May is the annual Finger Lakes Month, and so with my spring semester grades turned in, it seemed like time to celebrate! We opened a 2011 Blanc de Blancs from Fox Run Vineyards that I received as a sample.
Established in 1990 in a former dairy, Fox Run is also celebrating its 25th anniversary. Continue reading
“I believe Cariñena is positioned to take a vibrant place on the world wine stage. It is not (yet) so well known as regions slightly to the north like Ribera del Duero and Rioja, nor is it (yet) so trendy as Priorat and Toro, but Cariñena’s day is coming.” @FizzFan
“Wine and life…They are as inseparable as the sun
and the warmth it brings.”—Gabriele Tacconi, Ruffino Winemaker
Recently Que Syrah Sue and I participated in a Ruffino Chianti tasting of four wines hosted by Snooth and with a video chat. The occasion for the tasting was their release of their new top of the line “Ruffino Riserva Ducale Oro Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2010.”
There were four wines in the line-up, and we tasted them in this order. Reviews of each follow.
Ruffino Chianti DOCG 2013
Ruffino Aziano Chianti Classico 2012
Ruffino Riserva Ducale Chianti Classico Riserva 2011
Ruffino Riserva Ducale Oro Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2010
And the best way to discover which wines pair with which foods is, again, to taste a lot of foods with that wine!
Today January 31, 2015 is the final day to enter Mezzacorona Wine’s trip to the Dolomites so it seemed the perfect day to write about their wines and to encourage you to enter via this link. http://woobox.com/8ognsr/dgfbi0
Plus, after Tuesday’s Slow Wine Continue reading
Getting ready for tomorrow’s Vouvray twitter tasting with Snooth.com (Weds Aug 6 2014 (5:30pm PST; we’ll be trying two dry wines and two sparkling wines and learning how Chenin Blanc thrives in the region, and the effects of that terroir) made me recall how many great wines from the Loire Valley in France I’ve had the pleasure to meet in the past year or two.
When it comes to white wines of the Loire Valley, people may think of Muscadet which grows along the river closer to the coast or Vouvray’s Chenin Blanc which is further up river.
The Loire River demarcates France’s weather between the northern climate and the south, adding a few degrees of temperature. Spring is cool with frost while during grape harvest months it may have rain. Hot summers are moderated by the Atlantic breezes.
The Loire’s Sauvignon Blanc grows in the Touraine region even further up the Loire Valley. There, under conditions too harsh for other white grapes with high winds and freezing temperatures, its late bud break and early ripening allows it to flourish in the region’s limestone soils.
Tonight’s #wine lineup #sauvignonblanc #Touraine #tastelive pic.twitter.com/Dag6VOdI7C
— Gwendolyn Alley, MA (@ArtPredator) September 17, 2013
Last fall, we gathered at Que Syrah Sue’s and tasted five Sauvignon Blanc from the Touraine region of the Loire Valley in France with the TasteLive crew at a twitter event, and what impressed us most about the group was the range of expression in the wines and the great value , with most of them $15 or less.
At the last three wine bloggers conferences, I lucked out both with amazing pre-conference excursions and great conference expeditions as well. In 2010, a small group of us traveled on a press trip Seattle to Walla Walla and back, tasting along the way. In 2012, on our pre-conference excursion we dined at King Estates then learned about pinot noir with Robin Pffeifer, then went by TRAIN from Eugene to Portland where I was on the infamous #cuffedincarlton bus.
In 2013, I joined the Seattle to Lake Okanagan trip by way of the Lake Chelan AVA and went on the OK Falls hike where I discovered Painted Rock which I wrote about here also. When the announcement that Wine Blogging Wednesday #80 was Dry Rose, I didn’t have to think too hard about which wine I wanted to write about: “My Derby Wife” rose Continue reading
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 