Beautiful Wine Labels – Should Prime Cellars Go Paperless?

Within the wine labeling industry, screen printed labels or Applied Ceramic Labels (ACL) occupy just a small slice of the overall pie. While paperless bottle labeling techniques have yet to be widely adopted in the U.S., many existing paper label designs are actually perfect for ACL printing. Prime Cellars is an example of a winery that screen prints their Reserve wines, but uses paper labels for the rest. We have some thoughts on why they should go paperless for all of their labels.

Prime Cellars’ 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon is labeled with paper, but has great paperless potential. The label uses a light gray paper with a broad swash of black ink across the front. The word “PRIME” is visible in the middle of the black ink, and “Napa Valley” appears in red below that. The fact that red is used sparsely gives the paper label a monochrome look, and the hard-edges of the paper feel out of place in an otherwise striking design.

Continue reading “Beautiful Wine Labels – Should Prime Cellars Go Paperless?”

Should You Drink Red Wine?

You definitely should consider drinking red wine if you drink alcohol. Considering the health benefits of red wine and how enjoyable the experience can be, I think that red wine is the logical choice for the drinker.

Let us begin by looking at the health benefits of red wine. To understand these benefits requires a short explanation: Red wines are a rich source of biologically active compounds known as phytochemicals, which are chemicals found in plants. In particular, phytochemicals called polyphenols are found in red wine. Two polyphenols in red wine are catechins and resveratrol, both of which are antioxidants. Antioxidants are any substance that reduces oxidative damage (damage due to oxygen such as that caused by free radicals). Free radicals are highly reactive chemicals that attack molecules by capturing electrons and thus modifying chemical structures. Resveratrol not only provides antioxidant protection from free-radical damage, but it helps to protect LDL cholesterol against oxidation, promotes optimal cardiovascular health, supports and supports healthy aging and normal cell growth. Catechin, on the other hand, appears to play an important role in reducing the risk of heart disease. Another antioxidant called Saponin, is also found in red wine and it also may offer protective benefits for the heart and is easily absorbed by the body.

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Making Great Wine – It’s (Almost) All in the Yeast

The difference between an average homemade wine and an award-winning one often lies in yeast selection-an unknown or often ignored practice in home winemaking.

Sure. Making good wine involves growing or buying good fruit and sound winemaking. But making wine-and certainly making great wine-goes beyond buying grapes or juice and then pitching yeast, any yeast, and waiting for fermentation to complete before bottling. And gone are the days of relying on indigenous yeast to get to work; results can be unpredictable and unreliable, or even cause spoilage.

If you want to make award-winning wines that can outscore even commercial wines, then you need to select a wine yeast and choosing wisely. With the plethora of specialized yeast strains now available, you can select a strain specifically for your grape or juice variety and desired wine style. But it shouldn’t end there. There is no one magic yeast strain, though there are preferred ones. So try experimenting with different yeast strains by fermenting several batches and then comparing wine from different batches. You may find that one strain produces better aromas and flavors, perhaps which are more typical of the varietal. Then try blending batches from different strains and in different combinations-the results will surprise you. And avoid the practice of combining two or more strains for fermenting the same batch; this can cause the strains to compete and perhaps yield unpredictable results in terms of aromas, flavors, and mouthfeel. Continue reading “Making Great Wine – It’s (Almost) All in the Yeast”

How to Document Your Wine Collection

Concept

Documenting a wine collection is not rocket science and it does not need to be tedious; it should be a fun and easy task. The process is simple, and anyone with a pen and paper, or a computer, can do it effectively. Proper documentation allows wine lovers to keep their inventory in proper order, so that when they need to find a particular bottle in the proverbial haystack, it is easy to do so.

This process is relatively easy whether you have fewer than a hundred bottles of wine to organize or if your wine collection is hundreds or thousands. The process of documenting wine involves the same principles whether the cellar is large or small. Think of it as organizing a library. Whether there are a few books or many racks, they should be arranged in order, using certain rows and certain aisles in order to facilitate finding what you need quickly and efficiently. This guide will assist in finding the best ways to document your wine collection.

Process

Wine enthusiasts with large collections should always go for the most convenient method of documenting their wines. One popular method is using computer software that manages wine placement in the wine cellar. Software programs like WineBanq, The Wine Cellar Book, The Uncorked Cellar, Cellartracker make wine management relatively easy. Free trial versions of these software programs are usually available, but trial versions usually offer severely limited functionality and/or eventual expiration. Continue reading “How to Document Your Wine Collection”

Why California Wine Is the Best

America is ranked 4th worldwide, in terms of wine production; thanks to the substantial quantities produced in the Golden State of California. California’s wine production, remarkably, accounts for about 90% of United State’s entire wine production. To be specific, more than seventeen million gallons of wine are produced in California annually.

Following are top American states known for wine production.

California (2025 wineries)
Washington (451 wineries)
Oregon (295 wineries)
New York (239 wineries)
Virginia (140 wineries)
Texas (136 wineries)
Pennsylvania (115 wineries)
Michigan (112 wineries)
Ohio (108 wineries)
Missouri (86 wineries)

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Occasions For Drinking Rose Wine

Most wine professionals and experienced people do not enjoy rose wine due to poor public view in the wine world. A rose is considered to be unsophisticated and plain. While this can be true sometimes, it is not necessarily a bad thing. You should drink wine for yourself, not for other people. If the wine snobs say rose is plain and unsophisticated, but you like it, then no one should stop you.

I like drinking rose in a few various settings. One for example, when it comes to ordering a full bottle of wine at a restaurant, but I am eating meat and my date is having fish. In that case, we’d have to order two separate bottles or order by the glass. Since a bottle is a much better deal than ordering by the glass in most cases, having rose is the most sensitive choice. Continue reading “Occasions For Drinking Rose Wine”

Pasta With Grilled Shrimp and Garlicky Fresh-Tomato Sauce

Some of the best pasta sauces are the simplest. Here, fresh tomatoes cook quickly in a little olive oil and plenty of garlic, then get a bright finish with lemon zest and fresh lemon juice. Quick, pan-grilled shrimp adds smoky, briny flavor in this casual dinner for two (easily doubled).

Serves 2

Ingredients

4-5 oz thin spaghetti
1/2 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
olive oil for marinating, plus 3 tbsp
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 stem tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1 cup)
1/2 tsp finely chopped lemon zest
fresh lemon juice and chopped flat-leaf parsley, for serving

Preparation Continue reading “Pasta With Grilled Shrimp and Garlicky Fresh-Tomato Sauce”

Simple Avocado Pasta Recipe

Avocados are a highly nutritious fruit, that can be incredibly versatile when it comes to their culinary uses.

This article is going to provide you with a simple avocado pasta recipe, that you can use as either the main course in a meal, or as a snack. I had previously read about this recipe online, and when deciding to try it out myself I had no lemon so used lime instead. The results were pretty good so this is now something that I eat with real regularity. So just to point out, you can change the lime juice for lemon if you wish.

I am also going to point out some interesting avocado benefits for you, in order to try and encourage you to make this highly nutritious fruit a regular fixture in your diet.

Ready, steady, cook!

Utensils you are going to need Continue reading “Simple Avocado Pasta Recipe”

Healthy Meal of the Week 31 With Healthy Leftover Idea

Healthy Meal of the Week: Slow Cooked Chicken, Brown Rice & Corn Cob

Healthy Leftover Idea: Chicken Sandwiches

Here’s an easy-to-prepare meal using your wonderful slow cooker that may likely be sitting sadly in the corner of your kitchen waiting patiently to be called upon. When planned accordingly, this meal can be all ready to eat when you return home especially if the rice and corn variety you purchase is the microwave type variety. Not to worry if you don’t have those or want to spend the extra money on them since the rice and corn will only take about 20 minutes to prepare.

For the leftover meal, you’ll have a great handheld treat weighing in only around 250 calories each if prepared as described below.

Equipment Needed

– slow cooker (Crock Pot)

– pan with lid for rice (or rice cooker) Continue reading “Healthy Meal of the Week 31 With Healthy Leftover Idea”

How to Make Homemade Wine With Grape Juice – AND Make it Taste Good!

So – you have just read an article on the internet about how to make wine out of grape juice and sugar. The article tells you to use a balloon and a milk jug and some yeast.

BUT – all of the articles leave out the one real secret to making wine with juice concentrate.

Acid Content

That’s right. The frozen grape juice concentrate you buy at store has about twice the acid content that grapes from vineyards have. If you make wine out of the juice, it will indeed be wine.

But it will taste just like grape juice – complete with pucker power. Yes, it will have alcohol in it, but again, it won’t taste anything like wine you are used to drinking. As noted above – it will taste like grape juice with a little kick and that’s about it.

So what to do about it? Simple: Neutralize the acid before you put the yeast in. Continue reading “How to Make Homemade Wine With Grape Juice – AND Make it Taste Good!”