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July 16th, 2011
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July Wine Club DEALS
July 1st, 2011
Attending a wedding soon?
Have you bought a gift yet?
Champagne and sparkling wine is perfect for any celebration, especially a wedding. The champagne toast at a wedding is always memorable, and we all wish the celebration would never end. To help you give the gift of champagne and of celebration we've found you a deal on a Champagne & Sparkling wine club.
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Featured Wine Club:Cellars Sparkling & Champagne |
Though the Sparkling & Champagne Club is not a traditional wine club, it delivers two different, premier, sparkling or Champagne wines to the member each month, introducing them to producers from around the world! It’s the perfect gift for someone that loves Champagne.
June Wine Club DEALS
June 10th, 2011
What is the best Father's Day gift?
You guessed it, a wine club!
Your father is probably a busy guy and doesn't take enough time for himself. So give him something back this Father's Day that he'll appreciate – the gift of wine. We're bringing you a great deal on a Platinum level club this month because your dad doesn't deserve just silver or gold.
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Featured Wine Club:Cellars Platinum |
Membership in the Platinum club is ideal for those with knowledge and experience of world wines. It provides access to smaller, “boutique” vineyards that are not easily available elsewhere. The club delivers new discoveries selected by CellarsWineClub.com experts. Most are in limited quantities and include both perennial favorite varietals as well as those just making their way into common knowledge. Each month a member is able to opt for either two different reds or a red and a white.
Old World vs. New World
June 8th, 2011
Anyone getting into wine will at some point in time come across the idea that there are two broad “worlds” of wine—the old world and the new world. These distinctions are made across many areas of study—foodstuffs and monkeys for example. To talk about the differences in wines between old and new world we must first define them. The old world, in wine, is Europe and the new world is everywhere else. The classic old world countries are France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria, Hungary and Greece. The new world wine countries are the U.S., Australia, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa. The differences between the two are not of grape type (all use old world grapes) but of tradition and wine making style.
Wine began, as we know it, in antiquity, and was propagated across Europe by the Romans thousands of years ago. The lands the Romans brought vines to developed into nations that produce the bulk of wine in the world today. France, Italy and Spain dominate the production and export of wines in the world. Each country has eons of tradition behind their winemaking. Tradition in wine is all about matching the right grape to the right place; then developing ways to make the wine better through viniculture and viticulture, vineyard management and fermentation techniques, respectively.
Producers in the old world have had generations to make these wine making choices and have developed what we now understand as traditional practices for making wine which carry on to the present day. The new world has had much less time for these developments to take place. Remember, wine making is a long process: it can take ten years before a vine is producing good fruit and another two or three years before a wine is even ready to drink. Given the shortened time period, the new world has made great progress in figuring out which grapes to grow where, classic examples are Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough, New Zealand; Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa Valley and Pinot Noir in Willamette Valley, Oregon.
Apart from the process of finding the right sites for the right grapes, what we can think of as tradition, the largest overall difference in old vs. new world wine is the style in which the wines are made. Very broadly speaking there are three areas of difference: fermentation and storage vessels, fermentation temperatures and ripeness which all add up to different perceived flavors in the final wine.
Generally, new world producers use much more neutral fermentation tanks, stainless steel, which impart almost no flavor to the wines. In the old world, fermentation is carried out in wood, and depending on the size of the tank and the age of the wood, can result in more austere wines.
Old world producers tend to ferment their wines at a higher fermentation temperature and leave the wine resting on the mashed up grapes (called maceration) for longer than new world producers. These production choices will leave the wines with more tannins, which will give more complexity—but will also require longer aging periods. New world producers tend to shy away from these choices because their goal is to make a wine that can be consumed relatively quickly, that is without needing extended aging.
Producers from both old and new world use oak barrels to age their wines—both red and white, though a minority of white wines get barrel aging. New world producers tend to use new oak and American oak while old world producers choose smaller French oak. New world vineyards are often much warmer than old world ones, and therefore new world wines tend get riper. This ripeness leads to higher sugar contents and thus higher alcohol levels.
To summarize: old world wines are about expressing terrior and vineyard location, with emphasis on earth and wood flavors. New world wines are about expressing the grape varietal with emphasis on fruit flavors and texture. New world wines feature the wine maker prominently and old world wines feature the terrior—the soil and climate—prominently. Dry and earthy is old world style, while rich and fruity is new world style. Finally, new world producers label their wines with the grape used to make it, while old world producers generally label their wines with the region its from—and expect the consumer to know what grape is grown in that region.
Malolactic Fermentation
May 25th, 2011
Most wine lovers understand the process that grape juice goes through to produce wine. This is, of course, ethanol fermentation, where yeast consumes the sugars naturally present in ripe grapes and releases alcohol and CO2 as by-products. There exists another fermentation process that many wines go through in the process of getting fresh grape juice into bottles of wine. This process is known as malolactic fermentation, or MLF.
Malolactic fermentation is a process in which lactic acid bacteria consume malic acid and produce lactic acid and CO2. The malic acids naturally found in grape juice are said to taste like green apples and is described as sharp and harsh. The lactic acid that is produced through MLF is an acid that is rounder and softer. The lactic acid is described as being rich and buttery. In fact the buttery smell of some California Chardonnays is due to diacytel formed from the MLF by a particular strain of lactic acid that producers use to get that distinct buttery aroma. MLF also increases the viscosity of the wine, which makes it slightly thicker and therefore more unctuous and fuller bodied.
MLF is normally discussed when speaking about white wines. This is because MLF is a choice when it comes to white wines. In reds it happens naturally at all times. In the whites, however, it is a stylistic choice. The lactic acids that cause MLF are found naturally in the winery and to a lesser extent in the vineyards. This means that white wines can pick up the wild bacteria and naturally begin the MLF process. The modern winemaker, though, rarely elects for this to happen. Inoculation of wines with purchased strains of lactic acid is the common route that white wines take to get the MLF started. On the other hand, the winemaker can choose to actively prevent MLF from forming. Sweet or off-dry wines are generally not put through MLF. This is because the winemaker wants high acidity in the wine, in order to balance the sugars.
Wines that aren’t treated to prevent or encourage MLF during the wine making process face an uncertain and risky future. This is because the malic acids are still present when bottled, and, if the wine undergoes MLF in bottle, the results can be ruinous. The wine may lose its fruit flavors and aromas and could develop off scents of cured meats. The other potential is for the wine to develop a frizzante in the bottle. Frizzante is an Italian word that means “very lightly bubbly,” the carbonation is like that of an almost-flat sparkling wine. This is caused because the MLF produces CO2 as a by product, just like ethanol fermentation. Vinho Verde from Portugal will sometimes have this light spritz in it because of the MLF happening in bottle.
May Wine Club DEALS
May 3rd, 2011
Mother's Day is Near
Have you bought a gift?
Your mom works hard and needs a relaxing gift. And what could be more effortless than amazing wine being delivered to your door every month? A recent survey we read said 70% of women prefer white wine, so we decided to bring you a great deal on a White Wine Club.
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Featured Wine Club:Cellars Sweet White Wine |
If you are someone who loves sweeter wines, this is the club for you. Cellars features mostly white wines in this club, but sometimes they’ll do a blush or a sparkling wine. You can expect anything from a Riesling to a Gewurztraminer. Those who enjoy sweet wine know not all sweet wines are the same. So this club will give you a great preview of all the wonderful sweet wines that are out there.
April Wine Club DEALS
April 5th, 2011
Need a vacation?
Try a tour of International Wineries!
The winter is finally getting behind us and it's time to plan for the warm summer. We could all use a vacation, but sometime we can't get the time off. So we recommend taking a mini wine vacation with an International Wine Club.
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Featured Wine Club:Cellars International |
The International Club is the perfect club for those looking to discover the greatest, newer vintages available from Europe, Australia and South America, among other locations. Each month covers a specific country, and the member must indicate if they would prefer two kinds of red wine, or if they want to sample a single red and a single white from the country in question.
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