All you need to know about Bordeaux wines
The CIVB [Conseil Interprofessionel du Vin de Bordeaux] has become one of the first wine growing regions to develop a website for education and promotion, launching its innovative website.
The design and features of bordeaux.com is aimed at generating a high level of international interest within the wine industry and among consumers. The multi-lingual element promotes the [...]
Traditional European wines VS New World style wines
How to tell the difference between a traditional European wine and one from the New World
A recent heated debate at a wine club meeting prompted me to write on how New World wines differ in style from their European counterparts.
Those of us old enough to remember what Red Bordeaux tasted like before 1980, or Barolo [...]
You have come a long way baby…
Though this saying is better known as the punchline for a cigarette advertisement, it is also an apt description of France’s Languedoc vineyards which are a genuine bright spot in the future of French viticulture and winemaking.
The “You have come a long way baby” tag, used by Phillip Hiaring in his Wines & Vines magazine piece [...]
My travelling friend entirely devoid any interest in wine
I have come to accept my best friend must be the one lone person on the planet who is entirely devoid of any interest in wine.
Despite being the most enthusiastic and energetic of travelling companions, my best friend seems to suddenly lose the will to live as soon as he sets foot in a vineyard. [...]
Wine > the real French deal
On visits to France, I’ve been struck by how little the French care about the famous wines over which we obsess.
Ask a businessman in Provence about Burgundy and he’s likely to answer with a shrug of the shoulders. In the Languedoc, your hotelier may refer cordially to Bordeaux as “our neighbor to the west” but [...]
Wines for Christmas season toasting
Wines for Christmas Season toasting > Three of this year’s best wine values
Although 2008 is almost over, we still have some of the year’s most important wine purchases ahead of us. A wine-lover’s gift, something for the holiday table, and a special sparkler for December 31.
Three bottles from Chambers Street Wines will cover all of [...]
Choosing House Wines
One of the ironies of the wine world is that sometimes small is beautiful and other times large is beautiful. It all depends on your perspective.
Let me explain. If you’re seeking out the world’s great wines, and by great wines I mean the exalted growths of Bordeaux (Châteaux Lafite, Mouton-Rothschild, Margaux, Pétrus, etc.), domaine-bottled [...]
Wine > All That Shiraz
Copied after French syrah, the versatile Australian shiraz is as cheap as you are > Down under in one > Dutschke St. Jakobi ‘01, described by one taster as “a warm blanket of earth and fruit”.
The two great New World outposts of wine making, the American West Coast and Southern Australia, share a number of important [...]
Wines of the Week
R.L. Buller & Son Premium Fine Muscat, Victoria >
My apologies in advance to those who can’t find this luscious fortified Australian dessert wine. Only the top wine stores likely will get an allocation. Those who locate a bottle will taste an incredible wine. It offers intense flavors of orange, honey, caramel, lemons, cloves, cinnamon and [...]
The importance of making French wine more understandable
November 2003 was viewed from a small suite of offices next to Macdonald’s on the Champ Elysées as a black month.
This was when Australia became the number one supplier of wine to the UK by both volume and value and France saw itself dethroned for what was probably the first time since the chaos [...]
