Last Sunday Christopher Watkins, Tasting Room Manager for Ridge Vineyards hosted the Fall 2011 Wine Bloggers Tasting at Ridge, Lytton Springs in Healdsburg. An intimate group of wine bloggers, many of whom I followed and am a fan of, met in the barrel room. It was great to put faces with names. That made the [...]
Filed under: Virtual tasting, Wine, Wine Tasting | Tagged: Blogger Tasting, Event, Grenache, postaweek2011, Ridge Vineyards, Syrah, Viognier, World of Wine | 3 Comments »
I’ve been drinking sparkling wine on a weekly basis since February, and blogging about it in my “T.G.I.F. Champagne and the like…” series. During that time, I’ve tasted sparkling wines from not only the usual suspects, France, California, Spain, and Italy, but also countries that aren’t “top of mind” when it comes to bubbly like [...]
Filed under: Argentina, Austria, Champagne, France, Italy, Malbec, Prosecco, South Africa, Spain, Sparkling Wine, Wine | Tagged: Argentina, Australia, Austria, California, Champagne, Cremant, cremant de bourgogne, Cremant de Limoux, France, Italy, Spain, Sparkling wine | 3 Comments »
Domaine Chandon, established in 1973, was the first French-owned sparkling wine venture in the United States. The winery, and their highly regarded restaurant étoile are co-located in Yountville. Thus creating the only fine dining/restaurant in the Napa Valley. Chandon makes both sparkling and still wine, but are best known for their sparkling wines which are produced [...]
Filed under: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sparkling Wine, Wine, Wine Tasting | Tagged: Champage, Domaine Chandon, postaweek2011, Rosé, Sparkling Rose, Sparkling wine, World of Wine | Leave a Comment »
From the “A picture (or moving pictures) is worth a thousand words” file, is this short that is the final installment in my dessert wine series. The video explains how Port wine is made. This video is a one of the finalists in the Wine Spectator 2011 Video Contest. Click here to check out the [...]
Filed under: Wine, Wine Tasting | Tagged: Dessert Wines, Duoro, Port, Portugal, postaweek2011, World of Wine | Leave a Comment »
A tasting of unique dessert wines from around the world
Filed under: Austria, Cabernet Franc, Canada, Dessert Wines, Food and Wine Pairing, France, Gewurtztraminer, Gruner Vetliner, Muscat, Wine | Tagged: Alsace, Austrian wine, Canada, Chenin Blanc, Dessert Wine, Eiswein, Gewurztraminer, Greece, Hungary, Ice wine, Languedoc-Roussillon, Loire, Muscat, Noble rot, postaweek2011, Tokaji, World of Wine | 2 Comments »
At the most recent meeting of the Pacific Pointe Wine Tasting Club it was Syrah night. However, for the first time, we encountered a situation where one of the wines to be tasted was not the selected varietal. That’s because it didn’t meet the at least 75% threshold for a wine to be labeled a [...]
Filed under: Syrah, Wine, Wine Tasting | Tagged: Australia, California, postaweek2011, Syrah, World of Wine | Leave a Comment »
For this week’s “T.G.I.F. Champagne and the like” tasting, it’s my first sparkler from the state of Washington. Domaine Ste. Michelle (“DSM”) is one of the largest sparkling wine houses in the U.S. producing more than 300,000 cases of value sparkling wines annually. In addition to the Brut tasted here, they also produce Blanc de Noirs, Blanc [...]
Filed under: Sparkling Wine, Wine, Wine and Food Pairing, Wine Tasting | Tagged: Champagne, Columbia Valley, Domaine Ste. Michelle, Pinot noir, postaweek2011, Sparkling wine, United States, World of Wine | Leave a Comment »
Late harvest is a term applied to wines that are made from grapes left on the vine longer than usual. Allowing the grapes to “hang” longer (to the point where the grapes may be similar to raisins) increases their sugar levels, making a sweeter wine. How long the grapes are left on the vine determines [...]
Filed under: Austria, Canada, Dessert Wines, Food and Wine Pairing, France, Germany, Muscat, Wine | Tagged: Botrytis cinerea, Dessert Wines, Eiswein, Ice wine, Late harvest wine, Noble rot, postaweek2011, Puttonyos, Sauternes, Tokaji, Trockenbeerenauslese, World of Wine | 3 Comments »
Dessert wines are sweet wines served with, or instead of dessert. Dessert wines are also known as “stickies” because picking the grapes makes the workers hands sticky. The term originated in Australia, but has become ubiquitously synonymous with dessert wines around the world. There are essentially two types of dessert wines, fortified and late harvest. In [...]
Filed under: Wine | Tagged: Dessert Wines, Fortified wine, Madeira, Madeira wine, Oloroso, Pedro Ximenez, Port, Port wine, Portugal, Portuguese wine, postaweek2011, PX, Sherry, Solera, Spain, Sweetness of wine, Wine, World of Wine | 4 Comments »
For this week’s “T.G.I.F. Champagne and the like” tasting, “I’m going back to Cali”. Korbel, was founded in 1882. They are one of the few US producers that include “Champagne” in the name of their products, rather than sparkling wine. That’s because of a loophole in US laws that allows “semi-generic” products such as sparkling [...]
Filed under: Sparkling Wine, Wine, Wine and Food Pairing, Wine Tasting | Tagged: Champagne, Korbel Champagne Cellars, postaweek2011, Sparkling wine, United States, Weekly Champagne Tasting, Weekly Sparkling Wine Tasting, Wine, World of Wine | 2 Comments »
