Bordeaux is a port city in Southwestern France. It sits on the banks of the Gironde River. Its canals link the city to the Mediterranean Sea to the west and to the east it divides into two smaller tributaries called Dordogne & Garonne. These two rivers create one of the most famous wine regions in…
The Rebirth of East Germany’s wines
By Frances Based on Wine Enthusiast article by Aleks Zecevic April 2023 What used to be GDR, German Democratic Republic, now East Germany, was and is well known for its beer culture, not so much for its wine, or so I thought. I rationalized that it was probably due to their cool climate, which is…
LOUIS JADOT 2017 Barrel Tasting
My mom and I share a love of wine. When she learned about a Louis Jadot tasting at our local wine distributor’s site, she immediately reserved two spots. We barrel tasted 18 wines from their 2017 vintage and had the opportunity to buy whatever we liked on pre-sale, “primeur”. These wines will be out for…
What is wine?
Wine Folly pictures. What is the big fuss about wine? It is just an alcoholic beverage made with fermented grapes. Evidently there is much more to it since there’s a lot of people that worship wine. But why? First of all, wine is very hard to make. It brings together the subjective with the objective….
Discover Your Wine Preference with this Questionnaire.
Every time I work at a wine tasting people ask me the same question: “How can I tell which style of wine I like? or “I like soft wine, can you tell me which style that is?” At first I started asking if they like white or red and if they would drink the wine…
Mexican Beer Tasting
Today we are reminded of Mexico on radio, tv, online. Everywhere we look we see an ad for 5 de mayo. I love Mexico and everything Mexican, so we’ll celebrate their culture and do a blind tasting of Mexican beer. (Of course we are eating guacamole and chips while we do this) 🙂 We are…
Viticulture (a fancy way to say wine production) Trivia
photo courtesy of Venopediatv. There is a time before the vine starts growing its leave buds that it cries. It happens just as the vines end their long winter hibernation, from late March to early April. They could cry up to 1.3 gallons in a short time, (5 liters)! The vines are waking up and…
Tasting Wine After “Maria” to gain a sense of normalcy and FUN.
Hurricane Maria, it does not seem to leave us! The storm came to Puerto Rico 5 months ago, on September 20, and there’s still people without electricity and of course without internet. I felt I needed to have solidarity with them and not blog until we all were connected again. Then it hit me, we…
Tasting Tricks – Chardonnay
Let’s not forget white grapes and the queen of them all, Chardonnay. Wines made from this grape have quite a following. These wines are full bodied and come in two styles: buttery or naked fruit. They used to be made using wooden barrels but now the norm is stainless steel or concrete bats for a…
Tasting Tricks-grapes, Merlot
We know how to differentiate between Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. Next comes Merlot. This grape is in the middle, between the two: larger than Cabernet Sauvignon, with more pulp and less skin but enough to have medium tannins, more than Pinot Noir. Merlot wines are good by themselves, not only with food. They are pleasant, smooth wines….
Tasting Tricks-grapes: Pinot Noir
First we learned about Cabernet Sauvignon. Now we will learn about Pinot Noir. These two grapes are very different from each other and very important for wine newbies like ourselves. We need to taste them both and remember their aromas. We need to learn the differences and make decisions as to what we like. I like…
Trendy Drink
Older cocktails are becoming trendy. Taking into consideration that Russia is all over the news these days, I researched the Black Russian. It’s a 1940’s drink created during the cold war when Russia was a mysterious and dark place. I envision drinking this cocktail on a rainy day as an aperitif or a digestive, (fancy…
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