November 2012 – THE GRAPE BELT

We Don’t Need No Education! Actually, Yes We Do.

If you type “wine education” into the Google search bar, you get 484 million results. Put those words into quotation marks and the results are pared down to a still unmanageable 1.2 million. Clearly, what this simple phrase suggests is anything but simple. Wine education can mean many different things depending on whom you ask. […]

by Tom Riley

Wine Education — There’s Work To Be Done

A café in Paris. Four American women fresh from a day of touring, eager for a well-deserved glass of wine, peruse the carte du vin. “There are quite a few wines here I’ve never even heard of.” “Well, there are a couple of merlots.” “Yes, but I don’t think merlot means the same here as […]

by Tom Riley

UPDATE Tasting Notes

Latest entries include offerings at various price points from the Finger Lakes, Napa Valley, Burgundy, the Southern Rhone, Washington State, and Corsica. Cheers! WHITE 9/26/12 2011 Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling, Columbia Valley (11% abv., $9, Safeway): Moderately off-dry with a residual sugar of 2.23 g/100ml, this simple riesling is a blend of grapes from throughout […]

by Tom Riley

Geek Of The Week — Sereksiya Chernaya

I have gone far too long between Geek Of The Week postings, so I thought I’d return to this feature in extreme fashion, with a brief look at Sereksiya Chernaya, a variety indigenous to Moldova and Romania. Known in Romania as Băbească Neagră, “grandmother’s grape,” where it is the second most planted variety after merlot, […]