The Napa Valley from Silverado Vineyards

America’s Soccer Stars in South Africa’s Wine Country
The 2010 World Cup in South Africa is right around the corner.  Wine Spectator takes a look at a few wine-loving US Soccer Team stars, as well as some great value wines from South Africa.

Fun With Wine Consumption Statistics
A fun article from Vinography takes a look at wine consumption stats around the globe.  Looks like North Korea isn’t all that into wine, and I’m very OK with that.

HR 5034 Kills Consumer Access to Specialty Wine Retailers
A couple of weeks ago an article on Uncorked Cincinnati by Jane Staley Boaz took a look at the CARE bill, otherwise known as HR 5034, and its anti-consumer motives.  Another look at the misguided Bill from Tom Wark’s Fermentation.

Jack Nicklaus Gets Into Wine
I’m a huge golf fan, so this article obviously caught my eye.  Is Jack going to try to take down the Shark?

Bordeaux: Your Ass is on Notice
Bordeaux is becoming irrelevant to younger wine lovers, at least that’s the NY Times take.  Grapes and Grains takes a look at how Bordeaux has isolated itself from the rest of the world.

Photo by derekGavey

Ransoming the World’s Most Famous Vineyard
From Vinography, I really hope this isn’t the beginning of an unfortunate trend. The owner of arguably the most famous winery in the world, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, recently received two threatening letters promising to poison his vineyards unless a substantial ransom was paid. Fortunately the culprit has since been apprehended.

Additional Tip: The most recent edition of Wine Spectator magazine has a fantastic in-depth look at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. You can also pick up a bottle to try yourself for around $3,000.

Sonoma Vintners to Wineries: Promote Sonoma County or Become a Criminal!
From Fermentation, the Sonoma County Vintners Association is trying to get a law passed that would force Sonoma County wineries to place the words “Sonoma County” on their wine labels. I completely agree with the author’s take on this one. Wineries should be free to market and communicate with consumers however they see fit through their labels. At the end of the day it’s the wineries’ responsibility to sell their wine, and if the words “Sonoma County” helps that effort they would have already made that decision.

The Top 50 Craft Breweries
From Grapes and Grains, the Brewers’ Association recently released their “2009 Top 50 Craft Breweries” list.  Unfortunately no Cincinnati-area shops made the cut, but the Great Lakes Brewing Co. out of Cleveland made the list at #23.

Screw Caps Ace Another Test Against Corks
From the May 2010 edition of Wine Spectator magazine, a 10-year study by the Australian Wine Research Institute shows how good wine performs under different closure conditions.  The results clearly show screw caps as the preferred closure over different types of corks and synthetic corks.  Once a year each wine in the study was opened, tasted, and analyzed.  According to a researcher on the study, most of the wines sealed with closures other than the screw cap were completely undrinkable.  Wow.

New Wine App for the Smart Phone Lovers
Natalie Maclean has just launched a new mobile wine application for iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Droid and other smartphones.  The app is completely free and comes with some pretty solid features including 380,000 professionally tested food and wine pairings, a virtual cellar to track your own wines, and a directory of 10,000+ wineries to buy wine or plan a visit.  Just downloaded the iPhone version myself and so far so good.  Really enjoying the pairings as it’s one of the most comprehensive lists I’ve seen.

Ten Things Every Small Winery Must Know
From Tom Wark’s Fermentation blog, a great post highlighting what small wineries must do to market in today’s wine marketing universe.  Consumers have more power today than ever before across all industries including wine, and small wineries (and wine shops) can take advantage of this by doing some pretty simple things.

Trader Joe’s introduces new “Th. J.” wine
People are dubbing this “10-buck Tom.”  Pretty funny.  The bottle itself seems to be garnering most of the attention as it’s sand-blasted for an aged look, and collectors are already scrambling to get their hands on one.

Snooth Launches “Guide to Wine Gifts”
I love me some Snooth.com, and I love their new feature “Guide to Wine Gifts.”  It serves to help those looking for wine gifts to shop with a bit more confidence.

Vinopedia, a New Wine Search Tool
A quick post on a new wine search tool called “Vinopedia,” formerly freewinesearcher.com.

Should Restaurant Wine Lists Comfort or Excite?
When at a restaurant to you prefer a wine list of recognizable options or the chance to explore new wines you’ve never heard of before?  I would agree with the author of this provocative article and say the latter, but what do you think?

Cincinnati Wine Entrepreneur Finds Inspiration In Heritage
A great story of a former P&Ger who is now President and CEO of Heritage Link Brands, a wine importer that distributes African wine in 41 states.

Wine Bars 2.0
From the Food & Wine magazine blog, this is a quick read on the latest in wine bar trends including new style tasting rooms and places where you can get wine on tap.

Wine-Girl’s 3rd Annual Wine Festival Survival Guide
For those of you attending the big Festival this weekend, Michelle Lentz of Wine-Girl.net offers a great guide to get the most out of your experience.

30 Wines in 30 Days (Wines you should know)
Wine for Newbies is launching a series starting April 1, each day focusing on a different varietal.  Great way to get a Wine 101, especially if you drink each lesson!

See you at the Wine Festival!  Also, feel free to follow Uncorked Cincinnati on Twitter for regular updates and random tidbits.

Photo by It's Holly

Wine May Fight Cancer, But How?
From Wine Spectator, a new approach to wine chemistry reveals cancer and obesity fighting properties in wine. Research shows some compounds in wine—including resveratrol—function as angiogenic inhibitors, and those are the real cancer fighters.

Crushpad Hits The Big Time
I’ve written about Crushpad previously on Uncorked Cincinnati, and looks like these guys are still rocking.  From Serious About Wine, Crushpad will soon have its very own Napa Valley winery to call home.

Michigan and French wine… more similar than you may think
Interesting article from Cork’d about our neighbor to the north, and how Michigan and France share more similarities than differences as wine regions.

Gary Vaynerchuk Drinks Some Beer
Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV is famous for his highly energetic and fresh approach to wine and wine tasting, so when I noticed Gary was tasting some beer on his show I was intrigued.  Definitely interesting to watch Gary’s take on beer tasting with Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver.

Photo by Roblisameehan

Killer Wine App
Full transparency…this article isn’t about an actual new killer phone app, but it’s still a great read.  Matt Kramer of Wine Spectator writes how wineries should be doing a better job telling the stories of their wines to potential customers, vs. relying on magazines, blogs and other sources to do so for them.  He points out mobile as a huge opportunity.  I agree..and add social media and fantastic web presence to that as well.  Your thoughts?

Mother Nature Throwdown. The 2009 Vintage Report
Nancy Bentley of Kinkead Ridge Winery talks about the extremely tough 2009 vintage, driven by an unusually damp and cold summer.

Wine Predictions for 2010
Tim Elliot of Wine Cast makes a few interesting and bold predictions that tie nicely to the Killer Wine App article above:  wineries going mobile and integrating social media are both included.  His boldest prediction…a major wine pub folds!

New York Governor reopens supermarket wine sales debate
Next time you grab a bottle of wine from a local convenient or grocery store be thankful.  Not happening in New York where wine can only be sold in licensed liquor stores.  From Decanter.com…NY Governor David Paterson is trying to get that law changed to alleviate a $7.4 billion budget deficit.  That’s a lot of wine.

What to do when they bring you the bottle
From Wine for Newbies, helpful article if you’ve not yet been put in charge of wine selection at a restaurant.  Have to admit I never ask to feel the bottle prior to the waiter opening, but I should start.

Behind The Smoke: 5 Questions with Victor Gallegos of Sea Smoke Cellars
I have to try the 2004 Sea Smoke Southing Pinot Noir.  I’ve been hearing a ton of great things about this wine, so I was pleasantly surprised to come across this interview of Sea Smoke’s director of winemaking from The Wellesley Wine Press.  You might recognize Sea Smoke from the movie Sideways.

Could tiny bottles be the next big thing for wine?
Interesting article from Mike Carter over at Serious About Wine on Crushpad’s new TinyBottles, an innovative way to get their boutique wines into more hands.  I think it’s a genius idea to get more people into wine…more convenient, lower price point potentially and just fun.

My 2010 Drinking Buddies List
I got a kick out of this one.  Tom Wark at his very popular Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog site lists his 2010 Drinking Buddies list.  I also didn’t realize President Obama had a 1000 bottle cellar at this Chicago pad.  Interesting.

Death of the Wine Magazine
The Wine Camp Blog authors a thought-provoking post on how technology is greatly influencing how people use wine publications.  I agree with the overall point of the article:  people are more frequently getting wine advice and info from sources other than traditional publications…info that’s deemed free, more convenient and often times just as credible if not more credible.  Traditional publications need to take note and form strategies to participate in this trend.

Pop the Champagne for Heart Health
From Wine Spectator, a new study published by the British Journal of Nutrition finds that regular drinking of Champagne can lead to improved arterial function.  I love it when the experts tell me to drink more.

Find Your Wine Style
This “quiz” from Food & Wine helps you better understand what types of wines you might prefer based on everyday foods and drinks you consume.  Not all that thorough of a quiz, but I was surprised how accurate it was to my preferences.

Last Minute Gift Ideas for Wine Lovers
Wine Peeps has some great gift ideas for wine lovers from books to gadgets.  Feel free to check out Uncorked Cincinnati’s gift ideas here.

Learning to Taste Wine
An easy to read but pretty comprehensive article from Wine for Newbies on learning to taste wine.  Gives you all the basics to get the most out of your next wine tasting.

Wines That Work for Your Holiday Party and Budget
Matthew Horbund of A Good Time with Wine writes about budget-friendly wines that work great for entertaining this Holiday season.

The Ultimate Book of Luxury Wine Cellars
Vinfolio reviews Samantha Nestor’s new book Living with Wine, a photographic tour of some of the most luxurious and utterly unbelievable wine cellars in the U.S.  Ahhhh…to dream!!!  It’s a great holiday gift idea and you can get it on Amazon for under $50 (retails for $75).

Crush It! Book Review
The folks over at Wine Conversation do a nice review of Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book, Crush It! I’ve been thinking about getting this book for awhile and found the review pushing me closer to buying it.

12 Reds for the Thanksgiving Table
Wine Spectator gives us 12 American Pinot Noirs for your Thanksgiving feast.  The Estancia is one of my favorites!

Confessing a Guilty Pleasure
Kevin Keith, wine buyer for D.E.P.’s Fine Wine & Spirits in Covington and Ft. Thomas, gives us his fun take on the Wine Spectator Top 100 list for 2009.

Thanksgiving Wine Under $20
Deb Harkness at Good Wine under $20 gives us her picks of the best Thanksgiving bottles under $20.

Wine Spectator Interview with Mad Men’s Bryan Batt
For you Mad Men fans (that means you Michelle!) this is an interesting interview with Mad Men’s Bryan Batt, who plays art director Salvatore Ramano.

New Wine Country Cookbook
The folks at Snooth review a new cookbook born out of Wine Country called “Down home: Downtown.”  If you’re like me an enjoy cooking about as much as you love wine this would make a perfect addition to the cookbook collection. 

Twitter Wine
From Mashable, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced Twitter will be launching two new wines, a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay, all for a great cause.