Well-aged wine. The very thought of it stirs the spirit and whets the tongue. Older wine takes on a special character in our minds – not only has it been preserved over time, often lovingly tended by a patient caretaker, but it is a vestige of an era long past. It bears memories of the time when it was produced, the time when it was purchased, and all the time since when you’ve been waiting to enjoy it. There’s simply something special about old wine that captures our fancy in a way that new wine doesn’t.

Brice Cutrer Jones is virtually synonymous with California Chardonnay (Hint: Sonoma- Cutrer Chardonnay ). The logical assumption is that the topic de jour of any interview with him would be Chardonnay. However, I recently sat down with Cutrer Jones to discuss - of all things- his foray into Pinot...

Last month, we touched on some basics around dessert wines and their terminology. This month – as dinner party season fast approaches with the holidays – let’s wow your guests with some basics around dessert wine and cheese pairings. I recently spoke to a well-traveled epicurean friend of mine, Carrie Voorhis , who used to manage a cheese and wine shop in Indianapolis, Indiana. Every day she’d help folks like us find the perfect compliments to wines from all over the world.

There are many individual mistakes that people make when building their wine room but they all share a common gene: trying to do the job as cheaply as possible. It is not wise to build a climate controlled wine room on the cheap. Some of the mistakes or problem areas are: Incorrectly designed or poorly installed air & vapor barriers. If the two different climates – cold & humid and warm & dry – are allowed to meet, problems develop.

If you are seriously thinking about building a climate controlled area to store your wine collection, be sure to consider these ten essential features: Very good refrigeration equipment. There are many attributes to the refrigeration equipment that you need to thing about but the real important one is service. Be sure to get equipment that can be repaired locally – some well-known equipment has to be returned to the manufacturer for service.

Did you know that Spain has 68 Denominacíon de Origen (DO, or “Designation of Origin”) wine regions?

2007 is going to be a very important vintage for U.S. wines in the international marketplace. This very well might be the year with the most significance on that front since the famed 1973 vintage, one in which California gained credibility across the globe as Chateau Montelena (Chardonnay) and Stag’s Leap (Cabernet Sauvignon) out-dueled the French in the famed 1976 ‘ Judgment of Paris ’ tasting.

All over the world, in every winemaking area with at least 30 years of history, there is a squabble going on between traditional producers and modernists. As modern science has begun to understand some of the chemical reactions taking place in the creation of wine, some of the mystery has been removed. Universities all over the world (led in large part by the University of California at Davis) have become leaders in what many have termed the international style of wine.

Planning a trip to wine country takes some doing. There are decisions to make about what day to go, which valley to visit, which wineries to see and where to make your appointments, not to mention the wrangling required to figure out who’s going to drive and whose car gets donated for the occasion. On top of all this, one can easily overlook perhaps the day’s second most important decision: where to eat.

Charles Gill is the CEO of Winemetrics LLC , a company providing on-premise market intelligence to the wine and restaurant industries. Winemetrics recently released The 2007 On-Premise Wine Distribution Report , which summarizes varietal, brand and product distribution from of over 10,000 U.S. restaurant wine lists. This report is the source for the content referenced in the article below. Before revealing our brand ranking, it is important to realize how different the wine market is from other alcoholic beverages or consumer goods.