Unfussy Wine Enthusiasts | Wine Reviews & Articles

Below is an interesting video from the TVW.org program Well Read.  It is a program about wine literature and the first twenty minutes are dedicated to a book called 'Wine Wars' by Economist Mike Veseth.  It is a discussion of the main things that have shaped, and are shaping, the wine industry. His three main sound bites / topics revolve around: 1) The Curse of the Blue Nun - this revolves around the Globalization of wine and the impact that Blue Nun has had on the wine market in general with cheaper and somewhat passable wine, but specifically how it has impacted the German wine market where Riesling has taken a beating as it is compared to Blue Nun.  This is a common indicator of inferior wine. 2) The Miracle of Two Buck Chuck - Trader Joe's in the US has produced this wine for many years at a price of $2 per bottle.  This wine is not considered to be overly inferior as compared to the Blue Nun example because the source is considered to be of higher quality....

Unfortunately, wine costs money (dammit!).  Each bottle or case comes with a cost.  Everybody has their own level of income and expenses and if you a wine drinker, money is always part of the purchase decision (regardless of your income bracket). So, how do you determine how much to spend in a given week/month?  Do you even have a budget?  When do you feel you have exceeded your planned spend?  Is there a plus/minus threshold? For us, as folks who have a wine blog, we have a different tact than maybe most.  We are always on the prowl for new finds that are under $30 (preferably under $25) here in Canada.  That number would be probably closer to $20 if we were back living in the States.  That said, we don't have a specific planned budget number so much as we want to get a sense of the types of wine we wanted to try and then potentially review.  We kind of work our loose budget around that as best we can.  We drink wine pretty much d...

So, we are watching this WSJ.com video about the ' Wine Ghetto ' in Lompoc, California (not sure how we feel about the name - but whatever). There is an industrial park with blocks of tasting rooms for wineries that do not own vineyard acreage. They have purchase agreements with vineyards to buy grapes or may even purchase bulk wine to re-brand. These are very different business models as compared to Estate Wineries where the grapes are grown, pressed, and fermented on-site. As we reported earlier in the year , the 2011 Wine Spectator Wine of the Year from Kosta Browne is made in the same model.  No vineyards, light on any fixed equipment, and great wine is the result.  But, is there some thought around it not being totally 'legit' because it wasn't made on an Estate?  This kind of also pulls in the snoot factor argument.  Is it snooty to think that a wine should be grown and made in the same place?  We certainly think it is.  Howeve...

We have come across a few folks (and we emphasize 'few') who are involved in the wine industry both from the retail and production sides who are just so darn serious when it comes to their business.  We guess the term 'serious' is a bit misleading.  Everyone should be 'serious' about their business and work, so we guess we would truly define serious as caring about what you do and not treating it as clown show.  So, more exactly we are talking about those in the industry who have no (or lost their) appreciation for the fact that they are NOT producing or selling toxic chemicals or weapons of mass destruction, they are involved in the wine business.  Which is an industry that is inherently about making people happy and enhancing the enjoyment of life. So, why so glum chum? Now everyone surely has their moments where talking about how this white blend is made from such and such grapes and goes great with seafood is painful.  You can only say that so many tim...

This was a recommended pick-up by a staff member at one of our local wine shops. We were looking for a wine to enjoy with food that was a little different than what we normally would drink. This Australian Sauv Blanc is very reminiscent of other Aussie whites we have had. This Katnook Estate Sauvignon Blanc is definitely fruity and has the crispness that we like to see in Sauv. Blanc but it is definitely more full bodied than say a Kiwi version. There is more gold in the colour and time the bottle may help with that. We like it due to its unique qualities. Overall, at $20.50 locally it is a touch pricey for our taste but certainly holds up as quality wine. The nose was all crisp fresh fruit, like apples and starfruit.  Really nice.  The golden-ness of the wine was a bit surprising.  We thought it might have been very slightly oaked along the way but cannot prove that out with online research thus far.  The crispness of the wine is there on the taste as well w...

A good digital marketing strategy is not about leveraging one channel versus another it is about finding out where your potential customers live online and then effectively utilizing as many channels as necessary in the best manner possible.  The idea being that not everyone is on Facebook, nor Twitter, nor Mobile, etc., so a comprehensive plan is crucial.  The traditional and still most influential showpiece is the good old fashioned website.  There are as many opinions about what makes a good website as there are websites so it is difficult to provide a cast in stone method or magic bullet for designing and building a winery or wine related website.  That said, there are certainly things that work well on the traditional website that will help anyone considering building a new website or redesigning an existing website.  There is one over-arching concept to remember when it comes to websites and it is familiar to most and it can help streamline the process....

Courtesy NSLC We have been talking about Wine Events and how much work they can be as an attendee.  You need to get tickets, have a transportation plan, fight the crowds at the tables, find a place to taste the wines that you can actually discuss them.  That is not as much a complaint as it is the reality of trying to enjoy wine events.  It really is a lot easier and a lot more fun than we make it out to be with the above list.  Each year we attend the NSLC Port of Wines Festival which we find to be a blast and we have also attended some in-store events at local private wine retailers (read our notes from January here ). The Port of Wines Festival has always been a great event to us but then again we are die hard fans.  We really make a day of it.  We have usually attended the Saturday afternoon session as it allows us to enjoy the tasting and then have some fun in the evening (maybe not so wine related).  The evening sessions tend to be a littl...

So, we were picking up some groceries and decided to get a bottle of wine to have with dinner.  We went to the NSLC Port of Wines store in Bedford.  As we walked the aisles a nice lady came over and asked us if we would like to sample some wines from Villa Maria in New Zealand along with some sushi.  She had us at sample but the sushi was a bonus. Behind the counter was Justin Harrison who is a Brand Ambassador for Villa Maria Estate Wines .  He is a Kiwi who recently relocated to Vancouver.  He gave us a great description of the wines and the efforts that Villa Maria is making in terms of sustainability in their production as well as the awards and accolades the winery has recently received.  Fascinating stuff and he defintely is a great Brand Ambassador.  So good in fact we walked away with their 2009 Pinot Noir ($24.99) and their 2011 Sauvignon Blanc ($19.99).  Though to be honest once we tasted the wines it wasn't a hard sell. We decided...