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: Red Wine
A Wine Lover’s Weekly Guide To $10 Wines – A Red Crete (Greece) Blend
This is one of our first Greek wine reviews and the first review devoted to a wine from the island of Crete which produces about one fifth of all Greek wine. Kourtaki, the producer, was founded way back in 1895 by Vassili Kourtakis; perhaps the first Greek to obtain a diploma in oenology, the study of wine. This company started with retsina, but happily moved on to better wines. Kourtaki is now the largest producer of Greek wine, bottling an estimated thirty million bottles a year, half of which are exported. They are still producing re;sina wine, but frankly the less said about retsina (which by European Economic Community policy may only be produced in Greece) the better. The wine reviewed is a blend of the red Kotsifali grape found mostly in Greece and the red Mandilara grape, the most widely planted Aegean red variety. These two grapes are often blended together.
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review have been purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed Kourtaki Vin de Crete Red 2008 12.0% alcohol about $ 8.50
Let’s start by quoting the marketing materials. Tasting Note : Deep purple color ; cassis and red berry aroma ; berry fruit flavor, medium body and medium length. Serving Suggestion : Serve with souvlaki or pork kebobs. And now for my review.
At the first sips this wine was strongly acidic with some berries. It was not unpleasant. Its first pairing was with barbecued beef ribs in a sweet ketchup sauce. The wine’s acidity was tamed. There were no tannins and not much flavor. The accompanying potatoes roasted in chicken fat gave this wine more body. In the presence of an overly spicy salsa with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and cilantro the wine picked up some power.
The next meal involved zucchini stuffed with rice and ground beef and a side of green beans in a tomato sauce. The wine was somewhat harsh and short. I tasted berries. With the green beans the wine’s acidity toned down and as the meal proceeded the its harshness dropped. The dessert of orange fruit juice candy rendered this wine essentially tasteless.
My final meal was composed of beef stew with potatoes. The wine was thin and tasted of tobacco and berries. When I added powerful jalapeno pepper sauce the wine’s fruit intensified. The oriental-style side salad composed of tomatoes, pimentos, and garlic made the wine longer.
I ended the bottle with Matjes herring and two local cheeses. With the herring the wine was lightly acidic with virtually no tannins and tasted of red cherries. A relatively tasteless brick cheese managed to overpower this wine. When facing a somewhat tastier marbled cheddar cheese, the wine perked up a bit; the fruit was back.
Final verdict. I will not buy this wine again. But if you don’t like tannins and want a red wine other than Beaujolais you might consider this wine.
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A Wine Taster’s Guide to Environmental Wines – A Look at Lageder Reds
With today’s global attention focused on environmental health, entrepreneurs, citizen groups, and national governments attempt cooperation to improve air, water, and soil quality, to safeguard oceans and forests and especially to control climate change.
You can join the effort at your next wine tasting party by choosing wines from an eco-friendly winery like Alois Lageder. As you pour your guests a glass of these planet conscious wines, you can pass on knowledge that shows this historic Italian winery is no newcomer to environmentalism. This article looks at the aspects of eco-friendly winemaking including how winemakers create a natural balance to increase the vitality and pest and disease resistance of vines with a focus on one of the long time advocates of environmentalism in wine.
Alois Lageder
Winemaker Alois Lageder is one of many with environmental concerns, but for him, they are not recent. Born in 1950, Alois Lageder owns family vineyards located on steep Alpine slopes far from any beaten path in Alto Adige. The region borders Austria where residents speak both Italian and German and the past still dominates viticulture and winemaking. However, Alois Lageder’s visionary plan has always embraced modern technology. Instead of operating at cross-purposes, he sees nature, humans, and technology as cooperative forces with art as an expression of nature that informs people, an outlook that sends him to the top of any eco-friendly red wine club list.
Alois Lageder was named after his great grandfather who founded a winery in Bolzano in 1855. In 1934, the family acquired the Lowengang estate in Magre’ now planted with 77 acres of grapes and subsequently acquired other vineyards in prime locations in Alto Adige including the Cason’ Hirschprunn estate in 1991 planted with 79 acres.
Aspects Of Biodynamic Winemaking
Lageder grows vineyards on steep slopes from 750 to 3,250 elevations above the Adige Valley. All have been organically farmed, and the Lowengang estate is now farmed biodynamically, an even more rigorous and sustainable farming method than organic. Rather than unnatural single crop planting, Lageder cultivates multiple varieties in any given vineyard together with other plants, uses compost instead of artificial fertilizers, and fights parasites with natural predators. Lageder’s goal is to imitate the balance in nature and increase the health and vitality of the vines so they are resistant to parasites and disease.
Completed in 1996, the winery at the Tor Lowengang estate is a marvel of new technology, entirely eliminating the consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels. The winery employs solar energy, geo-thermic warmth, and natural convection currents. The building leans into a cliff that cools and warms fresh air for ventilation. A photoelectric system makes use of solar energy, delivering most of the winery’s electrical needs. And solar collectors heat water. The 50 feet tall vinification tower harnesses the force of gravity in such a way that pumps or other mechanical means for moving the grapes and must are unnecessary. The grapes and must flow down from one vinification phase to the next and end in fermentation vats arranged in a circle around this central axis. After fermentation, the wines rest in vaulted cellars until picked up by red wine club associations and distributors.
By sharing this information at your next eco-friendly wine tasting party, you can help Lageder’s wines and other environmental wines taste a little sweeter to your guests.
A Wine Lover’s Weekly Guide to $10 Wines – A Red From Montenegro
This is our first review of a wine from Montenegro, a small country in southeastern Europe that was part of Yugoslavia. Montenegro has been producing wine for more than two thousand years, so perhaps it’s time to take a look at one of their products. This particular wine is produced from the red Vranac grape whose name means black stallion. So let’s guess that we are looking at a powerful wine. The company’s vineyard is one of the largest in Europe, containing over 10 million vines.
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed
Palntaze Monte Cheval Vranac, 2006 11.5% alcohol about $ 8.00
Let’s start with the marketing materials. Tasting Note: Medium garnet; leather and earth with a hint of plum and spice; earthy dried fruit flavor with a hint of spice. Serving Suggestion: Stew and casseroles. And now for my review.
At first tasting the wine was dark and oaky with round tannins. It was mouth filling and chewy but relatively short. The initial meal involved slow-cooked beef ribs and potatoes. I tasted cherries and chocolate. Its palate cleansing acidity was good because the meat was fat but this Vranac seemed to fade away. It did not pick up when I added spicy green jalapeno pepper sauce to the meat.
The second meal consisted of commercially barbecued chicken thighs in a light herb sauce and deli potato salad. The wine was powerful, but perhaps a bit too acidic. It showed dark fruit but didn’t overpower this lightly flavored dish.
The final meal was based on Merguez, North African spicy lamb sausage. The wine was mouth filling and I tasted stewed fruits. It cut the grease and, believe me, this meal was greasy. The deli potato salad muted the wine. When I added spicy green jalapeno pepper sauce this time the wine stepped into the background and its fruit was gone.
I finished the tasting with two cheeses. The first cheese was a marbled cheddar. The wine was dark and tasted of cherries and plums. It seemed well balanced. With a sheep’s milk feta cheese the wine lost a lot of its character. This cheese was too much for this wine.
Final verdict. I won’t buy this wine again. It is better than many $ 8 wines but with all the cheap wines out there, I won’t hold the presses for this one.
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Revealed Inside Story Of Wine Marketing: Wine Marketing Mistakes Brand – Red Wine Distribution, Wine
Why do many Red wine Dealers have the same feeling, hard to find Chinese wine sales. But you thought about the reasons for it?
People had learned to drink Beer When no one today would think of such a popular beer popular scenes can be compared, but still can not find this wine good things! Wine Wine Development, although from a high to low alcohol wine, liquor to wine was gradually changing, but over the past 10 years, the overall development of the domestic wine industry is not optimistic, wine from the mass consumer market has not really speak to some extent the establishment of wine Industry Dimensions of “blowout” era seems distant impossible. In my opinion, the reason why wine market trend of slow, slow development, the most fundamental reason lies in the majority of the marketing of wine brands into the Marketing Extreme errors.
First, do not pay attention to the cultivation of the consumer market:
Most manufacturers focus on raising brand awareness, but the cultivation of the consumer market is not enough! Overall, the wine brand in the high-end market concentration is relatively high, there Changyu Great Wall, Dynasty and a number of strong brands, but the relatively middle and low market, the brand was more messy, some fake it is and Society. Although wine drinking wine has become the mainstream consumer market variety, but still people still do not like to drink liquor at home, as wine consumption, more of our time is the dinner at the bar and some business premises to see the figure of wine, wine market consumption in the industry as a whole is not because we do not build more consumers of wine consumption habits, but why not set up such spending habits, it is because our businesses do not fundamentally foster market consumption . There were people laughing at us, like to drink wine like drinking water, do not understand culture, do not understand fashion! But you do not guide the consumer, consumers can buy from you so! We all know that wine contains many nutrients beneficial to human health, but they had to publicity, the public is aware of. Ball net ball of red wine experts: there are four aspects of the wine needs to spread to consumers and guidance: First, the wine product knowledge. It is understood that many consumers on what red wine, dry white is simply confused, and some companies claim that the use of what Cabernet Snake Pearl, plum Zhe, Riesling grape varieties like many people is confused. Second, the health of wine knowledge. Third, wine purchase, consumption and storage methods. Fourth, the wine culture of origin. Currently, most brands are also doing publicity, but basically to the dealer to advertise in, to allow more distributors to distribute their products, but they do a lot of consumers do? Very little!
2, has not addressed the situation to build their own brand culture:
Understanding of wine culture guide will be an effective way to attract more consumers, but we have to create their own culture of wine. Wine in a foreign country as the “Water for Life”, has been a natural Beverages The international mainstream, wine culture in the West, consumers pay more attention to wine characteristics and drinking their own style in the process of sight, smell, taste and other personalized inner feelings, while the Chinese are particular about the form of wine culture, moral, ritual, function. A successful wine brand must have their rich cultural heritage, to enter people’s table wine, it should be emphasized that their own cultural characteristics, if solely emphasizing Western wine culture was blindly pursuing the romantic style of wine, it is bound to our farther away from the civilian population of consumers, which would be very difficult to establish our popular consumer groups. Therefore, China’s wine brands not only have to pay attention to blending of Chinese and Western culture combined with the common people should also consider how the cultural life and spiritual needs of the combination. Suntime wine take the lead in the wine industry thrives on the Movement of civilians, it is gratifying to see what this could be enough for Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung is the spokesperson for the brand, this way instead of stretching the brand and the distance between ordinary people, because In the eyes of the old 100, Liang Zhang in pursuit of a romantic, falls far short of our actual needs. Today, many enterprises in the construction of the brand culture of wine, not everything possible to give your brand personality and characteristics, but trying to stick to foreign brands of light, the results did not, and also we are to achieve the popularization of wine consumption target very different!
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A Summer Red
As the summer continues my thoughts turn to wine that is more refreshing and not so brutal on the palette. This is the time to drink white wine right? I’m gonna be honest with you, I get bored by white wine after so long so usually half way through the summer I find myself turning to alternative reds that are easy to enjoy. Not simple and boring, easy to enjoy. Right now in Arkansas the mercury is rising so high it has reached a point of almost cartoonish proportions where the top of the thermometer is about to explode from all the undue stress caused by ridiculously high temperatures. Sitting on the back porch in a sea of my own sweat, sipping on a brutally rustic Barolo is not my idea of a fun time. One could liken it to drinking coffee in a sauna.
So what do you do when your getting beat by the heat AND you’re a red wine fanatic? Beaujolais. And I’m not talking about your grandmother’s Beaujolais. The stuff with the bright colors and possibly a caricature of a French man in a beret riding a bicycle on the label. I mean the real stuff, made by people who take this wine very seriously. Unfortunately, the grape that makes Beaujolais, Gamay, has gotten a bad rap for years. In 1395 the Duke of Burgundy Philippe the Bold banned it’s growth within the region so that the “more elegant” pinot noir could be grown. Over the years gamay was literally pushed so far south that it’s only technically still in the region of Burgundy, in an area known as Beaujolais.
Gamay Noir is the primary red grape of Beaujolais. It gets it’s origins from Pinot Noir and Gouais, an ancient white grape. It ripens two weeks sooner than pinot and is far easier to cultivate. Pinot is known to be an evil bitch of a grape to grow but gamy is very resilient. It is thought to have originally appeared around the town of Gamay which is just south of Beaune. Eventually it suffered the fate mentioned earlier and was pushed south by the unappreciative to where it’s now grown in a region that shares a climate more similar to the Rhone than the rest of Burgundy. It’s also been known to pop up in the Loire Valley as well. For years there was a wine known as Napa Gamay but thanks to DNA testing we now know that wine is actually made from Valdeguie, a grape that hails from the Languedoc-Roussillion region of France. As of 2007 it became illegal for Cali gamay to call itself that. Truth in marketing folks. Something I just learned though is that there are some growers in Oregon experimenting with gamay. Oregon being, to me anyway, the premier pinot region in the states with climates and soils similar to those of Burgundy, it makes for a pretty exciting prospect.
Back to the matter at hand though. Beaujolais is made up of four appellations: Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages, Cru Beaujolais, and Beaujolais Blanc and Rose. To add to that we also have Beaujolais Nouveau. Nouveau isn’t the same as regular Beaujolais. The tradition of Nouveau began in the nineteenth century when wine makers would bottle their juice right after fermentation and send them down the Saone to be enjoyed in the bistros of Lyon to celebrate the year’s harvest. In 1937 the Beaujolais AOC was established and by it’s rules a Beaujolais could not be released before December 15. This was bad news for Nouveau which was typically ready by mid November. Georges Duboeuf, the Julio Gallo of France, was having none of that though and in the process of spreading this uninteresting wine throughout the world like a plague got the rules for Nouveau changed. All Nouveau is now released on the second Thursday in November to cries of “Le Beaujolais Est Arrivé!” . Duboeuf pushed Nouveau into the states in the 80’s where it gained wild popularity among many people.
For our purposes we really only need to focus on two of the four appellations. Beaujolais-Villages and Cru Beaujolais. I consider these the more serious of the Beaujolais. Gamy by its nature is a fruit forward, easy on the palette type grape. Vintners of these two appellations tend to age their wines in oak for around six months to give it a little more character and structure. The process smoothes out the high acidity the wine can have while adding a light creaminess. This isn’t oaking in the American sense where everything is oaked for huge amounts of time in barriques that have been toasted so that everything which roles off that Napa assembly line tastes more butterier than Paula Dean’s mashed potatoes. This is more of a subtle oaking. The end product is a wine with a nice refreshing level of acidity which has a smooth creaminess on the tongue. Perfect for heat stroke inducing Arkansas summers.
The best thing about Beaujolais is that it should be consumed at around 57-61° Fahrenheit. One of my personal favorites is Roussy de Sales Chateau de la Chaize Brouilly. Brouilly is a Cru Beaujolais. One of my favorite things is sipping on this wine after it’s sat in the fridge for ten minutes and watch the sun call it a day, allowing a miniscule change in temperature to befall the land. The availability of Beaujolais varies from state to state or you may be one of the lucky ones who can have wine sent to your house so experiment. I stick to this wine because it’s really the only serious Beaujolais available in my state. You can’t go that wrong with Cru Beaujolais or Beaujolais-Villages and the best of the best is no more than $ 30 a bottle so I highly recommend it to cure Mid-Summer Hot Day Blues.