US Wine Consumption on the Increase

Despite the low dollar and some crop failures, Americans continue to imbide.

http://www.sthelenastar.com/articles/2008/01/24/features/food_and_wine/doc479811e15abe7776921327.txt

 

New Crop Looking Good!

The 2007 crop is starting to roll in.

 

Latest news from Australia is not good. Forecasts for the grape crop is a prediction that volume will be at least 50% down due to the severe drought. In one region, the water allocated for agricultural crops including grapes has been reduced by 90%. Predictions are that hundreds/thousands of grape growers may go out of business this year. Australian wines will likely see a big increase in price to compensate for the reduced volumes.

 

3 words – Old Vines Zinfandel! Last night, opened a bottle of the 2006, decanted the wine for two hours and served with bbq ribs. My guests thought the wine was great. Then I remembered that I had one bottle left of the original 2003 OV Zin in my wine cellar. I opened the bottle, carefully decanted (there was a bit of sediment and some wine diamonds) and poured for my guests. Unbelievable wine. It was so mature, silky and full. The wine was peppery and spicy, just a treat to enjoy. There aren’t many wines that would be so wonderful after almost four years of aging, the OV Zinfandel can age but remember, aging won’t help unless conditions are ideal.

 

I put on Holiday Wine Mataro and Limited Release SMGV wines last week, both are working well and smelling great. I added 250 grams of the freeze dried pomace to further batches of Mataro and SMGV. The fermentation with these grapes is amazing! The grapes rise to the top and with a slight push down fall back into the fermenting wine. It is a great show!

 

To cork or cap? That’s just part of the question.

Now environmentalists are having their say on this topical subject.

 

Wine ‘Buzz’ Words

Visit Nat MacLean’s blog for a great list of wine descriptions.

http://www.nataliemaclean.com/glossary/

 

Sales of wine in the US for the last quarter were up 7% over last year. Chardonnay is still the big seller in white wine. In reds, Cabernet Sauvignon is the leader, followed by Merlot. Italian wines are rapidly gaining sales but Australia still leads the pack for imported wines.

 

Big and Easy Beer

Invited my baseball team over after the late game to test the Big and Easy beer. After quickly explaining the concept, we tasted all three types. Poured the chilled beer into pitchers first. All agreed that the beer tasted surprisingly good, surprisingly because some of the group had a pre-conception that home brewed beer was labour intensive and the taste was not very good. The Red type was voted the best but the other two, Pilsener and Mexican, had their fans. Some of the group will indeed start purchasing this product.

 

From the Enews Monitor..

 Pointers on Petite Sirah (Wines & Vines, By Jim Gordon)
http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=49754