Taking the world one wine at a time.
I know what you’re thinking! No sooner do you wrap your head around Facebook, Twitter, Google+, FourSquare, LinkedIn etc ……and another bloody social media network comes along to suck all the life out of you! Thankfully, Pinterest is quite possibly the easiest to understand! The best way to think of Pinterest is as a “social scrapbooking” network, with the added bonus that you don’t have to spend all your weekends at Joann Fabrics! I joined…
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According to a new study, the wine industry in Virginia is now worth almost three-quarters of a billion dollars. What’s even more impressive is that the figure has more than doubled in the last five years, from $362 million to $747 million, this whilst the country has faced one of its worst economic recessions. While unemployment soared nationally, in Virginia, the number of wine industry jobs increased from 3,162 to 4,753 between 2005 and 2010….
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When it comes to qualifications, one man has sniffed and slurped his way through more wine examinations than perhaps any other. That man is Gérard Basset, 54 years old, boasts not just a Master of Wine qualification, but also a Master Sommelier, and a Wine M.B.A. from the Bordeaux École de Management, for which he wrote a thesis on the psychology of the wine list. If that wasn’t enough, in 2010 he was named world…
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A wine named Chilensis, has created quite a stir in the East, after it was revealed that its name loosely translates to “f*cking nuts”. In the same vein, it has been reported that Château Latour may not be performing as well as it should based compared to other Bordeaux first growths, as its name translates as “to fall down”. Local demand has apparently soared for Chilensis, pushing prices up prices by HK$10 within a matter…
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A stash of pre-World War II wine found in a garden was destroyed by the British army bomb squad, a reader recounts in this month’s issue of Decanter magazine. Mr Tim Woodall from Suffolk, describes how he found a metal cylinder ‘rather like a model airship’ while gardening. Thinking it might be an unexploded World War II mortar, he ‘stepped away from the flower bed’ he proceeded to pick up the Dog-and-Bone and call the…
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The man with the golden-palate: world-famous winemaking consultant Michel Rolland, who built his reputation on working his magic in the cellar, is now doing miracles of a different sort, by turning his South African wine into water for Ethiopians in desperate need. Recognizing this urgent need and the critical role that water plays in the production of fine wine, Michel Rolland has partnered with CNN Hero Doc Hendley, founder of Wine To Water, and Montesquieu…
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The Quarterly Review of Wines is calling it quits for its 145,000-circulation magazine after more than thirty years. “No one really wanted to go, but we all knew it was time,” said publisher/owner Richard Elia. The QRW has been checking out vintages and profiling winery owners since 1977. Elia decided it was time for last call because of an aging staff, declining ads and readership and an industry that’s not much fun to cover any…
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Renowned Rhone producer Michel Chapoutier has added his own comments to the natural wine debate by denouncing natural winemakers as out-of-touch hippies making defective wines. Interviewed in the current issue of Decanter, Chapoutier tells John Livingstone-Learmonth the practice of natural winemaking – that is, using no sulphur dioxide to stabilize the wines – is a con. ‘It is a connerie. It is rubbish. It’s like making vinegar, bad vinegar. How can anyone allow toxic yeasts…
Read MoreAccess to the Court Of Master Sommeliers has always been strictly regulated and cameras have never been allowed anywhere near the exam…. until now! “Somm” is the story of four Sommeliers attempting to pass the prestigious and extremely rigorous Master Sommelier Exam, a test with one of the lowest pass rates in the world. Getting the title of "Master Sommelier" is not something that can happen overnight. In order to qualify, one must take an…
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The first English sparkling wine made by a French champagne maker is about to go on sale in England, signaling clearly that British “fizz” is starting to come of age. According to a report published in The Guardian newspaper, labeled as Meonhill, the British bubbles will be available early this year. It has been made from grapes grown from French rootstocks planted in Hampshire. The planned release of the first 5,000 bottles by Didier Pierson-Whitaker,…
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Rick Tigner, President, Kendall Jackson Wine Estates, the largest family owned luxury/ultra-premium wine company in America, goes undercover this Sunday in the third episode of Season Three of Undercover Boss. This is the first time the CBS show has focused on an alcoholic beverage company. It’s also rare for a major wine company to put its day-to-day dealings under such a public microscope. “My thought was the positives will outweigh the negatives,” Tigner said at…
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