wine – News Stories About wine - Page 13

GLOSSIES

Sep 18, 2008 12:34 PM CDT

Meet Vintners of Sideways Fame

Hitching Post II owner makes famed wines with ex-fisherman colleague

(Newser) - If you’ve seen the movie Sideways, you likely remember the Hitching Post II: the Santa Barbara County restaurant where Paul Giamatti nervously meets his future love. But even the most dedicated oenophile may not know that Hitching Post owner Frank Ostini and colleague Gray Hartley have been making wine...

Say Ciao to Chianti,
Sip This Red Instead

WINE REVIEW

Sep 17, 2008 2:55 PM CDT

Say Ciao to Chianti, Sip This Red Instead

(Newser) - It's time to discover the pleasures of aglianico wines, writes Eric Asimov in the New York Times. While many drinkers familiarly sip Chianti and Barolo, aglianico consumption has been largely confined to the diffuse Southern Italian regions where the grape is grown. And while some of the leading aglianicos are...

In Vino, Cash:
Amazon to Sell Wine

Sep 11, 2008 12:07 PM CDT

In Vino, Cash: Amazon to Sell Wine

Firms has partnered with nonprofit association of vintners

(Newser) - Online shopping got a little more intoxicating today as Amazon announced it will start selling wine in the US starting in October, Reuters reports. The retailer —looking for a chunk of the $30 billion-plus US wine market —has partnered with Napa Valley Vintners, which will supply vino from...

The State of US Wine,
in 50 Bottles

GLOSSIES

Aug 29, 2008 2:37 PM CDT

The State of US Wine, in 50 Bottles

Can good wine be made anywhere?

(Newser) - Wine snobs contend that "terroir"—soil, climate, and topography—restrict great wines to certain regions. But are they right? All 50 US states make wine, so Joel Stein sampled a bottle from each to test the claim in Time. He discovered "quite good" varietals from surprising states...

Wine Drinkers Pick the Pink

Aug 27, 2008 3:04 PM CDT

Wine Drinkers Pick the Pink

Once-tacky rosé shows staying power

(Newser) - Rosé wine has gone from tacky to trendy, with easy-to-swallow prices helping sales bubble up by nearly a third in the past year, compared to just a 5.1% boost for all wines. Both US and European consumers are hooked—in France, rosés are selling faster than whites, reports...

Midwest Adding Grapes
to Its Grain

Aug 22, 2008 5:40 PM CDT

Midwest Adding Grapes to Its Grain

Profit-hungry farmers, vote-hungry politicians nurture unlikely wine industry

(Newser) - As farmers seek higher profits and politicians angle for healthier rural economies, vineyards are cropping up across the Midwest, the Economist reports. Michigan and Ohio now have over 100 wineries each, with vintage monikers handily swiped from French-named Midwestern locales like “Marquette” and “Frontenac”—or, less convincingly,...

Critic's Hoax Makes Spectator Turn Red

Aug 22, 2008 2:25 PM CDT

Critic's Hoax Makes Spectator Turn Red

Wine magazine honors 'excellence' of imaginary restaurant

(Newser) - Wine Spectator bestowed one of its awards of excellence on the Milan restaurant Osteria L'Intrepido. Problem being, the restaurant doesn't exist. A mischievous wine critic made it up, along with its wine list—which featured wines panned by the magazine—then forked over the $250 application fee, the Los Angeles ...

Subtle Cabernets
Recall Napa's Heyday

FOOD & WINE

Aug 20, 2008 6:33 PM CDT

Subtle Cabernets Recall Napa's Heyday

Old-school wineries show 'balance and restraint'

(Newser) - Forget "jammy fruit bombs" that crush the palate—subtle cabernets are making a comeback in Napa Valley. "You don’t hear much about these sorts of wines today," writes Eric Asimov in the New York Times. While critics swoon over rich, oaky cabernets, a few wineries still...

Napa Valley Girl Makes Splash in French Wine Marketing

Aug 17, 2008 2:00 PM CDT

Napa Valley Girl Makes Splash in French Wine Marketing

(Newser) - France’s wine business is stuck in the doldrums, as American wines (and their aggressive marketing campaigns) explode onto the scene. But one Napa Valley girl is working to change that, by introducing stodgy French vintners to the modern concept of marketing. “A lot of what I do is...

How to Spot Overpriced Wines

Aug 16, 2008 10:26 AM CDT

How to Spot Overpriced Wines

Experts explain pricing and weigh in with ways to save

(Newser) - Why does a bottle of wine cost $100 at one restaurant and three times that at the bistro down the block? The Wall Street Journal asked wine experts to decipher vino pricing and offer tips for finding the best deals. The results: Expensive wines often mean better value, as do...

Wash. Vineyards
Flush With Pot Crop

Aug 10, 2008 4:50 PM CDT

Wash. Vineyards Flush With Pot Crop

110K marijuana plants already confiscated this year

(Newser) - Washington state is cracking down on drug dealers' latest innovation: Using vineyards to secretly grow marijuana crops, the AP reports. Police have made 22 arrests this year and confiscated 110,000 pot plants from the Yakima Valley alone, worth more than $100 million. But tracking dealers isn't easy: Some are...

Philosophical Vintner
Rethinks Wine

Aug 8, 2008 1:39 PM CDT

Philosophical Vintner Rethinks Wine

The bizarre techniques behind the Scholium Project

(Newser) - Abe Schoener is reinvigorating California wines with a decidely unorthodox, almost experimental, approach, writes Jon Bonne in the San Francisco Chronicle. Schoener, who lacks formal training, eschews the traditional do's and don’ts of the craft with his Scholium Project winery. His wines "are bizarre, ingenious and polarizing—quite...

Greek Whites
'Smack of Sunshine'

FOOD & WINE

Aug 6, 2008 1:29 PM CDT

Greek Whites 'Smack of Sunshine'

Unpretentious pleasures for aficianados who branch out

(Newser) - In honor of the Olympics, Eric Asimov set out to rediscover Greece's white wines for the New York Times. He found whites just subtly different from the made-to-be-drunk young bottles of Italy and Spain, fermented from "unfamiliar, indigenous grapes grown nowhere else." The moschofilero varietal dominated the tasting,...

French Winemakers
Turn to Terror

Aug 2, 2008 7:30 AM CDT

French Winemakers Turn to Terror

Wine growers battling cheap imports launch commando attacks

(Newser) - Tough times have turned some wine-growers in southwestern France to "wine terrorism," Time reports. Guerrilla grape-growers have bombed supermarkets and government buildings, hijacked trucks carrying foreign wine, and drained tanks. The growers want the French government to protect them from the cheap imports they say are threatening their...

Surprise: Bordeaux
Whites Are a Delight

Jul 30, 2008 4:20 PM CDT

Surprise: Bordeaux Whites Are a Delight

The region is famed for its reds, but don't overlook its whites

(Newser) - It almost sounds contradictory: exquisite white wine hails from Bordeaux, the unofficial home of red. But the whites produced in Pessac-Léognan—the heart of the Bordeaux region in France—include "some of the most thrilling, underappreciated white wines in the world,” Eric Asimov raves in the New ...

Prosecco Targets
Champagne Crown

Jul 22, 2008 8:07 AM CDT

Prosecco Targets Champagne Crown

Italian bubbly makers hope to edge out pricey champagne

(Newser) - Sales of Italy's answer to champagne have been bubbling up for years, Reuters writes, but prosecco producers plan to boost output to 250 million bottles next year, with an eye on someday overtaking champagne as the world's favorite sparkling wine. The bubbly is cheaper to make than its French rival,...

Rome Cracks Down on Revelers

Jul 11, 2008 5:50 PM CDT

Rome Cracks Down on Revelers

New ordinance forbids eating, drinking, noise

(Newser) - Rome's residents and visitors had best behave themselves for the next 4 months: An experimental ordinance bans eating and drinking in the streets of the Eternal City, and cracks down on hooligans who want to "shout, sing or be noisy," Reuters reports. The newly elected mayor enacted the...

In Vino,
Room for
Interpretation

glossies

Jun 17, 2008 11:27 AM CDT

In Vino, Room for Interpretation

Despite study's hints, wine tasting remains a personal pursuit

(Newser) - That peppery flavor of Syrah? It comes from the same chemical that gives pepper its aroma, a recent study says. So sommeliers aren't making this stuff up: Wine bouquets actually have an empirical basis. But the compounds are tough to pin down because they change when mixed, and 20% of...

Wine Reviews: Taste the Pretension

Opinion

Jun 13, 2008 11:46 AM CDT

Wine Reviews: Taste the Pretension

Dry notes make snobs too boring to mock—almost

(Newser) - When wine lovers say they taste notes of cherries or hints of tobacco, “usually all I can detect is a whole lot of jackass,” Joel Stein writes in the LA Times . Wine dialogue has devolved into a meaningless string of obscure scents, Stein says. It’s boring—too...

'07 Not Looking Like Good Year for Bordeaux

Jun 11, 2008 1:45 PM CDT

'07 Not Looking Like Good Year for Bordeaux

Weak quality, futures sales have French winemakers worried

(Newser) - French winemakers are increasingly worried about fizzling sales of futures from the 2007 Bordeaux harvest, AFP reports. Investors and drinkers are skipping the vintage because they expect little increase in price by the time it's ready to drink in 2009; one merchant says reluctance to trim prices shows "avarice...