|
Wine Column Click on the titles below to bring up articles on wine |
|
The basics of winetasting. Wine is like many other pleasurable experiences, in that you can enjoy it even if you don’t know much about it, but a little effort at learning more can increase your enjoyment many times over. It’s like enjoying watching a baseball game more if you know something about the rules and strategies, or enjoying golf more if you actually take a few lessons. And learning more about wine is especially fun, because a lot of the learning process involves actually drinking wine. |
|
If you like Malbec from Argentina, you may be interested in the food-friendly French version of Malbec, made in the Cahors region of Southwest France. |
|
The Syrah grape originated in the Northern Rhône region of France, but has spread around the world, especially to Australia (where it is called Shiraz), but also to the United States, South America, South Africa, and elsewhere in Europe. See what different taste experiences the Syrah can offer. |
|
An introduction to the wines of Spain. There are two main attractive features of Spanish red wines: (1) they are great values, with most Spanish reds costing under $15, or even under $10; (2) they are about as food friendly as wines come. |
|
I recently returned from an extended weekend in Italy, and three of those days were mainly spent in the Piedmont wine region in northwest Italy, around Turin. The silver lining to the financial crisis in Europe is that the Euro has fallen sharply compared to the Dollar. This makes it a good time to travel to Europe. If, like me, you like to include winery visits in your travels, you should know that visiting wineries in Europe is usually not like visiting wineries in the United States. But it is still very much worth doing. |
|
The summer heat wave has put us into the mood for some light, refreshing white wines. While few will reach great heights, they are great values, and will do very well for picnics or just sitting out on your deck with friends. This article will look at some of your choices. |
|
Austria’s most commonly planted grape variety produces white wines in a range of styles. It’s a nice sipping wine on a warm day, and it goes well with Asian food.
|
|
What is the use to us of the concept of terroir when we are not going to be able to tell exactly what aspects of the smell and flavor or wine come from the exact place where it was grown? This article discusses the factors of grape grower and wine making that have an impact on how the wine turns out. |
|
If you find that you consistently like the wines of a particular U.S. producer, you may want to join its wine club. In exchange for agreeing to buy a number of their wines, you get discounts on all wine you buy from it, and first crack at many of their limited bottlings.
|
|
A major trend in wine sales in the last couple of decades has been the increasing reliance on point scores to sell wines. This article looks at the history of point scores for wines, and describes a test of whether a panel of tasters agrees with Wine Spectator’s ratings of wine. |
