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Showing posts from June, 2009

Friday Night Wine Down : Chardonnay

Featured wine: Chardonnay Wikipedia description: Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is believed to have originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new and developing wine regions, growing Chardonnay is seen as a "rite of passage" and an easy segue into the international wine market. The Chardonnay grape itself is very neutral, with many of the flavors commonly associated with the grape being derived from such influences as terroir and oak. It is vinified in many different styles, from the elegant, "flinty" wines of Chablis to rich, buttery Meursaults and New World wines with tropical fruit flavors. Chardonnay is an important component of many sparkling wines around the world, including Champagne. A peak in popularity in the late 1980s gave way to a backlash among those wine drinkers who saw the grape as a leading negative component of the

Friday Night Wine Down : Rosé

Featured wine: Rosé (Rosado, Rosato) Wikipedia description: A rosé (From French: rosé, ‘pinkish’) wine has some of the color typical of a red wine, but only enough to turn it pink. The pink color can range from a pale orange to a vivid near-purple, depending on the grapes and wine making techniques. There are three major ways to produce rosé wine. skin contact The first is used when rosé wine is the primary product. Red-skinned grapes are crushed and the skins are allowed to remain in contact with the juice for a short period, typically two or three days. The grapes are then pressed, and the skins are discarded rather than left in contact throughout fermentation (as with red wine making). The skins contain much of the strongly flavored tannin and other compounds, which leaves the taste more similar to a white wine. The longer that the skins are left in contact with the juice, the more intense the color of the final wine. Saignée Rosé wine can be produced as a by-product of red

Friday Night Wine Down : Grüner Veltliner

Featured wine: Grüner Veltliner Nickname: Gru-Vee Wikipedia description: Grüner Veltliner is a variety of white wine grape widely grown primarily in Austria and widely also in the Czech Republic, but almost nowhere else. It has a reputation of being a particularly food-friendly wine – notably, it is the classic pairing for the otherwise hard-to-pair asparagus.. ..The steep, Rhine-like vineyards of the Danube west of Vienna produce very pure, minerally Grüner Veltliners intended for laying down. Down in the plains, citrus and peach flavours are more apparent, with spicy notes of pepper and sometimes tobacco. I've tasted: Grooner (Kremstal Niederosterreich, Austria) $9.99 Berger (Kremstal Niederosterreich, Austria) $12.99 Grun (Austria) $11.99 Gustav (Wachau, Austria) $12.99 Food pairings: Artichokes Asparagus Rich, fatty cheeses Fish Lobster Pork Poultry Scallops Sushi Thai food Veal Wiener Schitzel Similar wines : Sauvignon Blanc Pino Grigio Notes: I first discovered Gruner last