At the southern tip of Africa you will find one of the most breathtakingly beautiful wine regions in the world. Known locally as the Mother City, Cape Town is the gateway to the South African wine country and one of the great wine capitals of the world. Here the cultures of Africa, Europe and the [...]

From its source in the Cévennes Mountains, The Loire River flows through about 625 miles of green, peaceful countryside, ancient towns and magnificent châteaux before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. The Loire is the longest river in France, and the variations in soil, climate and grape varieties found along its banks are reflected in the wide [...]

Wine styles vary tremendously around the world, even when comparing the same varietal. A Chardonnay from California can taste quite different from one produced in France. What is it that leads to such disparity among wines? To be sure, soil and climate have a lot to do with things. Without a certain number of days [...]

Sangiovese (San-jo-VAY-zay), derived from the ancient Etruscan phrase “sanguis Jovis” (meaning “blood of Jove”), has never been an easy grape to cultivate. It has a naturally high acid content and a thin skin, which can result in sour-tasting wine with a flat flavor if not properly grown and cared for. Its thin skin also causes [...]

What determines the price of wine? The easy answer is that the market determines price, but that isn’t the whole story. True, the market will determine if a wine is priced too high. The simple fact is that it will just sit there on a shelf until some adjustment is made. But what factors go [...]

Spanish wines are some of the most interesting and offer the best values found anywhere in the world today. The advances in international marketing have made available wines from Spanish growing areas unheard of 15 years ago. Some grape varieties are familiar – Garnacha (Grenache, a major grape of the French Rhone Valley), Monastrell (Mourvèdre, [...]

Italy is the world’s largest producer and consumer of wine. Vines carpet all twenty of its regions, from the snow-covered peaks of the Alto Adige to Apulia, the forgotten toe of Italy, even offshore to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. The statistics are staggering: 4,000 years of winemaking history, 20 regions, 96 provinces, 1,000-plus [...]

The SkyBar Wine Preservation and Optimization System is a wonderful way to serve and display a single bottle of wine. The high-tech system is designed to do four things, all at the press of a button: 1. Chill the wine to the optimal temperature (there are pre-programmed settings for 15 different varietals) 2. Dispense the [...]

Summer can be a difficult time for a red wine lover. In the heat, that Cabernet Sauvignon with its deep berry fruit you loved so during the winter may seem like a mouthful of hot alcohol and tannin. What’s a red lover to do? I would recommend shifting from the heavier reds to some lighter [...]