Category: WINE

Until I read the Harriet Lembeck article on Furmint (January 2015, Beverage Dynamics), I thought it was a new Swiss chocolate/mint truffle. Lembeck references Bordeaux’s Samuel Tinon a sweet wine maker, who moved to the Tokaji region of Hungary, eager to make wine with botrytis cinera, or noble rot. Unfortunately for Tinon, because of climate […]

Gone are the days when kosher wine tasted like melted popsicles. Fortunately for oenophiles kosher wines options have expanded beyond sweet Concord grapes of Manischevitz fame. The 1980s heralded the revival of the Israeli wine industry and today kosher wine has moved into a premium category. Kosher wines are produced throughout the world (including Israel, […]

Italy recently showcased their wines in New York. Forget about Fashion Week, it is Italian Wine Week and Vinitaly International that should take center stage and receive the media coverage that skirts and dresses attract. Italian Wine Week brings wine growers, wine makers, wine buyers, wine sellers, wine drinkers, wine educators, and journalists to a […]

Wine. An Art and a Science         Wine is more than grapes, terroir, weather, science and luck. If it were, wines would be made in a laboratory and not on the hills and dales of villages and communities around the world. Because the production of wine is complex and the resulting beverage is more than “something […]

Fortunately for Italy, many Americans drink Italian wines (32.4 percent) as it generates $1.65 billion (January – November 2016) for the Italian economy. In fact, Americans consumed 5.9 percent more Italian wines in 2016 than they did in 2015. People who live in New York, California, Florida, Illinois and Texas drive consumption, representing 50 percent of […]

Union Des Grand Crus de Bordeaux The Union includes 134 chateaux who are passionate about the unique personalities of their Bordeaux wines – along with 6 million French and international visitors who found their way to this special part of France in 2014. More than 50 percent of the travelers selected the destination primarily for […]

The name of this Italian hill town in Tuscany, Montalcino, is derived from the Latin “Mons Ilcinnus,” or mountain of holm oak and it is the oak tree that appears on the commune’s logo. In the Middle Ages (5th – 15 century), the area was dotted with tanneries used for shoes and leather goods. Today […]

 New Yorkers do not need much of a an excuse to have a party. A few bottles of wine, a tray or two of sustainable fruits, vegies, and sushi, and the festivities begin.           Recently, a pop-up party was held at the Leesa Mattress shop in SoHo where locals and neighbors dropped into the shop […]

Getting Ready for Prime Time      While not yet a popular tourism destination for travelers from the USA, Bulgaria attracted approximately 10 million tourists (2015) from Greece, Romania, Turkey and Russia – accounting for 50 percent of all visitors. Tourism contributed 15 percent to the economy’s GDP and supports 150,000 (2014) jobs. Currently there are 9 […]

 Between online pop-ups, Groupon discount coupons, television advertising, and in-store flyers, holiday gifting is made to appear as a very complex decision-making process. In fact, holiday gift giving is extremely easy – everyone on the list gets Taittinger Champagne, Calvisius Caviar, and a hotel suite at the Surrey Hotel. Of course, it would be delightful […]