More Wine Label Art

Last night I wined with Cap’n Crunch

Well, at least the guy responsible for bringing it to market in the 60′s. And Power Bars. And Hidden Valley Ranch. But it’s his recent creations that belong on this site – soft elegant award-winning wines out of Northern California.

I had the pleasure of having Dr. Chaim Gur-Arieh, owner of C.G. Di Arie Vineyard & Winery pour me a selection of his wines at one of our favorite hangs, the Park Avenue Wine Bar in Barrington, IL:

• 2009 Sauvignon Blanc from the Shenandoah Valley
• 2008 Rosé Di Arie from the Sierra Foothills
• 2007 “Block 4″ Primitivo
• 2006 Shenandoah Valley Zinfandel
• 2006 “Southern Exposure” Zinfandel
• 2005 Syrah that I regrettably couldn’t get to in time – WIND Chicago’s Frank Mahoney and Tom Jiaris had to tear down the tasting and setup for their live wine podcast. That’s the kind of cool stuff they do at Park Avenue.

The “Southern Exposure” was a REAL stand-out. Dark fruits, vanilla and black pepper give way to a balanced, nutmeggy “It’s Christmas in my mouth” finish.

Chaim was full of amusing stories, he’s married to a former Ballerina (who by the way designs the wine labels), has only been doing wine for nine years (although it was always a dream) and he even used to live in my neighborhood. He’s even patented his own fermentation tank.

This guy has a Ph.D for knowing what tastes good and how to make it for the last 40 years – so I look forward to drinking more of his wines.

It’s Wine Festival Season In The Midwest

Columbus Wine Festival July 30 & 31  Columbus, Oh

Located at the Franklin Park Conservatory. Stroll around the grounds, sample some of the 150 wines available, attend the wine and food seminars in a relaxing and beautiful setting. The Ohio State Students are returning soon and football fever will take over Columbus, here’s your last chance for peace, tranquility and best of all, wine.

for tickets and information: http://www.columbuswinefestival.com/index.html

Windy City Wine Festival Sept 10 & 11   Chicago,Il

Located at Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. Face the East and you have a view of the yachts in the harbor and cool breezes off of Lake Michigan, turn to the West and you have a breathtaking view of Chicago’s Skyline, all of this is intoxicating without the glass of wine in your hand. Add 200 wines and food from local restaurants and you have the perfect setting to toast the end of summer.

for tickets and information: http://www.windycitywinefestival.com/participating-restaurants.html

Naperville Wine Festival Sept 17 & 18   Naperville,Il

Located at the Naper Settlement. Set in the heart of Naperville’s vibrant Downtown area. Walk the grounds, sample the treats offered by local eateries, and let the Wine Geek in you run wild among the 200 wines available. After the event, meet up with friends at one of the many night clubs that are within walking distance.

for tickets and information: http://www.napervillewinefestival.com/participating-restaurants.html

What Is The Best Receptacle For Drinking Wine?

Well, I don’t know if this puts an end to the debate over which glass shape is the best for drinking this wine or that. But the Wine Rack Bra holds a full 750 ml bottle of wine or 25 oz of your beverage of choice, while adding two cup sizes. From now on Reidel stems can only be second best.

Get your Wine Rack Bra at http://www.baronbob.com/winerack-winegaggift.htm

If You Want To Know What The WineMakers Know, This Is The Book To Read

CheapWineFinder.com recently attended a tasting given by Chris Ringland of R Wines and Grateful Palate. In Chris’s presentation, he stated that if you really have an interest in wine, you need to read Emile Peynaud’s Knowing and Making Wine. The charts and diagrams contained in the book are essential to understanding wine.

Emile Peynaud is known as the Father of Modern Winemaking and revolutionized the way wine was made in Post World War 2, France. Knowing Wine and Making Wine goes from the basics, such as how to properly taste wine, to the chemistry involved in making wine.

This is a basic reference book for virtually every Winemaker in business today. While not a breezy summer read, there are worse ways of spending a beautiful summer’s day than expanding your knowledge of wine.

Knowing Wine and Making Wine is available on Amazon.com and Ebay, a new copy of the book sells for $88, but used copies are readily available. Google Books has a free preview of the first 48 pages available on-line for all you IPad users.

4th of July Wine And Beer Labels, etc..

Keep An Open Bottle Of Wine Fresh For 5 Days For Only 38 Cents

This could mean cheaper prices for wine by the glass at restaurants and bars since wine will last up to 5 times longer in an opened bottle.

Shield a winner for wine lovers

by Kate Tilley

Australian wine lovers are reaping the benefit of a patented plastic product that preserves the quality of the winemaker’s efforts and passion, from the moment the bottle is opened to the last glass.

The Wine Shield, invented by Melbourne-based engineer Barry Rees, is a plastic disk used to shield the wine surface of opened bottles of wine from the effects of oxygen. Its outer layer is made from linear low density polyethylene, similar to the resin in the caps on screw-cap wine bottles. The resin is FDA-approved for food contact.

Rees said every time wine is poured from a bottle, oxygen enters to potentially spoil the wine. The Wine Shield floats on top of the wine, allowing wine to be poured but preventing oxygen from entering, and keeping the wine’s nose and taste “at restaurant quality” for up to five days.

At US$31.50 for a pack of 50 it is significantly cheaper than alternative products, simple and easy to use and does not contaminate or taint the wine.

Unlike other wine preserving tools, it needs only to be inserted into the bottle once after opening so the user can “set it and forget it”, Rees said. The shield is inserted in the bottle with an applicator in about five seconds.

Rees, who began work on the Wine Shield in 2004, said it has been extensively tested by wine consultant Provisor Pty. Ltd.’s laboratory in Adelaide, Australia, for scalping, taint and sensory tests for oxidation. The laboratory verified no difference is found to a freshly opened control bottle after four days.

Tainting occurs when the plastic absorbs environmental compounds from production, storage or transport, and alters the wine’s color.

Scalping occurs when plastics absorb wine aroma compounds, which can reduce the wine’s aroma and flavor intensity.

Rees said oxidation testing was also conducted at ETS Laboratories in St Helena, Calif., with very good results.

He said the Wine Shield compared well with other systems for preserving wine in opened bottles, such as replacing the headspace gas with nitrogen or argon, or partial evacuation of the air in the headspace by applying a vacuum.

Wine is normally bottled with a small volume of headspace gas that contains low concentrations of oxygen. Removing the cork or cap mixes the headspace gas with the atmosphere. As glasses of wine are poured off, the headspace becomes larger, and the amount of oxygen in the headspace increases. The surface area of wine exposed to the headspace increases as the level drops further below the bottle shoulder.

Wine Shield, which can be discarded with the bottle, has received an Australian 20-year patent, and a patent is pending in 35 other countries.

In Australia, the product is marketed by Melbourne-based Wine Preserva Holdings Pty. Ltd. It also sells the product in New Zealand and North America.

taken from plasticsnews.com

Pinot Noir Barrels Find New Life Thanks To Oregon Whiskey

You and whiskey. All in all, you’ve got a pretty good thing going.

That doesn’t mean you haven’t wandered. A seductive aperitif in a hotel bar. A cheap beer when you really needed it. And, sooner or later, everyone occasionally winds up wetting their beak in a good pinot.

And—you better sit down for this—that includes your faithful whiskey.

Introducing Whipper Snapper Whiskey, a new vagabond of an Oregon whiskey (by way of Chicago), which compensates for its relatively young age with a lifetime of experience. Let us explain.

The first thing you need to know: this is a product from the  distiller (with strong Chicago connections) that last wowed you with Ransom, a gin that gets that little hint of something extra by using former pinot noir barrels for aging. And they figured, hey, if you’ve got some extra pinot barrels lying around, you might as well make some whiskey too…

The result: a pot-stilled hooch that has all that kick you want from a shot of white lightning, but with the refinement and depth of an aged scotch or bourbon. Basically, think of it as the whiskey that would be concocted by a Master Sommelier who dabbled in moonshine.

In other words, your jug band will approve.

(courtesy Urban Daddy Chicago)

It’s Expensive So It Has To Taste Good, Right?

Higher wine prices boost drinking pleasure

by Clare Baldwin

The more wine costs, the more people enjoy it, regardless of how it tastes, a study by California researchers has found.

Researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology found that because people expect wines that cost more to be of higher quality, they trick themselves into believing the wines provide a more pleasurable experience than less expensive ones.

Their study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says that expectations of quality trigger activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain that registers pleasure. This happens even though the part of our brain that interprets taste is not affected.

While many studies have looked at how marketing affects behavior, this is the first to show that it has a direct effect on the brain.

The researchers said that when 20 adult test subjects sampled the same wine at different prices, they reported experiencing pleasure at significantly greater levels when told the wine cost more. At the same time, the part of the brain responsible for pleasure showed significant activity.

“We have known for a long time that people’s perceptions are affected by marketing, but now we know that the brain itself is modulated by price,” said Baba Shiv, an associate professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and one of the authors of the study.

“Marketers are now going to think twice about reducing the price,” Shiv said.

According to the study, if an experience is pleasurable, the brain will use it to help guide future choices. That conclusion has important implications for marketing that aims to influence perceptions of quality such as expert ratings, peer reviews, information about country of origin, store and brand names and repeated exposure to advertisements.

taken from reuters.com

Another Installment of Wine Label Art

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