Wine Culture

Be they Ghostbusters, Oscar Winners, Porn Stars, Bond Girls, Icons, Divas, Policemen, Material Girls, Rock'n'Roll Hall of Famers, Race Car Drivers, Golfers, Quarterbacks, or Cy Young Winners, they all have one common bond: Winemaker. Celebrity winemakers come in many varieties with some being oenophiles dedicated to their pursuit of fine winemaking (Sam Neill, Tom Seaver, Terry Hoage) while others are seemingly slapping their brand on yet another product (KISS, Barry Manilow, Elvis). In the interest of celebrity obsession, we combed the internet to bring you the following list of rock stars, actors, and athletes turned winemaker.

Riesling is revered the world over for its versatility. The aromatic white wine grape can be made in various styles – often with a focus on sweetness levels. The possible pairings with food are wide-ranging, thus so are the ways Riesling can be made. It is because of these possibilities that I love making Riesling.

In our discussion of white wine glasses , we talked about wine glass essentials, including shape, size, color, materials and manufacture. Of course, all of this information also applies to red wine glasses. Your choices range from inexpensive, machine-made wine glasses to mouth-blown glasses made from the finest lead crystal. Some red wine glasses have stems, while others are stemless.

Chateau Margaux is in the Bordeaux commune of Margaux on the left bank of the Gironde River. The wines made in Margaux are some of the most feminine in style of all Bordeaux wines. Among the wines of Margaux, the wines of Chateau Margaux are the best of all of those. From their perfumed nose to their lithe complexities, they are wines that reflect their terroir in a most elegant way. The history of Chateau Margaux can be traced back at least to the twelfth century when it was known as “La Mothe de Margaux” from motte meaning a small rise in the land. Sometime during the 16th century, the first grape vines were planted under the direction of Pierre de Lastonnac. Within the next hundred years, Chateau Margaux expanded to cover 654 acres, approximately one-third of that with grape vines. In the 1700s, an estate manager named Berlon introduced many “new” improvements. Today, his ideas are common sense, but back then they were radical. Ideas such as not picking grapes when they were wet and vinifying the red and white grapes separately led to a much higher quality of wine. The result was evident as by 1771 the wines of Margaux were featured in the catalogues of Christie’s. Around that time, America’s first wine lover, Thomas Jefferson, rated Chateau Margaux as the top wine in Bordeaux. His meticulous records document an order he placed in 1784.

While getting ready for a recent holiday celebration, I discovered that I had far fewer wine glasses in my cabinet than I had thought (I am known for my klutzy tendencies). With several wine enthusiasts coming to my home for dinner, I needed to start shopping for replacement glasses. What I found was a bewildering array of shapes, sizes and prices, not to mention colors and patterns. Shopping for stemware can definitely be overwhelming.

Perhaps the most consistent of the Bordeaux First Growths has been Chateau Latour. While the other four Chateaus have had periods of underperformance, Chateau Latour has been remarkably consistent over the years in making some of the best wine to be found. Chateau Latour can trace its history back to 1331 when a tower, called Tor à St-Lambert, was built on the site. This tower was used for defense in a battle between the Plantagenets and the French during the Hundred Years Wars. Sometime around 1378, the land, now referred to as “the tower” or Le Tour, was a seigneurie, a sharecropping system of land ownership. In 1453, when the English were finally defeated, the owner of the estate, Sieur de Larsan fled. The property returned to the control of the French and the tower on the site was destroyed. Nothing from it, other than the name, exists today. Sometime in the early 17th century, the the building on the label of the bottle called a dovecot was built on the site of the original tower.

Ask any wine lover about wines from Argentina, and you'll probably get one of two answers – malbec or Mendoza. Just as wines made from the malbec grape are associated with Argentina, the country that made them great, Mendoza's influence on Argentina's wine industry is so strong that many people focus exclusively on this region.

Chile's wine heritage dates back to 1548, when Spanish monks brought wine grapes with them to the New World. The Spanish settlers quickly discovered that their new country's soils and climate were perfect for growing grapes. By the time Chile declared its independence from Spain in 1810, the Chilean wine industry was well-established and flourishing.

This is the second of a two-part series on making Pinot Noir. Read Part One: Making Incredible Pinot Noir: Tips for the Micro-Winery One of the greatest and most challenging wines to grow in the vineyard and make in the cellar is Pinot Noir. For all its troubles, Pinot Noir can be one of the most rewarding wines to make.

This is the first of a two-part series on making Pinot Noir. One of the greatest and most difficult wines to grow in the vineyard and make in the cellar is Pinot Noir. For all its troubles, Pinot Noir can also be one of the most rewarding wines to make. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard a converted beer or spirits drinker say the wine that changed the game for them was Pinot Noir. It is for various reasons that Pinot is the great wine that it is. Now, let’s discuss how we can make a memorable Pinot of our own.