Another year has come and gone and we will be bringing in the year 2007 with a Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial . It has been a turbulent year in the world of wine, what with acquisitions and continued grape gluts and all. Neo-prohibitionists not withstanding wine is rapidly becoming part of our culture. Just think where the wine industry in North America would be today if prohibition had never occurred. Then of course we have certain well meaning religious groups claiming the wine in the bible was just grape juice. Grapes and grape juice contain natural yeasts and without refrigeration or adequate sulfite levels it is pretty much impossible to prevent fermentation. I speak from personal experience when at one time I had purchased a five gallon pail of refrigerated Zinfandel juice from California. I kept it in a storage area overnight to begin the wine making process the next day. When I went to remove the lid it blew off with a spray of foamy, fermenting juice. .JPG)
I believe 2007 will be an exciting year in the world of wine. You won't find me writing about a particular wine I might just have had the pleasure of tasting. What's the point. You probably wouldn't find it in your neck of the woods. Speaking of woods, that wish bone peace of wood in the picture was retrieved from my driveway after a recent winter storm. And of course the real wish bone is from our incredibly delicious free range Christmas turkey. My wish for all of you is, that you will have a happy, healthy and succesful 2007.
There will be many more entertaining and educational websites coming on stream. One web site that is leading the charge to educating North Americans about our wines is Appellation America.com. Be sure to bookmark it, if you haven't already done so. An amazing amount of info available on this site. Wineries as well will have increasingly informative and entertaining web sites. Check this one from Bodegas Castano, as well as the Moet & Chandon site above.
I leave you on this New Year's Eve with a quote from
the American playwright, Elmer Rice.
" You can have too much champagne to drink but you can never have enough."
4 comments:
happy new year to you too! I wrapped up 2006 with some very tasty wine, and just posted my top wines for the year...I'd be curious what would be on your list of top wines for the year?
David, thanks for the comment. I agree with two of your choices, the Ravenswood Zinfandel and the Stoneleigh Marlborough Piot Noir.They were a couple of my favorites as well. Haven't had the opportunity to taste the others. Adding to some of my personal winners are: the Kissing Bridge 2003 Shiraz,with rich berry flavours and smooth soft tannins.The 2003 Woodhaven Cabernet Sauvignon, with blackberry and cherry aromas and rich fruit flavours. These two are in my inexpensive category. A Spanish wonder is the 2002 Campo Viejo Crianza, a 75% Tempranillo. Chocolate covered cherries come to mind.And another Spanish entry is the whopper of a wine, the 100% Tempranillo, the 2001 Allende. Somewhat pricey but well worth it.Throwing in a white I would pick the Forrest Estates 2004 Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region.From Australia I quite like the Red Knot Cabernet Sauvignon with the Zork closure.It has a nice spicy blackberry flavor.I love the Sicilian 2003 Cusumano Nero D'Alvola made with 100% of that indigenous grape from Sicily.There are others and I look forward to a whole new group of wine deligjhts in 2007.
Nice array of suggestions. I'll have to be on the lookout for those!
Ravenswood also has a great Australian Shiraz that for around $10 is the best deal around, if you can find the 2002...you should try it but the 2003 and 2004 are very respectable.
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