Wine Atlas

Hugn Johnson was writing a student essay at Cambridge when a drunken roommate returned from a black-tie dinner with two glasses of burgundy in hand. The wines were produced in the same vintage from adjacent vineyards, but even to Johnson's unformed palate they tasted very different. It was, he says, a moment of revelation that aroused his curiosity about a subject 'with an infinity of variables'.

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CHANGLI, China The town of Changli, in Hebei Province, resembles any other nondescript county seat in northern China. Motorized pedicabs, bicycles and overloaded trucks ply past the massage parlors, cheap restaurants and tax administration high-rises that line its dusty main street.

But just outside the town center is a 200-hectare, or 500-acre, vineyard replete with a state-of-the-art wine production facility; a villa with tasting rooms and restaurants; a three-story wine school; a luxury hotel, and an immense private château. The Tuscan-style complex is so opulent and incongruous in the Hebei countryside that it at first seems like a mirage.

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If you're looking for the perfect wine-related holiday present, consider a grand tour of the world's vineyards -- in a box.

There has never been a better time to give the gift of global wine, as we were reminded recently when talking with Roger Esser, manager of Cyclone Liquors in Ames, Iowa. Just five years ago, he says, his store's shelves were pretty much stocked with wines from the United States and big names like Italy and France. But then, Mr. Esser says, he noticed a dramatic transformation. Wines started coming into the States from emerging wine regions from all around the world. Cyclone underwent a major reorganization then to showcase the wines -- and has undergone two or three more as wines from other regions have become available. Now there are separate areas labeled Greece, Austria, Hungary, New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa. The Spain section has ballooned. "We have a lot of people who come in with an open mind and want to try something new," Mr. Esser explained. "A lot of people have become hooked on gruner veltliner, for example." These wines, he added, "are value-priced, too."

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Napa Valley wine trade mission to China: Planting some seeds

By Alan Goldfarb, WINE EDITOR

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a contingent of about 70 people from California visited China on a trade mission recently, there were a quartet of Napa Valley wine people among the group. They were there to introduce the region's wines to the people of China.

Because, as Todd Zapolski of Girard Winery explained, as much as we think our wines are known throughout the world, the wines of France, for instance, may be more familiar in China.

"The Australians now have very attractive price points in China. The Chileans are being very aggressive, and the French offer status and immediate recognition," explained Zapolski.

Along with the Girard executive, also on the trip was Leslie Rudd, the owner of Rudd Estate and his winemaker Charles Thomas; and Mary O'Neil, who represented Silver Oak. Also on the mission was a spokesperson from the Washington, D.C. office of the Wine Institute.

Wine shops in Beijing

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To the novice wine drinker on a budget, no one is more feared than the sommelier at a stylish restaurant. This is the person you expect to frown when you order the least expensive bottle of wine, and the person who will later terrorize you by offering a fraction of a glass of that cheap bottle, while he stands by, ostensibly awaiting your approval. But despite the formal exterior and unpronounceable title, not all sommeliers are creatures of intimidation.

Finn Anson, wine steward for the Emerson at Woodstock, is the kind of person people fall in love with. Single and married women of all ages adore him, as do the men who accompany them. Warm hearted and generous, he welcomes anyone into his wine-drenched world, and makes even a neophyte oenophile feel as if he or she belongs. An Irish citizen who was raised outside London, Anson, 37, recently lived for several years with his wife in the Dordogne region of France, an area that attracts poets, artists, and inspirationists—as well as epicureans who come for its food and wine. A few years ago, an influential member of the wine trade imported Anson to America, and he eventually moved to the Hudson Valley with his wife and two children.

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No longer content with 'fruit-bomb' wines, Canadians crave the richness of vin rouge

BARBARA RIGHTON

From sunny California to the medieval villas of Tuscany, Toronto's Tony Aspler has travelled widely to swallow a gazillion gallons of wine and write countless columns and some 10 books about it. As his comprehensive website (tony aspler.com) attests, he is among Canada's most dedicated oenophiles. So when you ask him why red wine most particularly imported red wine is now so popular in a country that once preferred white, he succinctly lists three main reasons. First, there's the continuing fallout from Sideways, last year's surprise hit film about two friends who go on a wine-tasting bender in the Santa Ynez Valley. (In fact, Aspler says the famous movie line "If anybody orders Merlot, I am leaving," has led Merlot sales to tank in Canada, while Pinot Noir, the protagonist's fave, has taken off.) Another factor in the red tide, says Aspler, is that Canadian palates are more sophisticated, and thirtysomethings now want that warmth and richness. "Fruit- bomb" wines, Aspler says, are fine for teenagers drinking in the bleachers at football games. You can almost hear him sniff.

Source: macleans.ca

As Australian wine companies retreat from the use of European geographic regions in relation to their products, one Western Australian wine producer has managed to hold firm.

While European names such as Burgundy and Champagne have been gradually forced from local labels, WA’s Feet First has survived a challenge to its name resulting from similarities with the wine growing region of First, in Germany.

Following a treaty signed in 1992, wine makers have been required to phase out the use of more than 3,000 European geographical regions to represent wines that do not include grapes from that region.

The best known case involves the the French region of Champagne, with Australian wine makers re-branding to ‘sparkling wines’.

Other names now barred from use include Chablis, Cognac, claret, Marsala and Moselle.

Last week, WA Business News reported that WA winery Houghton Wines has re-branded its iconic White Burgundy as Houghton’s White Classic in order to comply with obligations under the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation Act.

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A red wine made by a boutique Victorian winery from Barossa Valley shiraz grapes has been acclaimed as Australia's best exported wine.

The Mt Toolleen 2002 Ebenezer Vineyard Shiraz won the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation's award for the best wine exported in the 2004/05 financial year.

Continue reading: theage.com.au

Clive Otto received some belated industry acknowledgment last week when one of Australia’s best-read wine magazines, Winestate, named him the Australian Winemaker of the Year 2005.

Not bad for a man who was relatively recently made redundant after 16 years as winemaker at Vasse Felix.

And for good measure the publication also thought Mr Otto’s 2001 Heytesbury Cabernet Sauvignon was the best wine of the year, ahead of 10,000 entries from Australia and New Zealand. Mr Otto says the award is a great honour and one he is immensely proud of.

“To me, the award is recognition of all the hard work that went into 16 years at Vasse Felix,” Mr Otto says.

“The Winestate award is acknowledgment amongst my peers. and to receive it in this way is very pleasing.”

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