Italian Wine Label Rules

For thousands of years, the Italians have always been a highly creative and progressive people. However, when it comes to weaving through the maze of Italian wine labels, their wine label creativity can frequently be a hindrance as opposed to a help.

There are two parts to any Italian wine label that consumers should pay particular attention to. These include the producer or winery name and the geographic origin of the wine. These two indicators alone should make the buying experience less of a crapshoot once you take the time to learn a little about your favorite Italian wines.

By law, every wine label must show the producer or winery name. This can be the name of the winery owner or the name of the winery itself. It can be in small letters on the back of the label or in large, bold letters on the front of the label. Either way, it will be found somewhere on the label. Learn the names of your favorite producers and it’s usually a safe bet that any wine they produce, regardless of type, will be well within your drinking wheelhouse. Over time you will notice that the best producers won’t bottle wine that is not worth your drinking pleasure or your purchasing dollar. That is why following vintages too rigidly can be a mistake. Great winemakers make good wines even from vintages that are considered bad. Continue reading “Italian Wine Label Rules”

Buy Your Wine Direct From the Winery

How wine is sold is subtly changing. Until recent history wine was sold through an arcane system known as Three Tier Distribution that came about when prohibition ended. The winery or brewer or distiller has no choice in how they get their product to market. Gradually however, this is changing as states approve wine being shipped directly from the winery to the consumer.

The 2016 Direct-to-Consumer (DtC) wines sales report has some interesting information. It confirms that wineries are focusing more of their strategies on marketing their wines directly to the consumer. In fact, this method of distribution isn’t just for the smaller wineries; the large wineries are now focusing more attention on this outlet. Greater than 5 million equivalent cases of wine were shipped direct to the consumer and it wasn’t limited to less expensive wines either. Sonoma wineries had the highest grow rate in 2016 of nearly 30%.

Wines and Vines has a 2016 database of 9,069 U.S. wineries that they have divided into 5 categories based upon number of cases produced annually. The largest combined categories are called Limited and Very Small producers, each producing up to 4,999 cases per year. These two categories represent 79% of all wineries shipping direct to consumers, roughly 3,600 wineries in each category. If Small Wineries (totaling 1,570) are added to the prior two categories they represent 96.4% of wineries in the U.S. The take-away from this information is that wineries each producing 49,999 cases of wine and less annually, while selling DtC, have a significant market presence. Continue reading “Buy Your Wine Direct From the Winery”

What’s the Story Behind Red Cat Wine?

Red Cat Wine is produced by Hazlitt Vineyards. The wine was originally known as HHJ Wine, also known as Red Catawba. It was named after the native grapes from which it was made, and eventually received the appreciated nickname or Red Cat. The wine’s history entails an intriguing story of seduction and youthful indiscretion. The wine was actually in existence before the Hazlitt Winery came into being. In the early 1980s, Jerry Hazlitt created wine in his home in New York for his family and friends to enjoy. Jerry created the first batch of Red Catawba in a wooden barrel in his driveway, where local grapes were stopped in traditional fashion to create wine for personal consumption.

As the story goes, Jerry’s sons were quite found of hosting female guests, and took it upon themselves to “borrow” some of their father’s wine for a waterfront party which actually featured a homemade hot tub. The boys found that their father’s “grape juice” quickly removed the inhibitions of consumers, resulting in some more scantily clothes hot tubers. Redcat has gained a reputation over the years as a wine popular among the college crowd. T-shirts and other memorabilia sporting the Redcat name are popular. The cult following of the wine is increased by its mascot, a six foot red cat who often leads guests to the winery in the Redcat chant. Continue reading “What’s the Story Behind Red Cat Wine?”

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.

Continue reading “Should You Drink Red Wine?”

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)

Continue reading “Why California Wine Is the Best”

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”