Tag Archives: Wine
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.
Personalised Wine Bottles
Gifting has evolved as the times have passed. From giving fruits and flowers, today we are in a time when people have started considering highly customised and personalised gifts for their dear ones. The best part of personalised gifts is the added value they convey to the person receiving the gift. One such gift which delivers a strong impact is personalised wine bottles.
Giving wine bottles as presents is not anything new, and today is almost part of the culture.
You could spend economically and get the best of wines as a gift; however none of them would match up to the happiness delivered by personalised wine bottles. You could gift the bottle as such, or get it delivered in a premium silk lined gift box. Not to mention the personalised card that would go along with it. Moreover, personalised wine bottles are a gift for every occasion. You could walk with it into a birthday party, an anniversary or a wedding; and it’d suit one occasion as much as it does another.
It is only natural that not everyone is fond of every drink. And for this very reason the gift portals offer you exquisite choices of wines to choose – from red wine, white wine to rose wine. The bottle would retain its charm and customisation regardless of the drink you choose.
For the wine drinkers, you get to choose from an array of red wine, rose wine and white wine. These wines which start from a very affordable rate of £14.99, would suit to the taste buds of every wine lover.
These personalised wine bottles can also be come with other unique gift items like a newspaper dated from the year of the anniversary or birthday. All of these are possible through the new age online gift portals. Not only do you get to choose such exquisite gifts, you could do it within the comfort of your home.
Storing Wine Cheaply
If you enjoy wine chances are you have a few bottles at home waiting to be opened. The more bottles you have the longer some of them will sit unopened. There are ways to preserve your wine to ensure that they last longer but that can come along with a hefty price tag. You may be able to find wine storage places in your town but that can become pricey and inconvenient if you want a bottle of wine and didn’t plan it in advance. Wine storage locations are more for a wine collector with expensive bottles of wine that will only be drunk on certain occasions. The best solution for the wine lover who wants to preserve their wine on a budget would be purchasing a wine cooler or wine fridge.
Wine coolers come in all different sizes and prices. The best thing to do is determine how many bottles you will need to store because that will determine the size of the wine fridge you will need to buy. Once you determine the size you need to determine what your price range is and try to find one within that price range. If you are having a tough time finding a fridge in your price range you will need to look at discounted wine fridges or even refurbished products. You can also wait until the items go on sale or even clearance. You should also browse online sites for good deals. eBay will almost always have decently price wine fridges, as well as Amazon.
Once you find the perfect fridge within your price range there is no other cost involved, other the electricity it takes to power your wine cooler. Once you may the initial purchase you will be able to store your wine for as long as the wine fridge last, which hopefully is for many years to come.
A good temperature to store your wine would be around 60 degree Fahrenheit. Some may argue that 55 degrees is a better temperature, but I have found I am able to get better tasting red wine from a storage temperature of 60 degrees. With red wine 55 seems too cold, but it may be a good temperature for white wine.
All in all the cheapest way to store your wine safely is in a wine fridge or wine cooler. It is a one time purchase and if you keep your eye out for a good deal you can pick up one for a very reasonable price.
Making Wine at Home
People’s love for wine has extremely grown today. Not just in some countries but all over
the world. This is reason enough that the need to know how to make homemade wine is
tremendously increasing for personal consumption. Wine making equipment and supplies
today are readily available in stores anywhere. It allows wine lovers to make it possible
for themselves to stack their wine racks with their own homemade wines. The best thing
you get in making wine by yourself is fulfillment and contentment for the efforts spent.
For many years people have tried making their wines especially red and white wines at
home and have failed. As more people have tried to make this a hobby the materials,
supplies and recipes are being improved. The wine making kits help a lot and more
people learn to love and make home wine making their leisure and gratification. There
could even be times when some group of wine lovers exchange recipes to improve the
flavor of their own batches. How one person appreciates his/her homemade wine would
not be the same as how others would also value theirs. However, the kits available for
making homemade wine help make unswerving and dependable results so that more
people would enjoy the same wine.
For special family occasions like Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, reunions and other
more wine makers and lovers may make special wines in preparation for these occasions.
This would make the special day enjoyable. As you look forward to the gathering, you
can time the preparation of your vintage as you know when to bottle and how long the
aging period is in time for the occasion. You also will reap financial benefits by making
your own wine at home. Wine connoisseurs will only tell you that the more expensive
the wine the better it tastes, but this is not true all the time. The more you keep on
making your own home made wine soon you will be able to produce an excellent and
exceptional tasting wine.
Normally, the more you learn about something the more you learn to appreciate its
complexities. The more you would love to do it. The same thing goes with wine
making at home, the more you learn to make it, the more you will love to do it.
As you keep doing this, in just a short period of time you’ll find yourself into that hobby
and wine making at home will be your passion then. You will absolutely enjoy it, even
your family and friends will get into your passion. Dare yourself…Homemade wine
making is really a grand and exciting learning experience. Make it a hobby, be satisfied
and enjoy.
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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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