Archive for the ‘Wine Articles’ Category
With the recent launch of their new website, the young Sicilian wine company Planeta also engaged in a photo project to help bring wine drinkers of all levels closer to the wine making process.
A digital reflex viewer was placed on one of the Planeta estates and set to take a photo once every three hours. Then, thanks to the beauty of wireless technology, the photos are uploaded, without ever being retouched, to the home page of the new Planeta website.
Here are just some of the photos that have been taken so far, and having checked out their website myself, I definitely recommend taking a visit and poke around, especially their Paneta Club section, which is set up to be almost like an online magazine for wine.
Recently I attended a screening of the documentary Vintage: The Winemaker’s Year, a film about the Virginia wine industry. During the film, the topic of vintage being of particular importance to Virginia vineyards was brought up as the climate in the state varies from year to year in relation to the wine making business. This got me to thinking about my own thoughts on vintage. Does it still matter? Does the region make vintage relevant?
Advances in Technology
Vintage used to be of particular importance as it was worth noting when there was a particularly good or bad year due to weather, vine disease, or some other external force that would have either a positive or negative effect on the vines. However, the times they have changed. Advances in wine making, particularly where irrigation is concerned, have lead to the ability to salvage good, even great wine, from seasons that in the past would have been less than stellar and perhaps even a disaster.
In addition to advances in technology, knowing what leads to quality wine – soil, temperature, etc – has lead to improved selection of what grapes to grow where. You don’t see vineyards trying to grow Pinot Noir in a place that just won’t support it and losing an entire crop. Read the rest of this entry »
A member of the Cabernet family of grapes, Carmenere is a grape originally planted in the Medoc region of Bordeaux. The name originates from the French word for crimson (carmin). Carmenere, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, and Petit Verdot, is considered part of the original six red grapes of Bordeaux, France.
History
Carmenere is one of the most ancient European varieties, and is thought to be the antecedent of better known varieties. While Carmenere can trace origins to the Medoc region of Bordeaux, it is almost impossible to find the grape in France today as a Phylloxera plague in 1867 nearly destroyed all the vineyards in Europe, and the Carmenere grape in particular. The extent of the damage was so great that for a time Carmenere was thought to be extinct.
Far from being extinct, the grape has thrived in several areas outside of France, most notably Chile, where growers preserved the grape for 150 years almost by mistake, thinking it to be Merlot. It wasn’t until 1998 that the Chilean Department of Agriculture recognized Carmenere as a distinct variety.
Carmenere Grapes
Carmenere favors a longer growing season in moderate to warm climates. High levels of Read the rest of this entry »
A red wine grape named for the Old French word for a young blackbird, Merlot has risen to be, on estimate, the third most planted varietal in the world. A popular wine both as a varietal and as a blending grape, wines made from the Merlot grape are popular thanks to the flavors typical of the grape that most wine drinkers find very accessible.
History
Merlot is believed to be an offshoot of the Cabernet Franc grape, and a sibling of the Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon. The first recorded mention of the grape was by a Bordeaux official in 1784, and by 1855 it was being found in and around Venice, Italy.
By the 19th century, the Merlot grape was being planted with great regularity in the Medoc, or Left Bank, of the Gironde region of France. A severe frost in 1956 and vintages lost to rot in the 1960s lead French authorities in Bordeaux to ban new plantings of the grape between 1970 and 1975.
In the 1990s, Merlot saw a surge in popularity in the United States thanks to a 60 Minutes piece on the potential health benefits of wine and the chemical reservatrol found within it.
Merlot Grapes Read the rest of this entry »
So next week I’ll be on vacation, and because of that, there won’t be any reviews on The Good Wine Guru. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come back. In what I’m sure will be a recurring annual theme on this site, we’re having our first annual Informational Article Week. Ok, so the title needs a bit of work, but you get the general idea.
Throughout the first week of November, several informational pieces will show up on The Good Wine Guru. Like what you’re reading? Let me know. Want me to cover a certain topic you’ve had in mind? I’d like to know that too. Thanks for continuing to visit and just maybe there will be posts about cruise wine when I get back.
So I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t really use vintage charts. Now that’s not to say that I don’t pay attention to what the vineyards, wineries, and wine makers are saying about particular years, and I’ve certainly found different years of the same wine to be better or worse, but I don’t as a general rule look to a vintage chart before making a wine purchase.
Now that’s not to say that I don’t think vintage charts don’t have value, because they do, but most of us just don’t carry one around with us. However, that’s changing thanks to smartphones. Sites like Wine Spectator are now offering apps that allow you to take vintage charts with you wherever you are to reference them with just the touch of a button.
So, with that in mind, I ask you my readers – how do you use vintage charts? Do you look to see what years are good for a wine you’re looking for before buying? If so, how well is it working out for you? Leave me a comment letting me know how you use vintage charts and at the end of the month I’m going to pick a comment at random and that person will get a 1 year subscription to Wine Spectator.
I look forward to reading your comments and good to everybody.
