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white burgundy

The Mystery of White Burgundy: Why Does Burgundy Consistently Produce the Finest Chardonnay?

Burgundy’s reputation for growing the finest Chardonnay on the market comes down to the one-of-a-kind clay, limestone, and chalk terroir that provides its wines with intense minerality. Modern winemakers clamber to buy grapes from every subregion of Burgundy, making it the region with the most widely-replanted white grape roots in the world. Terroirs in Napa…

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pigeage

Are Traditional Winemaking Techniques Regaining Popularity? White Wine’s Newfound Love for Skin-Contact Pigeage

Over the past 10 years, more and more wine producers are using skin-contact pigeage on white wines, a practice that for centuries was viewed as a flaw in white varietals. Every year, dozens of guests gather barefoot at Peju Province, tucked away in the dry hills of Napa Valley. There, they sink their freshly-cleaned feet…

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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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biodynamic wine

Cellaring Biodynamic Wine: Biodynamic Viniculture and Why You Should Collect Natural Wines

When we talk about fine winemaking techniques, chances are that horses and cows don’t enter the equation. What many of the most discerning wine connoisseurs don’t realize is that livestock can create a wine more vivid in flavor than any previous vintage on the same estate. Not only do animals naturally fertilize the vineyard’s soil,…

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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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