Monday, March 30 2009
Dude, invest in a decanter or something!
Regular readers of Tim's Blog (is there such a thing?) will recall how I slammed the practice of en primeur (pre-selling Bordeaux wine as futures) as a cheat and a scam. Unimpeachable sources, such as Petrus' winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet agreed with me (clever fellow), saying the system forced wineries to alter the way they made wine, to cater to the tastes of the nouveau riche and dolts with palates of felt and glue who can only taste sugar and alcohol (I'm looking at you, Bob), because the wines have to be 'as seductive as possible far earlier, to the detriment of the Bordeaux style'. Even the ever demure Jancis Robinson hoped the 2006 en primeurs would fail, leaving merchants holding the bag on unsold stock.
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Posted by Tim AT 11:39PM
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Monday, March 30 2009
Now that's what I call grillin' and chillin'!
Note: Today's blog comes to us courtesy of Peter Mills, Winexpert's account manager extraordinaire from Atlantic Canada. A bon vivant of some note, he shares with us his dinner plans, leisure pursuits and wine matching advice. And here I thought Australians were all ruffians and ex-convicts--it seems I was partly mistaken.
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Posted by Tim AT 8:24PM
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Friday, March 27 2009
Do you suppose he only drinks white wine?
I was doing some bottling yesterday, a two year-old rhubarb wine made from my garden produce, and a very interesting carboy of the original Montagnac Crushendo. I made it specifically to demonstrate racking of grapeskin products at one of our retailer conferences. I do believe it was back in the summer of 2006. It served its demonstration purposes, I racked it again, sulphited it and added 50 grams of toasted French oak cubes and left it until yesterday.
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Posted by Tim AT 10:27PM
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Thursday, March 26 2009
How convenient: a glass of wine with the canapés already in it!
It's that time of year again: the Vancouver International Wine Festival is on. I've attended almost every year since 1987 and it's one of the best wine events in Canada--or anywhere.
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Posted by Tim AT 8:11PM
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Wednesday, March 25 2009
That's amore!
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Posted by Tim AT 5:32AM
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Thursday, March 19 2009
Waiter, I think this wine is corked . . .
Note: Today's blog is courtesy of Peter Mills, Winexpert accounts manager for Atlantic Canada--our man in the East, long may his big jib draw.
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Posted by Tim AT 6:38PM
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Tuesday, March 17 2009
The great thing about the EU was how it abolished nationalism . . .
I've managed to travel a bit, so I recognise that other countries and other societies have different ways of doing things. I also think it's appropriate to pass laws to preserve heritage and prevent the loss of important cultural assets. Heck, I even like the French on the side of my cereal box.
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Posted by Tim AT 10:16PM
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Monday, March 16 2009
I hope it's got compact fluorescent garters . . .
You could have knocked me over with the weather. I got an email from the marketing folks this morning congratulating me, and while it took a solid ten minutes to figure out why, I couldn't be more pleased, or more impressed the the company I'm keeping: Tim's Wine Blog declared one of the top 5 business blogs in Vancouver.
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Posted by Tim AT 11:25PM
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Thursday, March 12 2009
Bottles not shown actual size. Thank goodness.
It's nice to have a couple of days off the road to catch up on my drinking. I know I just blogged about the big ol' wine dinner at the FGBC, but that hardly counts--it was work! All right, all right, I know most people would prefer that kind of work if they could get it. Ahem.
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Posted by Tim AT 5:46AM
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Friday, March 6 2009
Is the logo half-empty, or half-full?
It's hard to believe that's it's been a year already, but last Sunday was the Fermenters Guild of British Columbia annual conference. The FGBC represents the consumer wine and beer making retailers in the province, and the annual get-together revolves around their annual general meeting where they elect new officers, propose new measures, discuss important news, attend various educational seminars (that's were I come in) and have a trade show (Winexpert, other kit manufacturers and associated trades) and a pretty interesting dinner.
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Posted by Tim AT 7:26PM
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Thursday, March 5 2009
No thanks, I had centipede eggs for lunch.
Once you smell a rotten egg, you never forget the distinct aroma of hydrogen sulphide gas. Winemakers tend to know about it because it's a by-product of yeast metabolism, showing up in all fermentations too a greater or lesser degree. Once in a great while something can go awry, and too much H2S will be formed. Fortunately, in small quantities it can be driven off with a little sulphite and some vigorous stirring, and in moderate amounts it can be treated with copper or Bocksin. In large amounts, the wine smells like a housefull of fart, and it has to be dumped out. You'll occasionally run across bottles of wine that have a wee hint of it, which can be gotten rid of with decanting and airing, or in extremis, a handful of sanitised pennies (the copper bonds to the H2, forming copper sulphate, removing the smell).
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Posted by Tim AT 10:34PM
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Monday, March 2 2009
Whew, that's certainly a relief! Actual sign on Congress Avenue store.
Gadzooks, what a funny sort of week it's been. We flew from blowing snow and icy roads at 0ºC to absurdly warm sunshine at 35ºC. Locals assured me that it was unusually warm for Texas at this time of year, and I hope that's true because if it's not, they'll be able to melt lead on the sidewalks by August.
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Posted by Tim AT 9:35PM
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Comments
Gary
Posted 4 years ago
Tim: How was the Montagnac Crushendo? Did it age well?Gary
Joe
Posted 4 years ago
I'm sold!
Wine goddess at the Wine Store
Posted 4 years ago
Wow..........wow.........and WOW! I convinced now. What's the saying..."a picture is worth a thousand words"
Rick in Vic
Posted 4 years ago
Glad I've still got a bag of Diversol left.I'm going to have an excess of rhubarb this spring now that the kids have moved on. Did you blog about rhubarb wine before?