Category Archives: Interesting Wine Info
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Some Reasons to Drink Cava
Cava is Spain’s answer to Champagne, although a case can be made for Cava offering more of a rebuke to Champagne than a retort. After all, Cava hails from a different climate and terroir than Champagne, and Cava is produced primarily or entirely from indigenous Spanish grape varieties such as Xarelo-lo, Parellada, Viura, and Macabeo, Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info, Notes from the Panel, Wine Education
- May 14, 2013
- by Don Lahey
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Bordeaux: What’s in a vintage?
In some wine regions of the world, the quality of wine doesn’t vary tremendously from year to year. The reason is that the weather in some wine areas remains fairly consistent and predictable. In other wine lands such as Bordeaux, vintage means everything. The weather in Bordeaux varies enormously throughout the growing season and from year to Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info, Wine Education, Wine Regions
- April 16, 2013
- by Don Lahey
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Too Hot, Too Cold!
What’s the best temperature to serve a wine? The age old response to the question is to serve white wines cold and red wines at room temperature. But in this case not only is traditional wisdom out of synch with recent university studies, it’s also vague and misleading. First and foremost, what is room temperature? Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info
- November 8, 2012
- by Don Lahey
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In Praise of Carmenere
Carmenere may not be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, literally and figuratively, but for the life of me I don’t know why. Granted not everyone likes the same kind of wine. I get that. People should drink what they like because no one can drink anyone else’s palate. Yet, the fact remains: I really Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info
- October 5, 2012
- by Don Lahey
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A Special 83 Year Old Winemaker Named Angel
On a recent visit to Spain I had the opportunity to spend time with Angel Rodriquez, one of Spain’s most revered winemakers. Anyone who has met Angel Rodriguez stands in awe of his tremendous accomplishment. Visiting this spry, witty 83 year old winemaker and his beloved Martinsancho Vineyard is a rare treat and valuable lesson Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info, Notes from the Panel, Wine Regions
- September 13, 2012
- by Don Lahey
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Priorat
It’s hard to imagine a more inhospitable climate and a more remote, godforsaken locale than Spain’s Priorat. Nothing but grapes could possibly thrive in such a rugged terrain scoured by gales and mistral like winds, a land set apart from life as most of us know it. Tiny towns, which cleave to Priorat’s precipitous mountains Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info, Wine Regions
- September 10, 2012
- by Don Lahey
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The Golden Age of Wine
This is truly “The Golden Age of Wine.” Never before in the thousands of years of recorded human history has wine been better than it is today. Have great wines been made in times past? Absolutely! But never has there been so many good wines produced than in the last two decades, and nowhere is Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info
- September 5, 2012
- by Don Lahey
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Wine trivia for the day: Corked wine
A corked wine is a wine that has been bottled with a cork that is contaminated with TCA – Trichloroanisole. Sometimes the contamination comes from the barrel the wine was stored in. In a corked bottle – wine will get worse as its exposed to the air. Cork taint is a set of very undesirable Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info
- August 27, 2012
- by Kristina Manning
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Wines are a lot like kids
Wines are a lot like kids: on any given day they can make a liar out of you. One day they’re perfectly well behaved, and the next day . . . well you get the picture. Johnny is an angel in school but a devil at home. Mary is just the opposite, sweet as pie Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info, Wine Education
- August 6, 2012
- by Don Lahey
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You Can’t Drink a Label or Price Tag
“You can’t drink a label or a price tag or anyone else’s palate.” How often have my friends and tasting companions heard me utter those exact words? More times than they care to remember, I’m sure. And all this time I thought they were reaching for another bottle of wine simply because they liked it, Read More
Posted in Interesting Wine Info, Notes from the Panel
- July 31, 2012
- by Don Lahey
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