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: Zinfandel
Recipe: zinfandel blueberry zinfandel sorbet
Recipe: zinfandel blueberry zinfandel sorbet
Zinfandel Blueberry Zinfandel Sorbet
8 ounces fresh, cleaned up blueberries or 8 ounce bag
icy blueberries, bitter
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
Pinch of salt
1/2 mug granulated sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup your favorite zinfandel
Put blueberries right into a food mill and also puree for 2 to 3 mins. (If you’re utilizing fresh blueberries, wash and de-stem them first.).
Mix sugar as well as warm water in small dish up until sugar is liquified.
Add lemon juice as well as salt to puréed blueberries, blend with each other, then include half the sugar as well as the zinfandel. Whisk once again as well as preference. (You might require to add even more sugar relying on the dry skin of the wine.).
Stress to stay out berry skin as well as seeds.
Place blend into a 9 x 13-inch Pyrex dish and cover with plastic wrap; freeze for 12 to 24-HOUR.
Get of freezer and also let it sit for 10 to 15 mins, cut up right into cubes and also take into mixer. Purée until all frozen items are gone, took into container and freeze again for 12 to 24 hrs. Serve.
Servings: 4.
The Enemies of Wine – Why You Need a Wine Bottle Refrigerator
A well made wine bottle refrigerator will help the collector overcome the four enemies of wine: temperature, light, humidity, and vibration. Most home environments are not suitable for the storage of fine wines. Let’s review each of these factors in more detail.
Temperature
The optimal temperature for storage depends on the type of wine:
Red – Store between 55 to 60 degrees F
White – Store between 49 to 56 degrees F
Rose – Store between 49 to 51 degrees F
Champagne – Store between 53 to 59 degrees F
Bottles kept at higher temperatures will age too fast, causing a lack of freshness and subtlety. Lower temperatures paralyze wine, retarding its natural development.
A quality wine bottle refrigerator will not only keep your bottles at the proper temperature, they will also maintain a constant temperature within the unit.
Light
Darkness is ideal for a cellar. Exposure to ultraviolet light will prematurely age and damage wine. This is a primary reason why wine is traditionally bottled in colored glass. Thus it is prudent to store your collection away from the potentially damaging effects of such light sources.
Quality cellars will have U.V. protected glass doors to help create an ideal environment in which to store wine.
Humidity
Maintaining proper humidity is essential in preventing the corks from drying out. This is also achieved by laying the bottles on their sides, so that the wine is in constant contact with the cork. A cork that is kept moist does not lose its shape, thus maintaining a good seal. Prolonged exposure to oxygen will spoil a good wine.
A well functioning wine bottle refrigerator will have natural ventilation that allows for condensation to form on the walls of the unit, which helps produce the correct humidity for preservation of the collection. Proper air circulation and filtering is needed to create the right environment free from mold and odor.
Vibration
Moving bottles too often is harmful to good wine preservation. Wine needs to sleep, and frequent disturbance will agitate it. Vibration interferes with the biochemical process of maturation and is often fatal to the best wines. Therefore, the best wine cabinets are designed to house the greatest possible number of bottles of all sizes, and built to keep harmful vibrations to a minimum. Unlike conventional refrigerators, wine bottle cellars have no or few moving parts.
By reading this you are obviously care about your wine! Wouldn’t it be great to be able to store your wine in your own cellar? Where you know your valuable collection will be protected from the four enemies of wine. Remember, a wine cellar doesn’t have to be an expensive separate room; it could be a refrigerated wine cabinet that is sized to your needs and budget.
Featuring the Wines of Umbria at Your Next Wine Tasting Event
If you’re planning a wine tasting event in the future, consider serving the wines of Umbria, Italy. The colorful ancient history of this region provides the perfect backdrop for giving your guests a little more than a glass of wine. By sharing this knowledge of Umbria, you can bring a wine alive in more ways than taste. This article looks at the Umbria winemaking region of Italy, focusing in on one of its red wine club favorites, Arnaldo Caprai.
Umbria
Umbria is a combination of pastoral countryside and mountain wilderness. Nurtured by the Tiber and its tributaries and Italy’s fourth largest lake, Lago Trasimeno, this region known as “the green heart of Italy” produces fine olive oil, truffles, grains, tobacco, and livestock along with its vines. Umbria also has a cluster of ancient cities that offer a glimpse into the past. The Umbri, Etruscans, and Romans all left their mark here.
Magnificent Orvieto is perched on a plateau that looks down on the vineyards below. Its grand Duomo is among the greatest of Italy’s Romanesque/Gothic cathedrals. Perugia’s ancient center embraces a 15th Century Duomo and the city’s most extravagantly decorated church. Founded in the 10th Century and rebuilt in the 15h, the Duomo stands beyond the old walls.
Medieval Assisi with its beautiful views and piazzas is the home of St. Francis, who is buried in a basilica frescoed by Giotto among others. The nearby hill towns of Todi, Spello, Gubbio, and Montefalco blend medieval monuments with Roman remains. Spoleto, surrounded by woods, is the loveliest of the hill towns and hosts one of Europe’s leading art festivals in June and July each year.
Noted mainly for its white wines, such as Orvieto, Procanico, Malvasia, Grechetto, and Trebbiano, the region also produces two noble red wines a favorite of red wine club members with special DOCG status, Torgiano Rosso, which is called Rubesco, and Sagrantino, both unmistakably grand wines capable of aging for decades. The sweet white Vin Santo is a local favorite and is made from semidried Grechetto or Malvasia grapes.
Among the many outside varieties planted in Umbria, Merlot and Barbera have been prominent for more than a century. More recently, Pinot Nero and red Cabernet Sauvignon have produced some fine wines appearing on many red wine club lists.
Arnaldo Caprai
Arnaldo Caprai is located in Umbria, Toscana’s eastern landlocked neighbor. The Umbrian hills, valleys, and soils are extensions of Toscana’s prestigious Siena-Montalcino-Montepulciano triangle. Until Marco Caprai produced his award winning Sagrantino di Montefalco 25 Anni in 1987, the area showed no promise of measuring up to its illustrious neighbors in Toscana.
When Marco’s father Arnaldo, a textile manufacturer, bought the property in Val di Maggio in 1971, Sagrantino had almost disappeared. Five hectares remained when Arnaldo decided to plant five more. Today, Sagrantino has become the signature wine of Umbria because of Marco Caprai’s success with the variety. The estate has expanded to 370 acres, 220 of which are planted to vines on three different estates, the principal one in Montefalco, another in Bevagna, a village in the hills of Montefalco, and Gualdo Cattaneo, a village near Spoleto.
In addition to native Sagrantino and Sangiovese, Marco has planted a whole series of foreign varieties, including Tannat, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay. He has enjoyed so much notoriety from his accomplishments, especially with Sagrantino, that others have arrived in the Montefalco zone to mimic his success.
In 2001, Marco was named “Best Italian Producer of the Year” by the Italian Sommelier Association for his success in respecting the long tradition of Italian winemaking while incorporating innovative research and technology practices. In 2005, Caprai was named the “Winery of the Year” by Gambero Rosso, the most important and most consulted wine guide in Italy.
The history of Umbria and the winemaking expertise of Arnaldo Caprai make a perfect partnership that can enhance your next wine tasting event. Sharing the ancient past of this area is sure to make the wines of Umbria come alive for your guests.
Good Wine Costs a Bundle – And Other Common Wine Myths, Busted
I’ve recently begun enjoying wine and trying different types. Up until now I played with the idea of getting more ‘into’ wine, but got scared off because I thought I needed deep pockets or a country club membership.
Since I’ve begun my exploration I’ve found that there is a lot of bad information out there about wine, finding the right wine, how to store wine, etc.
Here is a list of the 5 most common wine myths…debunked.
1) Good wine has to cost a lot. Not true. First of all there really isn’t such a thing as a ‘good wine’ at least not a one size fits all. A good wine is one that you enjoy. Period. It doesn’t have to come from France or be expensive or be red or white, it’s whatever you like the taste of.
2) You have to let your wine breathe by taking out the cork. While it is true that allowing more oxygen into your wine, aeration, will help improve the flavor and aroma of some wines just taking the cork out doesn’t do any good. The opening of the wine bottle is too small to allow a lot of air in. If you really want your wine to breathe either pour it into a wide mouth decanter or into a glass about 15 minutes before you plan to drink it.
3) You have to have white wine with fish and red wine with meat. This isn’t wrong but it’s a little narrow. If you prefer white wine and you’re having steak than have white wine. Again it’s really about what you like. This general guideline is just that, a general guideline but at the end of the day you have to enjoy the wine you drink so that should always be your first criteria.
4) You can tell a good wine by sniffing the cork. Not so much. Really the only thing you can tell by sniffing the cork is whether or not the cork is moldy. Other than that the best way to tell if a wine is any good is to smell it and taste it.
5) You can’t store an opened bottle of wine in your refrigerator because it will go bad. If you put the cork back in the bottle most bottles will be just fine for 2 to 3 days in your fridge.
There, I hope that helps. Don’t let the idea of trying new wines intimidate you. Trying a new wine with friends and family with a nice meal is one of the simple pleasures of life. Just don’t get too caught up in all the ‘rituals’ and enjoy your wine drinking experience!
Understanding en primeur wines better
The wine buyers look for opportunities to buy the wines during their auction. These auctions could be held by the vineyards or wineries, called the En Primeur and also by the importers who import to wines and sell these to the retailers after they bid for the same. The special focus is for participating in the auctions organized by the wineries since there the wines can be got at the least possible prices. But, what is the difference between the En Primeur wines and the wines sold en primeur? These two terms are used commonly and interchangeably but there is a difference between these.
The former are the wines which are put on sale only two months after the grapes are harvested. This practice originated from the Beaujolis region. The latter, on the other hand, is a wine which is to be delivered after two or three years. The latter is sold and the part payment is received before two or three years of bottling the same. This practice originated from the vineyards in Bordeaux. There is also another term called ‘new wine’ which is used to refer to a wine which is bottled before the springtime and this happens before the next harvest of the grapes.
The wines are offered en primeur due to a number of reasons. There is a greater security and coverage of the risks associated with it. The wineries get the money for the next season. The wine companies get the wines cheap and these can also serve as avenues of investments. They can make a profit by selling them at market prices after two or three years when the wines are bottled and shipped to them. The role of wine tasters is crucial here since their tasting and grading helps to take the buying decisions. It requires good amount of experience in wine tasting to determine what the taste of the wine will be after two or three years when the wines will mature.
The market of the wines futures is uncertain. No one can say what will be the market price of the wine a few years down the line. There are good chances that the expected returns may not come on the wine sales because the market price of the wines may go down. Even if the returns are less, there will definitely be a good hike in the prices of the wines, if the purchase is made at the en primeur.
The customers can buy the wines locally or internationally online. The wine online sales are quickly picking up as more and more people are using the internet to make the purchases. Even the best of the European wines, which were not to be easily seen, can now be bought from the sites of some of the biggest dealers around the world, provided they provide the delivery to your country. Internet can also provide the information on the en primeur and other auction events that are being held globally.