Vigna Petrussa’s Slow Wines
“Wine is the flower in the buttonhole of agriculture and it carries the expression of the terroir and the community.” So states Carlo Petrini.
Fast does not always mean best. That’s the message of the Slow Food and Slow Wine movement which celebrates taking the time to make food and wine the old fashioned way. Continue reading
organic Bousquet Malbec
“We teased him about buying a beach,” says Anne Bousquet about the sandy soil in the Argentine vineyards purchased by her father using money from the sale of his vineyards in France, “but he was adamant because this soil makes elegant wines and that characteristic was very important to him as a Frenchman.” Continue reading
Lisa Stoll, Gwendolyn Alley, Gretel Compton
After plentiful December rains, followed by unusually dry weather through winter, spring dresses the hillsides of the Santa Clara Valley in orange poppies, purple lupine, yellow mustard, glossy avocado, and green grasses turning golden on sunny slopes. On this early spring morning, I’m headed to Santa Paula’s Clos des Amis South Mountain Winery for a story about Ventura County’s women in wine. So begins my latest cover article for the VC Reporter published in the March 24, 2022 edition and which you can read here. For the story behind the story, and for more fun photos from that day, keep reading!
VC Reporter cover 3/24/22 with Gretel Compton and Lisa Stoll in the Clos des Amis Albarino vineyard; read the story here
It’s bud break, an especially exciting and vibrant time to visit the vineyards as we embrace a new cycle of life coming out of the dormancy of winter and the labor of pruning the vines. Lots of lovely lupine in bloom too! Continue reading
Eight at the Gate
Harvest in the southern hemisphere is in full swing, and Jane Richards at Eight at he Gate in Southern Australia reports that all of the Pinot Gris and Chardonnay is in, and even with some big rain events, fruit was clean and quality very high. Continue reading
Back in the day, you had to be widowed to make wine in France. Today, however, more and more women are taking over the family business — like Alice Paillard now or in the past, Madam Roederer, both in Champagne.
For Women’s History Month, I am hosting the French Winophiles as we discover and share France’s Women in Wine. Below you’ll find links to our articles (invite here). Here on Wine Predator, we feature a young woman in the Loire who is taking over winemaking duties from her parents. In Vouvray, home to Chenin Blanc aka Pineau de la Loire, Catherine (12 generations in wine) and Didier (6 generations in wine) Continue reading
The yellow label of the high end Champagne is familiar to most, as is the name: Veuve Clicquot, which means the Widow Clicquot. There are many widows who have become famous in Champagne: in addition to Clicquot, Bollinger and Pommery are well known, plus Roederer.
Why? Why all the widows?
Port carving by Weshoyot Alvitre — learn more https://www.weshoyot.com
Dessert is tricky for wine pairings because the wine needs to be sweeter than the dessert, and what’s the point of a dessert that has no sweetness to it? In general, I’m a solid NO when it comes to pairing dessert with wine– unless that wine is a dessert wine like Madeira or Port from Portugal.
So what wine to pair with dessert, especially dark chocolate? How about these two Port wines from Portugal?
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 