Limited Edition 2007


...read more

Posted by Tim AT 5:45PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

I Can Has Wine?


Trust icanhascheezburger.com to up with the perfect picture expressing a love of wine. Couldn't you just scritch his little tummy and give him a glass of Beaujolais?

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 5:56PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

It's Not the Yeast, At Least


Saccharomyces Cerevisae

Skipping back to the high-alcohol wine hobbyhorse for a minute, I've been hearing for the last few years that part of the problem can be laid at the vacuoles of the yeast used to ferment the sixteen-percent monsterwines. The theory goes that 'modern' yeast are so efficient at converting sugar to alcohol that they're getting more bang for the buck out of every must.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 5:34PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Nice Legs, Great Body, and That's Just the Wine


As part of a regional advertising promotion (sorry to our US and international readers, it's only in Canadian markets) we're running an advertisement with an attractive woman and a funny tagline, which reads in full, "Nice Legs, Great Body (that's what the judges said about the wine!)" and goes on to suggest that readers start their own award-winning wines.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 6:36PM 3 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Decan-do, or Decant?

Bronze oinochoe (wine jug), ca. 360 BCE

photo: McClung Museum

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 9:56PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Canning the Cant on Decanting


Part One of Two

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 9:47PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

The Merlot Strikes Back


Last week I put forth my opinion on the movie Sideways, and the relative effect it had on Merlot and Pinot Noir sales (in reality, not much, although anecdotally some tasting rooms complained that they couldn't give it away.)

Now it turns out that there's a backlash movie. According to Decanter news, the new movie Merlove is an 'homage to Merlot'. Film maker Rudy McClain says he's championing the underdog in the film--I'm not sure Merlot actually qualifies as an underdog, being as it's the most planted grape variety in Bordeaux, is the Pomerol grape, and makes the world's arguably most famous rich-guy wine (Petrus), but any movie about winemaking and winemakers is pretty cool in my book.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 7:08PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

No Comment, No Problem


Last week I put forth my opinion on the movie Sideways, and the relative effect it had on Merlot and Pinot Noir sales (in reality, not much, although anecdotally some tasting rooms complained that they couldn't give it away.)

Now it turns out that there's a backlash movie. According to Decanter news, the new movie Merlove is an 'homage to Merlot'. Film maker Rudy McClain says he's championing the underdog in the film--I'm not sure Merlot actually qualifies as an underdog, being as it's the most planted grape variety in Bordeaux, is the Pomerol grape, and makes the world's arguably most famous rich-guy wine (Petrus), but any movie about winemaking and winemakers is pretty cool in my book.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 3:02PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Step By Step


Some folks reading this blog have come to it from the Winepress site. For those who haven't, Winepress is a kick-butt consumer winemaking site, with user forums on just about every topic, from grape growing, small vineyard management, fruit wines, recipes and even kit winemaking. If you're not a member, and you've got an interest in making your own wine, you should join up and start reading right away.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 10:53PM 1 Comment Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

A Toast to Long Life

British cardiovascular expert and big-brain John Corder has a new book touting the health benefits of drinking red wine. This is hardly unusual, with the shelves full of books and magazines touting the supposed health potentiation of consuming Resveratrol, the compound many scientists associate with cardiovascular benefits.

Corder has a different spin, however. According to an article in Bloomberg News, the book is an outgrowth of a paper he published in Nature, where he


. . . identified procyanidin, a ``vasoactive polyphenol,'' as the chemical in wine grapes that helps reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and overall mortality.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 7:15PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Blogs, blogging and bloggers

image Silicon Valley Watcher

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 9:12PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Wine: It's a Good Thing

Photo: marthastewart.com

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 6:30PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Merlot Went Sideways


Most wine lovers will have at least heard of the 2004 movie Sideways. If you haven't seen it yet, and you're a fan of thoughtful movies that don't necessarily shove a predictable ending down your throat, I highly recommend it. Most reviews I read started from the premise that it's about a trip through wine country, but that's hogwash. It's a pretty straightforward buddy movie about love, relationships, and self-assessment. Miles, an effete, navel-gazing wine-snob is an unsuccessful novelist/English teacher feeling pretty low about himself, takes his buddy, Jack, a fading TV actor who is so self-centred you could use him as a gyroscope, on a last hurrah bachelor trip through wine country. They meet some kindred souls, drink some wine, and generally muddle through their unresolved issues in life. Plus, there's a naked tow-truck driver doing a sprint.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 5:25PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Thinking Inside the Box

I often get asked about alternative packaging for our kit wines--people put it in PET bottles (like plastic soft-drink bottles) or in Wine Waiter bags (mylar bags with dispenser taps) and one customer cans his wine in aluminium beer cans (yes, this is possible, and works fine).

The up 'n' comer in wine packaging (right after screw cap bottles) is definitely Tetra-Pak. Essentially the same kind of box that milk comes in, it's a cardboard carton coated in waxy polymers that form an aseptic seal for liquid products. You can now buy soup, cheese, juices, milk and even wine in a colourful cardboard brick. Heck, Box Wines Blog even dedicates space to reviews of Tetra Pak and foil-bagged wines, and my own parent company, Andrew Peller Limited (hi Uncle John!) puts its popular French Cross line in Tetra Pak.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 7:24PM 1 Comment Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Wine and Food


Fifteen years ago our customers didn't demand much from me for wine knowledge–red with steak, white with fish, Port for after dinner. As time has passed, folks have increased their sophistication and wine savvy, especially after the explosion in wine consumption that followed the revelation of the French Paradox (wine consumption potentially reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease among the French). Suddenly I'm being asked to provide information on varietals, growing regions, wine styles and stylistic variations by country, and I can't just get by on my good looks anymore.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 11:25PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

The Fruits of Summer


One of the best things about making your own wine is how it makes you appreciate the passing of the seasons, especially if you tend your own vines, with the work of pruning and weeding and maintaining a vineyard. But even if you leave the grape growing to others, winter's chill brings the desire for heartier foods and wines to match, spring brings the racy zip of new life and growth (and the first taste of last fall's bottles, and new lamb, drooool) and summer and autumn bring the bounty of the garden, and all those fresh wonderful vegetables.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 5:19PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Pinot Noir Makes People Crazy

New York Times wine guy Eric Asimov's latest article on American Pinot Noir is very interesting. If you don't already read Eric's Blog, it's one of the most lucid columns about wine and dining around. The proprietor of Rhys Vineyards, Kevin Harvey made it big as a dot-communard and now does whatever it is that 'venture capitalists' do.

But unlike other prominent rich guys who set up vanity wineries, it seems Mr. Harvey actually likes wine, not the fame associated with it. Plus, he's got the Pinot bug--bad. If you read Winemaker Magazine (and you should), I explained in the August 2005 issue that my life was permanently altered by a single bottle of Burgundy, giving up a promising career as a rocket scientist/neurosurgeon to become a home winemaker. As someone afflicted by all things Pinot Noir, I appreciate a fellow who takes his vines into his own hands.

And he does: from a tiny base of operations, he's making American Pinot Noir into a style s rarely seen: subtle.

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 5:55PM 1 Comment Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Bringing Closure

Appellation America has a very interesting interview with Jason Haas of Tablas Creek Vineyards on the use of screw cap closures vs. corks. Tablas Creek uses both, depending on the wine being bottled.

A lot of folks would like an easy answer to corks vs. screwcap or corks vs. engineered closures (plastic corks), but it's not that simple. While natural corks suffer from organic contamination, mainly in the form of trichloroanisole, which ruins 3 to 10% of all wine, hermetic closures (like metal screwcaps) don't work as well for reductive wines, which benefit from a little ingress of oxygen during ageing. According the Haas,

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 5:20PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Wine Geek or Cork Dork?

Appellation America has a very interesting interview with Jason Haas of Tablas Creek Vineyards on the use of screw cap closures vs. corks. Tablas Creek uses both, depending on the wine being bottled.

A lot of folks would like an easy answer to corks vs. screwcap or corks vs. engineered closures (plastic corks), but it's not that simple. While natural corks suffer from organic contamination, mainly in the form of trichloroanisole, which ruins 3 to 10% of all wine, hermetic closures (like metal screwcaps) don't work as well for reductive wines, which benefit from a little ingress of oxygen during ageing. According the Haas,

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 11:40PM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Ave atque vale, Beerhunter

Michael Jackson (the Michael Jackson, not that singer fellow) passed away August 31st.

For those who aren't familiar with his writing, Jackson was considered the world authority on beer styles. At a time when generic lager threatened to wipe our beer diversity, Jackson began writing eloquently and lucidly about exotic and historic beers, treating them with the same respect that other writers gave wine. In his book, The Beer Companion, he said,

...read more

Posted by Tim AT 5:01AM 0 Comments Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email
< View August 2007 Archives

Send this post to a friend