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Wine Punting Demo

May 15, 2012 in Wine by Wine Passionista | No comments

On a recent wine trip to the beautiful region of Istria in Croatia, fellow wine blogger Donald Edwards, showed us the art of Wine Punting:  drinking wine out of the punt of an empty wine bottle.

Always up for anything, Joe Wadsack joined in and so did winemaker of Roxanich wines, Mladen Rozanic – not sure he’d ever drunk his own wine quite like this before!

Have you tried wine punting? Please share your photos or videos on the Wine Passionista Facebook page!

Here’s to trying something new (like wine punting!), learning something new (who needs a glass?!) and enjoying every glass (or punt) a whole lot more!

Tara – Wine Passionista

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The World’s Most Talented Winemaker!

May 10, 2012 in Wine by Wine Passionista | 1 comment

Naked Wines is without doubt one of the most innovative retailers in the UK (they’ve won awards to prove it).  They recently introduced their most ambitious competition to date: #ZerotoHero with the goal of “Unearthing the world’s most talented, undiscovered winemakers” – a big task for sure!

Over 6 months, 6 tastings, covering 6 winemaking regions, invited customers (Angels) taste the wines and democratically choose a favourite.  The winning wine receives a £50K investment and is featured in Naked’s weekly Marketplace offering.

The six winners then go to a grand finale where the wine receiving top marks wins a $500,000 investment contract! Not too shabby.

On Tuesday I attended the second of 6 tastings and joined a group of 30 wine lovers Read the rest of this entry »

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A Wine that’s Got Talent!

May 7, 2012 in learn about wine, Semillon, Try New Wines, Wine by Wine Passionista | No comments

You may not know this about me, but I’m a sucker for singing and talent competitions – X Factor, American Idol, the Voice UK, Britain’s Got Talent – I love them all (and thanks, perhaps, to Simon Cowell’s genius, it seems there is one or more of these shows on television in the UK 365 days a year!).

If you’re also a fan of these types of shows, then I’m guessing Read the rest of this entry »

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The Art of Non-Vintage Champagne

April 15, 2012 in Champagne, Wine by Wine Passionista | No comments

“Champagne! In success you deserve it; in defeat you need it” ~ Winston Churchill.

There is no doubt in my mind that there’s magic in a glass of Champagne.  My belief was strengthened recently at a dinner hosted by Jacquart Champagne where we delved into the intricacies of creating the ‘house-style’ Non-Vintage blend.

Each year the Champagne houses will each produce their ‘non-vintage blend’.  This is a crucial part of their annual production as it expresses the signature style of wine they produce and is the standard upon which the rest of their range is based.

The Non-Vintage blend consists largely of grapes from the most recent vintage, along with a portion of ‘reserve wines’ that have been kept from previous years – this is why it’s called a ‘non-vintage’ – because not all the grapes are from the same year.

The most important aspect of this blend is that it must remain consistent from year to year, regardless of how good or bad the recent vintage has been, so that no matter when or where you open a bottle, it will always taste the same. Read the rest of this entry »

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Italian Wine from Piedmont: Michele Chiarlo

April 5, 2012 in Italy, learn about wine, Nebbiolo by Wine Passionista | 2 comments

Bottles of Michele Chiarlo Barbaresco & Barolo 2007I’m very fortunate to be invited to lots of lovely dinners and fun wine events, but it’s not very often that they come to me!

That’s what happened yesterday when a good friend and former colleague brought a visiting wine producer round to the flat for a tasting.  The visit reminded me of some of my favourite moments as a sommelier (second only to conversing with the guests) when suppliers would bring winemakers or their export managers around and we’d taste the wines together. Then they were hoping for a listing on the wine list, now it’s my privilege to tell all of you about the wines – and I couldn’t be more excited to share these with you.

Michele Chiarlo is a producer in the northwest region of Piedmont in Italy.  The wines hold a soft spot for me as I had them on my very first wine list as sommelier at the Chesterfield Mayfair many moons ago.

I remember the wines always being a sommelier’s dream trifecta: Read the rest of this entry »

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