Dave Nelson is the author of the blog Beer, Wine and Whisky. He writes about wine for Gut Check every Tuesday.I recently attended a relatively large wine tasting. This wasn't a formal affair. Just a group of good friends, tasty food and a whole lot of great wine over the course of two days. I brought ten bottles to open, and three of the ten were ruined by the most prevalent and insidious of wine faults: cork taint. I was far from the only one to lose bottles to this thief, though I did take th
Dave Nelson is the author of the blog Beer, Wine and Whisky. He writes about wine for Gut Check every Tuesday.As I've researched the many issues surrounding cork and its alternatives, a central theme has emerged: Little solid research has been done into both the chemistry of wine aging and the impact of bottle closures on that process. While new studies seem to be announced almost weekly now, there is a paucity of historical data and controlled long-term studies. Combine this with all of the new
Like many sectors of the economy, the wine industry isn't doing well. You might suppose that alcohol sales would be more resilient than most things, and to some extent that's true -- sales of inexpensive wines remain relatively robust. However, high-end wines are being hit hard.My first clue that something was amiss? The numerous e-mails and mailings that I began receiving from wineries from which I hadn't purchased wine directly in many years, if ever.Many small domestic producers have mailing
Controversy about the sustainability of seafood sold at Trader Joe's. (LA Weekly)Love meat but worried about its carbon footprint? Grass-fed might be the way to go. (UTNE Reader)Italian winemakers cut production to improve quality. (Reuters)
One of the larger areas of misconception surrounding wine is the use of sulfur compounds, most commonly sulfur dioxide (SO2), during the wine-making process. Many consumers seem to misunderstand why most winemakers add SO2 and what ill effects it might cause. Given that all wines containing more than 10 parts per million of sulfites are required by the Food and Drug Administration to sport a deadly-serious-looking official government label that warns of their presence, it isn't surprising that m
As I reported on Monday, Steve McIntyre, who owned Balaban's in the Central West End for a good portion of its 36-year run, is opening Balaban's Wine Cellar & Tapas Bar this November at 1772 Clarkson Road in Chesterfield.Today I received the official press release announcing the opening, and it suggests that retail wine sales will play a large part in the new venture. A couple of choice bits after the jump...
www.brcohn.comMusicians and wine go together like, well, a nice chardonnay paired with brie. Maynard James Keenan of Tool is perhaps the most famous musician vintner, although Chuck Berry released blackberry wine a few years ago via Missouri's Crown Valley WInery.
Now you can add classic rockers the Doobie Brothers -- which once featured St. Louis native Michael McDonald among their ranks -- to the music-branded wine pack. Sonoma, California's B.R. Cohn Winery (the establishment founded
​Following up on my post a couple of weeks ago about wine being fun, I decided to have some fun myself. I saw a post on the Wine and Cheese Place's blog about an upcoming tasting featuring the wines of Chateau St. Jean and Beringer. Regular readers of the Noble Writ will likely realize that these producers are outside my normal palate preferences. That we'd be tasting some high-end cabernet sauvignons from these folks moved me even further from my normal hunting grounds.
