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Monthly Archives: November 2024

Dry Creek Valley

thomasmoyer43 has added a photo to the pool: Source : https://www.flickr.com/photos/200730164@N04/54138855870/in/pool-52609756@N00

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Illegal grapes

she_who_must has added a photo to the pool: Grafted onto stock of the forbidden Noah variety La Madeleine, Saint-Mont Source : https://www.flickr.com/photos/she_who_must/24284597189/in/pool-52609756@N00

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Paso Robles 2022 vintage: Best wines from a challenging year

Justin Smith and his son Colin, Saxum Vineyards. After a near-perfect 2021 vintage in Paso Robles, on the Central Coast, the 2022 harvest came in hot. It was a vintage defined by a relentless 10-day heat spike of 40°C or hotter from 31 August through 9 September, forcing vintners into a sprint to pick early, resulting in a compacted harvest …

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Angry French grape growers smash bottles outside Lidl

The growers congregated outside Lidl supermarkets in Orange and Bagnols-sur-Cèze to vent their anger at wines allegedly being sold at a loss. They smashed several bottles of Côtes-du-Rhône wine, which retails for just €1.69 (£1.41) per bottle at Lidl, as the protests mounted. Jordan Charransol, president of the Young Farmers of Vaucluse, accused retailers of carrying out ‘a downgrading’ of …

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France will uproot 27,500 hectares of vineyards to combat oversupply crisis

Last month, France’s agriculture ministry unveiled a plan to pull up 30,000 hectares in a bid to tackle a significant supply-demand imbalance. The government offered to pay grape growers €4,000 for each hectare (ha) they uproot, and it earmarked €120m for the scheme. The window for applications has now closed, and the ministry revealed that 5,418 growers have agreed to …

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Understanding organic whisky 

Organic whiskies Whisky legend the late Dr Jim Swan once described organic barley as an expensive waste of time. That was almost a decade ago and he was talking mainly about distillery economics. But did he have a point? We know organic farming increases biodiversity and improves soil health. ‘If you’ve ever visited an organic farm and a non-organic farm, you …

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The Ultimate Gift Guide for Discerning Wine Lovers 2024 Edition

Finding suitable gifts for a serious wine lover can be tricky. If they’re serious enough, they’ve already got most of what they want or need when it comes to wine. That’s why I put together a gift guide each year filled with things that are excellent gifts for the wine lover who already has everything. There are always two things …

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Emeril Lagasse and Son Open Their New Restaurant, an Ode to Portugal

Sometimes even the world’s best-known chefs need to return to their roots, and that includes Emeril Lagasse. The chef’s latest endeavor, 34 Restaurant & Bar, opened in New Orleans’ Warehouse District last month near his Grand Award–winning flagship Emeril’s, the restaurant that solidified Lagasse’s place as an icon of Creole cooking. But this new restaurant represents a significant shift: Lagasse …

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Content funding on Decanter.com

At Future Publishing we rely on advertising to keep bringing you the content you love to read. The majority of the content on Decanter.com is created solely by our editorial team, but on occasion we also work with external partners to create content we hope our readers will find interesting and useful.  In some cases, advertisers support us in producing content. …

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The Best Universal Wine Glass

This article reviews some of the most popular one-size-fits-all, or universal, wine glasses. Some top producers (e.g., Zalto, Reidel) of wine glasses produce a large range of styles, each best suited to a particular type of wine.  These glasses are typically hand-blown crystal costing $75+ each.  Someone wanting separate glasses for different wines is looking at a large bill.   …

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To Be the BEST!!! (Profiling Cult Wineries for BestWineries.com)

The post To Be the BEST!!! (Profiling Cult Wineries for BestWineries.com) appeared first on 1 Wine Dude. A quick-hit today (while I’m traveling) to let you know about a new gig: I’ve contributed a profile piece on Napa Valley cult classic Realm Cellars (yes, that Realm, the one who makes reds going for about $1,300 a bottle) for BestWineries.com, an …

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Best buys at Lidl

It’s hard to keep up with the increased pace of change at Lidl: this year, the supermarket has moved from wine range refreshes every two months to every month. Each refresh has a different theme, ensuring new and interesting wines are always available in store. But it also means that you need to act quickly as they don’t hang around …

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Carcavelos: Salt-lined sweetness from the ‘Portuguese Riviera’

Vineyards in Oeiras, used for the production of Carcavelos, standing proud against the urban sprawl The undulating 20-mile stretch between Lisbon and Cascais – known as Estoril Coast (after the coastal town of the same name) and dubbed ‘the Portuguese Riviera’ – is fêted for having 18 sandy beaches and one of Europe’s highest concentration of world-class surf. However, during …

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Black Stallion: The Prestige Collection

Black Stallion’s director of winemaking, Ralf Holdenried. Led by German-born Ralf Holdenried, Black Stallion Winery’s winemaking team – including fourth-generation Indelicato family winemaker Stephen Mathews — save their best grapes and best terroirs for the Prestige Collection. Complex, age-worthy reds aimed at exhibiting the pinnacle varietal expression of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. How they differ comes down to sourcing, wine …

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Top DWWA Tempranillo wines

Tempranillo, Spain’s most important red grape variety, is versatile – capable of producing juicy, red-fruit driven young wines as well as wines that can withstand long ageing periods in oak, gaining complexity with layers of vanilla, leather, tobacco spice and liquorice. Considered native to Rioja, Tempranillo is now a key variety in Spain’s most prominent wine regions, notably Ribera del …

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Jason Millar: ‘What’s actually wrong with a little throaty roar in a 15% Roussillon red?’

Within a short distance of each other, we have the grey post-war Brutalist of the Barbican and the neat, symmetrical Georgian houses of Mayfair, while Gothic (or neo-Gothic) churches sit in the shade of modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers that have reached far beyond their spires. Architecture has succeeded in forging new styles beyond historical forms, challenging planning laws and innovating with …

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Napa Valley estate once home to ‘Two Buck Chuck’ producer is up for sale

The Napa Valley estate, which lies at the end of a bucolic country lane in St Helena, encompasses a 6,300 sq. ft. home, a winery, a tasting room and vineyards planted with Italian varietals. ‘Encompassed by vineyards and the organic landscape of the Napa River, the agrarian setting is unrivalled, offering everything wine country often promises, but rarely delivers,’ reads …

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