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Ice Wine – The Wine Tasting Party Kit: Everything You Need to Host a Fun & Easy Wine Tasting Party at Home

Wineguy — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:00:21 +0000

WestConn to host 13th annual wine tasting on Sunday
Sample fine wines from around the world and enjoy a generous buffet of hors d’oeuvres Sunday, Dec. 4, at Western Connecticut State University’s 13th annual Holiday Wine Tasting. The tasting will take place in the Grand Ballroom of the Westside Campus

The Wine Tasting Party Kit: Everything You Need to Host a Fun & Easy Wine Tasting Party at Home
Whether it’s a casual afternoon in the backyard or a more formal soir e, a wine tasting party is fun and educational for everyone from novices to sophisticated sippers. Within this all-inclusive kit are the elements to be a terrific host, including cloth wine bottle covers, tasting score pads, a cheat sheet, glass markers, and an entertaining book that introduces you to the ins and outs of tasting wine in a comfortable, festive, social setting your own home.

Includes:
– 64-page illustrated book
– Tasting notepads
– Wineglass markers
– Six reusable linen wine bottle covers
– “Cheat sheet” of tasting terms

Customer Review: Very Fun
This kit is perfect for beginners. I didn’t have a clue of how to get started in planning a party and this kit took the guess work out of EVERYTHING. However, it is very interactive and I reccomend keeping your guest list small (4-5 people/4-5 bottles).

Customer Review: Lives up to title
The Wine Tasting Party Kit was a real hit and included six reusable cloth bags to hide the wine bottles, rating sheets, and wine glass stem labels. The enclosed book is very basic but can provide a jumping off point to select a theme for your party. A good investment if you want to have a series of parties with your friends.

Wine online – The Food and Wine of Greece: More Than 300 Classic and Modern Dishes from the Mainland and Islands

Wineguy — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:00:21 +0000

Wine as Diwali gift? It’s better than a box of chocolate – Moneylife Personal Finance site and magazine

Hindustan Times

Wine as Diwali gift? It's better than a box of chocolate
Moneylife Personal Finance site and magazine
Jagdish Holkar, president of the All-India Wine Producers' Association, said, “People these days prefer to gift wine bottles. Wine clearly is a celebration drink, especially sparkling wines. So this particular drink is chosen as a gift. …
This Diwali, gift a budget wineHindustan Times

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Treasury Wines strikes deal with Creative Instore Solutions – MuMbrella

Treasury Wines strikes deal with Creative Instore Solutions
MuMbrella
Sydney, 27 October 2011 – Treasury Wines have appointed Creative Instore Solutions to produce an occasion based display to capitalise on the demand for premium wine gift boxes during the pre-Christmas sale period. Engaging shoppers by evoking an iconic …

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The Food and Wine of Greece: More Than 300 Classic and Modern Dishes from the Mainland and Islands

Greece and its many islands are rich with traditional and regional culinary dishes that go far beyond the standard fare of moussaka and spinach pie. To gather these special recipes and the culture that surrounds them, Diane Kochilas spent more than fifteen years living and traveling in Greece. From home cooks and professional chefs she coaxed a wonderful array of authentic recipes to augment her own creations, adapting where necessary to make them accessible to modern cooks with modern ingredients.

This tantalizing collection of recipes covers all aspects of Greek cuisine and pays tribute to the history and tradition behind each dish. Each chapter–from olives and bread to appetizers, stews, savory pies, fish, poultry, meat, eggs, grains, vegetables, and sweets–is filled with detail on the ancient, religious and folkloric origins or various dishes. Basic preparations, such as those for phyllo, avgolemono, and grilling of fish and game, are covered, as are regional variations and local specialties, secrets of village home cookes, and guidelines on how to serve the foods in typical Greek fashion. Also included is a helpful guide on where and how to obtain Greek specialty items by mail.

Customer Review: Traditional Greek recipes
I made a couple of items from this book for a Greek friend’s party- and they were great. I cannot pronounce the cookies I made (but he did, and knew them)- they had interesting spices and wine (!) and orange juice in them- as well as a walnut and honey filling. Really good! My friend vouched for the recipe’s authenticity.

Customer Review: visually not appealing
I spotted it in a local book store and wasn’t that impressed. There’s tons of info and recipes which I’m sure are authentically excellent however what put me off is the poor, dark gray paper pages and lack of bright, high resolution color photos like you find in other cookbooks. I love to see how the dish is supposed to look like so I can know I’m preparing it the right way. Having to use a cookbook that looks more like a dusty, mystery novel is not too helpful nor inspiring.

Wine gift – The University Wine Course: A Wine Appreciation Text & Self Tutorial

Wineguy — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:00:09 +0000

Recycling used corks from wine bottles – San Diego CityBEAT
That isn’t unusual—I hear from publicists every day—but this one, Wendy Wolf, pointed me toward ReCork.org, an organization whose sole purpose is to recycle used corks from wine bottles. The group is based in Portugal, which happens to be the world

The University Wine Course: A Wine Appreciation Text & Self Tutorial
Now the most widely used wine textbook on for colleges and universities. Also popular with serious wine enthusiasts for home study. Provides a 12 week program for learning about wine in-depth, from sensory evaluation to the science of viticulture and winemaking. Written and organized in a user friendly style. Includes chapter exams and answers, study guides, lab exercises, final exams and extensive references and bibliography. Illustrated with aendixes on Wine & Food, Label Reading, Do-It-Yourself Labs, Student tasting notes and more. Dr. Baldy is a USDA award-winning professor of sciences who has operated her own vineyard and winery and has taught wine areciation for academic credits to university students for over 20 years. 8 1/2 x 11 inches, illustrated, glossary, maps, aendixes.

Customer Review: Great textbook
I bought this book with the further intent of attending to become a sommelier here in California. This is a very well written text with lots of science within, I’m glad I picked this up before jumping into an expensive school.

Customer Review: An excellent primer
For personal use, I think it’s too extensive for the average Joe. Well thought out and informative. I own a cheese and wine shop and intend on using this for new hires.

Store Wine – Plum Wine

Wineguy — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:00:25 +0000

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Woolwich Township to hold Tomato & Wine Festival Saturday – NJ.com
WOOLWICH TWP. — The township’s annual homage to its agricultural history, the Tomato and Wine festival, will take place Saturday at Locke Avenue Park. Designed to celebrate the storied history of Woolwich Township’s agricultural business, the

Plum Wine
Bottles of homemade plum wine link two worlds, two eras, and two lives through the eyes of Barbara Jefferson, a young American teaching at a Tokyo university. When her surrogate mother, Michi, dies, Barbara inherits an extraordinary gift: a tansu chest filled with bottles of homemade plum wine wrapped in sheets of rice paper covered in elegant calligraphy—one bottle for each of the last twenty years of Michi’s life.

Why did Michi leave her memoirs to Barbara, who cannot read Japanese? Seeking a translator, Barbara turns to an enigmatic pottery artist named Seiji, who will offer her a companionship as tender as it is forbidden. But as the two lovers unravel the mysteries of Michi’s life, a story that draws them through the aftermath of World War II and the hidden world of the hibakusha, Hiroshima survivors, Barbara begins to suspect that Seiji may be hiding the truth about Michi’s past—and a heartbreaking secret of his own.

Customer Review: Overcoming our past
This love story confronts the issues of how our own personal pain from past experience affects our ability to love in the future. The setting of this book takes you to post Hiroshima Japan. The affects on the people of this place and how it has affected others around the world. Not only does it look at war it also embraces the issues that are placed on children who are not given the love that most children take for granted. Sometimes we can overcome our past and sometimes we cannot. I especially liked the setting of Japan and the descriptions of the beauty of the land. Being able to have a small window into the world of another culture was a pleasure for me. While this was a Love Story it was more about our ability to look at what responsibility we each have to take in our own personal decisions. I believe this to be the best part of this book. While the stories themselves were adequate it was the ability to cause the reader to explore their own feelings regarding themselves and the world that truly made it worth the read.

Customer Review: Reading Between Cultures
I throughly enjoyed this book. Since I lived six years in Japan (from 1993-99) while immersing myself in the culture, I was delighted to see the accuracy of Angela’s DAvis-Gardner portrayal Japanese way of thinking and relationships. The story caught me up in its suspense as I read on to discover where Barbara was going to find intimacy and how she’d manage these strange cross-cultural relationships, and what the writing on these plum wine bottles revealed. Descriptive language in this novel was beautiful and some passages brought an amused smile to my lips.

I was astonished by the range of reviews by others. Several talked about how they couldn’t understand how Barbara could be attracted to Seiji. Some found both characters unsympathetic or shallow. I don’t find fault with these characters but with others reading and understanding of these two protagonists.

I think critics who are harsh on these characterizations haven’t lived alone in a foreign land and felt the keen loneliness inherent in that situation, especially in a land where the ideal of men and the values they lives by (work has priority over relationships, relationship with mother has priority over spouse) are so different than western values.

Both Barbara and Seiji were sympathetic characters for me because I understood and felt their dilemmas and could see the cross-cultural issues at play. I could understand how Barbara would waver between going along with Seiji’s ways and trying to change him to American romantic ideals.

I thank Angela for a compelling read that enlightened me to the shame and sadness experienced by survivors of Hiroshima.

Wine gift – To Cork or Not To Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science, and the Battle for the Wine Bottle

Wineguy — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:00:35 +0000

Ask the Barman: Taking tips from the Greek god of wine – Jerusalem Post
Eyal Dobinsky explains how he uses his wealth of knowledge to bring fine reds and whites to the masses at his intimate TA wine bar, Juno. Even though Eyal Dobinsky spends his days, or more accurately nights, serving alcoholic drinks to the discerning

Milwaukee native eases wine worries in New York City restaurant – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Let’s say you are having a big night out at Gotham Bar and Grill, one of New York City’s best restaurants. And let’s just say the wine list, which has over 700 selections, is giving you an anxiety attack. You are mopping your Midwestern brow, sweating the

To Cork or Not To Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science, and the Battle for the Wine Bottle
In Judgment of Paris, George M. Taber masterfully chronicled the historic 1976 wine tasting when unknown California wines defeated top French ones, marking a major turning point in wine history. Now he explores the most controversial topic in the world of wine: What product should be used to seal a bottle? Should it be cork, plastic, glass, a screwcap, or some other type of closure still to be invented?

For nearly four centuries virtually every bottle of wine had a cork in it. But starting in the 1970s, a revolution began to topple the cork monopoly. In recent years, the rebellion has been gathering strength. Belatedly, the cork industry began fighting back, while trying to retain its predominant position. Each year 20 billion closures go onto wine bottles, and, increasingly, they are not corks.

The cause of the onslaught against cork is an obscure chemical compound known as TCA. In amounts as low as several parts per trillion, the compound can make a $400 bottle of wine smell like wet newspaper and taste equally bad. Such wine is said to be “corked.” While cork’s enemies urge people to throw off the old and embrace new closures, millions of wine drinkers around the world are still in love with the romance of the cork and the ceremony of opening a bottle.

With a thorough command of history, science, winemaking, and marketing, Taber examines all sides of the debate. Along the way, he collects a host of great characters and pivotal moments in the production, storage, and consumption of wine, and paints a truly satisfying portrait of a wholly intriguing controversy. As Australian winemaker Brian Croser describes it: “It’s scary how passionate people can be on this topic. Prejudice and extreme positions have taken over, and science has often gone out the window.”

Customer Review: An interesting book with a limited audience
To really enjoy this book I think you need to like wine, have some interest in the chemistry of wine, and enjoy stories of marketplace battles between products. The book worked for me, but many will find parts of it uninteresting.

The cork has a long, generally distinguished tradition as a wine bottle stopper. But in the last three decades poor process control started to allow corks tainted with a foul-tasting contaminant to reach market, and the “corked” bottle of wine became an increasing challenge to vintners.

This set off a wave of entrepreneurs trying to build a better “cork” (or at least a better seal). The book tells the story of many brands, and their challenges, successes, and failures. Many fell by the wayside, but several are still expanding in the marketplace, each having its proponents and detractors. Ultimately, there is probably no ideal stopper for every bottle. Different approaches may apply to different wines with different aging requirements and different life expectancies. And wines may need to be made differently depending on the stopper chosen.

While the need for new stoppers seemed obvious five or ten years ago, corked bottles are clearly less of a problem in recent years. At the end the author explains how the cork industry has brought this about by cleaning up its act. So cork is likely to remain the stopper of choice for wines intended for years of bottle aging for some time to come. But as wine production expands the need for seals that don’t rely on the bark production of some old oak trees is certain to increase. The battle for that market will continue. At least as long as bottles hold out against bags in boxes …

Customer Review: Fantastic read
I’m a wine industry professional and this book was packed with new information that was fascinating while not being overly technical. I think my favorite parts were little facts about TCA 2,4,6. I highly recommend reading this if you ever have to deal with the question of cork vs screw cap. However it doesn’t draw a definite conclusion but gives you enough information to formal an intelligent opinion.

Untrodden Grapes

Wineguy — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:04 +0000

Untrodden Grapes

From Chile to California, South Africa to Alsace, Ralph Steadman has seen the best of the world’s wine-producing regions. On a search for the unique and original, he meets Aurelio Montes, the Chilean winemaker who planted syrah vines on a rocky, south-facing hill in order to “steal the wild complexity of the mountain’s soul.” In Spain, he learns of the white chalky soil called albariza that produces the sherry of the Jerez region. In California, the author describes crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, driving up into Marin County, and meeting enthusiastic winemakers whose vineyards sit precariously on the San Andreas fault. As the journey continues on through Burgundy, Champagne, and Sicily, Steadman brings the landscape and its people to life with pictures and prose.

Customer Review: So Thrilled I Got a Second One!
This was almost too good to be true — a new book and FAR less than what I would have paid in a book store.

Customer Review: A coffee table book you’ll actually read cover-to-cover
Few people today remember that Ralph Steadman grew to fame for his Gonzo art that complemented some rather famous Gonzo journalism. Today, his is arguably best known for his art that complements wine bottles, as well as a number of wine books published over several decades.

In Untrodden Grapes, his latest book, we get to read and see a number of small wineries through his artist’s eyes. Focusing on small but premium producers (hence the title) from around the world, Ralph intersperses his personal editorial on the state of today’s wine world along with descriptions and renderings of what he’s seen.

A great read for wine lovers, and well worthwhile for anyone who enjoys the intersection of memorable art and great writing.

Bar Wine – The New Wine Lover’s Companion

Wineguy — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 06:00:23 +0000

The New Wine Lover’s Companion
The first edition of this popular wine reference was hailed by Jurgen Gothe of the Vancouver Sun as “the best new wine book in more than a decade.” The New Wine Lover’s Companion has been completely rewritten and updated to make it even better. No wine snobbery here. This book’s style is relaxed and conversational, serving up information without intimidating its reader. Arranged alphabetically, nearly 4,000 entries include innumerable details on grape varieties; wine styles; wine-growing regions; wine label terms; winemaking techniques; how to buy, store, and serve wine; how to have a wine tasting; wine-testing terms; sizes and styles of glassware, wine bottles, and wine openers; ordering wine in a restaurant; opening and serving wine at home; temperatures for serving wine; and much more. This book is the only A-to-Z wine reference that offers phonetic pronunciations. It boasts a totally revised and expanded appendix enhanced with charts, line art, and sample labels. Praise for the previous edition came from many food and dining authorities: “…an invaluable, user-friendly reference. I learned something from the very first page I turned to, and keep learning as I keep turning.” —William Rice, Food and Wine Columnist, Chicago Tribune . . . “A great reference! . . . excellent and accurate source for both wine professionals and those involved with wine purely for the love of it.” —Jacques Pepin, cookbook author and TV chef

Customer Review: The true encyclopedia of wine
This is the be all end all of information as far as wines are concerned. We keep a copy in the shop at all times for new employees, and when they encounter a question on a certain varietal or terminology, it answers all the customers questions. Highly recommended.

Customer Review: Excellent Resource
If you love food and wine, this book is the perfect companion to the Food Lover’s Companion. It’s the ultimate dictionary for wine terminology.

Wine Storage Rack

Wineguy — Sun, 22 May 2011 04:00:18 +0000

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River’s Edge Deer Antler Wine Rack
Hand made, antler style, resin wine rack. Antlers are formed to hold four bottles of wine.

Customer Review: Unique piece
I love this wine rack, I’ve never seen anything like this before. It always gets compliments when people come to my house. Though it is not made of real antlers, it does look real. However the reason I am giving it 4 stars is that it is a little complicated to figure out how the bottles go into the rack without a picture.

Customer Review: Could be nicer
It looks bigger than it actually is, also it’s very light, seems as though it’s made out of plastic, looks very nice as a center piece with the wine bottles on or even on the floor as a wine rack. I bought it for my dad as bday gift. I’m giving it 3 stars ’cause it’s not a bad product, it serves its purpose, fits 4 bottles of wine i just think the price is a little to high. Good thing about it was got delivered super fast.

Ice Wine – Corsica Gourmet Picnic Wine Basket

Wineguy — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 01:00:12 +0000

Soroptimists bring Messina Hof to town – Plainview Daily Herald

Soroptimists bring Messina Hof to town
Plainview Daily Herald
Richard Porter/Plainview Herald Soroptimist members gathered at Jan and Scott Alford's home to sample a Messina Hof wine in anticipation of the …
Soroptimists bring Messina Hof to townPlainview Daily Herald

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Riviera awash in sponsor’s new wine – The Desert Sun

Riviera awash in sponsor's new wine
The Desert Sun
It happened to about 200 guests this week during a lobby party at the The Riviera Resort and Spa hosted by the festival's new official wine sponsor, …
Wine Producers in Support of HIV/AIDSTopNews United States
Your good health!BBC News
Penfolds sees RED over HIVSydney Star Observer

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Corsica Gourmet Picnic Wine Basket
Gift giving at its best! The Corsica Gourmet Wine Basket is the perfect gift for wine lover’s!
Insulated wine and cheese basket with separated compartment for two wine bottles and an additional compartment for a cutting board, corkscrew, and cheese knife.

Made of Willow and 600D polyester canvas and accented with leather. The elegant and unique Corsica wine and cheese basket is perfect for picnics, concerts, or travel. This basket has two compartments for wine bottles and a storage section to carry the amenities included: hardwood cutting board, waiter style corkscrew, and cheese knife.

The adjustable shoulder strap makes it easy to carry. Convenient and practical, the Corsica is perfect for wine and cheese lovers. A wonderful gift idea!

(*Food items may vary depending on availability. Any substitutions will be of equal or greater value.)

Components:

1 Corkscrew (waiter style)
1 Cutting board (wood 6″ x 6″)
1 Cheese knife (stainless steel w/wood handle)

Wine – The Wine Tasting Party Kit: Everything You Need to Host a Fun & Easy Wine Tasting Party at Home

Wineguy — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:00:11 +0000

England’s winemakers enjoy bumper crop – Independent

England's winemakers enjoy bumper crop
Independent
Much of the white produced is now sparkling wine, which is becoming English wine's niche market. Julia Trustram Eve, of English Wine Producers, …

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Is sex like wine? – Creative Loafing Tampa

Creative Loafing Tampa

Is sex like wine?
Creative Loafing Tampa
White Wines such as Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris, Rieslings, Sauvignon Blancs can be sweet, dry, or somewhere in between. Sex with a white wine …
Amanti Vino and T. Edward Wines throw successful fundraiser and …Examiner.com

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