Taking the world one wine at a time.
Wine: Three Wine Company, Old Vines Field Blend Place: Contra Costa, California Grapes: Zinfandel, Carignane, Mataro, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, and Black Malvoisie Retail: Around $18
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Grape 100% Tempranillo Most often found in Spain, particularly in the Rioja wine region, the name Tempranillo is thought to be linked to the Spanish word “temprano” meaning “early”. The grape supposedly ripens weeks earlier than other varietals. Facts So this would be my first Aussie Tempranillo, at least from what I can remember, but then again my memory is pretty horrible. Tempranillo has always been a grape that has fascinated me. It is…
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Nope, bottle shock isn’t when you jump out wearing a scary mask to surprise your favorite wine! Sorry to disappoint, although that would have been a fun topic! “Bottle shock” is actually very hard to describe scientifically, but it’s certainly very real. When a wine is reported to be suffering from bottle shock, it is said to be closed or muted on the palate. All the individual parts of the wine become disjointed, leaving you…
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I can only guess that the majority of people who navigate toward my humble little website (thanks by the way!) have never heard of Gary Vaynerchuk. Well, for starters that’s him in the picture. Spitting. Let me give you a very quick background on Gary: – Born in Belarus in 1975. – Immigrated to the U.S. in 1978, where he already started showing entrepreneurial tendencies trading baseball cards as a kid . – Gary’s father…
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I decided to switch things up a little with this pairing. I’ve been trying to do the “low carb thing” for the last few weeks, and also going forward into the next few months. I figured I needed to drop a lb or three! For this reason, the next few months worth of pairings will probably not feature any type of carb item. Just a friendly warning. I found the recipe for Chicken and Watercress…
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Tinto [Teen-toe] on the front of a wine bottle is a Spanish term just meaning red wine. However just to confuse you, Tinta [Teen-ta] means Tempranillo, the main red grape of Spain. Here are some examples, all of which just mean Tempranillo, but are used within various regions throughout Espana: Tinta del País, Tinta de Toro and Tinta Fino.
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Grape 100% Nebbiolo, pronounced as it reads, neh-bee-oh-low. Nebbiolo is most certainly the king of red wines coming out of the Piedmont region of Italy. It isn’t debatable. It’s a fact. The name Nebbiolo is believed to stem from the Italian word nebbia, meaning fog. Supposedly fog usually sets into the region during grape harvest. Facts Barolo’s typically aren’t your everyday after-work gluggers, but last night I was feeling fancy! Why wait for a…
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Warning: This wine may contain fish bladders Wine lovers could be in for a bizarre shopping experience when a controversial federal law comes into effect in summer 2012. Get ready for label warnings declaring that your favorite beverage contains fish, eggs or milk. As part of new Health Canada food and beverage regulations designed to protect allergy sufferers and people with severe food intolerances, alcohol producers will be required to list an array…
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It was surprisingly difficult to write this article. This title originally was “Top 10 Wineries Doing Facebook Right!” but I just couldn’t find 10 wineries. A much easier post would have been “Top 200 Wineries Doing Facebook Wrong!” I could name-names, but that wouldn’t be very fair now would it? The thing that makes all of this worse is that the really big ones, supposedly the ones with the big marketing budgets are generally the…
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If you are a regular reader of this site, you probably already know that I don’t take myself too seriously. There is a fine-line though. I like to have fun with wine, but there is occasionally a little more serious side to it. The following is my list of Pretentious Things to Say at a Wine Tasting. This list isn’t hypothetical, these are ACTUAL comments I have heard at wine tastings (apart from the one…
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Grape 100% Gewurztraminer Facts Before we get started let’s get the pronunciation on the grape out of the way: ‘ga-VERTZ-trah-MEE-ner’ It’s a tough one! Alexander Valley Vineyards decided a few years ago that the Gewurz was one of those wines perfectly suited to bottle under a screw cap. This due to the fact that the wine should ideally be consumed within a few years of its vintage date.
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