Posts for "" Category
When Is a Wine Considered ‘Manipulated’?!?
What in the heck am I talking about? Can it be that wine is not simply an all-natural alcoholic beverage that is the result of no human intervention whatsoever?!?!?!? Many wineries obviously want you to think that this is the case! When reading ads or perusing websites of many wineries, their message is that their Read more…
Conventional Wisdoms – Smaller is Better in the Wine Industry . . . Or Is It?
It seems that with most things in life, bigger is considered better . . . In the wine industry, though, conventional wisdom is that ‘smaller is better’ . . . smaller yields, smaller tanks, smaller presses, smaller case volumes, etc. ‘Smaller’ wineries produce better wine then ‘bigger’ wineries, right? Well, just as with all things Read more…
When 30 Brix May Still Not Be High Enough . . . .
Brix is a measure of sugar levels in grapes in the wine industry. It roughly translates as follows: a grape sample showing a reading of 20 brix means that that sample has approximately 200 grams of sugar per liter of solution . . .or almost 2 lbs. of sugar per gallon! Yikes! It also means Read more…
Fist-A-Cuffs in the Tasting Room!
A few weeks back, I walked into our tasting room to find 4 customers arguing with each other. I stayed back and listened as best as I could to try to understand what was going on, and this is what I heard . . . No.1: I smell citrus and spice from this wine. No. Read more…
White Zinfandel is King and Goes Great with Steak!!!!
Now that I have your attention, I wanted to tell you a bit about one of my favorite hours spent at UC Davis in my Viticulture and Enology study days . . .
Finding the Right Match . . .
There are many many books, blogs, and articles written every year about matching wine with food. There have been a handful of scientific studies on the matter as well (See Hildegarde Heyman’s study from UC Davis a few years back debunking wine and cheese pairings).
Is It Done Yet? Harvest Decisions . . .
When I was growing up, whenever my mom would make a special turkey dinner, she would always insert a temperature ‘doo dad’ that would ‘pop up’ when the turkey was done (or when the turkey hit a certain temperature, I’m assuming). Therefore, it was ‘easy’ to tell when it was done . . .
Conventional Wisdoms . . . Red Wine With Fish?
There has not been a lot of ‘scientific research’ about matching certain wines with certain foods. Most of the ’common knowledge’ about the subject has been disseminated by wineries themselves, with specific suggestions of which food to pair with their specific wines.
Whining About Wines . . . Wine Clubs
I read an interesting blog last week chronicling a reader’s dislike of wine clubs in general. We’re not talking your run-of-the-mill ‘Wine of the Month’ type club here (and not that I have anything against that club or others like it in particular).
Our Comfort Zones . . .or Thinking Outside the Box . . .
All of us have a ‘comfort zone’ in many aspects of our lives. For some, it’s with our finances, avoiding ‘risky’ ventures at all costs. For some, it’s their clothes, knowing what they like and avoiding ‘new’ or ‘trendy’ pants or shirts.
