Taking the world one wine at a time.
I know what you’re thinking! No sooner do you wrap your head around Facebook, Twitter, Google+, FourSquare, LinkedIn etc ……and another bloody social media network comes along to suck all the life out of you! Thankfully, Pinterest is quite possibly the easiest to understand! The best way to think of Pinterest is as a “social scrapbooking” network, with the added bonus that you don’t have to spend all your weekends at Joann Fabrics! I joined…
Read More
That’s pretty special!
Read More
Grape 100% Viognier [Vee-ohn-yay] Facts I’ve never felt that Viognier gets the attention it deserves, both in retail stores or restaurants. What first needs to be understood is that it shouldn’t be compared to any other grape, and so if you’ve grown weary of the “usual suspect” white wines, you might want to pay attention to this review! In 1980 Yalumba planted 1.2 hectares of Viognier in the Barossa Valley, this was Australia’s first…
Read More
According to a new study, the wine industry in Virginia is now worth almost three-quarters of a billion dollars. What’s even more impressive is that the figure has more than doubled in the last five years, from $362 million to $747 million, this whilst the country has faced one of its worst economic recessions. While unemployment soared nationally, in Virginia, the number of wine industry jobs increased from 3,162 to 4,753 between 2005 and 2010….
Read More
When it comes to qualifications, one man has sniffed and slurped his way through more wine examinations than perhaps any other. That man is Gérard Basset, 54 years old, boasts not just a Master of Wine qualification, but also a Master Sommelier, and a Wine M.B.A. from the Bordeaux École de Management, for which he wrote a thesis on the psychology of the wine list. If that wasn’t enough, in 2010 he was named world…
Read More
Event: DIVINO TUSCANY 2012 Date/Time: May 17- 20, 2012 Location: Florence, Tuscany. Divino Tuscany 2012 is a one-of-a-kind 4-day celebration of the best Tuscan wines, food and culture. Divino Tuscany will offer a distinctive program that highlights premium wines: wine tastings with Tuscany’s top winemakers, seminars and grand tastings curated by James Suckling, former Senior Editor and European Bureau Chief of Wine Spectator and one of the world’s most influential wine critics; special luncheons and…
Read More
Yes, you read that correctly! Let me explain…. My wife turned 30 this week, and since she doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, I decided to follow a theme that revolved exclusively around her being an only child. She’s never been a huge fan of chocolate, but has always loved ranch dressing, so I decided to make a ranch dressing fountain the center-piece of her food buffet. Innovative, yet slightly disgusting at the same time,…
Read More
A wine named Chilensis, has created quite a stir in the East, after it was revealed that its name loosely translates to “f*cking nuts”. In the same vein, it has been reported that Château Latour may not be performing as well as it should based compared to other Bordeaux first growths, as its name translates as “to fall down”. Local demand has apparently soared for Chilensis, pushing prices up prices by HK$10 within a matter…
Read More
There are about 5 different ways to make sparkling wine. The methods range from the most simple: carbonation (like they do with soda), right the way through to the method we’re about to discuss. Méthode Champenoise or Méthode Traditionnelle (Champagne Method) is easily the most time-consuming, but arguably yields the highest quality result. It’s also the oldest and most traditional way to make a wine “bubbly”. History boffins are a little confused as to who exactly…
Read More
A stash of pre-World War II wine found in a garden was destroyed by the British army bomb squad, a reader recounts in this month’s issue of Decanter magazine. Mr Tim Woodall from Suffolk, describes how he found a metal cylinder ‘rather like a model airship’ while gardening. Thinking it might be an unexploded World War II mortar, he ‘stepped away from the flower bed’ he proceeded to pick up the Dog-and-Bone and call the…
Read More