Rosé: The new color of the Season

posted by alesha in Wine

Maybe you’ve noticed, but for some reason rosé wines are really big this year. In an article by winebusiness .com, Gary Heck, president and owner of Korbel Champagne Cellars, claims that “The color is fashionable right now, and consumers like the taste of it. They think it’s sweeter-it’s the perception that it’s sweeter. Maybe it’s the feminine side that they like.”

In the past people always looked down upon rosé blush wine; consumers thought the wine to be a ‘cheap’ downgrade. Today, rosés (whether sparkling, or still) are just as fashionable as watching Carrie Bradshaw order a cosmopolitan in Sex in the City. So how did rosé wines come back into fashion?

According to Bibiana Guerra, the more people are educated about wine, the more they realize that rosé wines are not a cheap downgrade version of sparkling wines. Korbel earlier this year, decided to jump on the rosé bandwagon when they came out with single-serve 187ml bottles of rosé wines. The Korbel Brut Rosé Champagne 187ml is sold as a four-pack for $14.99, and according to Heck, he wanted them out on the market in time for Valentines Day. Although convenience and availability are important to consumers, what people do not realize is that buying these single -serve 187ml bottle, they are spending more money than if they were to buy a bigger bottle of Champagne. Convenience aside, champagne and sparkling wine making is very expensive, so producers who carry 187ml bottles only cover a small percentage of the wine market.

With rosés in fashion, both guys and gals need not to feel embarrassed or ashamed when they order a nice glass of pink bubbly. This New Year’s Eve, serve your guests some rosé champagne. Not only will you make a fashionable entry into 2008, but you will also surprise your guest with something new. Educate your friends and family and let them know that rosé wines are nothing to be ashamed of and not a cheap wine that everyone thought it to be.

How to Mull Wine

posted by alesha in Wine

It’s that time of year again: so many parties and so little time to prepare. Instead of buying many different bottles of wine for your guests, why not make a mulled wine or spiced apple cider for them to enjoy. Mulled wine is heated spiced wine that is traditionally made with red wine. It’s is a great way to stay warm this winter, and you can make big batches for everyone to enjoy.

I first tried mulled wine at Snooth’s holiday party at Ayza Café & Wine Bar. I’m not a fan of cider or other ’spiced’ drinks, so was not expecting to enjoy it, however, I was pleasantly surprised. Sufficiently so to write a post singing its praises a week later.

Mulled wine has the perfect blend of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. You can use your favorite red wine, and tailor the recipe to your liking. The best part about mulled wine is that parents can make a non-alcoholic version with apple cider for the kids. It’s an inexpensive way to serve wine at holiday parties. I’ll be serving it at some holiday parties this year. Lets see if the guests enjoy it as much as I did.

Mulled wine recipe: serves 8

Ingredients:
2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
5 cardamom pods
3 black peppercorns
4 whole cloves
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 (750-ml) bottle dry red wine such as Côtes du Rhône
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
1 small orange, thinly sliced
1 small lemon, thinly sliced

Directions
Wrap cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, peppercorns, and cloves in cheesecloth and tie with string. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a 5-quart heavy pot, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then add spice bag, wine, vanilla bean, and fruit. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes.

A+B+C= wine quality?

posted by alesha in Wine

Did you know that you can use statistics to figure out auction prices of wine? I thought this was a joke, until reading an article entitled, Grape expectation: the price of wine that there really is a formula to predicting the quality of wine. Orley Ashenfelter, an economist at Princeton University and former editor of American Economic Review, discovered that people (may) no longer need the Robert Parkers of the wine world to tell them what wine vintage would be exceptional to drink.

Want to know how it works? It’s simple: wine quality = 12.145 + 0.00117 winter rainfall + 0.0614 average growing season temperature – 0.00386 harvest rainfall. If you put the weather stats for any year, in theory, you will get the overall quality of the wine. The question is… could it be true? Do we no longer need the “swish and spit” method of wine experts to tell us which vintage is good and which is bad?

At first, no one really bothered to question Ashenfelter wine methods, because no one knew who he was. It wasn’t until 1990 when the New York Times published Ashenfelter’s disagreement with Parker over the quality over the 1986 vintage, as well as his bold predictions about 1989 Bordeaux, which came out while the wine was 3 months in barrel and had yet to be tasted by the critics. Ashenfelter believed this vintage to be “the wine of the century”, and, somewhat confusingly, declared that the 1990 would be even better [they are both in the same century, right?]. Time would tell if his claims were right…

1989 did turn out to be an excellent vintage, and 1990 did indeed surpass it! Although many wine experts do not want to believe that you can use math to figure out a good vintage, Ashenfelter’s formula appears to be an amazingly accurate early predictor of quality. So until proven wrong, I guess you really can use stats to figure out wine quality.

What’s in a (wine) Name?

posted by alesha in Wine

Why not drink a wine based on your mood or personality?

My friend, let’s call her Brenda to protect the innocent, called me last night to tell me about this wine tasting event she went to in Texas. At first I thought this was going to be a boring story because “aren’t all wine tasting events the same.” Boy was I wrong…

Brenda told me that most of the wines she gravitated towards that night had really interesting names like Fat Bastard, Bitch wine, and Ménage A Trios. She said not only were the wine names interesting, but they tasted really great. That night, Brenda went straight to her local wine store to buy a bottle of each of the wines she tried, so that the wine she drinks at home can ‘pair’ with her mood.

Wine marketing has changed over the years. Traditionally, people would buy wine based on what region or Château it came from, and some still do, of course. However, there’s an ever growing subset of the market that buys wine based on its name or label (critter alert!). Tailoring the wine you drink to the mood you are in, might not be such a bad idea. Brenda did not set out that evening to purchase wines with the words Bastard or Bitch in them; she just thought it would be a fun thing to try.