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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