In a blog a few weeks back, I reported on the winery Switchback Ridge owned by Kelly Peterson and her 2004 Switchback Ridge Petite Sirah. In this week’s blog I am reporting (one more time) on the grape variety Petite Sirah (Peh-teet-sear-ah), the American name for the French grape Durif. The grape was created in France in the 1860s by Dr. Francois Durif…
Bruce Devlin, California wine, Durif, Napa Valley wine, Petite Sirah, Three Clicks
As all wine drinkers know, corks have been the means of closing wine bottles for centuries. In fact, corks have been keeping wine in bottles since about the 17th century. In 1964 metal screw caps were introduced to the wine industry and they now hold a large share of the wine bottle closure market…
screw caps, stacking wine, storing wine
In my continuing quest to educate us all on various wines, I want to introduce you to the Italian wine Barbera. Barbera (Barrr-beah-rra) is a red Italian wine grape that comes from the region of Piedmont in northwest Italy. There are primarily three Barbera wines: Barbera d’Alba, Barbera d’Asti and Barbera del Monferrato…
Barbera, Barbera del Monferrato, Barbera d’Alba, Barbera d’Asti, Italian wine, red wine
Not too many months ago I had the opportunity to purchase six different bottles of Italian wines from a national distributor. I am sharing my thoughts on one of those wines, the 1997 Ornellaia red wine, in this week’s blog. Ornellaia (pronounced o-nell-eye-ay) is one the iconic wine estates of Italy…
Bolgheri DOC, Italian wines, Ornellaia, red wine
The actual order you taste wines in is entirely up to you. It is fairly common to taste white wines first then work your way into reds. But this process may depend on how many wines you are trying. If you are tasting a lot of reds your palate has a tendency to become jaded or tired…
what order should you taste, wine order