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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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Off the Mark at Mark’s & Spencer’s Spring Wine Tasting

March 17, 2012 in Wine, Wine Shops by Wine Passionista | 2 comments

This week was Marks & Spencer’s Spring tasting for wine educators and bloggers.  I’m a big fan of M&S – their food is great (a favourite is the orzo pasta & roasted tomatoes with basil vinaigrette) – their stores are well-organized and the people are friendly.  The fact they do so many things well, has always caused me to wonder why their wines aren’t better.  I’m not saying they’re bad, they’re just not up to the standard I expect from M&S (IMHO). Read the rest of this entry »

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