Overview To Sampling Wine
The fundamentals of tasting red wine are reasonably straightforward to find out. As soon as the basics are understood, the nuances and details can be enhanced over a lifetime. Like any kind of various other skill, More »
Red Wine Types
Red wine has a lot of different types, among which, the most popular include Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Moreover, More »
Category Archives: Malbec
Texas Wine – The Historical Wine Making of Chateau Bubba
Although Texans have made wine since the frontier days, they have always had trouble getting any respect for their craft. One visitor from the 19th century complained that the handcrafted local wines made from wild grapes were too sour.
More recently, when the state’s wineries began modern production, unappreciative outsiders labeled the Texas wine and wineries “Chateau Bubba” as a derision.
Although this probably had some truth to it in the past, it hides much of the reality. The very same Spanish priests who introduced vineyards and wine to California, also cultivated grapes in Texas by the 18th century. Although little is known about the quality of the mission wines, there is evidence that some later European settlers (particularly Germans and Czechs) were accomplished vintners. They developed ways to make good wine from native mustang grapes, and they passed their knowledge to several generations up to the present.
At the turn of the century, these same poor wild grapes actually played a large part in turning around and saving the French wine industry from disaster. When a plant louse epidemic called phylioxera attacked vineyards everywhere, a Texas vintner named T. V. Munson found a solution by grafting French vines onto the more disease-resistant Texas grape vines. Munson is still a hero in France and the Napa Valley of California.
Before Prohibition started in 1920, there were at least 16 commercial wineries in Texas. The only one to survive Prohibition was Val Verde in Del Rio. They closed until the end of Prohibition in 1933, but rep-opened after it was repealed. Val Verde remained the only commercial winery in Texas, until the 1970’s, when a national wine boom started a revival of production in the state.
The very first bottles from these new commercial wineries may not have been very good, but they improved at a rapid pace. Starting in the 1980’s, Texas wines were and continue to be regular winners in wine competitions throughout the country, taking metals in many categories.
Some of the larger wineries of Texas today include Llano Estacado, Pheasant Ridge, Sainte Genevieve, Fall Creek, Sister Creek, Messina Hof, Moyer, Slaughter Leftwich, Grape Creek, and a growing number of other wine producers.
Texas wine today is truly an international treasure, and is no longer labeled as the “Chateau Bubba” of wine making. It can now stand up with the great wines of the rest of the world, and continues to grow in quality and reputation.
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Finding The Perfect Wine Corkscrew
More than one wine corkscrew is a necessity in any serious collection of wines. Most wine collectors have at least two or three corkscrews of their collection. You can have three of the same type. Or, if you want to be more adventurous, you can add unique corkscrews to your collection. If you want to take your wine collection seriously, you need to take your collection of wine accessories just seriously. You can find a lot of personality in many types of corkscrews, coasters, and collars available on the market today.
Be sure you have the appropriate accessories, besides the wine corkscrew, to enjoy your wine collection. Every serious wine collection requires the right accessories. A corkscrew is an obvious necessity. However, you also need things like coasters. Coasters are available for both the wine glass and the wine bottle. Their practical purpose is to catch any stray drops to come off the container. This prevents staining of tablecloths and furniture. Wine collars are just as important for catching wine drips coming out of a bottle. These sit just below the lip of the bottle and catch drops with absorbent material.
Select the right glasses to complement your wine collection. Some people think you can drink any type of wine properly out of a generic glass. However, those who take wine very seriously want to have a variety of glasses available. Some wines taste better in a deep bowl glass such as reds. A tulip glass is a great option when dealing with a light and sparkly white wine. Champagne tastes better when you taste it out of a champagne flute. There are any number of sizes and shapes available in wine glasses. When thinking about adding a wine corkscrew to your collection, make sure your collection of glasses is just as comprehensive.
Keep your wine in good shape with a bottle stopper. Once you use a wine corkscrew to remove the cork from a bottle, you need something to close the bottle with if you do not drink the entire thing. That is where you need a bottle stopper. As with corkscrews, you can find a wide range of designs and styles that comes to bottle stoppers. This is some corkscrews also double as bottle stoppers. Make sure that you have a few of these on hand to keep your wine tasting great.
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How to Become a Wine Connoisseur
Of course, you will need to be a lover of wine if you want to become a wine connoisseur. Many people think that you have to be someone that makes wine or has a large collection of this grape-based beverage in your cellar in order to become a connoisseur. Luckily, that is simply not true. This guideline will provide you with a few tips for becoming a connoisseur and starting a new hobby of appreciating fine wines. If you would like to purchase this beverage or any accessories, check out websites like Wine Enthusiast and Wine.com.
The Color of Wine
Being a connoisseur is much more than simply tasting wines. You also need to take the time to study the color of the wine that you are drinking so you can take mental notes of it. Of course, to do this, you will need to pour your beverage into a clean, clear glass. You will notice that some wines have a deep red color, while others have a fruity purple or light color. Swirl the wine around in your glass against both natural and artificial light to see how the light reflects off of it. As you gain experience with studying the color, you will also be able to note a difference in texture between various wines.
The Aroma of Wine
Unfortunately, if you want to become a connoisseur, you are not ready to take a sip of your wine yet. Once you have taken some time to study the color of your beverage, you should take notice of its aroma. Generally speaking, every wine that you drink will have a different aroma to it. In no time at all, you will be able to figure out the type that is in your glass without even looking at the bottle. Many people do not realize that the aroma of wine actually enhances its taste. If a wine smell is pleasing in regards to its aroma, it is very likely that you will enjoy drinking that wine.
Wine Drinking
Now, for the the best part of becoming a wine connoisseur: drinking. The key to being a connoisseur is to not gulp your drink. Take a small sip and allow the wine to sit on your tongue for a few moments before you swallow it. You will be able to determine the sweetness of the beverage that you are drinking by doing that. Once you have allowed the wine to sit on your tongue, gently swirl it around your mouth. You have taste buds located throughout your mouth, so by swirling your wine like mouthwash, you will be able to see how the wine interacts with different aspects of your mouth. Being a connoisseur is not like being a taster, which means you can swallow and enjoy the beverage after you have taken some time to enjoy its full bodied flavor.
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Get Built in Wine Coolers
If you might be serious about wines or merely progressing to get serious about wines, you know how important temperature is to the well-being of your chosen bottles. You spend a great deal of money and time on your wines that they could be ruined if you do not store them right . They will also age well if properly stored?
You might ruin your wine collection in the event you lack the mandatory storage space. If you intend to age your wines and keep them for years, the very least that can be done is buy a built in wine cooler to keep your collection in tip-top shape for years to come. What is a built in wine cooler? Simply speaking, it is a cupboard space made for wines. This is crucial for those people who collect wines. It could be used for storage and also being a display case to exhibit your collection. Put the case on the dining room and maybe even your living room.
They ensure that the lighting inside the built in wine cooler is suited to wines since the regular light from refrigerators may cause harm to your wines. It is an effective investment and a very fascinating one at that. Your wines are going to be kept in great shape and it might also be a great accessory to your house because they come in great designs. They won’t clash with your décor to be able to display your wines and your wine cooler with pride. You have to remember that different varieties of wines are stored in several temperatures. You will find built in wine coolers that are fitted with different temperature settings. Your rose wines, red wines and white wines will be kept at the proper temperature and you will have no worries at all.
The Principles of Wine Sampling
A lot of people envision that wine sampling is a challenging subject to understand; in reality wine tasting is quite uncomplicated. Like the majority of details in everyday life it really generally takes practice before you should be able to sip a red or white wine and then acknowledge its qualities. As you show up at your initial wine sampling there is no need to learn every one of the wine phrases or even the attributes that produce a fantastic red or white wine. To take pleasure from your initial wine tasting you just need a good sense of smell, a sense of flavor as well as a decent eye; everything you currently have! You shouldn’t be discouraged by the lingo that could be tossed about by more experienced wine lovers. After some training anyone, too, should be able to make this happen at any wine tasting.
Whenever sampling wine, the first factor that you ought to undertake is to evaluate the shade of the wine you are about to try. To properly evaluate the coloring of the wine you need to tip the goblet away from you even while keeping it against a white-colored backdrop. Analyze the color from the glass’s edge to the middle of the wine. The age of the wine is frequently discerned from the shade of the wine. In order to plainly examine the color of the wine tilt the glass with a whitened piece of paper or a white tablecloth at the rear of the glass. It is best to make use of a clear glass during a wine tasting.
You’ve probably observed individuals swirling their glasses at a wine tasting. This approach is in fact a vital action to tasting wine. You must simply sniff the wine more often than once, the first whiff you get needs to be a brief one and the following one will need to be a deeper inhale. Just after swirling a glass of wine next take a quick inhale, following this preliminary sniff then you’re able to put your nose into the glass and breathe in deeply to obtain a greater concept of the wine. While you inhale the fragrance of the wine, search for unique notes for example fruitiness, floral accents, and overtones of oak.
The very first sip of the wine you take is not going to disclose all of its qualities; you might savor whether a wine is fairly sweet or dry, mild or substantial, or significantly complicated. On the next sip you can expect to begin to taste flavors like a particular fruit, spice, or various other notes that were definitely not noticeable at the first sip. After you have swallowed the wine you ought to be able to discover if you experience any lingering taste on the palate and identify just what consistency of the wine seemed like. Wine tasting is definitely a unique pastime that will assist you to better value wine as well as put together excellent choices to couple with just about any food.