Sicily’s Unsung Grapes: Grillo and Zibibbo
Time to look at Grillo for its most exciting quality—its versatility. And on Pantelleria, Zibibbo grapes turn sour conditions into something lusciously sweet.
Time to look at Grillo for its most exciting quality—its versatility. And on Pantelleria, Zibibbo grapes turn sour conditions into something lusciously sweet.
The gold medal grape variety that shows zesty orange, lime, and flint notes in its youth; nutty spices and dried fruit after aging? It’s not what you think.
Explanations from our favorite wine fault articles on the web, along with a “How Scary?” description, which aims to break down each “fault” in layman’s terms.
For the most part, oak-aged red and white wine is still misunderstood among most consumers. We asked seven winemakers to explain what oak actually imparts to a wine.
Those European wines that you need for blind tasting practice might be about to rise in price, because of a dispute over subsidies in the aerospace industry.
Austria’s famous cultural fastidiousness has been particularly acute when it comes to Sekt, the country’s sparkling wine. While Sekt has been produced since the 1840s, the market is just now seeing the results of Austria’s new sparkling wine designation, under the moniker Österreichischer Sekt mit geschützter Ursprungsbezeichnung (g.U.), which stands for “Austrian Sekt with Protected Designation of Origin” (PDO).
The standards for fine wine service are a vital part of any sommelier organization’s curriculum including the Court of Master Sommeliers. These standards were derived from traditional, formal European wine service used at the very top restaurants around the globe. The standards have existed in some form or another for decades. While a majority of the standards only apply to the very finest restaurants, there are a handful of common denominators that apply to wine service in any restaurant regardless of style or level of service.
Recently, I was sharing dinner with a good friend and fellow Master Sommelier at a bistro in the nation’s heartland. We ordered a bottle of Blanc de Blancs Champagne from an excellent grower-producer. What followed, in terms of our server opening the bottle, was somewhere between comedy and tragedy. While telling us about the evening’s specials, our server blissfully destroyed the capsule on the bottle, took the cage off, and waved the bottle around as if it were a half-gallon of milk. In short, everything that could have been done wrong to open the bottle—was done wrong.
There’s really only one way to do Champagne service correctly, and safety is the most important aspect…
“Understanding German Wine” first appeared on TimGaiser.com on November 5, 2014. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission. Tim Gaiser plays host to “Mastering Germany” for Napa Valley Wine Academy’s “Master Series” LIVE Webinars. Learn more. by Tim Gaiser, MS There are two countries that instill fear in the hearts and minds of MS …
New Zealand Wines The idyllic country of New Zealand is made up of two little drops in the ocean, two unspoiled islands in the South Pacific. New Zealand is the most isolated country in the world and the last habitable land mass on earth to be populated. Even today, only five percent of the population …
New Zealand – Exhilarating Wines from a Pristine Land Read More »