If you haven’t read through the New Zealand Overview, please do. There’s a lot of good basic information there that will help out before diving into the various regions. Here, we take a close up look at the North Island’s main wine producing regions.
Good morning my friends and happy weekend. Welcome to another episode of wine news. A couple of callouts: Please take a look at SevenFifty Daily’s coverage of how bev-alch industry pros are using their positions to speak out on important political issues. Jancis Robinson has some similar content on her blog. And a bit of a debatable topic from Eater—how are you enjoying the latest season of the Great British Bake-Off?
On a personal note, I FINALLY received my certificate and my pin for passing my WSET Level 3 (with Merit; Theory portion with distinction—yes I’m bragging a bit 🙃). I actually sat the exam last February and received my results in April, but due to all the COVID-crazy it took awhile to get the official documents. As most of you are aware, I’m now in the throws of Diploma studies—sitting my D2 next week (eek!) and have already scheduled my D3 exam dates (yes that’s plural—the test is JUST that long) for 2021.
Alright, that’s enough about me. Scroll through the news, get some independent insight from the Blogs. And, as always, leave a comment, shoot me a note, find me on social media and let me know how YOU’RE doing.
Cheers!
Good weekend to you. Hope everyone is staying healthy and happy out there. I’ve been quite busy myself, hence lack of original content. But I assure you one of the things that’s keeping me busy are my WSET Diploma Studies, and I will have more D3 content coming soon. Meanwhile, my D2 looms over my head. (The test is in two weeks!)
But enough about me, there’s a lot of other stuff going on in the world. While Napa is taking tolls of damages done from the recent complex of fires, Sonoma is sending out warnings about how to prepare for the rainy season. Although, a bit of insider info: we’re under advisory for power outtages and. more wildfires as we enter another heatwave situation this weekend.
I’ve got an interesting section below entitled “Not Wine.” Find out what’s happening in the beer, spirit and food industries.
Of course, as always, don’t forget to scroll down to the Blogs for some independent insight.
Cheers!
The Loire Valley is going to be a multi-series event. Rather than tackle the whole large thing at once, I’m taking little nibbles, breaking up my studies into four regions and including one associated tastings for each. For a simplified look at the Loire Valley, please see Loire Valley Regional Round-Up and Wine Review and Pop Quiz(es): Loire Valley.
This series will follow the flow of the Loire River, France’s longest river at 629 miles. Today, we begin our travels as we flow upriver from the Atlantic and step off the boat to discover Pays Nantais and its star grape Melon.
Hello and happy weekend. Hope everyone is doing well, staying healthy and happy. For my part, as I write this, Sonoma is still overcast with a mixture of ash and fog—that latter bit I’m actually grateful for for once, as I’m *hoping* it will help clear away the pollutants. For those of you near any West Coast fires who thought the world was coming to and end—well, so did I. The Napa Valley Register has a great piece enlightening us to the science behind that apocalyptic orange glow.
More local news: I recently wrote what (I think) is an interesting piece about how scientists can now “fingerprint” a wine’s DNA, which, in effect, can pinpoint the place of origin, thus basically making a scientific case for the idea behind terroir.
There’s quite a few pieces about the wine industry that came out this week, including the latest in wine shipping news, Pouilly-Fusse’s new premier cru status, and a notable NY sommelier announcing his retirement.
As always, there’s some great independent insight from the Blogs. This week I found a few great wine recommendations from around the world—time to stock up on those international varieties methinks.
Read on, have fun, and leave me a note to say hi. Cheers.