New and notable wine headlines, including starters for bargain-basement wine cellar

Handpicked wine stories from across the Web…

A wine’s high price, honest or not, adds to its pleasure, study finds
In other words: Outwit yourself – pay less, enjoy more!

Oregon wines continue to grow
Great news for Oregon wine aficionados. Part of the reason for growth: The state’s wineries are “developing a reputation for sustainable practices and organic products, and the state’s pinot noir grapes have been found to contain an unusually high level of the anti-cancer, heart-healthy compound resveratrol.”

A Bargain-Basement Wine Cellar
Robert Parker focuses on a California winery that offers “premium wines at value prices.” Includes five affordable bottles scoring 85 points or more.

America’s Best Spots For Fine Wine
From Forbes, naturally.

Eco-friendly French to ship their wine under sail
An unexpected example of the increasing greening of wines. “French vineyard owners are returning to a slower pace of life by starting to export their wine by sailing boat – a method last used in the 1800s – to reduce their carbon footprint.”

Thirsty for more news? Follow up by digging into continuously updated feeds from national and international news outlets:

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  • Organic (red, white, in between)

To hit closer to home, try WNR’s Smarter Wine Search tool and see what columnists and wine experts may be writing about in your area. Once there, just type in your city and state (within quotation marks, as in, "Napa, California"), to get results ranked by relevance.

The Web’s latest wine buzz, 10/28/07

Tune in to what top wine bloggers and experts are decanting into cyberspace with handpicked highlights of their latest and greatest, ranging from reviews of luscious rosés and a sweet desert wine to the skinny on Montalcino and the care of stemware.


For Master Sommelier Ronn Wiegand at Vino!, Autumn’s deepening signals it’s time to focus on rosés — the dry ones, which are “usually fuller bodied and more complex in flavor than most white wines.” He serves up 16 international recommendations, many of them well within Wine News Review’s fairly frugal affordability index. (Full disclosure: Chalk it up to the seasonal vibes, in advance of reading Wiegand’s paean, I gravitated to a lovely organic rosé the other day, a 2006 Chateau Miraval Cotes de Provence. Lively and dry, as “lip-smacking” as the label promises. No autumnal melancholy states with this baby around!) Anyway, to quote Wiegand…

Dry rosés have improved dramatically in quality in recent years, both because more top wineries are producing them and because the wine type is being treated with “respect” (that is, wines are being produced from quality grapes, by experienced vintners).


Speaking of coincidences, my gaze naturally gravitated to a Wine News cover story on Brunello, after trying a splendid 1998 Rienzi Brunello di Montalcino recently. (Frugality warning: At $65, alert readers will surely note that it’s way beyond the affordability index — but, hey, it was at a tasting event so I had to drink it.) Written by Kerin O’Keefe, this piece offers everything you might want to know about the history and current events of Brunello and its birthplace, Montalcino — an in-depth story with some suspense thrown in.

Montalcino has become an international sensation. Americans, in particular, can’t seem to get enough of what is undoubtedly Tuscany’s most prestigious wine, with one in every four bottles of Brunello made destined for U.S. shores. Yet the elite appellation is facing certain challenges that may require tough remedies to keep quality up and bring what has become the enological pride and joy of all of Italy to new and sustained levels of greatness. 


Dorothy J. Gaiter And John Brecher at The Wall Street Journal provide some delicious instructions on how to cap off a sensational dinner with friends — a “great finishing touch,” courtesy of Muscat, “with its unique aromas and tastes of honeysuckle, apricots, peaches and just-picked grapes.” With reviews of eight bottles, some quite affordable .

It probably will take some effort to find a Muscat Canelli. Many stores won’t have any and it’s unlikely you’ll find a big selection anywhere. But they’re out there— we bought ours from six states. So our advice is that sometime soon, long before your next big dinner party, call around and see if you can find one. Then, after dinner, don’t ask your friends if they want to try a sweet wine— they’ll likely say no. Just open and pour. The wine will do the rest.


An estimated 3 to 5 percent of cork-sealed wines go bad, and the blame often unfairly goes to the winery rather than, say, bad handling on the way to the shop or restaurant. Here’s a Washington Post behind-the-scenes glimpse by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg at the extent to which wineries are trying to fight back. With some wine recommendations thrown in.

Even if a bottle of wine leaves its winery in immaculate condition, the road it travels to your glass is fraught with peril every step of the way. Because wine is a living, breathing substance, it can be mortally wounded by improper handling. A wine that starts out perfect can be ruined by many factors: how it is shipped and stored, when and with what it is poured.

Although a number of those elements are out of the winemaker’s hands, if a bottle disappoints, customers probably will blame the winery whose name is on the label. That is why some wineries increasingly are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure customer satisfaction.


There are times when the reason for having printers attached to computers is crystal clear — that is, bring along this Vinography review of the Wine & Spirits Top 100 Wineries for 2007 event next time you’re headed to a wine shop, perhaps in case one of these selections happens to be on sale.

Thankfully the Wine & Spirits list doesn’t actually rank these wineries from 1 to 100, which would be inane to say the least. They just publish an issue with profiles of each and list their high scoring wines (which presumably got them on the list to begin with).

But more to the point, the magazine also happens to put on a tasting where all 100 of these wineries are invited to pour the wines that were rated highly by the magazine, and it ends up being one hell of a tasting.


Speaking of crystal, there’s “no excuse for stemware abuse,” says Wine Enthusiast. A quick and savvy primer on how to wash, dry and otherwise care for glassware so as to avoid unwanted tastes and odors. Stuff you should know.

You’ve gone to so much trouble to select the right wine, purchase the perfect glasses, serve just the right food — it would put a damper on your dinner to serve in cloudy glasses with a faint odor. If you’re guilty of neglecting your stemware, read on. The fact of the matter is that the way in which you wash and care for wine glasses has a direct effect on the taste of wine. Properly caring for your crystal will insure that your wines always taste their best. 

Unlikely Virginia wine pioneers

Robert Giardina pouring wineVirginia’s Eastern Shore may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think about wineries. But it shouldn’t be the last, as I discovered during a recent getaway to Chincoteague and the Assateague Island National Seashore, an area famed for wild ponies and pristine beaches, overflowing seafood and scenic bike rides.

Add Bloxom Winery to the list of attractions, if you have the slightest interest in wine. Not only for the opportunity to take a break from the sunbathing for an afternoon tasting (noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday, from June to October) but also to chat with the owners about the unlikely journey that brought them to this peninsula’s sleepy farmlands from the cityscape of New York.

Photos: Stills and slideshow of the tasting room and vineyard.

Map: A satellite’s eye view of the vineyard and Eastern Shore.

Dubbed the “toast of Bloxom” by the local press, the lush six-acre vineyard and adjoining winery sit off a lonely gravel road, a welcoming change from the nondescript soy and corn fields that roll (uh, hold on—I’ve got to take a sip of this Bloxom Merlot—yum!—nice and dry, rich enough to make you feel a warm, satisfying glow amid the arduous demands of wine-blogging)…

Now, where was I? Oh, yeah—you have to wonder how in the world did a winery suddenly appear out of this virtual nowhere?

The answer starts off in the late ‘90s, when Robert Giardina, a Morocco-born home remodler who was fed up with the crummy grapes that were available from California for his homemade wine in the city, learned of a vineyard for sale in the region where he’d vacationed a long time before.

“It was insanity,” Robert says. “I was just looking for a place to grow grapes.”

Bloxom vinesBeing a pioneer wasn’t easy. Many of the vines he imported from a California nursery had to be replaced a couple times, he says. His wife, Francesca, became pregnant (Angelica is five now and speaks the most delightful French). It became clear that another source of revenue had to be found. And thus was born the winery plan.

“I couldn’t let this thing go,” says Robert.

It seems like it was a good bet. Bloxom is producing 900, 12-bottle cases, and the Eastern Shore is achieving greater respect for wine growing. More wineries have sprouted up, with several now within the shore’s Maryland and Virginia sectors—a testament to the favorable sandy soil and mild climatic conditions, with the Atlantic to the east and the Chesapeake Bay on the West lending a protective warmth to the vines’ grip on the earth, according to Wines & Wines.

The result can be tasted—in this case, a bottle of lightly golden Bloxom Chardonnay (fresh, slightly oaky taste, with a whiff of green apples; $16 at the local wine shop) complimenting a takeout seafood feast from Bill’s Restaurant in a hotel room overlooking Chincoteague Bay at sunset.

Think I’ll be going back.