new zealand wines

New Zealand Wines: Searching for the Next Great New Zealand Terroir

  More than 20 years ago, serious wine collectors never spoke about New Zealand wines. Despite an ideal climate and rocky terrain, the country’s producers only began cultivating grapevines in earnest in the late 1980s. Today, wine is New Zealand’s largest export, earning more than $1.3 billion annually. The popularity of New Zealand wines has…

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minerality in wine

Earthiness and Minerality in Wine: How Does Terroir Affect Mineral Flavors?

In my experience tasting Chablis wines, one tasting note consistently shines through: flint. The limestone-rich soil in this terroir is sprinkled with fossilized oyster shells that allegedly add minerality to its flavors. While scientists have found that mineral flavors certainly exist in wines, they are still unsure why this minerality is present. In multiple studies,…

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wine lockers

The Myth of Self-Storage Wine Lockers: Why Self-Service Storage Isn’t the Best Choice for Cellaring Wine

Many wine collectors are turning to “do-it-yourself” self-service wine locker facilities as a supposedly cheap way to invest in wine. These are often viewed as the most cost effective way to store your wine collection. What collectors fail to take into consideration are three often-ignored reasons that self-service facilities typically end up costing far more…

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Napa Valley terroir

Napa Wines Move toward Classification: Is the Area Creating a Napa Valley Terroir-Specific Cru Classé of Its Own?

The 1939 Treasure Island World’s Fair marked the birth of Napa Valley wine tours as we know them. Under Beringer’s direction, my great uncle enticed movie stars like Clark Gable to visit the then-unknown Napa Valley wine scene for the first time shortly after Prohibition ended. Hollywood soon became enamored with the tiny, premium wineries…

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2015 climate for winemakers

A Year of Extremes for Winemakers: The 2015 Climate a Boon for Some Vineyards, But Not Others

Climate change experts agree that the planet is on the cusp of another huge heat wave that could last for centuries, and this year, wine producers around the globe felt the impact. While the heat and subsequent hailstorm in the Chablis region of France threatens to destroy this year’s precious crop, Oregon is in the…

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napa valley wine

Want to Know What the Next “It” Napa Valley Wine Will Be? Watch the Auction

  Once upon a time, snapping up Bordeaux futures and cases of esteemed Burgundies like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was all the strategy a wine collector needed. But times have changed. For the past few seasons, buying Bordeaux en primeur hasn’t paid off for many investors. Great Burgundies with impeccable pedigree — like DRC —…

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