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• Wine news

  

  Wine news August 23, 2017

  by Christopher Barnes on 8/23/2017

  Eric Asimov in the New York Times on the impact of climate change in Piedmont, Italy. "The local chapter of Coldiretti, the Italian agricultural lobby, noted that the harvest of grapes for Barolo, which often used to reach into November, now took place weeks earlier."

  Vogue says Lambrusco is making a comeback. “The artisans kept with making real Lambrusco this whole time, when brands like Riunite were making cheap, pop idol, castrated versions of the wine and finally, their work is receiving recognition in modern times.”

  The Drinks Business on a Napa wine merchant sued for $1M for selling fake wine. "As reported by CNBC, Gundlach says Soutirage, based out of Yountville, had assured him of the wines’ provenance when he expressed concern. However a wine expert he hired privately to assess the credibility of the bottles concluded otherwise."

  Decanter checks out Brunello. "At the Baricci estate they resorted to spraying water in the vineyards in the early hours of the morning to try to give some respite to the vines. ‘I couldn’t say 2012 is a five-star vintage,’ says Francesco Baricci; ‘there was just too much drought stress.’

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• Wine news

  

  Wine news August 22, 2017

  by Christopher Barnes on 8/22/2017

  Food and Wine on not over-thinking tasting notes. "Since everyone’s taste buds are different, pinpointing definitive notes can be tricky." 

  China has its first Master Sommelier reports Decanter. "LU Yang MS, corporate wine director for Shangri-La Hotels globally, successfully navigated the latest set of exams to become the first Chinese Master Sommelier, said the Court of Master Sommeliers this week."

  In Punch Jon Bonné explores good rosé. "Let’s even forget, for a moment, that shitty ideas like White Girl Rosé stand to do to quality rosé what Beaujolais Nouveau did to Beaujolais: create a populist travesty that ruins a good thing."

  Vinography remembers Greek winemaker Haridimos Hatzidakis who passed away. "I felt a bit of something of him in his wines, which were the finest on Santorini and some of the most distinctive wines in the world."

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• Winemaker Interviews

  

  Nathan Kendall: Pushing the Limits of World Class Wine in the Finger Lakes

  by Valerie Kathawala on 8/21/2017

  What distinguishes Kendall is the tiny scale of his operation, his dedication to the study of individual vineyards and what they give to his wines, his deliberate minimalism in the cellar, and his long view on both the past and future of Finger Lakes winemaking. read more »

• Wine news

  

  Wine news August 21, 2017

  by Christopher Barnes on 8/21/2017

  Andrew Jefford in Decanter on the importance of place in wine. "The aim of the wine game, over centuries, is to find the greatest places on earth to make wine.  We’re looking everywhere: Texas, Uruguay, Inner Mongolia.  The results are often exciting, but we now know that truly great places are rare, rare, rare."

  NJ.com on how New Jersey wine became a big business. " Over the past decade, New Jersey has become the seventh largest wine producing state in the country, generating $30 million dollars a year from 1.5 million gallons of wine produced annually, according to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture."

  The Newstimes.com on baseball star David Ortiz's wines. "Arias, Ortiz's wine portfolio, is named after his mother, Angela Rosa Arias, who died in a car crash in 2002. His wine lineup includes a merlot, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc."

  Town and Country talk to the former Trump Winery owner Patricia Kluge. "Kluge acknowledged that the president's second-eldest son, Eric Trump, "is doing a great job at maintenance" (Eric is the current president of the winery)."

  The Beastie Boys Mike D is putting together a wine program reports The Drinks Business. "We are putting together a wine program that will get customers tasting things they might not taste. If you like California Syrah, I might point you towards a wine from another part of the world that’s better value. We’re going to pour half-bottles, so you can try different things.”

  Jancis Robinson on how corks are fighting back. "I will spare you the intricate detail that so inspires Diam's team of food technologists, but basically they buy cork from around the world and, at their plant just over the Spanish border from Portugal's cork country, treat it with supercritical carbon dioxide, the vital element that is somewhere between a gas and a liquid, to eliminate 100% of the volatile molecules that might alter flavour."

  The Washington Post checks out Dusty Baker wines. "Nothing’s better than seeing your own toils out there come to fruition, eating your own fruit, drinking your own wine,” Baker told me. “This is how it was supposed to be in the old days. There weren’t stores where you could go get it. You grew your own. There’s nothing better . . . . That’s why I miss my garden.”

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• Grapes

  

  Godello: The Comeback Grape

  by Edward Marchese on 8/20/2017

  Godello is a beautifully malleable grape that is likened to chardonnay read more »

• Column

  

  Kalin Chardonnay: Genius in a Bottle, With a Nod to Pasteur

  by Dorothy J. Gaiter on 8/18/2017

  "We wanted a strain of yeast that wouldn’t make any off-characters and that sort of thing, but would be basically an amplifier for terroir.” Dorothy J. Gaiter talks to microbiologist and winemaker Terrance Leighton of Kalin Cellars read more »

• Wine news

  

  Wine news August 18, 2017

  by Christopher Barnes on 8/18/2017

  The Miami Herald on how famous people want you to drink their wines. "Even “Twin Peaks” star Kyle MacLachlan makes wine these days in Walla Walla, Washington, on the awesomely titled label Pursued by Bear."

  The New York Times provides a travel piece on wine tourism in the Yakima Valley, Washington. "The pioneers who first took a chance on planting Vitis vinifera — in a place where Concord grapes were king — have in one generation seen the number of wineries in Washington State swell from a handful to nearly 1,000."

  Eater says Trump winery says that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump. "The winery that bears Donald Trump’s name, which is located in Charlottesville, Virginia, has long denied having anything to do with the current president of the United States."

  The San Francisco Chronicle on the wines of To Kalon. "Robert Mondavi Winery now owns the largest share of To Kalon, with 450 planted acres, and sources additional fruit for its wines from the MacDonald and Detert holdings."

  Eric Asimov in the New York Times on how Alsatian wines strike a balance between dry and sweet.  "Alsace also has an image problem. Or, to be more precise, in the United States it faces the absence of one."

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• 

  Understanding German Riesling: Zeroing in on Sweetness

  by Valerie Kathawala on 8/17/2017

  The sensory allures of German Riesling are immediate: sublimely aromatic, electric in their acidity, and unrivaled for their lithe, mineral refreshment. But understanding the wines can be a life’s work. Here are five rules to steer you to a German Riesling you'll love. read more »

• Wine news

  

  Wine news August 17, 2017

  by Christopher Barnes on 8/17/2017

  Rolling Stone on Jennifer Lawrence guessing wine review or movie review. "The clip opens with Lawrence detailing the trip, joking, "We'll hang out, drink some wine, talk politics, drink wine, maybe call your ex – maybe we'll call my ex, who knows!"

  Self asks are the health benefits of red wine legit? "The main thing to keep in mind is that—despite headlines to the contrary—wine isn't going to magically make you healthier; and that doesn't make it inherently good or bad."

  The Chicago Tribune on how Australian wine is more than Shiraz. "These rieslings are generally light- to medium-bodied, with bursts of lime and minerality, plus floral notes and zingy acidity. They're dry, crisp, citrusy, even tangy at times, and refreshing, with moderate alcohol often landing at or close to 12 percent."

  The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Duckhorn has bought central coast pioneer Calera. "“I’m 73½ years old, and I’ve been doing this job for 42 years,” said Calera’s founder and owner Josh Jensen, noting that none of his three adult children had decided to join the family wine business."

  Food and Wine on how hipsters are making sherry cool again. “Good sherries are high quality, food-friendly wines that are tapping into the changing preferences of the generation that light the fuse under craft ales and craft gins,” Joe Aylmer, Sherry buyer at Majestic, was quoted as saying."

  Refinery 29 explores Hello Kitty wine. "It might be the only alcoholic beverage that has ever made us squeal like we're 6-year-olds."

  Decanter gets excited about old vines in Roussillon. "These local grapes that were dismissed in the 1960s for their high acidity are now being taken seriously for the exact same qualities. There are increasing numbers of young winemakers rescuing plots of abandoned grapes, or replanting existing vineyards with traditional varieties. This is what we are trying to draw attention to,’ he says."

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• Producer Profile

  

  Getting a Handle on Schandl

  by Barbara Sturgis on 8/16/2017

  Exploring the wines of Austria's Weingut Peter Schandl. read more »