Wine Blog

Côte D’Or: A Celebration of the Great Wines of Burgundy
The heart of Burgundy, the Côte D’Or, produces Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines that are unrivaled in their quality, intensity, and ability to age in the bottle. On this “golden slope” in eastern France, with its unique terrains and climats, grow the vines for some of the world’s finest wines, among them such heralded names as Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne-Romanée, Puligny- and Chassagne-Montrachet, and Aloxe-Corton. Clive Coates, Master of Wine, has spent much of the last fifteen years in the Côte D’Or, and this book is the splendid result of his assiduous exploring, tasting, and assessing of the region’s wines.
With his unique access to each clos and domaine, and to individual negociants and vignerons, Coates may know more about the Côte D’Or and its wines than any other living writer. In Part One, he describes the Côte D’Or’s famous villages, introduces every manor grower and his wines, and evaluates each grand and premier cru, recommending the best sources in every climat. Part Two profiles the top sixty domaines, with notes on a vertical tasting of one of their wines. Part Three consists of vintage assessments on the best red and white years since 1945 and includes thousands of detailed tasting notes.
Côte D’Or is a work of love and passion, praise and criticism, understanding and scholarship. Above all, it is a celebration of one of the world’s great wine regions, the people who live there, and their fabled wines. It is an essential addition to every wine library and an inviting read for any wine lover.

Customer Review: Coates Review
Overall, the text is easy to read and it is educational. However, the individual wines reviewed are not even close to being up to date. Because this was written years ago, it doesn’t cover many of the new up and coming wines and vintners.

Customer Review: The best of its kind
Burgundy is one of the most difficult-to-grasp wine regions in the world. Many studies have been done on the soil, climate, wind direction, sun exposure, rainfall, etc., yet nobody really knows, yet, why one acre of Burgundy produces a certain kind of wine and the acre right next to it something different. Clive Coates book comes as close as humanly possible to explain it. He begins his sections with a “History” of the region, then continues with “Location”, “Vineyard”, and then defines and describes the wines made from the Grand Crus and the Premier Crus, recommending sources and also providing the size of each vineyard. Also, he covers vintages.

It’s amazing how Coates takes such a difficult region and maps it out so succinctly for us. Far better effort than Parker’s “Burgundy”.

Red wine ingredient resveratrol may boost metabolism in men
It has been discovered that the chemical resveratrol, found in small quantities in red wine, improves metabolic health in obese men. A recent study, published in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism, tested the effects of the chemical

Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection
Beer is just a beverage, but wine is an experience. There?s an aura of romance, a hint of the sublime, to bringing a bottle up from your own cellar, carefully drawing out the cork, pouring the wine into a goblet, and taking the first delectable sip.

Now Jeff Cox, author of From Vines to Wines (89,000 copies in print) and a connoisseur well respected in wine circles, shows you how easy it is to have a wine cellar of your own.

But Cellaring Wine is not a home-building project book. In some cases, the would-be wine collector doesn?t have to do much building at all. Rather, Cellaring Wine teaches anyone who loves wine how to create a working system of selecting wines that will age well, know how to lay them down properly, and recognize when they have matured to their full glory and are ready to be savored.

Cox pinpoints the optimum conditions of temperature, light, and humidity for a wine cellar. He walks you through possible locations for your wine cellar ? whether in the basement, an old root cellar, the back of your garage, or even a closet or room in your house ? and what each location requires. He explains when you?ll need a climate-control device (and how much they cost). And he discusses the pros and cons of buying a freestanding unit that is much like a refrigerator.

Then Cox tackles the question that most troubles wine lovers: Which wines will improve with age, and which won?t? This chapter alone is worth the price of the book, since nothing is more disappointing to a wine lover than waiting years to open a bottle of wine only to discover that it was at its peak when it was laid down.

Cox shows you how to keep accurate records so you know at a glance ? without having to hunt through the wine racks ? what you have, where it?s located, and how much to buy so the cellar doesn?t become depleted. And he gives you a crash course in appreciating the fragrance and flavor of a fine wine.Perhaps best of all, Cox gets readers excited about the possibilities of having their own wine cellar. After all, a cellar is not just a storage room, it?s a university where good young wines become great.

Customer Review: Cellaring and much more….
The title of this book is a little misleading, the book does cover selecting, building, and managing wine. However, this information only acocunts for about 1/4 of the book. The rest of the book talks about wine in general. The cellaring chapters were very detailed and answered all of my questions. The other 3/4 of the book was interesting and covered your basic intro to wine information. If you want to know more about wine, or are looking for a complete guide on different ways to cellar wine, then this book is for you.

Customer Review: Exactly what it says…
Jeff Cox has written a wonderful guide for cellaring wine which is nearly complete in all its details. More importantly, he has managed to write it in a way that is highly readable.

KCTV 5Kansas surveys define grape, wine industries – KCTV Kansas City

KCTV 5Kansas surveys define grape, wine industries KCTV Kansas City Entertainment News from AP WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – Two new surveys have found that Kansas grape growers tend nearly 350 acres of vines and produced more than 100000 gallons of wine last year. The surveys were released this week by the National … and more »

Research and Markets: China Grape Wine Manufacturing Industry, 2011 Provides … – Business Wire (press release)

Research and Markets: China Grape Wine Manufacturing Industry, 2011 Provides … Business Wire (press release) China grape wine manufacturing Industry, 2011 is valuable for anyone who wants to invest in the grape wine manufacturing industry, to get Chinese investments; to import into China or export from China, to build factories and take advantage of lower … and more »

Pa Grape’s Shapes (Veggietales Series)
Pa Grape’s car has no tires! But fear not! His trusty Robo 2000 New Tire Machine can create new wheels! That is, once Pa Grape decides what shape the tires should be–a square, triangle, or who knows what? It’s up to you to help decide.

Customer Review: A Review of “Pa Grape’s Shapes”
With the help of the Robo 2000 Tire Machine, Pa Grape experiments with shapes to determine what shape is good for the tires on his car.

And this concept certainly sounds like a good idea. Beloved Veggie Tales character and silly concept, however this book falls short of being a good learning experience.

The principle problem, I think, is that the topic and the age range is off. For example, my son (3) likes the book, but his sister (5) found it boring. By 5 and beyond, I think the idea of a triangular wheel is passe. The problem with the 4 and younger set though is that they aren’t quite sophisticated enough to comprehend all on their own, why it wouldn’t work.

We solved that problem by experimention with actual shapes, but if you have to resort to that, has the book done its job? (I leave that to you to decide.)

Two to Three Stars. At some of the prices this book is available I think it would make an okay purchase for some Veggie fans. Certainly my son has gotten his dollar’s worth of fun out of “Pa Grape’s Shapes”.

Customer Review: Not as impressive as the rest of the VeggieTales Series….
But still a good book. Pa Grape is looking for tires for his car and tries the silliest of shapes, including a triangle, square and oval tire… before finding a circle. While the book itself is average or better, it really falls short of the VeggieTales excellence.