Jenna Jameson was proud of David's progress.

If you’ve stumbled on this post hoping to read some erotic story, I am sorry to disappoint you. This post is about the awkwardness of spitting wine at wine tastings. Although there are a lot of parallels to the dilemma many couples are faced with behind closed bedroom doors (or for the more adventurous ones of you, behind your favourite bush, and not George W.), so there may in fact be a possibility of arousal.

The reason for spitting (we’re on wine now) at tastings is due to the sheer number of samples one would be tasting, and swallowing would impair you judgement of later samples. As a result, there are spittoons located everywhere for the so-called “experts” to utilise, however there are several reasons why I don’t spit.

After You…

Spittoons are  much like the version of watering holes. People congregate around them fighting for the right of way to “release” their wine. So the technique of spitting, is to take a large swigful of the wine, and swirl it around your mouth exciting all the sensory receptors in you mouth as well as naturally airing the liquid to bring out flavours. After 15 seconds or so, you spit. This means when the wine is to be spat, there is often a tussle for the spittoon, without getting the giggles and discharging prematurely down some poor woman’s back (we’ve all been there).

You’ve finally made it to the Holy Grail, and you’re faced with a good-looking blonde in the same position. Being a gentleman, you want to say “Ladies first!” but you have a mouthful of red. So you both stare at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move, only for that never to happen. So, after an awkwardly long time, the ethanol in the wine is beginning to burn the inside of your mouth, and you decide to throw manners out the window and begin to lean over the spittoon, only to see that she has decided exactly the same. And before you can stop yourself you have deposited in her beautifully dyed hair.

Technique

These days the Wine Trade is flooded with characters whom have become so-called experts overnight and the sad thing is that

No one was impressed with my premature discharge

 some of these turn their noses up to amateurs like me trying to learn way. These people are generally the ones who pride themselves on their spitting technique. The really gifted ones stand a good meter or two away from the spittoon and release a beautiful arch of wine from their lips to the centre of the spittoon (see picture above). Then you get me. I have to bury my face deep into the spittoon and spit the wine out, much like a geyser (see picture right), rather than a Las Vegan fountain. This has two pretty horrendous outcomes, firstly, spray back all over my white shirt and secondly the winemaker sees me as an amateur and will ignore me for the Tescos winebuyer standing five people back.

These are just two reasons why I don’t spit. I am sure, if any wine “expert” reads this post, they will not be impressed and I will be giving the Trade a bad name. So what?! I enjoy wine, and I’m going to appreciate it to its fullest, and if this means avoiding social faux pas’, then tough!

During this holiday season many of us who are more fortunate give to charities to help out those who are in need. Over 150 million children, teens and adults worldwide are in need of a wheelchair but cannot afford one. Our own Chief Winemaking Overlord, Marco DiGiulio, was in Belize this past weekend to help Gordon Holmes of Wine for Wheels deliver wheelchairs to the people who desperately need them. Because of the generosity of wine lovers like you, someone now has mobility and freedom. Thank you.

Gordon Holmes & Marco DiGiulio at the big initial ceremony held in Belize City. The First Lady of Belize and the American Ambassador were both present to welcome them. They gave away almost four dozen chairs.

Marco visits 23 year old Kareem, who was shot in a drive-by shooting and is paralyzed from the waist down. He's basically been in this bed since he got out of the hospital after the shooting. A wheelchair will mean a lot to him.

This fast boat will deliver a full load of wheelchairs to the islands of Belize.

A spectacular Caribbean backdrop is the setting for distributing wheelchairs on Caulker Caye, Belize

If you’d like to sponsor an event to benefit the Wheelchair Foundation Mission check out www.wineforwheels.org.

“It about makes more sense to be a dentist first and then a winemaker.”

Thanks to Pull the Cork Out

This wine is 100% Malbec. Dark and dense color. Aromas are black fruit, anise and chocolate undertones. Flavors are blackberry, plum, berries, currants and cassis and white pepper spice. This is an intense mouthful of fruit-driven wine with soft tannins on the finish. 80% stainless steel fermented; 20% in used Hundred Acre barrels. 13.9% alcohol by volume. Be sure to leave room for seconds. Pull the cork out on this.

Winemaker Rhonda Taylor will host her first winemaker’s dinner on Sunday, November 8th at Tassel Ridge Winery near Leighton, Iowa.

Rhonda was featured in the Summer issue of Make Mine Wine magazine. She works with 15 varieties of grapes (nearly 100 tons) and is responsible for crafting 28 wines. She often works with 20 or more different batches of wine at one time and her daily operations including tracking all of the batches, performing lab work to comply with regulations and following the winery’s own procedures to maintain a safe and clean environment for the wine and employees.

Rhonda graduated from Iowa State University with a biology degree and a chemistry backgound. In 2005 Bob Wersen, owner of Tassel Ridge Winery, invited her to become assistant winemaker. After training with Dr. Murli Dharmadhikari, currently director of the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, Rhonda became Winemaker and Cellar Manager in August, 2007.

The Winemaker’s Dinner will pair Tassel Ridge wines with the flavors of a three-course Italian dinner. The Antipasto platter is paired with Tassel Ridge Oskyfizzante White, followed by Pasta Puttanesca with Tassel Ridge Pizzeria & Pasta Too! Dinners will indulge in Tiramisu with Tassel Ridge Chocolate Granfinale for dessert.

After dinner Rhonda will lead a private tour of the Tassel Ridge Winery Cellar.

Advance reservations are required by Thursday, November 5th. The price is $25 per person, plus tax. Wine Tasting begins at 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:30.

My husband and I have attended the wonderful wine and food pairing dinners at Tassel Ridge Winery and I know you will especially enjoy this one. It will be a great chance to meet Rhonda and learn more about the wine and the winery experience at Tassel Ridge.

Cheers!

Barbara Rasko, Publisher

Make Mine Wine magazine

www.makeminewinemagazine.com

Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Matias Mayol to our Virtual Winemaker Program at Wine and Beer Westpark from 5:30-6:30!

Matias will be joining us via video conference from his family winery in Mendoza, Argentina.

We’ll be sampling and discussing their Sauvignon Blanc, Bonarda, Malbec, Cuatro Primos (Meritage), and Montuiri Malbec.

The Familia Mayol winery began in 1990. The family now holds three properties around Mendoza from which they draw the fruit for their estate bottled, hand made wines. Quality drives the low production Familia Mayol wines, which highlight the high altitude and often single-vineyard grape sources.

Seeing these wines at under $20 is quite a remarkable feat! Join us in person today at 9631 West Broad Street, Glen Allen, Va or return to our blog to enjoy our first Virtual Winemaker video footage by the beginning of next week!

This is a free event…

I’m still amazed at how many great wine events go on in this city.  Here are a couple of highlights for this week.

Tuesday Oct. 6 – Calera Wine Winemaker Night @ Four Seasons-SF

Meet Josh Jensen, founder, owner and winemaker of one of the California’s top Central Coast wineries (focus on Pinots and Chards).  Jensen was the SF Chronicle’s 2007 winemaker of the year, and has a great story to tell about how he started Calera (and his love of limestone).  5:30-7:30pm.  $35 for a flight of four wines.  (and I believe this also includes some nosh-nosh).

********************

Wed., Oct. 7 – Duckhorn Vineyards Release Party in SF

Why drive to Napa when Napa can come to you?  Top cab producer Duckhorn comes to town for a release party, hosted by founder Dan Duckhorn. 5:30-7:30pm.  $50 per person (unless you’re a wine club member).  Location:  1045 Divisadero (at Turk).  Reservations: 707-967-2031.

A month or so after entering the Trade, and the largest annual event was coming to town, The London Wine Fair. Now for those of you that have never been…..it’s Massive!! Tables full of bottles for as far as you can see, with wine from all over the globe. Many from new winemakers, whom are desperate to find an importer into the UK market. For me, it was purely an exercise to experience new aromas and familiarise myself with all the different varieties. Obviously!!

I was accompanied to the event by a friend Ed Burnett, who was at the time an influential seller of Charles Taylor Wines. As a result I spent most of the morning hiding behind him like a little boy. However after visiting several of the Argentinian tables, dutch courage kicked in (I wasn’t really spitting for reasons I’ll explain in a later post).

I began to wonder off, like a bird fleeing the nest for the first time. Finally, I found an empty table and was engrossed in conversation for about fifteen minutes with a Portuguese winemaker. His wines were pretty good, and I was just so excited to be holding my own. The chat was flowing, and we were laughing at each others jokes whilst I complimenting his wines, he was complimenting me on my “shop assistant” role in my shop (it was written on my name badge). It was a kind of business flirting.

Ed suddenly appeared and before he had introduced himself, he had a half glass and the winemaker’s complete attention. And before I could say “Ed, back off! I saw him first!” The pair of them were swapping business cards. For a split second, I felt like the ugly friend. Then realisation hit, it’s all about who you are and who you know. I lacked on both!

Although I did manage to get one business card from a German winemaker, called Mr Kuntz….so I was happy.

WHO:  Barnard Griffin Winery

WHAT:  CATCH THE CRUSH “Cellarbration”

WHEN:  This Saturday & Sunday, 9/26 – 27

             10 am – 5 pm

WHERE: Barnard Griffin Winery

              878 Tulip Lane

              Richland, WA  99352

              509-627-0266

              Info@BarnardGriffin.com

              www.BarnardGriffin.com

COST:    $5 non-refundable Tasting Fee

WHY:     Catch the Crush in Washington wine country

Celebrate with special deals on cases of our special Cellarbration varietal pairings. 

C’mon over, we’ll conduct wine tastings inside and outside: 

Eat & Drink local!  Come feel the heat.  Our soon-to-be-famous Farmer’s Market Salsa expert, Rudy Pena, will be on hand to sample his Pepper Blend salsa out on our garden patio. 

And inside the Tasting Room, we’ll feature Bleu Cheese drizzled with honey and paired with our legendary Syrah Port!

Barnard Griffin is the 4th largest winery in the state and is an essential stop on any tour of Washington’s best wineries.

www.BarnardGriffin.com

Info@BarnardGriffin.com

509-627-0266

#          #          #

I have had a lot of people asking me recently if this year is going to be a good one for grapes.  The general consensus from people asking the question is that summer has been terrible, and therefore, so will be the wine.  As a winemaker I have never experienced ‘a bad year’, just challenging ones.

Admittedly summer did get off to a slow start.  But with a lot of vineyard canopy work and diligent pest management, The Good Earth vines made it through to August in good health.  Credit there goes to Chris Andrewes, Beamsville uber-farmer.  August is when the serious berry ripening begins around here, and coincidently, that is when summer decided to show up this year.  So for the past 6 weeks, our healthy grapevines have enjoyed  sunny, dry days  to pump loads of  flavours and sugars into the berries, and cool nights to keep the aromatics, colours and fresh acidity in place.

So is it going to be a good year?  The Pinot Noir looks as if it spent the early part of summer on holiday in the tropics, and may even be ripening earlier than usual.  All our berries are accumulating sugar faster than Chef Isa could pour it into one of her world beating deserts.  The new season’s barrels are arriving.  The sun is still shining.  The harvest staff are smiling.  Yeah, it’s going to be a good year.

The 2009 harvest has finally arrived!!

Last week I couldn’t write as much as I wanted to because we were very busy at the vineyard picking the Tempranillo, Shiraz and Merlot grapes. This year, the summer has been very dry and hot, causing these three varietals to be ready for harvest at the same time (usually, there is an interval between varietals). Another effect of the hot temperatures is that the berry size of each varietal, even more so the Merlot, is quite small, giving us lower yields but more concentrated and intense fruit flavours.

Before we begin harvesting, we sample the different plots to analyze the sugar, acidity and ph levels, the juice content, berry weight, and size of the grapes. Besides collecting these figures, we taste the grapes to check the flavours, tannins and stage of the seeds as well. It’s very important to harvest when the grapes achieve maximum ripeness, not just as far as the sugar content is concerned, but also the phenolic ripeness of the seeds, which ideally should happen at the same time. (The phenolic ripeness refers to the changes in the tannins that occur in the skins, seeds and stems of the grapes.)

We harvest very early in the morning, to get the grapes to the winery as cool and fresh as possible.

Here you can see some pictures of the 2009 harvest, with winemaker Adam Richardson and Maria Hernández, our vineyard manager. Hope you like them!!

Tasting some Cabernet grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard plot

Grape tasting with winemaker Adam Richardson and Malpica´s vineyard manager María Hernández

-Rocio

Some people would be thrilled to meet Kobe. I am satisfied with hanging out drinking wine with Paul Lato. Paul Lato Wines is one of my new favorite wines. His Pinots remind me of what early Williams-Selyem (the guys who ruined me by setting the bar so high ) were producing in their prime. What he makes are incredible Pinot Noirs, Syrahs, and Chardonnay wines. It is too hard to describe just how good the wine is, but when you taste it you finally realize why people become obsessed with Burgundies. The flavors linger, the fruit taste is complex but it has no noticeable jam, acid, or alcohol. It is just great grape juice. It is rare that I find this kind of perfection with a reasonable price. Taste is subjective, but for me Paul has figured out my simple needs. Unfortunately a lot of other people think the same way I do and with his limited production his wines are hard to get your hands on.

On a lark, I called him last Sunday and asked if we could meet. He was working the tasting counter at Costa De Oro and told us to stop by. My son Tommy and I drove up to Santa Maria and under the cover of smoke from the burning hillsides, we sat down with Paul and laughed, talked for several hours. and tasted some good Costa wines. He gave Tommy great career things to think about as he enters his senior year in college. He shook his head with a smile and a look of concern when I discussed my venturing into the wine business. Most of all we just told stories and enjoyed each others company. In leaving I told Tommy life is too short not to have friends like that. Tommy professed “find good people who are doing good things and stick with them”. I plan to.

Paul is from Poland via Toronto. He has a smile and stories that won’t quit. He is an accomplished and accredited Sommelier. He came to California in 2002 with a dream to make great California Pinot Noir. He worked with/for Jim Clendenen at Au Bon Climat and Bob Lindquist at Qupe to get his feet wet. Inspired by and knowledgeable about great French Burgundies (Henri Jayer is one of his heroes), he wanted to make something as great as a grand cru but something unique and true to the grape’s California roots. He begged and charmed his way into some of the best vineyards and then pushed to get the grapes grown his way. He makes very limited quantity (like a single barrel of Bien Nacido Syrah – RP 95 points!) with nearly unmatched quality. His wines outshine what others are able to make from the same vineyard sources because in making such small volumes he can do everything himself. I am convinced that his success is based upon the fact he simply outworks everyone else. He is 100% hands on almost 24/7 for the first months as the wine comes to life. Obviously, he has incredible intuition as to what is going to work. The combination of being an artist and sacrificing much of his life to get it right can be tasted in every bottle.

I brought him a bottle of 1986 Williams Selyem, Rochioli Vineyard, Pinot Noir. I figured I should give one of my all time favorite bottles of wine to the guy who is going to be making some of my all time favorite wines for a long time to come.

I knew this would not be fun to do alone, so I pitched my idea to Ray Turner and Brad King. Ray and Brad are next door neighbors, best friends, and kind of remind me of two little kids whose mischief is always getting them in trouble at home. What fun to contribute to their exploits by offering a life of wine tasting, road trips, and brain storming at 14.7% alcohol. At lunch, over a great bottle of Erna Schein 2007 Sainte Fumée (70% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre, 10% Petite Sirah, 10% Petit Verdot) they were easily convinced to join in my madness. Now that I had my partners and buddies on board, we needed to find someone who knew how to make wine and save us.

Enter Kenneth (“don’t call me Joey”) and Mark, two young guys with a passion and talent for wine. They are Kenneth-Crawford Wines and offered to help us out. We took a road trip to meet them in their small winery building where they create a bit of magic. They told us the romantic tale of how they met on their first day on the job at Babcock Winery and developed a friendship that sparked the creation of their winery. Mark and Joey have an amazing chemistry and understand that incredibly hard work, a commitment to quality, and dedication are essential to success. We laughed and drank and knew we found what we were looking for. They know how to make wines that we loved and can laugh.

After a fun lunch at Panino in Santa Ynez, Mark and Joey took us out to visit several vineyards. Larner Vineyards in Ballard Canyon was off the charts. We ran into Mike Larner out among the vines and his passion for the growing grapes matched Joey and Mark’s love for making great wines. Done deal. Simple as that, we are on our way. Mark + Joey with grapes grown by Mike. Now we just need to figure out what wine we want to create.

I located two custom crush facilities in the Santa Barbara area. I visited Camarillo Custom Crush. The facility is located in an industrial complex and the operation is simple and straightforward. They crush your grapes, put the wine in the barrel, intervene as necessary, and bottle and label the wine for you. As the customer, you need to provide the grapes, the barrels, the racks, and the labels. While they are full service, my fear was that I didn’t have enough know-how to pull off a great wine and I was going to need a little (or a lot) more help.

I also found Terravant Wine Company north of Santa Barbara. They are an “ultra-premium” wine crush facilities that are also full service. While Camarillo seems pretty folksy, Terravant had the feel of a high tech start-up and very high end. I spoke to Alan Phillips, Director of Winemaking, and he convinced me they could provide all the services I needed. Their capabilities are impressive. While they seemed a good fit, they had limited capacity to take on new small producers. Terravant has a limited number of small volume fermentation tanks and these were all spoken for.  I was still going to need to source grapes and this remained a big concern. You can only make great wines with great grapes, and best grapes are hard to source. Alan suggested I look for some smaller wineries that may want to work with me, perform the custom crush, help with the winemaking, and help source grapes through their existing contracts. In the classic “ah ha” moment, I realized this was my path forward. Now I only needed to find a small winery that excited me and would be willing to work with me.

One of the reasons why I prefer wine to beer is that each bottle from the same winemaker and vineyard is different year after year. You can get interesting taste arrangements that you weren’t necessarily suspecting.

I enjoy the fact that you never know exactly what you’re going to get, often you’re pleasantly surprised and sometimes you’re disappointed.

This comes to mind because Northern California had an unusual weather year in 2008. There were substantial fires in June 2008 which is peculiarly worrisome because as most of us know summer is the main growing season for grapes.

How much of that smoke was trapped in the fruit? I’ve heard that some grapes trapped a significant amount of it and no matter how much the juice has been filtered, all of it cannot be removed.

To me, we all need to be aware that this could be a problem with the 2008 vintage. We’ll find out which micro climates were affected and which were not. We’ll learn which winemakers are the true class of their region based on how they handle what could be an extremely difficult situation…..or it could be nothing.

That’s part of the fun with wine.

A few years back I started reading about custom crush companies like Crushpad. You can sign up with them and become a wine “producer,” creating your “own” label and bottle just about any type of California wine you want. They have a great model where possessing contracts from the top grape growers throughout the state. They have a state of the art wine making facility and hand hold you through the entire process. I sent away for their info and it really lit a spark. I saw a way start making wine with minimal effort.

While it seems like a good alternative for some, one issue I had with the Crushpad approach was that it is located in San Francisco and having to get on a plane to visit my wines was not what I was looking for. Further, while you create your own winery image and can participate in and direct what you want produced, the wines are labeled “Produced and Bottled by Chrushpad”. It is also expensive.  In the end, I knew that if I was going to produce wine, I wanted it to be mine. The label is the consumer’s interface with the wine, and having my name and not someone elses on it was critical to me.  Looking for alternatives, I started to read blogs and articles on how to start my own winery. The more I researched, I realized that I could start my own wine business and it would truly be mine.

While there are a myriad of government licenses, issues with business formation, and the need to find the time to do any of this, I committed to going for it. I knew from William-Selyem and Behrens & Hitchcock that you don’t need much physical capital to start. I could buy grapes, contract the crush, outsource the bottling, and end up with several cases of premium wine. I would become a virtual wimemaker…no brick, no mortar, no land, but in the end some fine wines.

I have always had this romantic notion that it would be awesome to produce my own wine. While Gallo and  Mondavi typify the wine business, the winemakers who inspire me have always been the garagistes. My original thoughts about making my own wine began when I was in college. Napa was right up the road from Berkeley. On a few weekend getaways, I went with a group of friends and visited my grandparent’s friends who owned Stony Hill. Stony Hill was arguably the first California “cult” wine. It was produced in limited quantities and in a style that attempted to match the highest quality French white Burgundies. Fred and Eleanor McCrea produced a wine that was totally unique for a Napa style wine. The wines maintained the integrity of rocky soil located high on a mountaintop above St. Helena. They sold the wine primarily from a mailing list and into the best California restaurants and clubs. The wine was in such demand that it was tightly allocated and a prized possession. I loved visiting my grandmother so I could have a few glasses of the great Chardonnay. I loved their Gewürztraminer the best as my young pallet in 1979 preferred something a bit sweeter than the somewhat earthy taste of the Chardonnay. Regardless, I always left the vineyard with this fantasy that someday I would run Stony Hill.

My wine collection started on these trips to Napa. I would always splurge and bring back a few bottles of BV Napa Valley Private Reserve Georges de Latour Cabernet Sauvignon. I still have a few bottles of the 1979 vintage, which have traveled though multiple apartments and homes for the last 30 years. I keep waiting for the right time to drink them…or I simply do not want to loose that moment in time when I first bought them. My knowledge of wines was limited to California, and I liked what I knew. In the early 1980s I came across William-Selyem, a small boutique winery producing amazing pinot noirs. I signed up for their mailing list and bought as much wine as they would sell me. Burt Williams and Ed Williams began producing wine in their garage, sourcing high quality grapes, and making great wines. They had no formal training in the wine industry, only a passion and obviously a lot of talent.  They ended up selling their winery in 1998. I think some of the magic left when they sold and the prices kept creeping up. Around that time I came across Behrens & Hitchcock. None of these winemakers had formal winemaking training but proved they could produce some of the best wines  from California. I always thought that maybe if they could do it, so could I. We shall see.

Trentadue Winery
http://www.trentadue.com/
19170 Geyserville Ave
Geyserville, CA 95441
Phone (707) 433-3104 or (888) 332-3032
Fax (707) 433-5825
E-mail info@Trentadue.com

An hour’s drive away from Napa in Geyserville (Sonoma County) is Trentadue Winery.  While there, my fiancé and I sampled a variety of red, white, and port wines while speaking with the winemaker, Miro Tcholakov, who stepped away from his busy bottling to welcome us.  My favorite Trentadue wine was the award-winning 2005 La Storia Zinfandel Alexander Valley Estate, while my fiancé enjoyed the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc Dry Creek Valley. The winery also makes its own olive oil.

Tastings at Trentadue range from $5 to $20 per person.  Reservations are required for La Storia Reserve tastings and the Gondola Tour.  The winery is open seven days a week from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm daily.

Here is a clip of some major tree felling.   The tree in question was by some estimate close on a hundred years old, and unfortunately for it: was a Stone Pine ( not indigenous).  I personally do not like cutting any tree down apart from Port Jackson, Wattles or young Blue Gums, but this particular specimen had to go.  It was a massive tree and part of our ecosystem, but given the damage we have had to our dam recently and the heavy rainfalls we have been experiencing, add to that the propensity for this species to collapse in heavy winds…we decided to have it felled.   Before it felled our winemakers house.  Or into the road, which would have been disastorous for all our neighbours.

TIMBER

Pretty intense.  Hear the hooter and the tires squealing? That is the bakkie being pulled backwards by the trees collapse.  And no birds  or nesting owls were harmed in the filming of this clip.  Only my neighbours prize winning vineyard block.  Shame.

While there does not seem to be a week going by without a release of a new hidden object or time management game, the number of options for people who enjoy strategy games like the Chocolatier or Tradewinds series’ is rather limited. All the better that Winemaker Extraordinaire turns out to be a compelling and well-made game in the same line. Instead of making coffee, truffles and chocolate bars the player travels the world to acquire new wineries and collect more and more blends of wine.

Maria Bellaventura is in a sorry plight: exhausted from her job, unhappy in the big city and grieving for the death of her grandfather. In a particularly touching introductory scene, Maria receives a letter from her grandfather who tells her to return to the family vineyeard in Italy. There she gets to know the first of fifteen members of the Guild of Extraordinary Winemakers,an organization that fell apart many years ago due to greed and selfishness. She also learns of the “Vino Ultimae,” the world’s most glorious wine. Maria’s grandfather tore the recipe to pieces and gave one piece to each member after the guild’s separation.

The main objective is to gather and reassamble those pieces, but this task will require a lot of orders and favors, which Maria has to fulfill for the former guild members. In the beginning you only have one winery in Italy and two different wine blends, namely Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. As you progress in the game, new locations in Germany, France, Australia and other countries will be unlocked, and you get the chance to purchase five more wineries altogether, allowing you to make more profits and to expand your variety of wine blends.

The process of buying supplies, selling wine and unlocking new blends is quite similar to Chocolatier, as is the world map and the layouts of the different locations. In each town is one supplier, where you can fill your stock with differently shaped bottles and various types of grapes, at the cellar you can sell wine, from the travel terminal you can reach other locations and at the guild you will get new quests and orders.

However, not every grape is available in every country, and the costs may vary, too. A very realistic touch of the game is that you can plant some types of grapes at your wineries, for example Riesling in Germany or Nebbiolo in Italy. Furthermore the production of some wine blends is also restricted to only one country; highly expensive Champagne can only be made in France and Malbec has to be produced in South Africa.

While the number of wine blends is extremely small compared to the large variety of different recipes in Chocolatier, the actual process of wine-making is more complex. There are three different mini-games that really spice up the game. If you decide to grow grapes in your vineyards, you can handle this process by yourself or hire someone for a large amount of money. The rows of soil have to be planted, watered and pruned. The number of grapes that you grow strongly depends on your performance in this time management-like game.

You are also able to influence the quality of your wine, which will increase its price remarkably. Therefore you have to remove leaves and little twigs from a grid by selecting three or more of them. According to how pure the grapes are your wine will get a one- to five-star quality. The third mini-game deals with the production of the wine itself – in the style of Tetris, rows of grapes have to be reordered according to the formula of the recipe, thereby constituting the amount of wine you produce a day.

Winemaker is definitely as addicting as Chocolatier, thanks in particular to the variety of mini-games and the interesting storyline and characters. You’ll find detailed descriptions for each person you can find a detailed descreption, the same applies to the wine blends which may be an interesting feature for wine connoisseurs. The graphics are very easy on the eyes and the retro-style of the game goes very well with its theme and creates a highly appealing atmosphere.

Granted, the game might be far too easy for people who have already finished similar games, and the length is not that convincing either. After approximately five hours you should have completed the game’s main goal and be ready to test your abilities in the free mode, which does not offer any additional challenges.

Nonetheless Winemaker Extraordinaire is definitely a recommendable game for both fans of and newcomers to the genre. The quest to help Maria bringing her family business up to its former glory is undeniably entertaining and compelling. It is up to you to find out if this wine is to your taste.

Review by David Becker

Gamezebo Inc.

Napa Valley winemaker: “They made Fred look like a saint.”

The New Yorker’s piece on Franzia. Without a subscription, check a short synopsis here.

Hors d’oeuvres: Hamachi tartare with spicy shiso vinaigrette and eggplant caponata crostini. Wine: 2007 Grgich Hills Fume Blanc. Notes: Without tannins its neutral French oak still compliments.

First Course: Lobster and prawn salad, watercress, shaved fennel, citrus vinaigrette. Wine: 2005 Grgich Hills Napa Valley Chardonnay, 2005 Grgich Hills Napa Valley Carneros Selection Chardonnay. Notes: No malactic since French only need it to offset acidity.

Second Course: Braised rabbit pappardelle with wild mushrooms, roasted tomato, ragout, carrots. Wine: 2006 Grgich Hills ‘Miljenko’s Vineyard’ old vine zin. Notes: 110 year old vine zin surrounds owner Mike’s home in wine country.

Third Course: Roasted Venison, sauteed rainbow chard, crispy herbed potatoes. Wine: 2005 Grgich Hills Napa Valley Cab, 2004 Grgich Hills Yountville Cab, 2002 Grgich Hill Large Format Yountville Cab. Notes: Some bottles were etched and some were papered labels.

Dessert: Creme Fraiche Panna Cotta on Chiffon Cake, huckleberry sauce. Wine: 2006 Grgich Hills ‘Violetta’ Late Harvest. Notes: Baddabing Baddaboom!

Richard visited exclusive Hotel/Spa Therme in Vals, Switzerland to meet up with cousin Rob. Fantastic restaurant, great wine, the best of company, and a few surprises. As Rob is spending more time at his beautiful vineyard on the hills of Laka Balaton, I thought it would be great to show him what to do with the leftover corks he’ll have lying around! By burning one end over a candle, you get a handy “instant grooming device”.