From the category archives:

Wine 101

From Barrel to Bottle Tasting NYC

by Marisa D'Vari11 March 2010
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Sopexa JoLynn Howe (right)
… so I will be in Bordeaux in a few weeks to attend En Primeur … and so appreciated the snapshot of some of the 2009s showcased by Sopexa’s Le Cercle Rive Droite today for journalists and members of the trade. The 2009s were showing remarkably well! At the same time, Sopexa [...]

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Do you know the Ruche Grape?

by Marisa D'Vari10 March 2010
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Chiara Ferraris
Did you know that wines from Italy are the most imported wines to the USA?
In Manhattan, Italian wines are very hot, and they are most diverse and exciting at the restaurant I Trulli, which has hundreds of Italian wines on its list.

Now certain Manhattanites (you now who you are!) are known to like [...]

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Pietro Ratti speaks to New York’s Wine Media Guild about Barolo

by Marisa D'Vari5 March 2010

Pietro Ratti
Tom Maresca and Charles Scicilone of New York’s Wine Media Guild have done the impossible — they have put together a fantastic tasting of 2005 Barolos with Pietro Ratti, son of the late Renato Ratti and owner of the family winery in La Morra, to come to NY and speak to us.

Overall, the wines [...]

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1st Cru Burgundy & Chefs from Dijon

by Marisa D'Vari4 March 2010
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Erwan Faiveley flanked by celebrity chefs
1st Cru winemakers and Michelin rated chefs from Dijon, the major city near Burgundy, gathered together in Manhattan this week to celebrate a week-long celebration of the creativity and vitality of Dijon.

Nuits saint georges
At a reception for journalists, winemakers set up tables with their best 1st Cru, and the famous [...]

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Manchuela winemakers come to New York

by Marisa D'Vari26 February 2010
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Michael Apstein
Have you heard of Manchuela? It is a very small, rather new D.O. in Spain that makes quality white, rose, and red wine. Recently, winemakers from the region presented their wines to journalists at a lunch in New York with commentary from wine educator Michael Apstein.

The native grape of the region is Bobal, which [...]

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Antonio Garcia Figuero of Garcia Figuero Winery

by Marisa D'Vari26 February 2010
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Antonio (standing)
One of the best things about being a wine writer is the opportunity to meet really great people. Wine producers always seem to be so genuinely friendly and nice. Of course, they are sales peole by necessity, yet every single wine person I’ve met has always been incredibly sincere and passionate about their product.

This [...]

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Review of Events at Symposium for Professional Wine Writers 2010 at Meadowood

by Marisa D'Vari18 February 2010
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Journalists at Symposium for Professional Wine Writers
… so on my previous post I mentioned I have been coming here for years to catch up with fellow professionals throughout the world.  Even the most jaded journalist can always learn something new, and of course new associations can always be made.
This year Tuesday kicked off with optional [...]

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Elyssia Pinot Noir for Valentine’s Day 2010

by Marisa D'Vari14 February 2010
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Elyssia Pinot Noir
Did you realize that rose-colored sparklers is the trend of the moment? Freixenet has a new pink sparkler called Elyssia made from the Pinot Noir grape. It is a gorgeous color as you can see from the picture, and goes even better with a bouquet of valentine’s day flowers.

Pinot Noir, it happens, is [...]

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Kingdom of Navarra visits New York

by Marisa D'Vari9 February 2010
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Ana Laguna & Pilar Garcia-Granero
"Before there was wine, there was a thing called happiness …" says an attractive, charming man standing in a circle of similarly well dressed, attractive Spaniards off the lobby of the Union Square W Hotel. Not quite sure the context of the quote, yet it appears to be a typical example [...]

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Vino Italy 2010 Part 2

by Marisa D'Vari7 February 2010
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Professor Attilio Scienza

Seminar Tasting
"The Italians seem so happy to be here in New York," says a friend, after the Friday night close of the Italian Wine Exchange Grand Tasting. "Why is  that?"

Yes, it’s true – the Italians did really seem happy to be here and have the opportunity to share their wine and the love [...]

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VINO 2010 Italian Wine Week Part 1

by Marisa D'Vari4 February 2010
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Vino 2010 Italian Wine Week

… so I am on my way to the opening of New York, February 3, 2010
I had spent the opening day (February 3) in the Napa Valley at a conference related to the Masters of Wine (though happily we did have an Italian wine seminar with many examples of great Italian [...]

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Secrets of Pairing Wine with Seafood at London Lennies

by Marisa D'Vari26 January 2010
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Awaiting the Tasting
“Now this Volnay would go perfectly with salmon!” says Becky Wasserman, the vibrant American-born French wine importer and head of Becky Wasserman Selections who is giving a presentation to the eager young staff at London Lennie’s, a famous, casual, yet upscale high quality seafood restaurant in Queens that is celebrating its 50th Anniversary [...]

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Understanding Barolo

by Marisa D'Vari24 January 2010
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“Why is Barolo so expensive!” I remember asking a savvy clerk in my local wine store, fresh from my first class in Italian wines. As an exuberant young student I had been eager to taste the regions I studied, yet the upper-market wines from Piedmont seemed totally out of reach. Even the new vintages were [...]

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How to Train Yourself to Memorize Varietal Characteristics

by Marisa D'Vari6 January 2010
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White Burgundy Tasting
Imagine yourself at a very elegant restaurant, hosting an important client, or trying to impress a date. You both decide on white fish as an entrée, so you are leaning toward a white wine. And since Chardonnay is such a popular grape, and Burgundy, France, such a respected region, you decide to go [...]

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Q/A with Kanonkop Winemaker Abrie Beeslaar on 2007 Pinotage

by Marisa D'Vari3 January 2010
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Kanonkop Abrie Beeslaar
One of the advantages of living in the new millennium – for wine students, at any rate, is the opportunity to compare tasting notes on the Internet and even connect with winemakers. Recently I tasted 2007 Kanonkop Pinotage with an eye on how I would know it was a 2007 South African Pinotage [...]

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Book Review: About Wine by J. Patrick Henderson and Dellie Rex

by Marisa D'Vari28 December 2009
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 For whatever reason, I received the book About Wine by J. Patrick Henderson and Dellie Rex over two years ago, yet had been too overwhelmed by my wine studies to open anything that wasn’t Janscis Robinson or Tom Stevenson. It’s only now that I have my diploma from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust that [...]

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ABCs of Wine: Tasting “Anything But Chardonnay”

by Marisa D'Vari20 December 2009
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Apremont Appellation in the French Alps
 
As a wine educator, one of the most pleasurable aspects of my profession is choosing a theme for a class and introducing students to exciting wines or wine regions I have discovered. And here in Manhattan, this is a special challenge, because in this jaded city most everyone dabbling in [...]

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WSET NYC Graduation 2009

by Marisa D'Vari16 December 2009
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Marisa D’Vari, seated (L)
… so you can imagine how exciting it was to celebrate graduation from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust after nearly three years of non-stop study. The event was held at Il Trulli, a fashionable NYC restaurant, and it was great to catch up with former classmates, former grads, and all the [...]

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Wine Writers – Write on!

by Marisa D'Vari10 December 2009

Ok, so if you review wine at the larger tasting events in Manhattan, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, you know the gut-wrenching, high-pressured feeling of knowing to take accurate (read time consuming) tasting notes when the world’s treasures are before you. You might have already realized that napkins, leaflets, scraps of paper are not the [...]

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Review: Jennifer Rosen’s book “Waiter, There’s a Horse in My Wine”

by Marisa D'Vari3 December 2009

Let’s face it, sometimes reading the back of a bottle of wine is simply not enough. We’ve all had the experience of tasting a wine so incredible we want to know everything about it at once: the name of the grapes, the style of wine, and why it tastes so much more incredible than any [...]

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