Wine Atlas

By Emma Graham-Harrison,

MANAS, China, Oct 31 (Reuters) - A slice of onion or lemon, some ice-cubes or a mixer of lemonade are some of the tricks Chinese wine drinkers use to help a glass of red slip down.

The traditionally spirit- and beer-drinking nation only began turning grapes into alcohol on a large scale in the last few decades and is still getting used to drinking the results.

But as the industry matures, and the thirst of China's newly affluent middle classes for wine grows, ambitious Chinese vineyards are trying to educate their countrymen's palates so as to win their cash.

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For 25 years, as civilian wine lovers, we tasted hundreds of wines a year. Now, we taste thousands. But we have never lost our capacity for surprise and wonder. We enjoy just about all wines in their own way, but we also look forward to those days when we have a wine that takes us someplace special, that rare Delicious! wine, with an exclamation point, that is unique but, at the same time, fits into a time-taste line with all of the other greatest wines of our lives. The first-growth wines from bordeaux should offer that kind of life experience and, sometimes, they do. This is the story of one that did.

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Tasting Wine: ‘Sideways’ aside

I spent a column a few weeks ago complaining about the film “Sideways.” Now, let me focus on something good that came out of that movie: It drew more attention to the wines from Santa Barbara County. For outsiders, Napa Valley has been synonymous with California wine, but I think the undisputed fact is that Santa Barbara County and other Central Coast wine regions gave birth to many of the best wines made in our state.

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Noelia Santos Special to the Express-News

ENSENADA, Mexico — Highway 3 in Baja California's Valley of Guadalupe is also known as the Ruta del Vino, as the road signs pointing toward vine-covered fields handily attest. "Wine," say some, or "restaurant." Sometimes "swimming" or "camping." A few simply announce a "Vinícola" (Winery) and point to a dirt turnoff that disappears behind a grove of olive trees.

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Wine: Italian wine labels can throw anyone for a loop

By Frank Sutherland and Kate Sutherland Gannett News Service

Even if you stick to the most well known red Chianti there are often plenty of other words on the bottle to decipher.

Some wines might just say Chianti, which are inexpensive everyday wines from anywhere in the region. The next step up in quality is a wine from a specific subregion that is listed on the label after Chianti.

There are seven subregions, but most readily available and highly regarded is Chianti Classico. One step beyond that is the Chianti Classico Riserva, which must be aged at least twice as long as regular Chianti Classico. These wines are fuller bodied, more complex and age longer. As with all Chianti, the Riservas usually taste better with food than alone.

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Signature Wines on Inc. 500 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies; Custom Labels, Wine Clubs and Elvis Fuel Growth of Innovative Wine Firm

HAYWARD, Calif. (BUSINESS WIRE) Oct. 19, 2005 Corks popped today at Signature Wines on news that the firm has been named to Inc. Magazine's 2005 Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing private companies. The Hayward, California-based wine seller vaulted on to the coveted list through an innovative mix of internet-based custom private label solutions, wine club services and the Graceland Cellars(R) brand of Elvis Presley(R) wines.

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THE Coonawarra springs to life in October, both on its home turf and as the focus wine region at Tasting Australia in Adelaide. The annual Cabernet Celebrations kick off on Friday, October 14, with the event's feature master class looking at how the region compares to the rest of the world in tackling this tricky variety.

Presenters include Peter Forrestal, new Master of Wine Toni Paterson and Majella winemaker Bruce Gregory.

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FOR a country renowned in the Age of Exploration for its seafaring adventures and colonies, Portugal has lived much of its wine-producing life in splendid isolation.

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Winemakers from the Olifants River Valley came to Cape Town during WineX in a balancing act of all dimensions great and small, and to show the versatility of the terroir of the far-flung wine region - from Koekenaap in the north to Trawal in the south, from warm Karoo vineyards to cool sandy Strandfontein on the coast.

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