Sorry to be a little morbid however lifespan is an important factor to consider for cellaring. Your lifespan! I’ll give you an example. A client of mine has discovered that purchasing new vintages of his favorite wine is fast becoming pointless. This particular wine requires 40 years of cellaring according to my client’s tastes. This [...]
In its excellent “Sideswipe†section, the New Zealand Herald has Robert Parkers comments in Business Week magazine on New Zealand wine. It’s certainly different to what the local wine writing community has to say about New Zealand wine. Here’s the link to the actual article in Business Week. Is what he say’s unreasonable though?
Research from the UK suggests that there may be a considerable number of people bluffing to impress others with their wine knowledge.
Most wine lovers will be familiar with bottle fermentation, the traditional method of Champagne. But there are other ways of putting Carbon Dioxide into wine. Firstly lets have a very brief look at traditional bottle fermentation. Wine that has already been fermented has the essential ingredients for further fermentation added. Namely yeast and sugar which [...]
Style: Sweet white wine, although this is a bit of an understatement. Located south of Bordeaux city, France in the appellation of Sauternes, d’Yquem is comprised of 260 acres. 80% is planted in Semillon and the remainder in Sauvignon Blanc. LVMH are the current owners of the Chateau. Chateau d’Yquem is such a breathtaking wine. [...]
I stumbled across this website dedicated to Bordeaux. It seems to be put together by the Le Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB) as a promotion of Bordeaux and it’s wines. It’s well worth a look.
There’s news over at Vinodiversity about the difficult conditions facing Victorian vintners .
A week ago I wrote a post about the use of egg whites in wine production and how allergen labeling laws mean you may now see it labeled on wine. I thought I would follow that up with what I consider the most unusual product used for fining. Fish! Firstly a re cap on fining. [...]
Dr Vino has started an interesting discussion on the term “rustic†and it’s application to wine. I find it’s an ambiguous term at best but the discussion is interesting.
How long can you cellar Champagne? That’s a question that has been bringing people to this blog of lately. I thought I had better answer that question more directly than I have in the past. Firstly Champagne cellars very well, but make sure that you have good cellar conditions. The same dark cool space (target [...]
Heres a couple of Port trivia questions. I’ll post the answers tomorrow. Which way is traditional for the Port bottle or decanter to be passed at a table? Regan is correct. Traditionally the decanter is passed from the right to the left. But first you should pour a glass for the person on your right [...]
Spanish researchers have found a way of using ozone to as a preservative rather than Sulphur Dioxide. At the same time they have found that it boosts the levels of antioxidants. Reports seem a little short on how this could be applied to winemaking but it is interesting nonetheless.
You may have noticed (depending where in the world you are) labels saying things like “in accordance with traditional practices this wine has been fined with egg whites, traces may remainâ€. Why is it on there? It all comes down to Allergen labeling laws. Australia and New Zealand have passed such regulations, the United States [...]
Back in 1992, when I first started working in the wine industry, New Zealand’s plantings of Pinot Noir totaled only 342 Hectares. Since then there has been a more than ten fold increase. Similarly California had 3740 Hectares in 1993 and kept a fairly static level until 1998 when the plantings in this grape variety [...]
Get Champagne. It’s refreshing and uplifting and emotional. Essentially it fits its image of being a celebratory and romantic wine. If you have the discretionary budget, go for a one of the recent vintages. 1997 and 1998 are very good for drinking now (1996 is a fantastic Champagne year that will age but also great [...]
Two things to think about if you are starting a cellar. Wines change as they age. How much varies depending on the wine. Riesling is a classic; very fresh, citrus, floral and waxy aroma’s when young but in a couple of years those aromas intermingle with kerosene and diesel. Might sound bad but it is [...]
Cool conditions may impact on the Central Otago harvest. Not really an ideal as they have suffered a few small harvests over the last ten years. Hopefully summer will arrive if only a little late.