Tag Archives: Guide
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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Wine and Health Guide
“Is wine good for you?” – perhaps one of the top 10 most regularly asked questions in our wine tasting events. It’s always interested me that this question is at the forefront of many wine drinker’s minds, and it’s clear this is linked to the increasing interest in what goes into wine, and how it is produced.
It’s regularly notedthat wines (particularly reds), when consumed in moderation help combat cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and even Alzheimers. Epidemiologists for instance have consistently shown that the moderate consumption of alcohol and wine helps lower cardiovascular events such as heart failure. Why? Well although alcohol is a toxic substance, in moderation amongst other things, it is an anticoagulant (which in turn prevents blood clots).
It’s not only alcohol however – phenolic compounds present in wine are also known to be beneficial. One of these, Resveratrol (seemingly the wonder compound) seems to have an extraordinary breadth of benefits, from attacking cancer cells, protecting the heart and brain from damage, reducing inflammation, and lowering the instances of diabetes. Resveratrol has even been credited with reducing age related illnesses. Interestingly, 100 times more resveratrol is absorbed by the mouth than by the stomach. Because of this, it’s recommended you sip wine, rather than knock it back.
On this point, it’s not just how much you drink, but how you drink that matters. A further study (in Italy) has shown that consuming wines with a meal significantly reduces the risk of a heart attack.
THE FRENCH PARADOX
The perceived benefits of wine drinking are not new however. The well known French Paradox (essentially the observation that the French have a relatively low incidence of coronary disease, despite having a diet rich in fat) was first brought to light by an Irish doctor by the name of Samuel Black in 1819.
This phenomenon was revisited in 1991 on 60 Minutes, a CBS news program in USA, with the suggestion that red wine decreases the incidence of cardiac arrests. The follow-on? A 44% increase in red wine consumption, with US based wineries lobbying for the right to label their wines as “health foods.” The reaction from the American public was so great that wine brand Gallo had to put their Hearty Burgundy wine on allocation.
Inevitability, there have been dissenting voices, not least the statistics collected between 1990-2000 by The World Health Organisation who have shown coronary disease in the French may have been underestimated, and may be similar to those of neighbouring countries in Europe.
Despite all the research, as usual it’s all about moderation. Moderate drinkers have been defined by some as those who consume two 5 ounce glasses of wine a day, although sex, age, build, and general health all make generialisations risky. We know where the limits are – go overboard and all the adverse effects of excessive drinking are yours for the taking (liver disease, pancreatitis, cardiovascular disease..).
The future for wine and health? Well just last year in 2008, Philip Norrie, a Sydney based winemaker, created a wine with 100 times more resveratrol than standard wine. He calls it a “vascular pipe cleaner” – watch this space.
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Italian Wine – A Guide to Red and White Italian Wine
There is not one bit of Italy that is incapable of growing grapes. Italy is the 2nd largest wine producing country in the world, just below France. Italy’s geographical characteristics make it ideal to grow every type of grape that the world has to offer. The fact that Italy is so long means wine growing can be grown from the Alps right down to the south end, within sight of Africa. Because Italy is a peninsula country with a long shore line on each side of the country, this creates costal climate growing wine regions. Also because Italy is full of high mountains, and hills, it provides many different altitudes, and types of soils and climate for all types of grape growing.
Italy hosts some of the oldest wine producing regions in the world. Etruscans and Greek settlers began producing wine in Italy before the Romans began developing there own more organised vineyards. When the Romans began making there vineyards they established a larger scale production and storage technique. Italy today is estimated to produce one-fifth of the worlds wine production.
Italian Red Wine
Italy’s red wine is some of the best red wine in the world. Italian red wine is generally full bodied and very dominant. This wine is the perfect to compliment Italy’s rich and wonderful food. In Italy over 60% of its wine grown and produced is red wine. Popular red wines from Italy are:-
Barolo
Chianti
Barbaresco
Bardolino
Brunello di Montalcino
Italian White Wine
Italy’s white wines are less popular than their neighbouring red wine companion. Italy’s white wines are less powerful than the red wines they tend to be more crisp, soft and acidic. These wines are also great with food, and Italy’s white wine is said to accompany food without overpower it. Italy’s white wine which is made from the worlds popular white wine grapes tends to be of a different taste. These wines tend to be richer when grown in Italy’s soils. Popular white wines from Italy are:-
Pinot Grigio
Soave
Gavi
Orvieto
Verdicchio
Arneis
Italian Chardonnay
Asti
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Fall 2010 Wine Tasting Guide To The Best Of Bc – Wines 12 To 22
Welcome to part two of the 2010 wine tasting guide to the Best of BC wines. This article will discuss the remaining 11 wines on the list.
12) NKMip Qwam Qwmt Syrah 2007
This full bodied Syrah was aged in French and American oak barrels for 18 months, resulting in a flavour of red berry and plum, along with hints of cedar box and cracked pepper that ends with a smooth vanilla finish.
Price – $ 34.99
13) Osoyoos Larose Grand Vin 2007
Osoyoos Larose’s blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot was aged in 60% new French oak and 40% one-year-old barrels. There is a strong tannin flavour with just a hint of oak. The Grand Vin 2007 will cellar well until 2015.
Price – $ 45.00
14) Painted Rock Red Icon 2007
Painted Rock’s Red Icon is a blend of 33% Cabernet Franc, 20% Petite Verdot, 16% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot and 15 % Malbec that was aged 18 months in new French oak barrels. One can detect ripe fruit, flecked with dried herbs and a meaty leathery note. This red can be cellared until 2013.
Price – $ 54.94
15) Painted Rock Merlot 2007
Painted Rock’s red varietal consists of 97% Merlot and 3% Malbec that was aged 18 months in new French oak, resulting in a red with hints of honey, chocolate and a distinct, yet not overbearing, barrel note.
Price – $ 39.92
17) Poplar Grove Syrah 2007
Poplar Grove’s full-bodied Syrah has noticeable hints of ripe cherry, raspberry with leather and black pepper notes.
Price – $ 29.90
18) Quails Gate Old Vine Foch 2008
Made from vines planted 45 years ago and aged in American oak barrels for 18 months, Quails Gate’s Old Vine Foch has noticeable hints of cinnamon spice, candied cherry, bitter chocolate and tobacco. This wine will cellar well until 2015.
Price – $ 24.99
19) Sandhill Small Lots Barbera 2007
Sandhill Small Lots Barbera is comprised of 91%, Barbera and 9% Sangiovese, resulting in a red with hints of black fruits and plums dusted with spice. Only 270 cases of this were produced, so get them while you can.
Price – $ 30.00
20) Sandhill Small Lots Cabernet Syrah 2007
This 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Syrah was aged in American oak for 20 months. With hints of black fruits, chocolate, spice, black pepper, cedar, black licorice and cherry cordials, this red will go fast, as there were only 420 cases produced.
Price – $ 30.00
21) Sandhill Small Lots Sangiovese 2007
Another limited edition from Sandhill, with only 430 cases being produced, is their blend of 94% Sangiovese and 6% Barbera that was aged in one year old French oak for 20 months, resulting in a red that has hints of cedar, cherry, spice and leather.
Price – $ 30.00
22) Twisted Tree 6 Vines 2008
Twisted Tree is a newcomer into the BC wine community. Their blend of 30% Malbec, 25% Merlot, 15% Petit Verdot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Carmnre and 5% Cabernet Franc has hints of cassis and liquorice. This is yet another wine that you will have to pick-up as soon as possible as there were only 916 cases produced.
Look for part one of the Wine Tasting Guide to the Best of BC article for more tasting information on wines 1 through 11.
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