Flowing from the interior highlands of the Massif Central west to the Bay of Biscay west to the North Atlantic Coast, the Loire Valley is France’s most diverse wine region. With the exception of its famous Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, however, the wines of “The Garden France” tend to lack the attention they deserve, an […]

Flowing from the interior highlands of the Massif Central west to the Bay of Biscay west to the North Atlantic Coast, the Loire Valley is France’s most diverse wine region. With the exception of its famous Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, however, the wines of “The Garden France” tend to lack the attention they deserve, an […]

New Zealand is one of the most isolated wine producing regions on the planet. It’s also one of the smallest, accounting for less than 1% of the world crop. In spite of such apparent disadvantages, the Kiwis manage to sell two thirds of their crop in the world market. Obviously, they’re doing something right. To […]

  Imagine that you have been transported to a wine region in Northern Europe bordered by the Rhine River.  The towns and villages have names like Heiligenstein, Kirchheim, and Zellenberg, and Riesling is the dominant grape. Given the circumstances, you’d probably think that you were in Germany, but you would be wrong. The place is […]

Although most wine drinkers are familiar with the popular Italian white varietal Pinot Grigio, few are aware that the grape is a mutated form of the Pinot Noir from the Burgundy region of France, where it’s called Pinot Gris (grey pinot). This widely disseminated and increasingly fashionable grape is grown around the world to make […]

It’s safe to say that even people who rarely drink wine have sampled or at least know the name Chianti. Strangely enough, however, few wine enthusiasts are familiar with Sangiovese, the grape from which Chianti, and a number of other Italian wines, is made, either as the sole grape or as part of a blend. […]

Not since the California Chardonnay boom of the 1990s has the wine industry experience a New World success to match the popularity of Argentine Malbecs, the grape that put Argentina on the wine map and helped make the country the world’s fifth largest wine producer. What most wine enthusiasts don’t know, however, is that the […]

Although they share the same river, the Northern and Southern Rhône Valley are quite different in terms of climate, soils, topography, and grape varieties. There are also significant price differences between the wines of the two areas, with those of the North being more expensive. The Southern Rhone, on the other hand, is much more […]

Most wine enthusiasts today are familiar with the wines of Tuscany, the Piedmont, Lombardy and other northern regions of Italy. In ancient times, however, Southern Italy was the center of the wine world, thanks to the efforts of Greek colonists who introduced grapes and winemaking techniques to regions of what most people know today as […]