 Check out Wine On The Road to explore the world’s most renowned wine regions with behind-the-scenes access to top winemakers and their incomparable wines. With Wine on the Road tours, professional wine writer and Chief Wine Sherpa Ben Weinberg has created the ultimate in wine-focused, behind-the-scenes wine country experiences, combining award-winning wines and exquisite dining and lodging with uniquely local flair and flavor. Our wine-focused, luxurious, behind-the-scenes itineraries are now available online. Go to Wine On The Road for more details.
Ben is the author of Weinberg's Wine Tech in Sommelier Journal and regularly contributes features, as well. Take a look at Sommelier Journal’s website for more information on this excellent behind-the-scenes wine magazine.
He is the Rocky Mountain Editor for Tasting Panel Magazine. Check out Tasting Panel’s website for more information on this wine industry powerhouse. Ben will continue to craft feature stories fpr Tasting Panel but will also be providing monthly briefs on Colorado restaurants for national publication. If you wish your restaurant to be considered for these articles please email him at:
benweinberg@
unfilteredunfined.com
Ben also pens "Politics Uncorked with Ben Weinberg" on a bi-monthly basis for the Colorado Statesman. Check out the Colorado Statesman’s website to learn what's going on in Colorado politics and wine.
|
New Year’s Eve has come and gone and that means resolutions. One of my resolutions this year is to continue to provide terrific wine tours via Wine On The Road and to offer top-notch drinking advice via this column and my other wine writings. Toward that end, I thought I should start 2012 with a series of primers on various varietals and how they present themselves when grown in different terroirs. This week’s column is about Pinot Noir from the New World (primarily Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, Oregon and California in the U.S.). [...]
As I said in my last several Potpourri columns, I’m able to write about most of the bottles I like. But occasionally wines are tasted too soon after a column about similar juice. Others require a delay to allow importation into the U.S. of the current vintage. A few even occupy the niche of true oddball without compare. So what has the sample bin brought me lately? [...]
This column is dedicated to Pinot Noir, a red wine grape that appears to have originated in Burgundy, France. Pinot’s name is derived from the French words for pine and black, alluding to the grape’s tightly clustered, dark purple, pine-cone-shaped bunches of fruit. While some versions are earthy and dense others can be quite delicate in nature, perfect for matching with summer fare at picnics, barbeques, even while just hanging out on the porch. [...]
I regularly taste wines made from a variety of unusual or obscure varietals. But after spending a lot of time with these outliers I often find myself pining for more familiar grapes. This column is dedicated to Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel. One appears to have originated in France but the other comes from Italy. Both achieve their most consumer-friendly guises in the New World. [...]
I’ve only been to Australia once, and New Zealand is still on my bucket list. Many ties bind these former English colonies, but each is proud of its distinct identity. This pride of place is also evident in the individual wines, what we in the wine business call terroir…But while the market for Australian high-end wine has largely collapsed in the past few years, there are still a bunch of great wines from both regions that provide value at very reasonable price ranges. [...]
What does the modern wine lover serve to his or her amour that is special enough for the occasion and sufficiently romantic for a declaration of love? I find that such wines sort themselves out into two general categories, bubbles and everything else. [...]
Mid-December means shopping, eating out, and attending and hosting festive events. While it’s often considered bad form to tote your own wine to the mall, extracurricular dining and holiday parties each offer their own special brands of bottle-bringing opportunity. [...]
I’m off to Europe to start my tour of Tuscany, Piedmont, the Rhone Valley and Burgundy. The next three columns will offer real-time descriptions of my wine travels! This week I’ll focus on still wines for Thanksgiving to give you a heads up on holiday shopping. [...]
In Europe, delineation of terroir has been a two-millennium exercise. Southern hemisphere commercial winemaking has only hit its stride in the past few decades, and obviously much work remains to be done. But the territories involved in the south are so vast and widely separated that significant regional differences have already evolved. Thus, some trends and generalizations are now evident. [...]
I’m finally home for a bit, and I have to confess I’m pretty happy about that. Not only can I relax and recharge in familiar settings, but I can also tackle the mountain of wine samples that have accumulated in my absence. Thus, what follows are recommendations based on samples I’ve tasted in the past week or two. This time I’ll focus on whites and rosés, with other selections (including red wines) in upcoming weeks. [...]
|
Welcome to Unfiltered, Unfined! Truth in agriculture is the ultimate truth. At Unfiltered, Unfined we are dedicated to providing the most relevant, user-friendly wine, beer and spirit-based content available.
Please note that our correspondents do accept samples, tours and lodging, but unless otherwise noted it is always with the understanding that nothing has been promised in exchange - no columns, no articles, no endorsements, no recommendations, not a single mention anywhere. This is how we maintain access to the very best of the wine lifestyle while reporting in an impartial manner.
At some point we'll set up a premium content section for paying subscribers only, but for now, all content will be free as we ramp up our vision of what our site should be. And of course, we plan on always providing you with access to most of the site at no charge. Be sure to sign up for our email list (left side of page) and social media feeds so that you'll be fully connected!
In reference to any wine prices I publish in my writings, they are based on the lowest generally available prices I find in the U.S. at the time of publication. I use commercially available wine searching software such as Winesearcher Pro and Global Wine Stocks in my analyses, and as such, these prices may not be available to consumers in all markets.
|
