When it comes to wine, the question is often raised whether a $150 bottle of wine tastes better than a $15 bottle of wine. The answer is quite complicated, because preferences for wine are palate-driven, and truly subjective. There are many factors that contribute to the cost of wine in the bottle, including the variety or varieties of grapes used to make the wine, the region where the grapes are grown, how the grapes are cropped, the age of the grapevines, how the grapes are harvested, how long the wine is aged, and in what medium, and how much demand there is for the wine.
Virginia is considered the birthplace of America because the first English colonists settled in Jamestown in 1607. Virginia’s roots in wine history run deep. In 1619, the Virginia House of Burgesses, which was the legislative body for the Colony of Virginia, enacted “Acte 12.” This law required each male colonist to plant and cultivate a minimum of 10 grapevines in order to make wine for the crown.
Pinotage is a red wine grape whose origins lie in South Africa. The grape is the result of a crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsault, which are both the species Vitis vinifera. The crossing was created in 1925 by Abraham Izak Perold, the first Professor of Viticulture at Stellenbosch University, with the hope of creating a grape with the vigor of Cinsault and the finesse of Pinot Noir.
Have you ever received an invitation to a dinner party at a friend of a friend’s house, your boss’s house, your new neighbor’s house, or your new significant other’s parents’ house? You’d like to bring a bottle of wine but aren’t sure what the host’s tastes are in wine, or what the host will be serving. The following list provides some tips on what to bring and what not to bring:
Montepulciano pronounced “mon-ta-pull-channo” is one of the more confusing names in the wine world, as it is both a place name and a grape name. To make matters more complex, wines made in Montepulciano are not made from its eponymous grape. Confused? Exactly!
