“A sleek blend of form and function, the Skybar(tm) Wine Preservation & Optimization System as designed by Altitude, Inc. is the first home accessory to chill, pour and preserve multiple bottles of wine from a single system. “

What does that mean? Basically, you can store three bottles of wine in this gizmo, use one of nine pre-set temperatures and enjoy it at your leisure for up to 10 days.  There’s a special vaccum seal that allows the wine to pour a perfect glass smoothly, and preserves the natural sediment in the bottle.

The Skybar Wine Preservation & Optimization System has been released to select premium retailers and online, retailing for $999.99.

Post from: EveryJoe

Pour like a Pro

The reason for this? Bordeaux completely embraces the concept of terroir: the idea that wines taste of their place. You can taste history in every single bottle of Bordeaux.

The weather is vital in Bordeaux, because these wines taste like their place and it’s that soil and weather that makes the ultimate grape. Each year, the Bordeaux region prays for serious sunshine, a little bit of rain, no hail whatsoever, and a dry harvest. In the fall, grapes are picked, sorted and fermented, vinifying grape varieties and plots separately and then blending carefully, so that the result is a whole greater than the sum of it’s parts. (image source: Suntory)

2008 is the year to buy the better estates’ “second wines” – made from fruit not selected for the chateau’s reserve wines, because all the fruit was just so good. It’s hard to make bad wine with good grapes, so go out and get a Bordeaux from the less prestigious properties as well.

Post from: EveryJoe

Beautiful Bordeaux

See, I didn’t want to ask the typical questions. So, without further ado, here are five questions Gary had never been asked before. (image source: Wine Library TV)

Drinks After Dark: In your opinion, what is currently the most undervalued wine region in the world?

GaryVee: Portugal. Hands down. The quality of the wines is immensely high and yet the price is currently obnoxiously low. In particular, the Douro region is stellar.

Drinks: What three pieces of advice would you offer wine drinkers that are not currently found in your book?

GaryVee:

1. Trust your own palate above any critics
2. Stop drinking the same shit and branch out. Try something new.
3. 99% of the people in the world have no idea what they’re talking about when they’re talking about wine. AT ALL. That alone should make people comfortable and happy when playing with wine. That guy in the corner? He’s spouting off shit he knows nothing about.

Drinks: Gary, Pick your passion wine or social media:

GaryVee: The New York Jets. (laughs) People are my real passion in life. I’ve been involved in the wine industry for 15 years, and it’s just a vehicle to get to do what I love. Social media is my new love, and that’s always the one that gets all the attention and taken out on the town.

Drinks: What was the last wine related SMS you sent or received?

GaryVee: My friend sent me one last night asking which wine he should pick for the really hot girl he had taken out for dinner. I told him to pick the one with the highest alcohol content.

Drinks: You mentioned you had a favourite root beer. Which is it?

GaryVee: Virgil’s, hands down.

I’ve gotta say, being around GaryVee in person, even for only a little while, is energizing. He’s an amazingly personable, genuine person, and I’m looking forward to hanging out with him more in Vegas later this month. (book image source, Amazon)

Post from: EveryJoe

Gary Vaynerchuk, Unplugged.

It’s a little difficult to tell if those numbers are going to stand up nationally or not however. The press release goes onto say that:

“What you’d typically see in national wine consumption statistics that rely largely on supermarket scanner data, place Syrah/Shiraz at 3% and Chardonnay at 23%,” said Michael Osborn, Wine.com Founder and VP of Merchandising. “Wine.com consumers buy wines you’ll find at fine restaurants, and in that world Syrah purchasing ranks at 11% and is growing in popularity.”

Either way, go try a new Shiraz. It’s good!

Post from: EveryJoe

Shiraz outselling Chardonnay

The language around wine is fascinating. I’d hardly consider myself an expert on the subject and you may have noticed my reviews are short, simple and to the point. Occasionally I might throw around words like ‘oak-y’ or ‘tannins’…but this is balanced by more accessible phrases such as ‘yummy delicious’ and ‘tasty’.

My approach may make a true expert cringe. But then, the backlash against their specialized knowledge has been equally as strong…so I suppose I can’t really blame them.

In the end, I aspire to write and review with a similar methodology as Vinography’s Alder Yarrow. In  a post yesterday on wine evaluation, he writes:

“I’m of the opinion that merely telling you the ingredients of a dish (or the organoleptic qualities of wine) is not criticism at all, or if it is a kind of criticism, it is certainly not useful. I’ve had lots of Merlot that tastes like plum, cherry, and chocolate, but some of it is total crap, while others transport me to fantastic, sensual places. “

Wine is subjective, just as some sports are subjective. If they weren’t, every “professional” expert would come to the same conclusions, have the same vote, offer the exact same score whether for a . But there are just too many aspects that need to be taken into account…not to mention the array of external factors and circumstances that can have an impact on the overall impression.

Anthony Gismondi describes a similiar sentiment in his article for the Vancouver Sun:

“The challenge of writing this column for an audience that drinks wine for undoubtedly as many reasons as winemakers have tools to make wine, often makes my head spin too. The trick is to get some useful information out to consumers without “dumbing down” the subject of wine.”

Well said. If you’re targeting a diverse range of people who are each looking for the ‘answer’ for different reasons, you have to proceed with thoughtful care and a balanced editorial approach. While impossible to please everyone, you will be the favorite for friends and associates who maybe would like to ask a question but feel intimidated by other, more pretentious wine connaisseurs. And really…isn’t being a true expert a balance of being able to ‘talk the talk’ as well as being able to interact someone who knows little about the subject and leave them with a little bit of education and maybe…some inspiration thrown in there too.

Post from: EveryJoe

Wine reviews and the definition of ‘expert’

Of course, there’s another reason to consider purchasing in advance. When your favorite wine is also loved by local restaurants, it’s not unlikely that by the middle of summer you’re going to be searching for something that simply suffices when the supply runs out. A friend of mine in Dallas does just this – and not only does her well stocked wine racks look impressive, but she takes care to have a bottle handy even when the vineyard starts limiting sales to commercial suppliers only.

It makes a lot of sense, but just as the article mentions, make sure it’s a wine you really love before taking the leap – you don’t want to polish off a couple of bottles in June and still have ten left at the end of August because you realized this wasn’t a flavor you enjoyed in the first place.

Online Wine Retailers

Wine Buy The Case (UK)

Waitrose Wine Direct (UK)

Wine Cellar (UK)

Wine Insiders (USA)

Appellation America (USA)

Liberty Wine Merchants (Canada – Vancouver)

Are there other websites you use to order wine?

Post from: EveryJoe

Buying Wine By The Case

Well, here’s another alternative, if you’re short on wall space, storage room, or (gasp!) just aren’t that attached to your personal collection of corks.

Terracycle takes waste and processes it in order to turn it into something useful again. Their products, such as TerraCycle Plant Food has been sold in The Home Depot, Whole Foods, and Wal-mart Canada.

So what are they doing with corks?

From their website:

TerraCycle wants to save millions of corks from going into landfills. We are recruiting wine enthusiasts, restaurants, bars, tasting wineries and anyone else who has used corks to help. As an eco-friendly innovator, TerraCycle will be “upcycling” used corks – both natural and synthetic – into cool products that will be available nationally at major retailers.

The example shown looks like a doormat. My fingers are crossed they get a little more artsy with their cork usage.

I’ll be contributing to the cause, since it’s certainly better then them sitting in my closet/stuffed in random kitchen drawers/etc. I can’t wait to pepper my walls with some fancy one of a kind cork artwork (yep, I’m not going to be satisfied if the buck stops at doormat…hint, hint TerraCycle guys…).

(Photo: Jeff Smallwood)
(Reference: LA Times Blog – Emerald City)

Post from: EveryJoe

What to do with all those corks

Resveratrol, a plant polyphenol found in red wine, grapes and pomegranates, has been suggested as one of the reasons for the so-called “French paradox” – the relative longevity of the French despite a diet rich in artery-clogging animal fats.

It has been suggested that the traditional glass of red wine taken at mealtimes was helping beat heart disease.

The Wisconsin researchers the chemical on “middle-aged” mice, looking at the effects on the workings of genes in the heart.

The natural ageing process in animals and humans is marked by changes in the function, or expression, of thousands of genes in the organ, and even though the precise consequences of all these changes in gene expression is not fully understood, they are thought to contribute to its gradual overall weakening.

The mice on resveratrol appeared to have fewer changes in gene expression over time compared with those who did not.

My first question is…

Really..???

My next question is…

How many more studies are going to come out with these incredibly enticing “results”…then quickly get refuted for being impossible unless you’re consuming 10 litres of wine every single day?

And my final question is…

Do these supposed benefits (and their refuting evidence) make wine any more or less enjoyable?

Yup. Didn’t think so.

Post from: EveryJoe

Drinking wine means you’ll be forever young…?

From the International Herald Tribune:

The event at the Island Shangri-La Hotel was expected to last six hours. But long after potential buyers had finished their lunch of beef tenderloin and goose liver ravioli, it became clear that frantic bidding for the 922 lots would last into the evening. In a rare move, the entire auction was moved to another room, where glasses of 1995 Dom Perignon were handed out the way most places hand out water. The crowd roared with applause when the top lot was sold, and again when it was announced that the 21 percent buyer’s premium would be donated to earthquake aid in Sichuan Province.

Singapore’s Singgih Gunawan took home 12 bottles of 1990 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti for $242,000 USD – “the biggest lot at the biggest wine auction in Asian history”.

It would seem France is not the only country updating their wine legislation. With the wine tax eliminated recently, turning Hong Kong into a free-market for these kinds of affairs, the expectation is to see wine consumption and commerce continue to skyrocket over the next several years.

(Photo by WTL)

Post from: EveryJoe

And I hesitate to spend over $100 on a bottle

Well, as much as I’m flattered that you think I’m so creative and witty…the fact is, Dogs Uncorked does exist and apparently so does the niche crowd they cater to.

From their website:

Inspired by the wine country lifestyle, Dogs Uncorked celebrates the canines that live lavishly amongst the vines. Whether they are romping through vineyards, graciously greeting visitors at the tasting room, munching ripe grapes off the vine, or delicately nibbling on cheese and other gourmet scraps, the life of a winery dog is sublime. Dogs Uncorked allows you to share this way of life with your dog.

Now, my pup has always been a bit more of a beer drinker, but I suppose I could see the cache and desire to share your affection for fine wines with your dog…? And I must admit, some of their gifts and accessories are pretty cute. There you go – in less than three hundred words I’ve gone from skeptic to wondering whether Harley would look cuter sporting the Canine Sommelier Charm or the Wine Bottle Charm.

More Info: Dogs Uncorked

Post from: EveryJoe

Dogs Uncorked: For The Canine Wine Enthusiast