Another Great Wine Party Idea: Bottle Swap was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.
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Friday, 15 June 2012
Another Great Wine Party Idea: Bottle Swap
Over the years here on Wine Peeps, we have shared with you a number of our best wine party ideas: wine tasting dinners, digging into the cellar parties, and our wine tasting group activities. Today, we’re going to share another great wine party idea: a bottle swap. A friend of mine who read about it [...]
WBW 74 Wrap-up: 39 Sparkling Values
This is my fifth time hosting Wine Blogging Wednesday, our monthly virtual tasting event, but my enthusiasm has not diminished with the passage of time. In fact, since bringing back the event from hiatus it looks like the idea might be picking up some steam judging from the entires this month. While many of the [...]
WBW 74 Wrap-up: 39 Sparkling Values originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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Is Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Age Worthy?
Their wines have a reputation for being big. Perhaps too big for some given the expectation that Pinot Noir should adhere to its Burgundian roots. But there's plenty of new world wine enthusiasts who unabashedly love the Kosta Browne style for its velvety mouth-filling texture, generous fruit, and hedonistic deliciousness. Myself included.
This style makes Burghounds question: Are their wines age-worthy? The fruit will fade but the alcohol won't. Will these fruit bombs be in balance when they age?
I spotted an older bottle of theirs on an offer from The Spirit Shoppe (long-time supporter of the WWP - check 'em out) so I thought I'd take a chance to see how well their wines hold up at 10 years post-vintage.
I should mention up front that I enjoy wines on the younger side. I haven't had many "ah ha!" moments where I tasted a wine with significant age that made me want to invest in long-term cellaring.
High quality Napa Cab is typically relased with about 3 years of age. California Pinot Noir is released earlier - about 2 years post-vintage.
As a broad rule of thumb I'd say I like Napa Cab at around 4-8 years, Bordeaux at around 10 years, and California Pinot Noir at around 3-5 years. It's one of the reasons I like California Pinot Noir so much - it's a low-fuss wine.
For me, Kosta Browne is the George Clooney of California Pinot Noir. Here's what I mean by that... When you watch an old episode of E.R. Clooney still looks cool. Contrast this with the style of Don Johnson in Miami Vice: Cool at the time but in hindsight a little extreme and now dated. Kosta Browne is like Clooney because it's maintained roughly the same style but has evolved over time. And thier style has been fashionable all along the way. Most other wineries envy their popularity, yet some may take swipes at them behind their backs. But you can't help but like them and want to hang out with them.
Looking back to 2002, it was the year before their wines hit the big time and snared 95 point ratings from Wine Spectator. Their first publicly released wines were from the 2000 vintage. Spectator didn't rate their 2002 Russian River Valley Pinot but they did score the Sonoma Coast 87 points. When retasting it this year as part of a retrospective Kosta Browne review they rated that same wine 84 points. In other words it's a little tired.
Here are my thoughts on the 2002 Russian River Valley:
2002 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
14.6% Alcohol
1,300 Cases Produced
$28 Release Price (back in the day)
Slightly browning transparent brick red. There's a hint of what this wine once was on the nose with light fruit and a touch of herbaceousness. Nice full viscosity on the palate and a medium-length finish. Ultimately it seems like this wine has been reduced to its most elemental components: Some fruit up front, weight on the palate, and alcohol in the background.
85/100 WWP: Good
Conclusion:
Tasting this wine felt like walking through Cooperstown right before closing on a quiet night. You can see the markings of a star early in their career but they haven't started to put up the .300/30 HR/100 RBI numbers just yet. A fascinating experience tasting this wine early in Kosta Browne's trajectory.
Further Reading:
Visit the Kosta Browne website to learn more and sign up for their mailing list.
Question of the Day: What drinking window is your benchmark for high quality California Pinot Noir?
Thoughts from the AccessZone
“How the Internet Changed my Business” is a great introduction for some thoughts on the excitement of the Access Zone at the London Wine Fair last week. Not only is this something that we at Vrazon talk about a lot, but it was also the first session and one that we got some great feedback [...]
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Ballentine Vineyards – Nice Change of Pace in the Napa Valley
Would you like to try something a little different than the usual wine-tasting fare of the Napa Valley? Try Ballentine Vineyards! It’s a little more on the old-fashioned side, with down-to-earth folks running the winery and keeping a very low profile. Continue reading
Thursday, 14 June 2012
Announcing WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine
One of the wine trends from 2011 is the rise of Champagne with American consumers up over 20% from 2010. Another trend was Moscato coming out of nowhere to become nearly an overnight success. This could be in part due to the charms of the lightly sparkling frizzante made from this grape in Italy. Sparkling [...]
Announcing WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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Wednesday, 13 June 2012
The Art & Craft of Natural Wine
“… if you will make a man of the working creature, you cannot make a tool. Let him but begin to imagine, to think, to try to do anything worth doing: and the engine-turned precision is lost at once. Out comes all his roughness, all dullness, all his incapability; shame upon shame, failure upon failure; [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/UnY5bHBIPGk/
Drink like a hipster: pelaverga edition
Pelaverga. Never heard of it? That’s understandable. This is almost an heirloom variety in Piedmont that used to be grown in greater quantity (and even blended into Barolo before it had to be 100% nebbiolo). Now the grape is experiencing something of a resurgence as a handful of producers are bottling the grape on its [...]
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On Self-Actualizing Wine Interest, Purple Pages, the Kindle Fire and Gutenberg
While it has been cited that we’re living in a “Golden Age” of wine writing, what is interesting to me these days is NOT the subject of wine writing.
My interest is in a broader understanding of the consumption of the wine writer’s output – self-identified wine interest by consumers who are seeking out wine information. This is a seismic shift more important than the vagaries of who writes what, where, when and for how much.
Something much bigger and amorphous is at work.
It used to be that people self-identified by their job or some other affiliation that produced recognition from others, a status-marker of sorts—“I work for IBM, I have two kids and we’re Protestant.”
However, nowadays, people, principally online (which is moving center stage in our life), are self-identifying by their personal interests which, often times, diverges greatly from their profession and their family situation.
Look at Twitter profiles or a body of status updates from somebody on Facebook. People are no longer duotone and defined by work and family. They’re multi-layered and complex and defined by their interests. The modern day self-description goes something like this: “Passionate about wine and travel. I build furniture, follow the San Francisco Giants, and work in a non-profit by day. I also volunteer to ensure clean water for sub-Saharan Africans. Dad to two wonderful kids”
In diamond-cutting terms, it’s more Peruzzi than table cut and it seems we’re all on a journey to be the most interesting man person in the world.
This kaleidoscopic advancement in sense-of-self is a very important development because, on an individual level, we tend to project externally how we see ourselves in the mirror. By stating publicly online that we’re a wine enthusiast, a foodie, a jazz lover, who does dog rescue and loves college football with a fascination for all things digital, it’s like writing down a goal. A goal written down means something to most people and people are likely to actuate their activities around it, even if aspirationally.
This is a very subtle point and I hope I’m conveying it faithfully: Societally, we’re changing how we view ourselves, we are stating how we view ourselves and consequently we’re more likely to pursue knowledge around those interests because we’ve put it out there.
In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we’re all self-actualizing.
So, when it comes to wine writing, while I’m very happy for Alder Yarrow’s assignment in writing a monthly column for Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages, I also tend to look at it within a much broader context because there will be more Alder Yarrow Horatio Alger-like stories in the years to come.
More to the point however, and within a bigger picture, what Alder writes now and in the future on his own site or at Jancis’ site is likely going to be viewed by an increasingly larger audience who, based on the aforementioned self-actualization, have become more inclined to seek a wide-range of information that supports a myriad of personal interests, including wine.
This online growth in information-seeking is, indeed, a very good thing particularly for the wine business who is caught up in a focus on Gen. Y, when the more important point is that there is a mass of people of all ages who have increasingly ready access to information online that allows them to easily pierce the veil of wine. And, the implications for that for shouldn’t be understated because the view of the wine world is likely to be altered to be much more inclusive of all types of viewpoints – think the streets of New York instead of Pottery Barn.
The Kindle Fire tablet by Amazon.com may represent the next step in this evolution, driving the potentiality of mass on-the-move content delivery. No, it’s not as important as the printing press or any other God Complex hyperbole that is assigned to Steve Jobs, but it’s an important step forward nonetheless.
Where laptop computers are functional machines designed to execute work, and tablets (like the iPad) are a lightweight, portable device that act as a multi-functional hybrid between a smartphone and a laptop, here comes the Kindle Fire which is a device designed almost exclusively for content consumption, all kinds of content – blogs, digital magazines, digital books, videos, music, etc.
The Kindle Fire, to me, is a device that enhances the trend we’re seeing in the increased complexity of how we define ourselves because here’s a device that lets users pursue content around their interests anytime, anywhere and it’s reasonably affordable at $199, at least half the cost of other tablets on the market.
For example purposes, let’s say I have an interest in German Riesling, but I don’t really want to buy another paper-based book because I already have a stack of 14 books at my bedside that I haven’t read (or, perhaps, I don’t buy that many books, period). Likewise, it isn’t convenient for me to read a book on my laptop because, well, that’s not really a form factor that works for me because I’m already hunched over my laptop for 12 hours a day. In addition, I don’t want to print out a 150 page pdf because that’s paper I have to carry around. Previously, with all of the aforementioned caveats, I would have let a deep dive into knowing more about German Riesling be a fleeting thought—an opportunity that would lay fallow.
Ah, but the Kindle Fire will let me consume this German Riesling content in a nice, portable, convenient, lightweight manner that is designed to do expressly that. I’m now looking forward to pouring through Terry Theise’s 2011 German Riesling catalog and reading part II of Mosel Fine Wines 2010 vintage report.
All of this distills down to an essential takeaway: When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type, the tangible output was the ability to have ready access to print books. However, the bigger impact was the spread of knowledge which led to the Renaissance period which inalterably changed the culture of the world.
That’s where I think we’re at now, particularly with wine and the spread of information. The conversation can be about who is writing and where they come from, but the conversation with far greater impact is what the end game is for this mass adoption of personal nuance lived out loud.
In simpler terms, the wine writer, like Descartes in the Renaissance era, had a great, lasting influence, but the Renaissance period was much bigger than Descartes.
The key for the wine business in this seismic shift in wine affiliation and the pursuit of information thereof is to decide whether they want to support the status quo and perpetuate business as usual or open themselves to all kinds of thought.
Wine writers already are and so are the consumers seeking out this information.
Crappy beer, crappy wine
I am drinking a crappy Mexican beer. There, I said it. Cast your Chateauneuf stones at me and throw me out of the wine temple if you must! But it is a sunny 75 degrees and I just got back from a rigorous morning of making sand castles on the beach. So here’s something for [...]
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Blogging can’t die
Blogging can’t die. Take the original meaning of the word blog; it comes from the contraction of “web” as in the world wide web, and “log” as in to log ideas, or journaling. Today, and forever, there will be people logging what they think about all manner of subjects that they are passionate about. I recently [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/1q83xbmmM_0/
Mr. Ridge Comes a-Knockin’
Master Sommelier Robert Jones came to Day-twah recently to promote the wines of Kysela Pere et Fils, LTD, for which he serves as National Sales Manager. Robert and I go back some years, and in that time, he’s noticed that we have a special place in our hearts for the wines of Ridge Vineyards, a [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gangofpour/uncZ/~3/WWzzvAO7fIQ/mr-ridge-comes-a-knockin
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Blogging can’t die
Blogging can’t die. Take the original meaning of the word blog; it comes from the contraction of “web” as in the world wide web, and “log” as in to log ideas, or journaling. Today, and forever, there will be people logging what they think about all manner of subjects that they are passionate about. I recently [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/1q83xbmmM_0/
The Art & Craft of Natural Wine
“… if you will make a man of the working creature, you cannot make a tool. Let him but begin to imagine, to think, to try to do anything worth doing: and the engine-turned precision is lost at once. Out comes all his roughness, all dullness, all his incapability; shame upon shame, failure upon failure; [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/UnY5bHBIPGk/
Canonica A Cerreto Sandiavolo 2004
I just had this lovely Italian wine the other day. It's a so called SuperTuscan so its made of other grapes that the local Sangiovese. The Canonica A Cerreto Sandiavolo 2004 is made of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese. Canonica A Cerreto is located in the heart of the Chianti Classico area in the town of Castelnuovo near Sienna. They also make traditional Chianti Classico but this one is their top wine only produced in the best vintages.
Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/46/canonica-a-cerreto-sandiavolo-2004/
Social Media Quick Tip: Tag Your Favorite Wine Brands on Facebook
This is old news for some, but if you haven’t explored the status tagging feature (similar to photo tagging) on Facebook, take a few minutes and check it out. Status tagging can help your winery’s Facebook fan page to become more engaging and vibrant. Facebook users can type the “@” symbol before a Facebook fan [...]
A “Zinful” Experience
Last Saturday I was lucky to be able to attend the Zinfandel Festival at Fort Mason in San Francisco. ZAP, The Association of Zinfandel Advocates & Producers celebrates Zinfandel America’s Heritage Grape and is dedicated to preserving the history of Zinfandel through the Heritage Vineyard at UC Davis. It is the largest single varietal tasting [...]
Jay-Z in Burgundy, wines to “arouse,” Canada, artisanal – sipped and spit
SIPPED: matters of taste Pictures of billionaires in Burgundy are generally disturbing (don’t drive up prices any more!). But in this one, of Jay-Z at Ma Cuisine in Beaune, it is reassuring to see that the superstar has moved beyond his own Champagne Ace of Spades and is delving into Roulot. Fellow wine geek!?! Meursault [...]
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Crappy beer, crappy wine
I am drinking a crappy Mexican beer. There, I said it. Cast your Chateauneuf stones at me and throw me out of the wine temple if you must! But it is a sunny 75 degrees and I just got back from a rigorous morning of making sand castles on the beach. So here’s something for [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/vdHvL2e4lKA/
How big is that vineyard? Franzia/Bronco edition
Two Buck Chuck turns ten this year. We were reminded that Fred Franzia’s Bronco Wine Co. owns 40,000 acres of vines in the San Joaquin Valley, debt-free, which helps keep the wine price so low. How big is a 40,000 acre vineyard? It’s about 50 times the size of Central Park, and, in fact, about [...]
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Monday, 11 June 2012
Memorial Day, We Remember
We remember and honor all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms that have been won for those of us who live in the United States. And, we express deep thanks and gratitude to all who have served in any branch of the United States Armed Forces. (Photo by eddiecoyote) Memorial Day, [...]
Memorial Day, We Remember was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.
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Thank You From the Bottom of My Heart
I’m sitting here in my new home office with a fresh perspective and a touch of the misties, as in misty-eyes. Rich and I have been moved into the place for just over a month and it has made a huge difference in how we feel about things. I now recognize that we were both [...]
Source: http://familylovewine.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/thank-you-from-the-bottom-of-my-heart/
TMiW 1 – Looking Back, Looking Forward
This is the premier episode of This Month in Wine, a monthly discussion about what is going on within the wine world from a consumer and insider perspective. Hosts: Tim Elliott and Jeff Lefevere Topics What’s up with Good Grape? Is wine blogging on the decline? Wine Trends & Predictions for 2012 Value Replaces Cheap [...]
TMiW 1 – Looking Back, Looking Forward originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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What 1% increase in spending will sell you more wine?
Ironically, the answer is probably not by increasing the quality of your wine. With the one exception, moving from a Parker (or other pointillistic) rating of 89 to 90, there is very little chance that you can find any benefit to a 1% increase in wine quality leading to a measured increase in wine sales. Yet [...]
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Sunday, 10 June 2012
Littorai Wine Dinner at Legal Harborside Boston
Legal Harborside in Boston is offering a paired dinner featuring Littorai Wines. Owner Ted Lemon (featured in the video above) is scheduled to be on hand to present his wines.
WHAT: On May 9th, Legal Harborside will team up with Ted Lemon, owner of Littorai Wines, for an exclusive four-course wine dinner. A vineyard known for producing world class chardonnay and pinot noir, Littorai Wines was founded in 1993 on the north coast of California between Sebastopol and Freestone in western Sonoma County.
This menu will be presented as follows on Legal Harborside’s scenic second level overlooking Boston Harbor:
HORS D’ OEUVRES
Gnocchi with Lobster, English Peas and Maitake Mushrooms
Littorai “Charles Heintz Vineyard” Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, 2008
FIRST COURSE
Pan-Seared Loch Duart Salmon
lavender-scented honey, preserved lemon and fennel
Littorai “Les Larmes” Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley, 2007
SECOND COURSE
Braised Veal Cheek
grilled asparagus and spring onion
Littorai “Cerise Vineyard” Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley, 2007
CHEESE COURSE
Saint-Marcellin
cardamom preserved cherries
Littorai “Savoy Vineyard” Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley, 2007
WHERE: Legal Harborside at Liberty Wharf
270 Northern Avenue, Boston
WHEN: Wednesday, May 9th at 6:30pm
COST: $125 per person (excludes tax & gratuity)
HOW: Reservations may be made by contacting 617.530.9470 or visiting www.legalseafoods.com
Video Credit: A visit to Littorai from WinoBrothers on Vimeo.
Video Credit: A visit to Littorai from WinoBrothers on Vimeo.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/r1csLW4AwlQ/littorai-wine-dinner-at-legal.html
Competition Winners Announced
The winners of the 70th annual Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition were announced today and the list is an impressive one! A box wine, a Scotch whisky, repeat winners (Armida Winery and baseball legend Tommy Lasorda) and so much more! Take a look at the winners here then check out the buzz on [...]
Wine of the Month Club
Are you interested in wine? Do you find that wine stores are too stuffy and pretentious for you to have an enjoyable shopping experience? If so, finding a quality wine of the month club might be a good fit for you to not only learn about wine, but also to have some truly outstanding wine [...]
A Wine for Tonight: NV Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Moscato
Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the NV Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Moscato from South Eastern Australia. Our selection [...]
A Wine for Tonight: NV Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Moscato was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.
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The wealthy and their vineyards
BREAKING: it takes a long time and lots of money to make a profit in winemaking. But it’s cool to look at the view and have a glass of your own wine in the vineyards with your adult children. Oh, and it turns out that it’s hard to get distribution and selling wine can be [...]
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A Wine for Tonight: NV Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Moscato
Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the NV Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Moscato from South Eastern Australia. Our selection [...]
A Wine for Tonight: NV Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Moscato was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WinePeeps/~3/NeFIU6Y8RmQ/
The electricity of creativity
“I’m like a great big dark cloud, floating over the land, discharging my creativity in a sudden burst, like a lightning storm. If I were on twitter, facebook, etc. I feel I would waste the energy in lots of small bursts. I do not want to do that. You won’t find me on social networks. [...]
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Saturday, 9 June 2012
2007 St. Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé
In this post you'll find an overview of the ratings of the 2007 Medoc 2. Grand Cru Classé. We have gathered all ratings from Robert Parker, Decanter and Wine Spectator.
Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/35/2007-st-emilion-premier-grand-cru-classe/
A re-telling of a wine fairytale
This story has been put together in a sustainable way from recycled & organic tales collected from around the world, and its morals are entirely a product of indigenous references. Consume in moderation — Once upon a time, there was an old man who had been a respected winemaker, but his intended bride had pricked [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/I35VD0OwrAg/
Announcing WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine
One of the wine trends from 2011 is the rise of Champagne with American consumers up over 20% from 2010. Another trend was Moscato coming out of nowhere to become nearly an overnight success. This could be in part due to the charms of the lightly sparkling frizzante made from this grape in Italy. Sparkling [...]
Announcing WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/x3ts1NV4BNw/
Wine Gifts
If you’re starting to think of holiday gifts, which many people are already here in September, why not consider giving wine gifts this holiday season? Wine gifts give you two big advantages. To start, they are among the most luxurious gifts which can be given. Secondly, even if you don’t know wine well yourself, you [...]
Tasting Report: 2010 Kutch Pinot Noir
For me, I've been stuck on California Pinot Noir for a couple years. And it's unclear how long it will be before I come up for air.
Within California Pinot, there seems to be a battle between lean and ripe. Between producing nuanced wines that let the vineyards speak for themselves vs. aiming to produce blockbuster wines. Within this dichotomy, even after reading several articles, it was unclear to me where Kutch Wines fits in.
38 year old Jamie Kutch worked on Wall Street before cashing in and pursuing his dream of producing wine. After being impressed with wines from producers like Kosta Browne and A.P. Vin he reached out to them for guidance - and was welcomed with open arms. A far cry from the competitive financial world he left behind.
He got his start producing wines at Kosta Browne so you'd think his style would run towards ripeness. But you'd be wrong. After producing the 2005 vintage at KB he set out on his own and developed a minimalist philosophy which favors earlier picking. But like Michael Browne he prefers to keep racking -- the transfer of wine from one container to another to remove sediment -- to a minimum. The result can be a tremendous creamy, velvety mouthfeel. But only if you can still produce a wine with good clarity and avoid rotten egg aromas from dead yeast along the way.
When I hear about California producers aiming for balance I sometimes fear they'll go too far. That the wines will be under-ripe and hard to enjoy. My favorite producers find that intersection between pure fruit flavors, the right amount of ripeness, and ultimately find a way to produce a delicious enjoyable glass of wine.
Kutch only produces Pinot Noir from Sonoma at this point. The appelation wines -- from the Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley -- retail for $39. The single vineyard wines sell for $50. But good luck finding them at retail. Considering the modest production levels and the quality here I think these wines a good value.
The best way to buy them is by spending a couple years on their mailing list. I've on the list about a year so far. No dice. Thankfully a friend shared a couple bottles of his recent allocation. Here are my notes on one of their 2010s:
2010 Kutch Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
13.9% Alcohol
240 Cases produced
$39
There's a purity of fruit and freshness here that's tremendously appealing. Light-medium bodied visually with perfectly ripe strawberries dominant and supporting tart cherry notes. It's subtle, but along with mild orange peel notes, supporting herabaceous aromatics and flavors add a perfect touch of earthy compleixty. Not an off note in the bottle. I like this. A lot. A tremendous introduction to the producer.
93/100 WWP: Outstanding
Further Reading:
- Check out this excellent article on Jamie Kutch's story in Enterpreneur
- This 2009 article on Vinography charts Kutch's rise from wine forum contributor to winemaker
Rue La La: $20 for $40 at Wine.com (ends this morning!)
Deal site Rue La La is running a $20 for $40 for Wine.com but you've got to act fast. The sale ends at 11:00 am EDT today (Sunday, May 13th 2012).
The usual restrictions apply to this offer - most meaningfully that the voucher can't be applied to the price of shipping.
If you're not yet a member of Rue La La sign up and get $10 off your first order, bringing the price down to $10:
http://ruelala.com/invite/winepress
Then head over to Wine.com to use your voucher. Check out the 2010 Belle Glos Meiomi Pinot Noir- always enjoyable and for my money the best $20 Pinot Noir on the market today.
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!
Friday, 8 June 2012
Bluff Dale Vineyards
The Winery at Bluff Dale Vineyards The Grapes around Texas ©2012 Half of every adventure is getting to your destination and our trip this year was no exception. We decided to take a different route to the Hill Country this time around to check out some places we have not had the time to see … Continue reading 
Source: http://thegrapesaroundtexas.com/2012/06/02/bluff-dale-vineyards/
The Real Reason Wine Bloggers Are Not Relevant To Advertisers
Almost all of us don’t treat blogging as a business. And those few who do find building a community around a wine blog very, very difficult. Without hundreds of thousands of pageviews a month, advertising on blogs of any topic is not a viable business. Source: Typepad Via: FERMENTATION There are are a grand total [...]
The Real Reason Wine Bloggers Are Not Relevant To Advertisers originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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Rue La La: $20 for $40 at Wine.com (ends this morning!)
Deal site Rue La La is running a $20 for $40 for Wine.com but you've got to act fast. The sale ends at 11:00 am EDT today (Sunday, May 13th 2012).
The usual restrictions apply to this offer - most meaningfully that the voucher can't be applied to the price of shipping.
If you're not yet a member of Rue La La sign up and get $10 off your first order, bringing the price down to $10:
http://ruelala.com/invite/winepress
Then head over to Wine.com to use your voucher. Check out the 2010 Belle Glos Meiomi Pinot Noir- always enjoyable and for my money the best $20 Pinot Noir on the market today.
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!
Flatiron wines: my kind of shop
If I owned a wine shop, I’d stock it with wines from importers such as Kermit Lynch, Louis/Dressner, and Neal Rosenthal with a dollop of Burgundies from Becky Wasserman. I’d throw in some classic domestic wines and nouvelle vague ones too. So I was like a kid in a candy store when I stopped by [...]
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WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine
Sparkling wine is thought of by most American’s as a luxury to be consumed on special occasions like weddings, graduations and New Year’s eve parties. And that’s a shame since sparkling wine is so versatile at the table, pairing with a wide variety of food, made all over the world and available at every price point. Perhaps [...]
WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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Announcing WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine
One of the wine trends from 2011 is the rise of Champagne with American consumers up over 20% from 2010. Another trend was Moscato coming out of nowhere to become nearly an overnight success. This could be in part due to the charms of the lightly sparkling frizzante made from this grape in Italy. Sparkling [...]
Announcing WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
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Review of the 3Divas White Wine Blend from Montemaggiore winery
3Divas, Montemaggiore Appellation: Russian River Valley Price: $25 Haydn gives it: 92pts You can buy this wine: at montemaggiore.com Montemaggiore continues to defy conventional varietals when it comes to its location in Dry Creek. Their red wine portfolio is missing … Continue reading
Source: http://www.beyondnapavalley.com/blog/review-of-the-3divas-white-blend-from-montemaggiore-winery/
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Old World vs. New World in More Ways than just the Wine
In the increasingly close quarters of our global village, Europe is responsible for bringing at least three different substantive and prodigious professional wine journals to market over the last several years. Each is written by a ‘Who’s Who’ of wine experts. Meanwhile, stateside, the U.S. has experienced an explosion of pithiness with amateur wine writers writing online.
This juxtaposition becomes relevant after reading a recent post titled, “Are wine blogs going tabloid” by professional wine critic and writer Steve Heimoff. In his brief post, with a decidedly American point of view, Heimoff summarizes his thoughts with the rhetorical query, “Why do certain bloggers revert to sensationalist stories that don’t, in the long run, matter?”
Good question. The easy conclusion suggests that controversy and hyperbolically bombastic articles lead to attention and traffic.
Certainly, two recent books that I’ve been reading bear out this discouraging notion: Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage and Celebrity, Inc.
Both books cover similar ground in examining how brands can subvert the 24-hour news cycle for business benefit and how the 24-hour news cycle has been subverted by celebrities using easy technology while leading our news culture into tabloidesque territory.
When considered with Heimoff’s point, it is an easy deduction to suggest that 1 + 1 does in fact equal 2 – the sensational does sell and, by proxy, online amateur wine writers are a reflection of our larger media culture.
However, in suggesting this, there is at least one bigger contextual point being missed as well as a caveat. First, it’s an exclusive view that doesn’t take in the totality of the global wine media village and second, while sensationalism may sell, the lascivious isn’t always what’s shared.
No, it seems our schadenfreude and more primal instincts are kept private, while our shock and awe comes to the fore, at least according to one study.
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania recently examined the most emailed articles on the New York Times web site in March of this year (link initiates a PDF download), looking for the triggers for what causes somebody to share an article, what makes one thing more viral than another?
Their conclusion? Positive content is more viral than negative content, but both, in general, are driven by “activation” – the notion that high arousal (emotive pleasure or outrage) drives shareable content. According to the research abstract:
Content that evokes either positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions characterized by activation (i.e. high arousal) is more viral. Content that evokes deactivating emotion (sadness) is less viral. These results hold (dominance) for how surprising, interesting, or practically useful content is, as well as external drivers of attention.
This brings us back to my earlier mention regarding the European wine journals that have come to market in recent years. Simply, they’re an antidote to the U.S. proclivity for the vapid.
The World of Fine Wine, the family of Fine Wine magazines based in Helsinki and Tong based in Belgium all represent an Old World counterpoint to what can be deemed as the extemporaneous and superfluous coming from the New World.
As Tong publisher Filip Verheyden notes in the Tong manifesto (link initiates a PDF download) :
We live in times of “instant” gratification. If we want to talk to someone, we pick up our mobile phone wherever we happen to be. If we want to know something, we click an internet button. We’re going at 200 km per hour.
What we seem to forget in this race against time is the trustworthiness of this quickly-acquired knowledge, and that is something we have to find out for ourselves. But who takes the time to do it?
…The articles that appear in Tong demand the reader’s attention. You can’t read them fast and put them away; you have to take the time to understand. I’d say it takes an evening to read and think about each article. These are not issues to put in the recycling bin. Even after five years or more, each will continue to convey the essence of its theme…
The World of Fine Wine and Fine Wine magazine are both similarly endowed with length and verve.
My takeaway based on the Wharton research and the stunning dichotomy between what we’re seeing in the U.S. vs. European wine content is two-fold:
1) The sometimes sensational aspect of online wine writers, especially domestically, should heed the research and focus their pot-stirring ways on matters that provoke an emotional response from readers, ideally with a positive consequence – like HR 1161 for example instead of tired, lame attempted zingers aimed at Robert Parker.
2) In addition to a legacy sensibility about the nature and style of wine, the Old World is also drawing a culturally defining line in the sand in how they view and report on wine – it’s with substance, permanence and integrity.
The conclusion is anything but. However, as the world becomes a smaller place and the U.S. and our wine media becomes a part of the world chorus, losing lead vocal, I would hate for our place in the gallery to be rendered completely voiceless based on a lack of substance which is the seeming trajectory that we’re on.
It’s just a thought…
If you’re interested in seeing an example of Tong’s long-form think pieces, you can see examples here, here and here.
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/old_world_vs._new_world_in_more_ways_than_just_the_wine/
Elk Cove Wine Dinner at Sprigs Restaurant in Acton, MA
Sprigs Restaurant in Acton, MA is offering what appears to be a fantastic dinner featuring wines from Elk Cove Vineyard. $63 per person gets you a 5 course meal paired with wines from Elk Cove, many of which we don't see available at retail in Massachusetts.
I've found Elk Cove to be a reliable producer, vintage after vintage, of reasonably priced delicious Oregon Pinot Noir. Their wines always seem to deliver ample fruit while respectfully reflecting where they come from.
Click the menu image below to visit the Sprigs website and learn more.
Thanks to friend and reader A.L. for the heads up.
I've found Elk Cove to be a reliable producer, vintage after vintage, of reasonably priced delicious Oregon Pinot Noir. Their wines always seem to deliver ample fruit while respectfully reflecting where they come from.
Click the menu image below to visit the Sprigs website and learn more.
Thanks to friend and reader A.L. for the heads up.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/zt1sXE5RXfg/elk-cove-wine-dinner-at-sprigs.html
Wine of the Month
The idea of a wine of the month has different meanings to different people. For my dad, that’s probably whatever box wine Costco has on sale. That’s fine, but not really my cup of tea if you know what I mean, no matter how much I like Bronco Wine Company or Franzia. For my wife [...]
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