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Archive for the ‘France’ Category

Wine, when it was only French, was a luxurious drink of the rich and the classy.  Wine, in its democratized forms, is now a luxury made available at every supermarket and has come a far way from its tradition of being produced in France and Germany.

Lately wine drinkers have the choice of selecting their bottle of wine produced in the vine yards of California, Chile, Australia and India, to name a few. Wine had always had a high brand image as a drink meant only for the aristocrats unlike beer, whiskey and brandy which is more associated the common man’s pub drink. Read the rest of this entry »

Unless you have spent a good bit of time touring Spain’s beautiful countryside, you may not know that in many ways the country is one big vineyard. In that respect it is very much like California’s Napa Valley and Sonoma County. It is hard to drive for more than a few minutes in any direction without seeing vineyards. The same is true for most regions of Spain.

Spain has been producing wine off and on for nearly 3,000 years. Excepting a big gap between 711 A.D. and 1492 A.D., when conquering Islamic Moors outlawed wine production, it has mostly been on. In fact Spain introduced vineyards to the Americas. Spaniards sent the first cuttings to Mexico in the 16th century. By 1701 vines and cuttings were sent to Baja, California. It took until 1830 for the vineyards to work their way up to Sonoma County, thanks largely to the Spanish missionaries who also built a series of missions from south to north in California. Read the rest of this entry »

Claret is a term that is used almost exclusively in the United Kingdom. Coined from the Bordeaux Claret or Clairet which was the most common style of wine exported from the region until the eighteenth century, it has stuck around and become part of the English language. The French refuse to use this term, however, and Claret is what they call red Bordeaux in the UK nowadays.

Bordeaux is a region of France which has nearly 120,000 hectares of vineyards and produces over 700 million bottles of wine a year. It produces everyday wine, but is also synonymous with some of the greatest and most expensive wines in the world.

Both red and white wines are created in Bordeaux. The wines are generally made from a mixture of grapes. Reds are commonly made from: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet France, Petit Verdo and Malbec. Whites are produced from: Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle. Read the rest of this entry »

The sale of fine wines has grown substantially in Britain over the last few decades. As people become more knowledgeable about wine and have a higher disposable income, fine wines have become a popular choice to invest in.

Fine wines are more expensive than any other food and drink category. At the highest end of the market, they sell for thousands of pounds per bottle. These wines are seen as a good investment because not only does the product improve over time, but also the demand for the wine increases rather than decrease as its price rises.

The most commonly collected wines are usually those from Bordeaux, some distinguished wine brands from California, Champagne and of course vintage port. Read the rest of this entry »