With Sauvignon Blanc Day on the horizon, Sue and I thought it would be fun to test our knowledge and to compete and contrast wines from around the world in a blind tasting. Imagine our surprise when in response to our request we received six wines from Terlato, three from NZ Wine Navigator, and three from Brancott to add to samples from Idaho and others! With a dozen to choose from, we selected two wines from the Marlborough region of NZ, one wine each from NZ Wine Navigator and one from Terloto for Sauvignon Blanc Day #1 on April 25 And set aside the rest to choose from for a recent blind testing where
we tasted seven wines from five continents!
It was a warm day in Ojai so instead of paper bags, we wrapped each bottle in foil, used painters tape with sharpie to number them, printed out tasting sheets, made a plate with goat and other cheeses and appetizers including a pesto pasta salad, and away we went! We grabbed them randomly from the ice chest and plopped the on the table for the tasting. Here are our results: Continue reading →
On the first Saturday of each month, a handful of wine writers from around the world participate in #ItalianFWT — or Italian Food Wine Travel. That means the host comes up with a theme to prompt us to taste, learn, and write, then we all do so and share the results.
It’s quite fun and so Sue and I offered to host with the theme of “Sparkling Wines of Italy.” We sent out the invitation here on this blog as well as on social media, and here’s who will be joining us this Saturday by posting about sparkling wines of Italy including travel opportunities in the regions where you’ll find sparkling wine, and Italian food to pair with sparkling wine from Italy. You will also learn about different kinds of sparkling wine from Italy as you can tell from these post titles:
David Crowley of Cooking Chat finds for us examples of “Italian Sparkling Wine Beyond Prosecco”
Lauren Walsh the Swirling Dervish will teach “Why You Should Learn to Love Lambrusco”
Instead of England’s early Sunday dinner, a postchurch ordeal of heavy meats and savory pies, why not a new meal, served around noon, that starts with tea or coffee, marmalade and other breakfast fixtures before moving along to the heavier fare?
By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well.
“Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting.” Beringer wrote. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”
— William Grimes, “At Brunch, The More Bizarre The Better” New York Times, 1998[7](from Wikipedia’s Brunch entry)
— Gwendolyn Alley, Art and Wine Predator (@ArtPredator) May 1, 2017
Whether you stay up late carousing or you’re trying to figure out what to do for Mother’s Day, let’s do brunch this month for Wine Pairing Weekend!Continue reading →
Guilio Ferrari is a very special cuvee from Ferrari Trento made from grapes grown in the far north of Italy in the Alps
As we near spring and summer time celebrations, my mind turns toward BUBBLES!
And while most people associate bubbles with Champagne, there’s so much more! Sparkling wine is made all around the world, in different styles from Prosecco in Italy to Cava from Spain, as well as sparkling wine made in the traditional way of Champagne France. Continue reading →
Across the country today, right now, people are marching for climate, jobs, and justice.
It’s an event that’s been in the planning for a year, but in the making for many years.
The wine industry, like other agricultural industries, has taken an active role because when it comes to climate change, the vines that grow wine grapes are being impacted severely: radical and erratic and intense weather is putting whole harvests in jeopardy. Drought then drenching rains makes it hard to plan. And more.
I have said many times that wine is the gateway drug to caring about climate change and global warming. When people see their favorite wines and wineries impacted, they will see it hitting home.
As an established wine writer and blogger (since 2008!), I get sent pitches daily about various wines, and often, somewhere near the bottom, these pitches include offers of samples of wine, which I tend to say yes to because, as you may have guessed, I am fond of wine, and I like learning about wine, trying wine with food, and then writing about what I learn.
And because I like celebrating the various “wine days” like last Monday’s Malbec World Day, or December’s Cabernet Franc Day, and more, and because the wine industry likes celebrating them too, for the past few years, I’ve been pitched for International Sauvignon Blanc Day many times but what is confusing is that in the same year, I can get pitches for two dates: April 24 and May 5!
For example, on April 24, Flora Springs invites us to the “seventh annual global online celebration for one of our favorite varietals, Sauvignon Blanc.” They will be celebrating with their proprietary clone called “Soliloquy” which UC Davis certified in the 1980s with folks who ordered the 2015 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc and/or the 2015 Soliloquy Oakville Sauvignon Blanc in advance. They’re hosting a contest on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #SauvBlanc with a mention of @florasprings in tweets or posts. Winners will receive a Flora Springs prize pack sans wine.
For this first round of Sauvignon Blanc Day, we have two Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand: Loveblock’s from Otago (SRP $22) and The Darling 2016 from Marlborough. For SB Day #2, we have ambitious plans to do a round the world blind tasting of sauvignon blanc from five continents! (See the list of wines below). Continue reading →
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 