July 10, 2016
2016 Ultimate Wine Run One of my favorite things to do is to drink wine. The other thing I have to do is run to try to stay in shape; not such a favorite thing to do. Not often that the two go together but in this case I found a running event with a wine tasting. The two go together delightfully like Cabernet Sauvignon and Manchego cheese. When I received a Facebook promotion for the Ultimate Wine Run, it didn’t take me very long to jump at it. The Ultimate Wine Run has 27 events in 18 states...
June 13, 2016
How to improve you wine tasting skills -by Robert Ilko To get better at tasting wines, which I know that I need to constantly improve, there are some easy steps and some fun steps to improve our wine tasting skills. This article is not about how to judge wines on points but what can people do to enjoy the wine they are drinking more. To be more knowledgeable. What I hear from wine critics, judges and wine enthusiasts is to drink many different wines as possible. That is fun and all but is that...
June 09, 2016
To Smell or Not To Smell (The Cork)? A good restaurant today will open a bottle of wine for you and present the cork. You are afraid to ask why am I seeing the cork? Historically, premium Bourdeaux wines would be marketed by unscrupulous business people who would put a fake label from a well-respected winemaker on an ordinary bottle of wine. The Bourdeaux winemakers to protect their wines began to put identifying marks on their wine corks to differentiate their wines from fake bottles. With...
June 09, 2016
There are Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins in My Wine! Is That a Good Thing? Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins or OPCs are found in most plants including wine grapes. It is a natural compound that is generally found in apples, pears, grapes, cranberries, blackcurrants, elderberries, hawthorn, rosehips, sea buckthorns, plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds and aronia. It is also found in cinnamon, chocolate and tea. Proanthocyanidins are in red wine and only a slight amount in white...
March 29, 2016
The terms Wine Futures, Pre-Arrivals and En Primeur generally mean the same thing. En Primeur is French for “In Youth”. A wine future refers to buying wine after it is made and before it is bottled. Sometime after six months or so after harvest while the wines are still in tank or barrel the chateaux releases for sale a portion of wine called a tranche. The chateaux then sets an opening price for 12 bottles of its wine. That tranche is tasted and the tasting notes are made available to...