Berlin Tasting in Copenhagen

Berlin Tasting in Copenhagen" might sound a little confusing? However the Berlin Tasting is a reference to a famous tasting held in Berlin the January 23. 2004. It was held by the Chilean wine producer Eduardo Chadwick from Errazuriz and he had invited 66 wine journalists from all over Europe to taste the best Chadwick wines from Chile against the supernames from Bordeaux and Tuscany. 16 wines were tasted from the vintages 2000 and 2001, among them 2000 Chateau Latour, 2000 Chateau Lafite and 2000 Chateau Margaux.

Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/37/berlin-tasting-in-copenhagen/

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Challenging Wine Pairing: Thai Red Curry Beef

Thai food is so popular that I wanted to do another Thai dish for a challenging wine pairing. Since our family especially enjoys spicy dishes, I decided to try a red curry dish using strips of sirloin steak in this recipe. Delicious! The menu for this pairing consisted of the Thai red curry beef dish, [...]

Challenging Wine Pairing: Thai Red Curry Beef was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

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A spot of wine relief

If you live in the UK I’m sure you’ve heard of Comic Relief. If you don’t, please forgive the eccentricities of this peculiar little country, but there are times when you just have to do something a little out of the ordinary. Comic Relief is a charity event, based around “Red Nose Day” on March [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/McIkrcP2rWY/

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Kalorik Wine Cooler Giveaway Winner Announced!

We have a winner.  Thanks to all who entered the contest by leaving a comment and those who chose to double their odds by also tweeting. 

A couple of words about this contest and protocol:  First, it brings people out of the woodwork.  I learned there is an entire social media niche that enters contests.  Hopefully, if entrants are not a regular reader they’ll turn into a reader, or at least tell a couple of friends.  Aside from the self-interested motive of providing a site benefit and hopefully gaining a new reader or two, I have no fiduciary gain or personal benefit associated with this promotion.  That said, naturally, there is some marketing involved so the folks at Kalorik (and Air & Water who is coordinating) feel like they get $300 bucks (plus the not so inexpensive shipping costs) worth of mindshare in exchange for the refrigerator—that’s why @teamkalorik had to be included in the tweet to count as a second entry—a small price to pay in order to make somebody’s day when a kick-ass wine refrigerator shows up at their door. 

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All told, after removing double comments from the same commenter(s), comments related to tweets, and a disqualification for a comment after the end of the contest, there were 55 entries in the form of a comment.  There were also 14 double entries in the form of tweets.  69 total entries. Tweets were added sequentially—entry numbers 56 - 69.  I went to a random number generator, entered parameters and #44 came back.

...And congratulations to Amanda Hippe for winning the 21-bottle wine cooler from Kalorik!  Amanda will be contacted by email and her shipping address will be routed to Kalorik and Air & Water for fulfillment.  Should Amanda not respond to multiple inquiries, I’ll do another random number generation for an alternate winner.

Thanks again to all who entered and, most importantly, thank you for reading Good Grape:  A Wine Manifesto

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/kalorik_wine_cooler_giveaway_winner_announced/

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Napa Valley Events Coming to Town

The four major nonprofit agencies throughout Napa County have launched Napa Valley 360, an online auction designed to bring one-of-a-kind Napa Valley experiences to top bidders. Funds raised for this auction will benefit the 8,300 Napa County community members who are supported by Family Service of Napa Valley, Calistoga Family Center, St. Helena Family Center and Cope Family Center. Continue reading

Source: http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/napablog/napa-valley-events-coming-to-town/

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Why Do Wine Blogs Need To Make Money?

The Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine has long been a resource for consumers looking to find great wines from my native state. Founded in 1974, the publication was among the first I purchased when I first got into wine almost 30 years ago. My old green CGCW guidebook has long since been replaced by other wine [...]

Why Do Wine Blogs Need To Make Money? originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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Barbera Barolo Pinot Grigio Barbaresco Semillon

Wine Politics and Silly Season Go Local in Oregon

Weary from HR 1161 and national wine politics?  Don’t look to Oregon for respite.  There, its silly season for local politics and it’s wearing the patience of the well-intentioned causing furrowed brows as an assault against reason takes place.

By nearly universal account, Ed King, founder of King Estate in Lane County in the southern Willamette Valley, has built something from nothing – with vision and moxie he has created the largest winery in Oregon.  His is an internationally renowned, sustainable, certified organic estate winery on a 1033 acre property in an area that didn’t have much going for it when he started in 1991.

Planted to 465 acres of grapes and another 35 acres in fruits, vegetables and flowers, King Estate is an exemplar of respecting the land as an ecosystem, supporting farm-to-table cuisine as a way of life (before it became trendy), job creation with a staff of over 200 and a payroll of over $5M a year (nurturing a local economy in the process) while paying heed to the so-called, “Triple Bottom Line” – the notion that a business can be profitable, people-oriented and environmentally sound (this interactive map gives insight into the management of the estate). 

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In fact, King Estate achieved what many aspire to, but few attain in the wine business:  The creation of a national brand that doesn’t compromise on its core values of agricultural stewardship.  Editorial note to Ed King:  Start name-checking obscure literature reference points, footnote your missives and hire Randall Grahm’s PR apparatus to super-size your well-deserved mojo.

Yet, despite being a beacon of light for how to run a business, King Estate finds itself in the middle of a political sticky wicket from land use advocates.

A tiny operation, the Goal One Coalition is a public interest group that serves to mobilize citizens on issues related to global warming and a “limited number” of land use issues.  My interpretation of, “limited number” means they get their knickers in a twist at least once a year on a minor issue that justifies their existence in the annual report.

Using McCarthyism as a tactic, Goal One has picked a fight with King Estate and the nexus of the issue is a case study in the pointless nature of most politics, absent reason and distinctly partisan in nature.  Let it be said that sometimes a democracy is a drawback, nothing ever gets accomplished in a committee and while all opinions are equal, some are more equal than others.

You see, King Estate had the temerity to establish a restaurant on their grounds in 2005 and pair their wines with estate-grown comestibles along with foodstuff from local farmers and food artisans.

While the restaurant wasn’t an issue for several years, the formerly lackadaisical Lane County land management division encouraged several of the larger wineries, including King Estate, to start submitting for permits for special events and restaurant activity on a volunteer basis in 2009.  King Estate did just that – submitting an application in October of 2009 and their application was approved in December, 2010, some 15 months later (Lane County officials are, apparently, very busy … ahem).

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Unfortunately, in the intervening months, the state of Oregon passed Senate Bill 1055 and, well, when it comes to politics the state and the local folks don’t much communicate (see also:  formerly lackadaisical)

Under Senate Bill 1055, newly signed into law, a winery is only allowed to sell things that are incidental to the retail sale of wine, including items that would be in a limited-service restaurant, as defined by another Oregon statute.  That statute dictates that a limited-service restaurant means, “pre-packaged” food.

So, what do you think happened when King Estate finally received its permit from Lane County?  Yup, you got it – the Goal One Coalition appealed it on the basis that the newly installed Oregon law from Senate Bill 1055 meant that King Estate’s restaurant that had just received its permit from Lane County was in violation of the new law.

Do you see where this is going?  King Estate, an all organic estate vineyard with a five year old farm-to-table restaurant voluntarily submitting for permitting, waylaid by a new law, was being poked in the chest by radical land use extremists and might have to serve pre-packaged food at its restaurant based on a small technicality…

This makes perfect sense doesn’t it; it’s completely rational, right?  Paging Bizarro Superman... 

And, of course, the land use Nazi’s realized that King Estate has been operating the restaurant for the last five years, has never had a complaint from a neighbor, serves farm-to-table food that supports the local community and treats its land like the crown jewel that it is in the Southern Willamette Valley.  Right? 

Flash forward a couple of months and House Bill 3280 is introduced to right some of the wrongs from the former Senate Bill 1055 including giving the capability for a newly designated, “Landmark” winery (a winery that produces 150K + gallons of wine per year in at least three out of five years) to operate a restaurant.

As of May 2nd, House Bill 3280 passed the House with a resounding vote of 52-3 and it moves on to the Senate for vote, as well.  Thank goodness somebody is demonstrating some rational thought even if it probably took thousands of dollars in lobbyists’ money to do so …

Signing the King Estate petition is still a valid exercise until the Senate bill is approved.  If you’re so inclined, you can do so here.  Personally, I like the notion of a national readership carpet bombing a local petition, but then I’m a benevolent anarchist at heart.

Hopefully, reason beholds the Oregon legislature giving King Estate a clear path forward in continuing to serve food and wine together at the sustainable table, as they should be, and we can turn our focus onto other nefarious activity including HR 1161.

Politics, man.  Got love it.  Or, not.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/wine_politics_and_silly_season_go_local_in_oregon/

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Long Shadows Saggi

Founded by Washington wine pioneer Allen Shoup, Long Shadows Vintners is a collection of ultra-premium wineries comprised of internationally acclaimed winemakers from the major wine regions of the world. Each winemaker is a partner in a unique winery dedicated to producing a single Columbia Valley wine representing a ?best of type? that reflects the winemaker’s [...]

Long Shadows Saggi was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

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