Wine Talk

In my quest to discover for reliable table wines, I've been working my way through California winery Barefoot Wines' list. I've written about Barefoot Pinot Grigio, and Barefoot Pinot Noir. Read more

A lot of people have written wine in a glassabout the recent research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine that suggests women who drink moderate amounts of red wine are less likely to gain as much weight as women who do not drink any alcohol, or those who drink liquor. Mostly, they're getting it wrong.

In 1997 a medical instructor and researcher, Lu Wang, at Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston, with the aid of colleagues, surveyed 19,220 American women aged 39 or older with a healthy body weight a number of questions about their drinking habits. About 38% of the women responded that they did not drink any alcohol. All the women were followed for thirteen years, and the data was collected. Read more

We all know that wine labels are important, and that they should provide us with information about the wine. But American wine labels, particularly for consumer table wines, can be awfully confusing. For one thing, in terms of the law, in America as long as at least 75% of the wine comes from the grape variety named on the label, it's considered a varietal wine. A bottle that says Cabernet Sauvignon may well be 25% Shiraz, and 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, or some other blend. For some, this is a horrific disclosure; for my part, I'm fine with it, but I do wish that wineries would be more transparent about what they are putting in the bottle. It's not going to affect how the wine tastes to know, and it is interesting information. Read more

To be fair, this is only the second Pinot Noir I've had, and the first was an older, aged French wine. This is this year's "new" Barefoot Wines Pinot Noir, and honestly, at the bargain basement price of $4.89 a bottle at a Fred Meyer grocery store, I'm not sure I should expect much. There's a sticker on the bottle prominently marking it as a "New Release," so I take that as a reasonable caveat. Read more

In the "it's funny because it's true" vein of humor: Read more

This Barefoot Wines Pinto Grigio is only the third Pinot Grigio I've tried. All three have been from California. I'm looking forward to trying a Washington Pinot Grigio, since both states have a proud tradition of producing Pinot Grigio, and both are associated with slightly more fruit forward Pinot Grigios than their European winery counterparts. Read more

Barefoot wine really did begin as a "garage" wine company in 1965. The brand made a small name for jug style table wines. The founder's son and a partner purchased the label in 1986. In the first quarter of 1992, Barefoot Chardonnay was added to the Barefoot repertoire and Barefoot White Zinfandel in late 1993. Other wines were slowly added to the list, and the partners hired branding expertise to create the "casual fun" brand that is now closely associated with the wines. The current winemaker, Jennifer Wall, was hired in 1995 when Barefoot produced four varietals. A year later, Barefoot wines became a national brand in the U.S. Read more

Aquila d'Oro Toscana is an example of a "super Tuscan" style wine. The label clearly identifies it as Indicazione Geografica Tipica, the region in question is Tuscany, and the back even uses the dreaded "super Tuscan" phrase. It's a dry red, balanced carefully between fruity and acid. The wine is predominantly Sangiovese, with, I suspect at least some Cabernet Sauvignon, but I'm just guessing based on the aroma and taste, and I'm quite prepared to be completely wrong; they don't seem to want anyone to know the blend. It's a perfect wine for spaghetti and meatballs, or a rich lasagna, something that can stand up to the dryness and flourish. It's a 12.5 ABV, and meant to be enjoyed with good food and good friends. Read more

Italy has complicated and venerable traditions regarding the wine growing regions of Italy, the varietals of grapes grown, and the nature of Italian wines, blended or varietal. Back in the day, Italian wines fell into one of three classifications:

Vino da Tavola (VDT) or "Table wine" in Italian, and it means exactly what it says. This is wine made in Italy from Italian grapes, meant for immediate (or soon thereafter) consumption.

Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) and Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) are used to label Italian wines that are made from specific grapes from specific regions. The DOCG wines must also pass a blind taste test, to certify that they are exactly as described. Both of these labels were created in an effort to draw attention to Italian regional wines, and the quality of Italian wines. Read more

The Black Goose winery is located in California's Sonoma county, right on Sonoma Mountain, in fact. It's a micro climate, with a range of soil conditions and weather changes that make harvest a bit of a challenge. The Chardonnay was planted in 1983, and for a number of years, the grapes were sold to "name" wineries like La Crema and Sebastiani. In 2002, the Bunker family who owned the vineyard decided to bottle as a single vineyard Chardonnay. It's been winning awards ever since. The Bunker Sonoma Mountain Vineyard Sonoma County Reserve is one of two wines they produce and bottle from the planting; it's barrel fermented for ten months. The other Chardonnay is Black Goose's Geraldine J, a a Chardonnay deliberately modeled after the Burgundian style Chardonnays, and made from Spring Mountain Chardonnay clones. Read more