For a real wine lover there is probably nothing more enjoyable than trying a new vintage or brand and finding it so completely satisfying. But if there’s one problem with trying a new vintage or brand it must be the time and effort that goes into shopping around all your options. One of the great benefits of a wine club is that you don’t need to do the painstaking research about each bottle or vintage before you purchase it. This is a great option for those who are just starting out in their love affair with wines and may not know how to get started with selection or what makes a good vintage and so on.
As much as someone may love wine, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to invest in researching the many choices that are out there. And this is where the California Wine Club comes into play; they are one of the oldest and most respected and trusted wine clubs in the U.S. today. But what sets the California Wine Club apart from other wine of the month clubs and why would anyone choose to join such a club rather than make individual selections on their own?
Those Behind the California Wine Club
First, keep in mind that the California Wine Club was started by married Bruce and Pam Boring, both wine lovers themselves. This is unlike some wine clubs that are started by those who just want to make a profit off of other’s love of wine and don’t care much or don’t know much about wine itself. These two personally hand select and deliver the wines to their members every single month. When you know that your selections are being made by fellow wine lovers, you begin to appreciate how the California Wine Club is different from many other such clubs.
Also, note that the Borings do not choose their wines from mass producers or bulk manufacturers. Unlike some clubs that choose wines based on availability and price alone, the California Wine Club will look at smaller vineyards with vintages that are not available at most stores and liquor shops. However, these are not lower quality wines as most are award winners and can compete with all of the more well known vineyards by quality alone.
Giving Gifts From the California Wine Club
Of course a monthly membership is not the only benefit of the California Wine Club. If you’re in the market for a gift of wine you can consult with their experts for personal recommendations just for you. You can even enter their Corporate Rewards Program, where you earn points for each gift of wine you order and then receive discounts and other perks after so many purchases or points.
Nationally Recognized
The California Wine Club has even received national recognition for their dedication to wine and the attention they give to finding perfect and unique selection. Bon Appetit Magazine stated that they are a unique source of virtually impossible to find and limited production wines, and praised them for their selections.
If you’re looking for a wine club because you’ve just discovered how wonderful the beverage is or you want to be surprised and delighted with your monthly selections, then you certainly can’t go wrong with the California Wine Club.
Johana
Many of us have been to wine tastings at a winery or a local liquor store but have you ever hosted a wine tasting party at home?It really is quite easy. First you need to decide what kind of wine party you are going to host.Types of Wine Tasting PartiesVertical — A tasting with an assortment of the same wine, from the same producer and vineyard, across several vintages (the year the grapes were harvested). An example is to taste Chardonnays from 2001, 2003 and 2006 all from the same vineyard.Horizontal — Tasting various wines from the same vintage and ideally, wines from the same region and general style. The purpose of tasting one vintage is mainly to compare the different producers and vineyards. For example, Napa Valley red wines from 2001.Blind — This is where you hide the identities of the wine by either wrapping them or putting them in paper bags. The bottles are numbered and scored without the tasters having the benefit of label, price, producer or anything else.Guest Choice — This is the easiest wine tasting party to coordinate. Simply tell your guests to bring whatever kind of wine they choose. If you want to narrow them down a bit, be specific in your invitations, like “Bring a bottle of your favorite red wine, $20 limit” or “Bring your favorite bottle of Chardonnay, $15 limit.”Obviously, you can combine some of these. How about hosting a Blind-Horizontal wine tasting party?Setting Up Your HomeIf you have the room set up 3 wine tasting stations; one for red wine, one for white and a third for the dessert wines. At each wine tasting station, have on hand:A corkscrewMeasured pourers (serves exactly 1 oz. each time) Bottled water for rinsing mouths and glasses between tastesA container for rinse waterCrackers for cleansing the palette between tastesFor the white and dessert wine stations, an ice bucket to keep the wine chilledIf you have separate wine tasting stations, you can increase the number of guests that you invite because everyone can spread out and start at different stations as opposed to everyone crowding around a single station. Either way, limit the number of guests to no more than 15 people. You want to easily be able to discuss the wines and having more people makes conversation difficult.How Much Wine to BuyIf you are providing the wine yourself, keep in mind that a regular sized bottle of wine holds 750 milliliters or 25.4 ounces.Using the Flip Top Measured Pourers, ensures that every guest receives an exact 1 ounce measure every time you pour. For $16.95, you get 3 of these nifty little gadgets and because they have a flip top, you can also store your wine with theseIf you have 12 guests and use the pourers, you will only use half of each bottle (about 12 ounces) during the tasting process, leaving the rest to enjoy after tasting is over. Make sure you buy additional bottles of various wine to serve before and after the tasting.Scoring the WineHow wine savvy your guests are will determine if you score the wines during the tasting and if so, how you go about scoring them. Keeping things casual is usually your best bet because after all, it is a party. Typically, people do not want to be bothered with a complicated scoring process.A good way to keep it easy is to give your guests a simple scorecard which lists the names of the wines. Ask them to force rank the wines in each category. For example, in the white category there are 5 wines to taste. Each person will score those 5 wines; 1 being their favorite and 5 being their least favorite.At the end of the wine tasting, collect the scorecards and determine which wines are the party favorites in the wine category (reds, whites, desserts).Lastly, to keep things simple, offer your guests meat, cheese, fruit and nut platters that complement your wine choices. This is a very important step in hosting a wine tasting party. You do not want your food choices to conflict with the wines you have chosen.Hosting a wine tasting party at home is fun especially if you take the time to pick out some quality wines and pair those wines with good food. Your guests will appreciate the special care given when planning this type of party.
Sydney
Appreciating to drink a rare and fine wine can give you the desire to start creating your own wine-cellar. Collecting wine can be a very pleasant hobby. Especially when you seek the bottle of wine which is different from the others.
If you wish to start a wine collection, you will have to spend a little more money than you think. Indeed, wine collecting is expensive. The few councils exempted below will help you to start your own wine-cellar.
The space
First thing to do is to find a place where you will place your wine-cellar. You can store it in your house but you will have to find the good place: sufficient space and ideal temperature (50 up to 65°F).
You must also plan which type of wine you will include in your wine-cellar. So many options are available that it is sometimes difficult to choose.
In order to better prepare your new wine bottles storage, you will test some various types of wine. You will learn much by yourself ; for example: identify wine tastes. As you probably already know, there are many differences between wines coming from great vintages and wines coming from new or immediately processed wine and that some wines can age, others cannot.
If you have just started a wine-collecting or built a wine-cellar, you should avoid buying your wine in great quantities as long as you are not sure about the type of wine that you plan to add to your cellar.
Wine Culture
Participate in purses and tasting events. In these places, you can meet other persons who are passionate by wine collecting and who will give you the best addresses and suppliers. You will also learn more about the different brands and their prices.
You can also learn a lot by surfing on the Internet and searching for information about wine; by subscribing to some informative newsletters ; by buying some books and read them in order to familiarize with your new hobby.
Supplier
You will also have to choose a good supplier.
While visiting your wine supplier, tell him that you are collecting wine bottles ; this person will inform you if the wine that you want to buy can age in a cellar or not.
Also ask your supplier if the wines you are collecting are available in his inventory.
If you hope to collect wines from other areas, he may be able to give you contact information for finding the wines you are interested in.
Wine suppliers information and addresses are available online.
Wine from other Countries
If you plan to collect wine coming from other countries, your supplier will be able to give you the right addresses. Also, you can make a search on Google in order to find the best foreign wine supplier or mail directly the vine-grower or even the castle where the wine is bottled.
A French proverb said: “It is while forging that one becomes blacksmith”. Perhaps you will realize that collecting wine becomes a passion and that you want to start your own wine selling business. When you will have bought a sufficient quantity of rare wine bottles, you will be able to start your new business and sell your greatest bottles
Jennifer
Wine racks and storage options come in many different styles and purchasing budgets. Whether you are an avid wine aficionado, an aficionado in the making, a wine hobbyist, or someone who wishes to protect valuable vintages from prying eyes or place a cherished wine collection of sophistication and refinement on exhibit — the where and how’s of wine storage and wine rack placement is an issue.
It’s important to have an attractive and durable wine rack storage system. It is a given that anyone interested in having a growing wine collection would not want to do so behind a kitchen cabinet.
Most oenophiles (a disciplined devotion to wine, with strict traditions of consumption and appreciation, simply put, a lover of wine) long for a cellar of stocked wine racks, and since digging out a cave in most instances for a wine cellar is impractical and exorbitantly expensive, stand alone wine rack options in a good environment is a good place to start. You do not have to live over an arching grotto, or have the budget of an eighteenth century land baron, to cellar wine. You just have to understand the basics of wine storage pertaining to temperature, humidity and light to do it right.
An important factor with wines is the place where you will store the bottles to age.
Few environments are as potentially destructive to wine as the home. Too much humidity causes mold and damages the labels. This is also why cellars are often tiled rather than carpeted, as carpeting holds moisture facilitating mold. Humidity as high as 70 percent is desirable so corks don’t dry out. When allowed to dry out, corks shrink slightly allowing air into the bottles and oxidizing of the wine occurs. This is also why the wine racks store bottles on their sides: the wine keeps the cork wet, and the oxygen out.
Darkness is preferable, even though most wine is bottled in colored glass to protect it against most light damage. The proper storage temperature of 50-60F enables wine to age slowly to its full complexity. Excess heat cooks off its finer characteristics, while too much chill retards its maturation.
Wine racks are available in a wide assortment of materials, sizes and styles to suit any situation or decor for both home and commercial use: wood, metals like wrought iron and stainless steel, wire, wall mounted or hanging as well as attractive wine furniture pieces to complement the home, restaurant, or business.
Low-cost wine racks can be bought prefabricated or in do-it-yourself assembly kits.
Wine racks made of stainless steel and wire grids are less expensive. These decorative units can have a place for short term storage and display. If you are in the business to sell wine, be sure to showcase your collection with the best retail wine racking possible to help you market and sell more.
The warmth of wood is a popular choice for wine racks to display and store your fine wines. Softwoods such as Pine and Douglas Fir are more prone to warping but usually do not pose a problem if obtained from a good supplier using a premium grade who will stand behind the wine racks’ integrity, making these good, low-cost options, mainly because they’re easier to work with, and lighter to ship than hardwoods.
Distinctive wine racks also come in Maple and Red Oak. However, the best are made from more expensive rainforest woods, such as Californian Redwood. Redwood wine racks absorb moisture with little warping.
The wine rack should be in a cool, dark area of the house, such as the basement, cold storage room or closet. The basement is often the best place in the house for your wine since concrete heats up and cools down slowly. But, be aware that by the end of each season, accumulated heat or cold in the concrete can still make the conditions less than ideal for long-term wine storage.
It’s important to ensure that the room is dark, properly insulated to control the temperature and free from sources of vibration such as furnaces or fridges. Avoid leaving food, cardboard boxes or paint in the cellar. The chemicals in these materials break down over time and it’s possible their odors can seep into the wine through the cork.
Don’t have a full-sized room available to devote to a wine cellar? You can transform a closet or pantry into a customized mini wine cellar - complete with cooling unit and cellar door should you choose.
Buying a wine fridge suits anyone who has limited space.
A wine fridge is temperature and humidity controlled. The kitchen fridge is too cold and isn’t humid enough for wine long term. Wine fridges come in half, full and double sizes, as well as large walk-in style vaults.
Enjoying wine is about celebrating, relaxing, enjoying conviviality and all that it encompasses — taste, history, science, culture, friendship and intimacy. So reach for that special bottle from the wine rack and enjoy!
Grace
A common wellspring of confusion is wine literature. Many excellent wine books are currently available to lay readers. Most of them praise the vintages of individual regions, debate wine’s subtle food harmonies, or relate pleasant sojourns among the vineyards enjoyed by the authors.
Although always delectable reading, they rarely spare space to rehearse the ABC’s of wine. When an occasional writer does discuss the subject in grade-school terms, he leaps so abruptly to the post-graduate level that the novices among his readers are left completely befogged. Wine volumes heretofore published have thereby helped to create the need for the present one.
From the various sources available, largely gourmets and writers in Great Britain, but also in recent years from those of the United States, have also come many of the rules which surround fashionable wine selection and service. These rules did not come from the wine countries of Europe, where the average citizen consumes his wine as freely as most Americans gulp their ice water. The ordinary Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, or Portuguese, to whom wine is among the staple necessities of life, is happily ignorant of its abracadabra, and if he ever were told that red wine should not be served with fish, would regard it as so much nonsense.
American winegrowers have done little to clear up the maze. Most of them would be happier if their product could be freed of the enigmas and paradoxes which hinder its broader sale. Yet few would be willing to strip wine of its noble traditions and its undeniably valuable romantic atmosphere. Half-hearted attempts have occasionally been made to depart from the time-honored, but ambiguous, wine-type nomenclature inherited from Europe, only to be frustrated because the Old World wine names have become permanently anchored in the English language. And European vintners, whose principal customers already know how to buy and enjoy their merchandise, lack any motive to change their perplexing labels.
All of this confusion helps to make wine more intriguing than if it were simple. It also helps to account for the growing numbers of wine snobs. For on a subject as tangled as wine, almost anybody can expound safely, because hardly anyone else knows what is right or wrong. What is wine snobbery? Let’s first get the terms straight by distinguishing among wine experts, wine connoisseurs, and wine snobs.
A genuine wine expert is one who can readily distinguish among the world’s principal wines without reading the labels-a Tocai, http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Tocai/, from a Trebbiano, http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Trebbiano/. The number of such people is surprisingly few. You can become one, if your senses of taste and smell are keen, by sampling a sufficient number of wines with an open mind and a retentive memory, and by learning, at the same time, about the principal wine grape varieties and how wines are made.
To be a wine connoisseur, it is not necessary to be such an expert. Surely you are already a connoisseur (that is to say, a critical judge) of steaks, roasts, coffee, cheese, and also, perhaps, of liquor and cigarettes. In fact, we are all connoisseurs of the things we especially enjoy in food, drink, and entertainment. We are not shy about discussing our likes and dislikes among such items. Why be suddenly shy about our likes and dislikes among wines? Your taste is unique just as your thumb print is. You alone are the judge of what pleases your discriminating palate. It should be maintained that you are a connoisseur of wines when you have sampled enough of them to know which ones please you and which do not.
You are a wine snob, on the other hand, if (a) you look for a wine’s faults instead of its virtues, if (b) you behave like an expert when you are not, if (c) you are influenced by a wine’s price instead of by its flavor, if (d) you turn up your nose at bottles that lack famous names or vintage dates, if (e) you belittle wines simply because they do not come from Europe, or, in general, if you drink the label instead of the wine, whether it be a Merlot or a Viognier. More information on these grape types can be found at http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Merlot/ and http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Viognier/.
From the above distinctions it is readily apparent that while wine snobs are not necessarily experts or connoisseurs, you are likely to find many connoisseurs and some experts behaving like wine snobs.
Yet there is no particular harm in wine snobbery. In fact, it is fun, and might even be recommended as an easily acquired mark of gentility. Other cultural endeavors get welcome support from art snobs, book snobs, and music snobs, to name a few kinds. All of them enjoy themselves and derive benefit there from.
Judith
