Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
Wine 101: The Continuing Saga of French Wines Where was I when we ended last month? I do remember that I got a screaming headache taking about French wines. I hope to get through all of it in this issue so we can cover something more pleasant. French wines are spectacular, but the attitude? Not so much. So let’s finish Bordeaux. In Médoc, in 1855, a consortium of growers, shippers and merchants judged all of the wines of the region in order of their quality, and the classification of the... [Read more...]
By Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
The French Attitude and Their Wines By Ken Mageau www.brevardwines.com Ah, The French. Why is it that the French hold all things refined — perfume, couture, cuisine? Easy: because they’re French… and that great accent probably helps. France has the most famous wine regions in the world, and as a nation, they’re also the best merchandisers of wine. They do produce some of the best in the world, such as Château Pétrus and Château Rothscild, but as fabulous as some of them... [Read more...]
By: Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
Let’s start this month with a quick historic look at wines in America. Virginia is the oldest wine growing region in the U.S., but California is the best established in terms of production and quality. If you look at a wine growing map of California you can see different AVAs dotted up and down the state. An AVA is an American Viticultural Area, which defines a wine growing area by type of terroir where the grapes are actually grown. So in Sonoma, the Russian River is an AVA within Sonoma. If you... [Read more...]
By: Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
Most of us have at least one or two wine geeks on our Christmas shopping list. They’re usually the hardest to shop for because you want to give them something they’ll truly enjoy and won’t consider re-gifting. I’ve got a few ideas to pass along that might help allay those Christmas Blues. Wine lovers always appreciate a nice bottle of wine. Remember: it doesn’t have to be expensive to be outstanding. The most important thing is to know whether they prefer reds or whites.... [Read more...]
By: Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
What wine to choose for the holidays? As I’ve stated here before, the best wine for any occasion is the one you enjoy, but there’s something about the holiday season that demands the selection of something extra-special. I’ll attempt to head you in the right direction. The holidays are a time for celebration and to give thanks, and although there’s been little to cheer about in 2009, let’s start with the ultimate celebration drink — champagne. True champagne is... [Read more...]
By: Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
I really have to apologize. I don’t know how I missed this part of wine enjoyment, but I did: How do you get the wine out of the bottle and into the glass? In ancient Greece they used large casks sealed with corks to hold their wine, and the early Romans used cork covered with pitch to get an airtight seal. In the 17th century, people used glass bottles with glass stoppers — like a decanter — but that method proved too expensive. Bottlers eventually went back to corks, but they... [Read more...]
By: Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
When I ended last month’s column, I discussed “length,” or the amount of time a wine’s taste lingers on your palate. The more length the better, especially if you like the wine. I’m now going to delve into some other helpful terms this month. Lets start with “well balanced.” When a wine is well balanced it means that the elements of a wine exist in a pleasing proportion. In white wines it’s a balance of acid, sugar and alcohol. Let’s take lemonade,... [Read more...]
By: Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
You all know how to drink wine, so now I hope to teach you how to taste it. There’s a huge difference. After attending and hosting hundreds of wine tastings, I’ve found that many people just have no clue that gulping down wine doesn’t allow the palate to truly pick up on the flavors the winemaker intended you to enjoy. Once you learn the art of tasting, you can then really enjoy the drinking of wine. First off, what do you pour your wine into? A good, clear, general-purpose wine... [Read more...]
By: Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
Making Wine How do grapes become wine? Great question. I hope I can answer it without putting you to sleep. It’s an important question to answer so you can begin to understand the differences between the tastes of the same wine from the same vineyard made in different years. The weather really determines the quality of the wine. Most winemakers hope to get nice, cool, sunny spring weather, a nice hot summer and a dry fall, with warm days and cool nights. Rain at harvest can speed up the picking... [Read more...]
By: Ken Mageau
Article Category: Wine Life
Why did I agree to do this article? Maybe just to prove I could do it, but it goes deeper than that. I just love good wine. Wine has a mysticism about it. It takes a normal, rational person and instills in him the fear of looking foolish or just plain unsophisticated. It makes most people shy away from ordering it in a restaurant or bringing wine as a dinner gift. As Americans, we’re newbies in the appreciation of wine as a beverage. We feel the French and Italians know a great deal more than... [Read more...]
