Blowing the horn for South African wine
While watching the World Cup, why not kick back and hoist a cupful of wine from the host country? South Africa makes some delicious wines, especially whites, and can make a case for producing some of the world's best chenin blancs. Chenin blanc is an under-appreciated wine grape variety, a fact that vexes many sommeliers who love its minerality, expressiveness and compatibility with a broad range of foods. Consumers, however, often shy away from it, probably because of its variability. Chenin blanc can be bone-dry or honeyed; too often, it is somewhere in the indistinct middle range. When there's no easy way to know what's in the bottle, c...
Leo Fiorentino Jun 24 2010
CIC Discord Rumbles On
Wine importers are upset that the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB) gives “cellared-in- Canada” wines, which are made from 100% foreign grape juice, what they say is preferential treatment over equivalent-grade imported wines. Critics have eliminated some of the advantages of cellared-in-Canada (CIC) wines, but they remain angry ...
Davet Pichette May 18 2010
Wedding Wine Tips
No single occasion integrates anxiety, anticipation, happiness and expense more exquisitely than a wedding. The average cost of what is theoretically a once-in-a-lifetime experience runs about $30,000 (or about $10,000 more than the average divorce). The ring, the dress and the flowers are all a big part of the price. And the wine? Not so much. In ...
Cathy Alvarez May 18 2010
Containers Can Alter Wine Composition
Whether it's red wine or white wine, the composition of wines can change becasue of the containers they're stored in, says a new study. The first major scientific study into the storage of wine in different forms of packaging has revealed that the bag-in-box®, single-layer PET and small multi-layer PET altered the character of the white wines when...
Ryan Antonieff May 14 2010
Leaving The Corks On The Floor
Penny tiles are a popular look for interior flooring. While ceramic and glass are often used to make tiles, these beautiful penny tiles, which we noticed on 3rings blog, are actually cut from recycled wine corks. Designed by Jelinek Cork, the recycled tiles take advantage of cork’s natural resiliency and water resistance to create a stylish low-imp...
Angela Schmitz May 14 2010
iPhone Wine Apps - A British Perspective
My eight and six-year-old sons are more technically advanced than I am. I was given an iPod – or was it an iPlayer? – for my birthday and within moments my boys had mastered it while I soon gave up. The damn thing never seems to play what I want to hear. As for iPhones, until recently they were a complete mystery. But then I discovered that wine a...
Leo Fiorentino May 13 2010
Red China?
At a time when recession-pinched Americans are swilling Two Buck Chuck, Sun Xiao thinks nothing of entertaining his friends with $150 bottles of wine at his private club. "I like wine — very rich wine," Sun, chief executive of a real estate investment firm, said one recent evening as attendants — young women in traditional Chinese gowns — stood ne...
Angela Schmitz May 13 2010
Women & The Wine List
You may be surprised to find out that 53 percent of wine drinkers in the U.S. are women, according to the Wine Market Council. And last year, women matched men as “core drinkers,” those who drink wine at least once a week. That trend may accelerate if women heed the results of a recent survey of 20,000 women over 13 years by Boston’s Brigham and W...
Cathy Alvarez May 12 2010
Chilean Wine Industry Damaged
As Chile tries to cope with the widespread devastation caused by one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded, it may seem trivial to wonder about the country’s wine industry. But wine is an important segment of Chile’s economy, and the Maule Valley, Chile’s oldest wine region, was not far from the epicenter. Reports from the Maule and els...
Davet Pichette Mar 03 2010
The Curious Tale Of The Scandal, The Pot And The Kettle...
Canada has never been particularly good at scandals. And so it was with the great “cellared in Canada” wine fiasco. The squawking was over almost before it started. And, if you ask me, it wasn't much of a scandal in the first place. Responding to a sudden chorus of consumer complaints, British Columbia and Ontario this month declared war on bottle...
Leo Fiorentino Oct 21 2009