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Wine Ebooks:
| | The Complete Grape Growers Guide. |  | | A Complete Guide For Growing Grapes. Converts Very Well At A Reasonable Price! Growing Grapes And Making Wine Is A Very Popular Topic Right Now.
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| | Fool-Proof Wine Values. | | | Learn How To Easily Find Wines Of $50 Quality For $10 Or Less. Impress Friends With Your Expanded Wine Knowledge. Eliminate Your Dependence On Wine Salespeople. And Take The Hassle Out Of Buying Wine.
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| | Making Wine From Home. | | | A Fun And Very Informative Book On Home Wine Making. The De Facto Standard For All Home Wine Enthusiasts With Recipes, Advice And Tricks.
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[01/23/2008, 11:34]
A Lambrusco for Wine Lovers | |  You cannot have a better match with a plate of salumi than with this wine. Chill it up a little bit, and start your engines. From the Grasparossa grape, I took a bottle over to a chef from Emilia-Romagna the other day. He has known me for years, but has rarely if ever acknowledged my presence in his world. When I handed the bottle to his son to give to him, you?d think I was his long lost cousin. His eyes lit up, he smiled, he liked me. He really, really, liked me. I owe it all to this friendly little Lambrusco.
Served slightly chilled, it is frizzante, and enters with a burst of slightly under-ripe dark cherry notes. Then the fruit kicks in and there, all of a sudden, you have a party on your palate. Note: this wine is bone-dry. Get yourself hooked up with a Lambrusco like this. It takes the snob off the table. It?s subtle and bold, delicate and a romp. It?s a serious wine that laughs at itself. Go get yourself some. In the U.S. it retails for under $20. Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro from Tenuta Pederzana. | | | |
[11/21/2008, 03:33]
Joseph Drouhin Beaujolais Nouveau Primeur 2008 wine review by Billy | | 
Nose: very fruity nose of cherry cola and macerated day old strawberries
Palate: light feel with strong acid structure and some tannins
Finish: short and a bit metallic
Hooray for Beaujolais Nouveau day! The Primeur 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau from Drouhin this year is a solid table wine that is easy to drink and easy going. It meets expectations without letting down. Shows good character. I paid $16 for the bottle. | | | |
[11/18/2007, 13:34]
UnScrew This | | The much-promised, overly hyped Riesling Review has now arrived (brought to you by Mylanta) Jill, Yulia, P-Cat, and myself (Jay) converged at Boozer Headquarters (my place) last Wednesday for the Riesling blind tasting. P-Cat's writing a column for a local newspaper and needed to taste through a bunch so we decided to make it A Thing. We each got a bottle from a different geographic locale, figuring the areas that needed representation were Germany, Alsace, Austria, New York, and Australia (don't blame me for the last one, ok?) AND, since we live the malt liquor lifestyle, we tasted them blind, each bottle wrapped lovingly in two layers of plastic bags. Ghetto super star, that is what we are. Here are my rather lame notes: Wine #1: Apricot, honeysuckle, rose petals on the nose; palate is lime, tangerine - stones, touch of cream, but thin. Wine #2: SULPHER! Yikes, burned my nose hairs. V pale in glass. Diesel, swampy nose. Palate of bitter green orange, lemon zest, pink grapefruit. Long finish due to acidity. Wine #3: Light, aromatic greens - fresh, sweet grass, white flowers, honeydew. Melon-apricot palate with stone minerality and balanced acidity. Yum. Wine #4: Diesel, wet stones. Sweet apricot, honey. Wine #5: Swamp water. Grape-lemon pucker candy. Sour Patch kids. Yuck. We no like. Results: 1: Paul Blanck 05 from Alsace (score 1 for me!) 2: Grosset 05 from Australia (upset of the CENTURY, folks!) 3: Domaine Wachau 06 from Austria (amazing value - our favorite, hands down, at only $12.99) 4: Fritz Haag 05 Kabinett from Germany (which we all guessed because of the residual - oops, sorry, forgot it was supposed to be a dry Riesling tasting..) 5: Red Newt Cellars 06 Reserve from NY State (surprising only in that is sucked so badly for the money - tasting like bad NYState wine, so I guessed this one immedately...) It was interesting too in that every wine except the Red Newt was screw cap. Go figure. Still not a huge fan of Riesling, especially since I tasted all these the night before some serious food poisoning that had me leaving pieces of myself roadside throughout the state for the next two days and I can't help but link the two incedents. Screwed indeed. | | | |
[11/20/2008, 19:29]
Threshers 2008 Money Off Voucher | |  Seeing as there are 8 people viewing the older Threshers Voucher pages on Spittoon as I type I thought a quick post of the new money off voucher was in order. I wasn't going to bother seeing as its been printed in various national newspapers and other websites and the focus of Spittoon has changed a little over the year... but here you go... Download the 2008 40% Threshers Voucher here: 40ThresherOfferVoucher.pdf  | | | |
[11/05/2008, 16:11]
Bartending Like Mom Used To? | | | …Ok, well my mom anyway. I for one, am not a fan of half the pompous, skinny tie types littering up the well these days. I prefer someone who doesn’t judge and knows when to push another cocktail on me. …WITHOUT regaling me (nay, really just them) with tales of their molecular gastronomic experiments with [...] | | | |
[10/31/2008, 01:57]
louis latour 2005 gevrey-chambertin | | | I don’t often buy wines from Maison Latour, and whilst I’ve had so-so bottles from them, it has more been due to lack of local availability than quality reasons. Now I’ve found a relatively close merchant, so two or three bottles might appear over the next days. 2005 Louis Latour, Gevrey-Chambertin Medium-plus colour. The [...] | | | |
[11/06/2008, 07:20]
Sacre Bleu Breaks Through Wine Marketing Clutter | |  It may sound obvious to put a girl in blue jeans in an ad for wine (like, helLO, this is an advertisement for youths, duh), and therefore not that interesting, but for some reason it works. Sacre Bleu's frankly young-looking model, along with product placement at the hip Miami music venue The Fillmore, support of charitable organization Rock the Cause and funny winemaking videos from French Gustave (it's always nice to have a Frenchie in the mix), put the brand at the top of the wine-marketing-to-Millennials heap. Haven't tasted the wine yet, but seeing as it's coming from France's promising Languedoc, my bet is it's not half bad.
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[11/06/2008, 10:20]
Photo Atlas of Spain´s Wine Culture | |  At the time of the grape harvest, Wine Tourism Spain has launched its first Photo Atlas on Spain´s geography and wine culture. The photo Atlas on winetourismspain.com thoroughly reflects Spain´s variety of vineyards and landscapes, the historical and architectural diversity of its wineries, as well as interesting aspects of wine culture. There are more than 300 photos organised in 6 albums: Landscapes, Cellars, Hard work, Wine Accessories, Close look at the vineyard and In-depth." This Atlas has been put together thanks to the photos which have participated in the First National Competition of Wine Photography in Spain. The competition has been sponsored by the Institute of Touristic Promotion of Castille la Mancha, Haciendas de España, Bodegas Torremilanos, with the collaboration of Verema.com. It is one of the initiatives launched by winetourismspain.com to enable the public to discover the variety of Spain´s wine culture and geography. The winners, chosen by a Jury made up of the different sponsors, are the following: First prize: Nevada Tardía (Antonio Martínez Andía)
Second prize: Casi la luna (Raquel Benito Olarte)
Third prize: Tinajas en la Mancha (M Jesús Abad de Lucas)
Special prize: Castille la Mancha Camino del Hidalgo (Daniel Fernández Méndez) Like many and several wine bloggers I love photography and find foreign travel particularily invigorating; from these galleries many photos are inspiring and evocative - Atraves de la Copa, Al Atardecer and Camino-del-Hidalgo.
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[10/15/2008, 23:41]
Lodi Wine Country 2nd Annual First Sip Weekend! | | Don't miss this opportunity to peek behind the cellar door and taste the wines of 2008  long before their release! Visit Lodi Wine Country for an amazing weekend of wine tasting, educational activities, chef demonstrations, barrel sampling, blending seminars, winemaking contests and food pairings! Meander from winery to winery to experience all that Lodi Wine Country has to offer! 40 Lodi wineries are poised to make this pre-holiday event memorable! Take the "First Sip" of Lodi's 2008 vintage wines straight from the barrel. Enjoy the fruits of our vintner's labor. Help to celebrate the end of another successful harvest! Take advantage of advance ticket prices! For $35 each, a ticket grants you two days featuring the best of Lodi Wine Country! Click here for Ticket link to make your purchase today! | | | |
[09/22/2008, 05:25]
India: So who is drinking what? | | There is definitely wine in India, but who exactly is drinking it? I have tasted pretty much all of the local, at least grape, wine I can find, which was pretty easy, as that is a population of about three producers. I ran across fruit wines being sold up in the foothills of the Himalayans, but I didn't have a chance to try it, and I don't usually count it as wine, at least for the scope of this blog.
The most amazing thing about wine, at least this far from Delhi (I am up north in the large city of Chandigarh) is people's perceptions of it. They, at least the locals I have met, do not know exactly what wine is. They assume it is a sort of whiskey, and a high priced one at that.
When I had a chance to share wine with them they were delighted with the taste, although to be fair I started them off with a slightly sweet white. This is a beginner wine for many people, and it was well received here, and went nicely with the local foods.
People here drink whiskey, and they drink it with nibbles before a meal. Drinking wine with the dinner was not something they had ever thought of doing. In fact drinking wine at all was something they had not thought of doing.
Almost every block there is a store that sells liquor and beer, and while the signs say they have wine, none actually do. Only a few stores carry wine at all, and their selection is very small.
That is not surprising given that most of the people in India I have met have no idea what wine is. The few restaurants that have wine listed have "both kinds" red and white, and nothing more descriptive than that.
The wines made in India are not bad, but they are very expensive. In a country where a hair cut cost $1.50 a $12 bottle of wine is an investment that few consider worth the risk.
It is changing. The ultra rich are drinking the big name labels, as they always do. The middle classes are ordering Dominos pizzas in their Levi jeans over their cell phones, and sooner or later they are going to start equating wine with their lifestyles.
Once India gets a taste for wine, watch out, there is a huge potential market here, if you are very, very patient, or very, very proactive. | | | |
[12/24/2007, 03:00]
Christmas at the BC Wine Appreciation Society | |  The mood was festive, as it always is, at the BCWAS Christmas party and tasting. Plenty of sparkles and bling were in evidence as our usual gang of suspects gathered to check out a selection of Christmas offerings from around the province.
Naturally, there was sparkling wine to start the evening ? Steller?s Jay from Sumac Ridge and as you can see at the right, owner Harry McWatters himself was pouring. Wonderfully yeasty and a perfect complement to the freshly shucked oysters that were part of the smorgasbord of delectable nibbles. And Frank said he was going to be  late? snicker. So of course, I just had to check that particular pairing again on my own.
During the course of the evening the food seemed endless and conversations delightfully varied ? wandering from the newest VQA stores in everyone?s ?hood to the emerging trend of creating strata housing developments amid the vines of established wineries to which grape varietals are best suited to BC and how that varies between the Okanagan and Vancouver Islands. But always, we came back to the main event ? the wines themselves. Picking a favourite was, as expect, a tough call, but by the time Frank got there, it seemed pretty much narrowed down to two.
From one of our favourite Gulf Island Wineries, Morning Bay, Keith (shown below with Francis, BCWAS' financial wizard) and Barbara had brought an unannounced bottle of their new release Bianco. Crisp and clean, with medium plus intensity of citrus with a hint of floral on the nose, Frank?s eyes took on that glint of appreciation when we went back to this one, and he was soon deep in conversation with Keith about the four strains of yeast used ? one for each of the grapes that make up this summer sipper blend: Schonberger, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, and a touch of Riesling. All are vinified separately with the Riesling adding just a touch of orchard fruit. Made in a bone dry, Alsace style, Frank?s first thought was oysters or shellfish ? especially  if you can?t find a Muscadet. At that point I didn?t have the heart to tell him about the earlier nibblies he?d missed.
A highlight of the evening, one that had attracted a huge amount of anticipation was the 2004 Nota Bene from Black Hills. Considered something of a cult wine among BC wine fans, this Bordeaux blend (43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc) is filled with black fruit plus a hint of cherry with cedar and pencil shavings. We agreed it was well balanced with fine-grained tannins.
Unfortunately, if you?re thinking of nipping down to the store to grab a bottle or two, think again. This wine sells out year after year ? unless you?re on their list, you likely won?t find any unless you can snag a bottle at a local restaurant or visit their Okanagan winery for yourself. Admittedly it was quite delicious. Still, at $35 seemed a bit pricy and in many ways remains an example of one of the biggest issues many (both of us included) believe the BC wine industry in general needs to consider carefully as it continues its evolution onto the world stage ? how to be competitive in an increasingly savvy, discriminating marketplace.
PS: Happy Birthday to Leah. Thanks for pouring on your special day and you did a great job with the candle on your cupcake. | | | |
[12/03/2006, 09:36]
Wine buying tips in shops and distributors | | When you're gazing at endless rows of wine and you have no clue what to buy, here some generalized tips that can help weed out the crap and allow you to make an educated guess: 1) Don't buy any wine that has dust on it. Chances are there is a reason it hasn't moved. It is either a horrible wine or its a terrible value. 2) If you only see a couple bottles of a particular wine left on the shelf, it may be worth trying. This could be an indication that people are buying it up like crazy and you just happened to walk in at the right time. 3) Read the back label for helpful flavor guides. Smart wineries include descriptions and food pairings. Those that don't have any indicators are anyone's guess as to how it will taste. Hopefully these easy-to-remember tips will help those in need. Be smart. Use common sense. Don't blindly buy another bottle of vino without making at LEAST an educated guess. Cheers! Posted by Ryan on Nov 26, 2006 2:45 pm
Comments: (post your comment) | | | |
[09/22/2007, 13:38]
The Bordelais?.! | | | Oh well… whilst we await the final assessment of the 2007 (a difficult year perhaps), the Bordelais are hoping that Bacchus might at least come to their aid in the rugby world cup. Take a look at their invocations at our new site drinksvideo.com. By the way the opening passage is in French but you [...] | | | |
[10/11/2008, 11:14]
2008 HdR Ask the Wine Maker - II | | Welcome to our video podcast 2008 Hospice Du Rhône Ask the Wine Maker - II - Video Show #46. Click the Image Below to Play the Video: Right Click Here to Download File Continuing our coverage of the 2008 Hospice du Rhône, we had some burning questions and we wanted some answers.
What do today’s winemakers, producers, importers, and attendees think of:
High alcohol wines?
Your favorite: French vs. American wines?
What’s your favorite amongst the 22 Rhone varietals? For More Info on the Hospice Du Rhône: www.hospicedurhone.org | | | |
[09/25/2006, 19:42]
Prosecco and Paris | |  Looks like the popularity of my favorite hotel heiress and yours, Paris Hilton, has bubbled up - and over - once again.
Paris was unveiled this weekend as the new face of Rich, a prosecco product packaged in a gold-colored can. The novelty is already losing its sparkle. Italian winemakers are insulted that the producer of Rich would circumvent the law that says Italian wine must be sold in bottles. Rich is not being sold in Italy, but rather in countries like Britain and Switzerland.
Then, of course, there's the whole bit about Paris' pesky DUI. Road safety advocates in Italy are molto irritated that these ads feature the party girl despite her less-than-stellar driving record.
But it's all worth it, isn't it? I mean, when I think of a vacuous product in pretty packaging, I think of Paris, too. | | | |
[03/24/2008, 18:43]
Wine Tasting: Rhone Rangers 2008 | | | The 2008 Rhone Rangers tasting in San Francisco was quiet this year. There were some good wines here, with Copain's wines standing out. | | | |
[11/13/2008, 13:15]
Wine vote carries Obama to victory! | | 
Obama beat McCain by 53 - 46 percent in the popular vote. The logic of the electoral college broadened this to a 68 - 32 percent victory. But there’s one core constituency where Obama thrashed McCain by an even wider margin: the wine vote.
Obama took nine of the top ten wine consuming states (Texas, the fourth largest wine market, was red) as well as 17 of the top 20 (Georgia and Arizona are 13th and 14th) using 2006 data on wine consumption from Adams Wine Handbook. Those states alone would have been enough to win the electoral college with 276 electoral votes for Obama. Overall, blue states this year were thirsty for wine, putting back a total of 80.8 percent of all wine consumed in America. McCain captured nine of the ten states with the lowest consumption (Vermont was blue). And in case half-bottle sized Vermont raises the question of whether the data per capita (of drinking age) were different, Obama actually took all of the top ten thirstiest states per capita and 18 out of the top 20. McCain took 14 of the bottom 15. Drink wine, vote Democratic? Forget Joe Six-Pack, this year the path to the White House was through the wine glass. Finally, and prosaically, Illinois was the number two state (behind much larger California) for Champagne and sparkling wine. I’m sure that figure went up after last Tuesday night. Total gallons of wine consumed in blue states: 228,563,000 or 80.8 percent of the total. The top twenty wine consuming states roll after the jump. California
Florida
New York
Texas
New Jersey
Illinois
Massachusetts
Washington
Pennsylvania
Michigan
Virginia
Ohio
North Carolina
Georgia
Arizona
Connecticut
Maryland
Colorado
Oregon
Wisconsin Fellow wine blogger Jon Bonne crunched the numbers differently, looking at wine production and voting behavior, finding that states producing 99.6% of American wine were blue this year. [SF Chronicle] | | | |
[10/27/2008, 10:00]
Château Palmer | | 
Château Palmer derives its English name from Charles Palmer (1777-1851), a former Mayor of the spa town of Bath and Member of Parliament, who rose to the rank of General during the Napoleonic period. A gentleman, officer, and aide-de-camp of the Prince of Wales, Charles Palmer apparently fell under the spell of Bordeaux as well as the charms of a beautiful widow, Marie de Gascq, who convinced him to buy her Château de Gascq estate. From 1816 to 1831, Palmer bought additional land and buildings in the communes of Cantenac, Issan, and Margaux, and by 1830 the property covered 163 hectares, including 82 hectares of vines. Ultimately, the good life did him in financially, and he was forced to sell his magnificent Médoc estate. Purchased in 1853, brothers Isaac and Emile Péreire and their descendents had the château built in 1856, and thereafter battled oidium and phylloxera, survived the Franco-Prussian war, and made it through the First World War, only to succumb to the economic crisis of the 1930s which forced them in turn to also sell the estate. Château Palmer was purchased by several families of Bordeaux, English, and Dutch extraction (the Sichel, Mähler-Besse, Ginestet, and Miailhe families) in 1938, and continues to be owned by its descendants. Château Palmer’s terroir dates from the Quaternary period, when gravel slowly accumulated on the Left Bank of the Gironde, pushed by the Dordogne and carried along by the Garonne. The two rivers meet a few kilometers downstream from Ch. Palmer to form the Gironde estuary. Among their current 52 hectares of vines, Ch. Palmer has a large percentage of Merlot, almost the same amount of Cabernet Sauvignon, and a small percentage of Petit Verdot. Here in Margaux, the vines are planted on gravely rises several meters thick, consisting of brittle black lydite, white and yellow quartz, quartzite mottled with black, green or blue, and white chalcedony. In an effort to help the vine roots sink deep into the gravelly soil, they till the soil regularly. They also maintain a very high vine density - 10,000 vines per hectare - in order to increase competition between the vines and encourage this deep rooting. Join us as we talk with Thomas Duroux, CEO of Château Palmer since July 2004, about Ch. Palmer’s fascinating history, along with its vineyards and wines. For more info on Château Palmer: www.chateaupalmer.com Sponsor- Millesima, Fine Wine Merchant: www.millesima-usa.com Click Below to Play the Show: Download audio file (GR-ENG-USA-2008-10-27.mp3)
| Show #218
(1:08:46min 49MB) |
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[11/13/2008, 18:01]
OTT Fass 4 Grüner veltliner 2007 | |  Weingut Bernard OTT. Wagram, Austria. 12.5%. Screwcap. Approx $A40.
One of the most notable things about this wine (besides the harmless tartrate crystals), is the lovely texture. Though a dry wine of 12.5%, this feels more voluptuous. It's silky and essence like and there is an impression of weight and flesh, without heaviness. It is zippy and spice laden with plenty of grip and length.
Very good - excellent.
93.
Now - 2012+
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reduce the risk of lung cancer in men, particularly in smokers, according to research published in the October issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
