Endangered Cocktail: The French 75
COCKTALE Is there a more festive sound than the “pop” coming from an uncorked bottle of Champagne? We think not. As you gather with friends and family this holiday season, LUPEC urges you look beyond the Champagne bottle in your hand to the range of spirits, juices, bitters, and mixers... Read More
Cava
Tucked away between coastal hills of Catalonia, southwest of Barcelona, is the Penedes wine region. Like Rioja’s reds, Penedes’ white wines are widely regarded in Spain and abroad. While the region’s oak-aged reds (think Priorat) and still white wines (Torres) are fine, Penedes is best known for Cava, the sparkling... Read More
Great American Beer Festival 2009
Things could have gone very differently this year. In the midst of the worst economy for consumer goods in more than half a century, craft and domestic brewers alike braced for a painful and unknown impact. They anticipated sharp declines, the product of worried consumers staying home and away from... Read More
Zaca Mesa
Although the American Indian word zaca means “restful place”, it appears that Zaca Mesa Winery in Los Olivos, California, founded in 1972, entered a blessedly restful phase only a few years ago. It’s original owners, a group of investors led by oilman Louis Ream, gave way in 1986 to the... Read More
Franciacorta
Here in the USA, where Italian wine imports are first in volume and second in value (after France), Franciacorta is less than sparkling in its performance. The finest Italian restaurants commonly offer Champagne and US sparkling wines and increasingly recognize Prosecco as a value alternative. Franciacorta however is rarely found.... Read More
Carmenere
As those of us who are professionally involved in wine clearly understand, our business is in a state of constant evolution. What’s “in” and what’s “out” never remains stagnant. Part of the industry’s appeal is the fact that there always seem to be emerging regions, that previously obscure grape varieties... Read More
NO WINE from AMAZON
From books to clothes, from diapers to DVDs, you can buy just about anything in the world on Amazon – but you can’t buy wine and you won’t be able to in the near future. After a lengthy campaign, Amazon.com has abandoned its efforts to sell wine online. It nearly... Read More
CALIFORNIA VINEYARDS KEEP UP the GREEN EFFORT
The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) has released a report funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) revealing that 1O1 winegrowers surveyed throughout California, have a remarkably high level of adoption of sustainable vineyard management practices. Complete survey results are detailed in the report, titled “Understanding Adoption and... Read More
TWITTER, TWITTER EVERYWHERE . . .
When thinking of literacy, wine isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind. The eponymous Twitter begs to differ. In an attempt to boost literacy rates around the world, Twitter has launched a wine label with San Francisco-based winery Crushpad. The label is dubbed Fledgling Wine. In addition to... Read More