Wine Blog

Food & wine calendar – Edmonton Journal

Food & wine calendar Edmonton Journal Stanley will show off wines from one of BC's oldest and most celebrated wineries, including the small production Stewart Family Reserve Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Fortified Vintage Foch, Riesling Icewine and more. Wines will be paired with the cuisine …

Cheap Buzz: A geography lesson – Philadelphia Daily News

Cheap Buzz: A geography lesson Philadelphia Daily News BUZZ: HEY, Marnie, my brother gave me a bottle of ice wine. I think it's from Alaska. Marnie: I doubt that, Buzz. Vines die if they freeze solid in winter. Wine grapes grow in “temperate” climates from 30 to 50 degrees in latitude. Buzz: OK, but if ice …

Red Wine Vinegar
Enjoy the famous flavor of traditional French red wine vinegar whenever your recipes call for it.

Customer Review: Outstanding Product!
Received product on time as promised in excellent condition. Product is a delight to use in my gourmet dishes; adds a whole new level of flavor.

Red Wine for Dummies
The authors of Wine for Dummies and White Wine for Dummies have produced a handy primer on the fundamentals of red wine. After a brief introduction to the varieties of grapes and the seven classic types of red wine, the reader (and taster!) is introduced to the world’s greatest offerings, including less recognized wines from Chile and Australia. The familiar Dummies-style “Part of Tens” includes 10 wine-tasting exercises using affordable vintages.

Customer Review: Self asserted Dummy
I’m glad to see that so many people do not mind applying the term “dummy” to themselves when it comes to trying new things. Even though the black and yellow cover clashes horribly with my copies of Emmerson and Tennyson on the bookshelf, I am not ashamed. I would hope that the self-professed “snob” who wrote one off these reviews has the sense not only to use his large vocabulary with caution, but also to spell “label” properly when communicating how snobbish s/he is.

Customer Review: Easy to understand, complete in its coverage
As I wrote in a previous review of The Sommelier’s Guide to Wine, I am just beginning my introduction to the fascinating world of wine. While the former book has been invaluable, so has this – Red Wine for Dummies.

As always, the language is very accessible and the subject material easy to understand, even when some of the more difficult or intimidating aspects of wine are discussed (such as when and why to decant, picking a wine, a guide to wine terms, etc.)

The descriptions of the grapes themselves are marvelous. For example, here is the description for a Zinfandel (yes, Zinfandel is a red grape – White Zinfandel [all apologies to those who like it] is a wine made by ruining the grape): “The Zinfandel grape gives good color to the red wines made from it, along with bramble-berry fruit flavors and aromas and a spicy character. The intensity of the wine varies according to where grapes grew and how old the vines are; some very old (80 to 100 years) vineyards make wines that are full bodied and dense with flavor. More typically, Zinfandel makes wines that are medium bodied, with succulent fruit and medium tannin.” Sure there are descriptions in fancy wine magazines that are more complete, but chances are you wouldn’t have the slightest idea what they’re talking about.

This book also covers regions where wines are made, climates, soil, and everything that goes into producing a good red wine. It’s a superb book for a beginner.

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”.