Taking the world one wine at a time.
Ahhhh, yes! Just what we need! Another long and tedious argument relating to wine packaging! I came to terms a long time ago with the fact that if I had to read another article on “cork vs. screwcaps”, I would probably just stab myself in the eye with a corkscrew. I’ve therefore been ever-so-feverishly searching for the next big argument! Since the next debate that I predict will be wine in glass vs. plastic bottles,…
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The world’s largest cork tree is The Whistler Tree, (so named because of the songbirds which occupy its huge canopy), and is located in the Alentejo region of Portugal. The tree is 230+ years old, and has been producing corks since 1820. It was five years old when the first English settlers arrived in Australia, and six years old when the French Revolution began in 1789. Bottles of wine sealed with cork in that same…
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I received the following email late last week: “Kris, my co-worker/best friend/BBQ Champion, Matt, has like 4,000 corks and needs some unique ideas about how to use them. Figured you might have some wisdom in this area. Let me know if you do! Thanks!” Always wanting to be the helpful friend, I figured this is a perfect opportunity to do some research into the crazy things that people do to recycle wine bottle corks! In…
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Who’s in the Wine Business Now? The Food Network! The Food Network this week hosted a preview sampling of their new wine collection called entwine. A partnership with the California winery Wente Vineyards, it’s a venture 18 months in the making and scheduled to hit the shelves in August. I have no idea why I started with this story…oh well! I’m sure the wine will be decent, but how much more exciting would it…
Read More100% cork. 9217 natural wine corks. 1 portrait. A time-lapse video. from Scott Gundersen on Vimeo.
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Ok, so what are we looking at? Well, what this photo is showing is 14 bottles of identical samples of Leasingham Estate 1999 Clare Valley Semillon, all cellared together for 10 years. They range all the way from watery pale to a dark brown. The bottle on the left, perfect in color (and reportedly in taste), was closed with a Stelvin (screwcap) closure! The others have a variety of natural and processed cork or…
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I read this quote recently from Aldo Sohm, Sommelier at Le Bernardin and thought you might find it interesting: “A winemaker I know once did a test to see how plastic corks affect a wines flavor. He filled empty wine bottles with water, put plastic corks in them and stored them in the cellar. After 6 months, certain bottles tasted like a Barbie doll – and those were the best ones!”
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