Long before wine was made in oak barrels and stainless steel, people scooped up clay from the earth and they shaped it into vessels for fermentation.
These first wine vessels, made in the Republic of Georgia over 6000 years ago, were called “Qvevri.” Lined with beeswax, they were buried underground for temperature control as the wines fermented in the stable coolness of the earth.
Amphora are large clay vessels used since ancient times to ferment grapes and age wine; Andrew Beckham makes them today in his studio In Oregon near his vineyards.
The Romans used a potter’s wheel or turn table to make their clay pots for wine fermentation; these amphora had a base to stand above ground. Continue reading →
the brilliant logo on the back of my USA Wine Team jacket
July 4 celebrates the independent spirit of the United States of America.
For me, July 4 was really all about the fireworks and family gatherings, although the Bicentennial in 1976 was special, after our country survived Watergate.
As a parent, participating in the City of Ventura Push-Em Pull-Em Parade on July 4 with my family and my community filled me with pride and joy as we walked down a closed Main Street toward downtown.
Join me on Wednesday July 7th at 3pm ET / 12pm PT on Zoom or Facebook Live for a VeroTalk. I’ll be interviewing Portuguese winemaker Luis Duarte who will be live from the Alentejo wine region in Portugal while his colleague Mafalda will be live from the Duoro.
In the interview, I’ll be asking Luis Duarte about his career and his approach to making sustainable wines as well as tasting Continue reading →
And while you might think when you look at a Ramato wine that it’s a Rosé wine — a wine made by pressing red wine grapes with brief skin contact so little color from the skins is imparted in to the wine–
Ramato is actually more like the opposite of a Rosé!
Lunch time on bottling day for South Mountain Cabernet made with fruit from Paso Robles; Gretel looking pensive
After 18 wineries in five days last week in El Dorado County and the Lodi AVA, Sue and I made it back home to Ventura, and it looks like the summer is going to be FEVERISHLY HOT and busy as we continue to visit wineries looking to update and add to the Slow Wine Guide.
El Dorado’s Starfield with a full moon rising
This week we started assessing three Ventura County wineries, The Ojai Vineyard, Clos des Amis, and Topa Mountain Vineyard, as well as two from Santa Barbara County, Melville and Camins 2 Dreams with most of the grapes coming from the Sta Rita Hills AVA. All five wineries plus Anna’s Ciders will be featured in my upcoming article for Ventana Monthly’s July/August issue; we did our tasting and wine pairing dinner Monday at Ventura’s Vintage Trailer Park, Waypoint!
wines for my upcoming feature in Ventana against a backdrop of the “Vintner’s Trailer” at Waypoint Ventura
Next week for Slow Wine Guide we’ll visit lots of Santa Barbara wineries and the following week we head further north. (Should we visit you? Email me!)
While twenty years ago, no one knew Txakolina outside Spanish Basque Country, “where it was the go-to wine with just about anything consumed at a table,” reports Asimov, today “people all over the world have a passing familiarity with this often mildly effervescent wine, even if they don’t know how to pronounce it (chock-oh-LEE-nah).” Continue reading →
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 