by Noble Collins
The most festive period of the year is upon us: Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas and New Year’s Day packed together within a few short weeks. Also, reluctant to give up the holiday atmosphere, we more and more stretch it out to include the conclusion of football season, right up to the Super Bowl. Then, another week or so and we have Valentine’s Day. The more intrepid among us make it through without a scratch, but most likely not without a stretch (in our waist size.)Around the world, in the richest and poorest places, folks battle the increasing cold and lengthening darkness with bright lights and their best food and drink. It is during this period when we are most often introduced to new tastes, flavors and especially libations. The emphasis is on gaiety and celebration. Four wine...
by Noble Collins
There are somewhere around two thousand different grape varieties in the world, some of which make really awful wine no matter how you treat them, but Enlightened Mankind has pretty much narrowed down the best ones and knows the secrets to making delicious quaffs from them. If you don’t particularly care for one, there are lots of others to try. If you are very lucky, someone will come along to offer you a glass of wine made from one of the lesser known varietals, and it will be magnificent. Winemakers, good ones, are as near to alchemists as we are ever likely to encounter. The winemaker determines the ultimate taste and effect the wine will have in a person’s experience. He or she uses the best ingredients, of course, but ultimately the process is as much an art as a science. Good w...
by Michael Pellegrino
A hundred years ago, New Jersey had its share of the largest and most respected breweries in the country. With Pabst, Rheingold, Krueger and Ballantine, New Jersey brewing was the seventh-largest industry in the state, generating $20 million a year by 1910. Ballantine was the No. 1 ale in the country. The beer story in New Jersey today is craft-brewing, but there is a clear bias against our State’s microbreweries. New Jersey’s laws place our five breweries at financial and marketing disadvantages as compared to our wineries. There is no legitimate basis for this bias, and the laws should be changed to even the playing field or perhaps even assist our local breweries. Jersey brewers went through a dark period that began with Prohibition in 1920. Almost all of New Jersey...
by David Boyer
There seems to still be no end in sight as to how often everyone in the wine press tells us how bad things are for wineries. And with that message repeating itself like Obama talking about health care, nearly everyone is writing about all the great deals out there. Some of it’s true and some of it is not but it mostly depends on where you have set your bar.Like me, you probably raise your bar as your palate experiences more wine and better wine. We tend to eventually discriminate against wine that is out of balance, for example, or grape varieties that we just don’t care for. The point is that the more you know about wine, the more selective you become, which raises your bar or creates your own personal benchmark. So many of the so-called “value wines” available are not necessarily...
by Adrienne Turner
What does Twitter have in common with wine?Twitter Taste Live. Yet another way to use Twitter. What better way to express your passion about wine than by taking part in a new twist on the traditional wine tasting party. Oenophiles from around the globe can now participate in tastings with either a couple of stokes of the keyboard or mobile device using their Twitter applications. It�s virtual and better than taking out your notebook and scratching out tasting notes. Sit back, relax, tweet and watch the magic of viral marketing take place. Retailers, wine distributors, wine bloggers and just regular old winos can now connect globally through the magic of technology.How does an on line wine tasting work? And how do you find one? Twitter Tate Live is the ground breaking format launched b...
by Marisa Dvari
“No!” the passionate Frenchman says, starting a heated discussion about the Poulsard grape among a group of vignerons in the opulent dining room of the two-Michelin-star restaurant Jean-Paul Jeunet. We are in the Jura region of France, a wildly beautiful and rugged expanse of land with well-trained vineyards, spotted cows, and sleek horses at every turn. Where the Wild Things Are could very well have been conceived in the Jura.Poulsard (also called Ploussard) is one of the three indigenous grapes in the Jura, and at the moment it dominates the conversation among the producers, who speak of it in the passionate tone familiar to moviegoers from the Miles character in Sideways. I am in Arbois, one of the more famous wine appellations here, to discover more about Jura and its unusual, sign...
by Kevin Lynch
Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel (1900–1983) wrote in his memoirs, “The decline of the apéritif may well be one of the most depressing phenomena of our time.” Taking anything written by an avowed surrealist and friend of Salvador Dalí seriously may be a stretch, but there is a nugget of truth in what the Spaniard observed.An apéritif taken at the onset of a hearty meal was, and to some still is, one of life’s more refreshing civilities. Enjoying an apéritif prior to a meal is the ideal time to get better acquainted with one’s dinner companions, to recount the news of the day, or just to blow off some steam. Beyond the refining qualities of a pre-meal beverage enjoyed as one peruses a menu and struggles to recall what goes in sauce gribiche, there are the numerous salutary benef...
by Marisa Dvari
Today marks my first day in the Jura, a remote and very historical area of France known for its famed Vin Jaune wines. Like Burgundy, Jura offers the international Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, yet it also offers the white Savagnin and two delicious red grapes, Trousseau and Poulsard.As the region is just two hours' drive from Geneva, I landed in that city (it's closer than Paris) and drove from the Jura mountains. As you can imagine, it was a gorgeous drive. You see many cows of many varieties along the vast expanses of land, and horses too. At times you pass through small, medieval villages — they are so small and ancient they look like movie sets, with a “front” for a post office, etc.Our hotel, Parenthese, has a pool, spa, and gourmet restaurant where lunch and dinner can be had. Th...
by Ivan Loyola
ARGENTINA keeps surprising the world of wine. Last week Vancouver hosted the Wines of Argentina event at the Sutton Place Hotel. Wineries from all over the Tango country, from the hot, arid high elevation vineyards in Salta to the wind swept pampas of Patagonia’s Neuquen, were present offering their best Malbec, Torrontes, Cabernet Sauvignon, among other varietals and blends. Andeluna Cellars was present at the event, with Mike Kenter, Vice President and Marketing Officer for the US at the booth. So, let’s leave the Wines of Argentina tasting for a later posting and let’s look at Andeluna’s wines instead.Mike Kenter has been to Argentina a number of times, both in central, Andean Mendoza and also in Patagonia, where he combines his wine enthusiasm with fishing trips. He knows the ...
by John Hagarty
What is the largest wine-consuming nation in the world? France? Italy? Spain? If you said France, take a bow. But, what nation will likely lead the world in total wine consumption next year? Surprisingly, it’s the United States. Yes, last year as a nation we consumed over 300 million cases of wine—or more than 3.6 billion bottles. And in 2010, it’s projected we’ll top that figure. That’s a lot of wine. Per capita consumption will remain the domain of France and Italy but next year Americans are expected to begin consuming more wine overall than any country on the planet. This a remarkable change in our drinking habits. For almost four centuries beer and liquor have been the dominant libations of choice in the United States.Why? The reason dates to the first colonists ...
