Wine Co. program educates restaurant waiters and waitresses
"Michael Peacock has witnessed wait staff with "shaky" wine confidence in his 20 years as a chef. Now that he's got his own restaurant in Mickey's Chophouse, at 5 Beeman St., Peacock and his wife, Debbie, have put a premium on wine knowledge. Aside from planned wine seminars for their staff, Peacock plans on taking advantage of Canandaigua Wine Co.'s crash course in serving wine."
On Wine News
Land of liqueurs
"Travel along the N74 road in Burgundy, through towns whose names appear on the world's greatest wine labels, and the view is vineyards, vineyards, vineyards, as far as the eye can see."
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Hopelessly Devoted to ... Shiraz and Chardonnay
"Australian wines are red, white and now -- Koala Blue. Australian superstar Olivia Newton-John is giving wine lovers something to sing about with her Koala Blue Shiraz and Koala Blue Chardonnay. Both wines come in a distinctive blue bottle."
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Bring on the grapes
"A growing breed of hobbyists are getting serious about the quality of wine they make at home. Before very long, Eugene Osentoski's well-appointed ranch in Northville will smell like a California winery, and in fact, you could almost call his homestead a wine chateau -- on a small scale..."
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Cliff sets date for wine and song
"The man who put the "ever" in evergreen, Sir Cliff Richard, has two wineries on his gig itinerary for his Australian tour early next year."
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Hawke's Bay Wine Country comes to Auckland
"The Hawke's Bay Wine Country Food Group is joining forces this month with five-star hotel Stamford Plaza Auckland, to celebrate the Best of the Bunch extravaganza. A fabulous line up of Hawke's Bay tour operators, winemakers, food providers, artists, and musicians will take part in the Best of the Bunch, which begins on 6 September until the end of the month."
On Wine News
Washington's wineries came of age quickly
"The Washington wine industry is now recognized internationally by leading wine authorities as producing wines that rival the best the world has to offer. The challenge remains to share the news - and the beauty of the region ó with the rest of the world..."
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Little pretense at wine auction
"As if slipping through a porthole, the auction-goers at the Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction on Sunday found themselves in the 1950s, mingling with Elvis in stripped-down leather and Marilyn Monroe in a white flyaway dress. The 10th annual wine auction raised $586,390 this year, slightly less than last year's $592,100."
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Wine and Vine: Has chard met its match?
"As a dry white wine, Chardonnay is the current international best-seller in its field - deservedly so, since it is a grape of great adaptability, which can yield a decent wine in a range of climates and locations. Whether it be France, the Americas or Down Under, the finished product should be recognisable as Chardonnay, though the style may differ radically...."
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New Zealand: Savvys make it in record time
"The Marlborough selection of 2002 sauvignon blanc wines made it to Wellington on Saturday in record time. Thirty-six different Marlborough sauvignon blancs were raced across Cook Strait on 26 yachts to officially launch this year's vintage."
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Real opinions from real people in the Real Cork debate
"Throughout June and July 2002, over 4,000 people visited corkmasters.com site to share their thoughts on wine closures. There was a wide range of opinions and a huge number of comments from professionals and wine lovers alike. Here's a summary of the results..."
On Wine News
Sudden impact
"There are many ways of classifying wines - white and red, oak-aged or not, old world versus new world. In terms of understanding why the wines we like don't always shine in competitions, an equally useful distinction - often made by the winemakers themselves - is between "impact" wines and "subtle" wines...."
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Hot dry summer bad for cranberries, good for grapes
"The hot, dry Massachusetts summer, which followed a practically snowless winter, has cranberry growers worried they won't be able to flood their bogs for the harvest. However, vinifera grapes -- table wine-producing vintages like chardonnay and merlot -- flourish in such conditions."
On Wine News
Why a wine's taste can be in the glass
"What wine snobs have been telling you for years really is true: the shape of a glass does make a difference to how wine tastes. The reason is that some wine glasses allow more of the subtle chemical reactions with air because a greater surface is exposed to it."
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Klein Constantia Judged One Of The World's Great Vineyards
"Up there, with Clos du Mesnil, Lafite Rothschild, La Tache and Yquem, that's where you'll find Klein Constantia. The Constantia wine estate was listed as one of the world's twenty-five great vineyards by US Wine & Spirits magazine in their summer 2002 issue."
On Wine News
Michigan State Uni professor launches winemaking program
"Blended into the pastoral landscape on the fringes of the Michigan State University campus is a flourishing 3-acre vineyard, along with a 3,500-square-foot winery lab, for the country's only intensive winemaking and viticultural program this side of the Rockies."
On Wine News
Wright kind of wine
"AS a businessman, Michael Wright seems to have it all ñ he earns about $11 million a year from a Rio Tinto mine he's never worked at. He also owns the revered Voyager Estate winery in Margaret River, although he doesn't drink wine, and, with $220 million in personal wealth, he isn't worried that the winery isn't making money..."
On Wine News
Wine fails to shake "intimidating" image with drinkers
"Almost 50% of Canadians find wine intimidating, a recent survey has found. A consumer poll sponsored by E&J Gallo Winery found that while consumers were keen to build knowledge of wine it is still often viewed as a drink for the "the elite" or "for special occasions only"."
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Harrier Rise Vineyard: Country Reds of Auckland
"The country reds of Auckland from the late 1960's were one of the inspirations for Harrier Rise Vineyard. Back then, well before New Zealand wine became respectable, most local wine was fortified and sweetened, and labelled as sherry or port."
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China Wants Wine
"The government in Beijing estimates that within eight years, China's population will stand at an incredible 1.4 billion people, with the number exploding by some 14 million a year. Michael Parr, Wente Vineyards' export manager and an old China hand, says that just the core target of potential wine drinkers is roughly equal to the entire population of the United States."
On Wine News
California: Quality up, quantity down
"The 2002 Northern California wine grape harvest, just underway, will likely be remembered as much for the fruit that wasn't picked as for the clusters that were."
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Farmers have less than grape expectations
"On the rich farmlands along Lake Erie, grape farmers were expecting a banner crop this year. Temperatures had soared to 80 degrees in mid-April, promising vines heavy with grapes come the September harvest. But with the harvest less than a month away, many of those same farmers anticipate devastating losses."
On Wine News
Some 'ugly duckling' grapes surpass their reputes
"Grapes such as chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon are known to the wine world as "noble" grape varieties. Chardonnay - a classic white wine grape grown all over the world - is most famous in the Burgundy and Champagne regions in France. Cabernet sauvignon is one of the main grape varieties..."
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Wine New Zealand a success
"Wine New Zealand, reconfirmed its standing last week as the wine industry's premier sampling forum, with its impressive offering of over 1,300 wines enjoyed by 2, 212 trade and public (up 1.4% on last year)."
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Winemaking in Pictures
"All wines, from the most sought-after Bordeaux to the simplest table wine, navigate a series of steps along the journey from vine to bottle. It's a complex process, full of science and mystery, and this slide show makes no claim to cover it comprehensively."
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Winegrowers smash hundreds of bottles in supermarket attacks
"Around 200 French wine growers, protesting at cheap imports, targeted two supermarket chains, smashing several hundred of bottles of wine."
On Wine News
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