wines go numb when they are ice cold but rosé, with all the flavors and depth from the re grape skin contact hold up when chilled. So on those really hot days you can drink really cold rosé and it doesn't lose its flavor.2-Rosé : drink it like a red but treat it like a whiteRosé is traditionally made from red grapes through a shortened period of skin contact. When red is made from red grapes, the grapes are crushed and pressed and the skins are left in with the grapes in order to extract the red color. Without skin contact red grapes would pr...
by Carrie Poon
The 7th Shanghai International Wine Challenge with a perfect end.June 2012, the 7th Shanghai International Wine Challenge (SIWC) was successfully held and ended. Nearly one thousand different wine brands were participated. After blind tasted by the experts from all over the world, 12 The Best, 24 Gold Medals, 68 Silver Medals and 148 Bronze Medals were awarded. Besides, the committee organized a visitor judge panel (local distributors and dealers) to have a simulated judging class with the experts. This helps the domestic wine industry to understand how SIWC works out. Most of the wine competitions are concentrated in the "Old World" wine. However, as the global economic integration, economic and cultural exchanges among the countries became increasingly frequent, the wine culture begins t...
