Blog: Magandeep SinghSpain is one mad country, in a good way of course. I may not understand many things about the Spanish - their love for killing animals, their refusal to effectuate the ban on smoking in public places, their belief that ham is fat-free and even curative, and their denial that Tempranillo can often exhibit an oxidised edge!
I am the first to admit that I know nothing about
Blog: Steven Spurrier
My last communication was on The Importance of Comparative Tastings, telling the story of a tasting I organised in Paris in 1976 that compared (blind, of course) California Chardonnays against top white Burgundies and California Cabernet Sauvignons against the finest chateaux from Bordeaux. This tasting, where a California wine was judged top in both categories, became
Blog: Magandeep Singh
If you have been bored enough to follow my writings, then you might have marked that I show rare signs of any improvement
at all. Unrelated a comment as that may seem, I just thought I'd put it right there in the beginning. Pity has its fan following too.
But if writing lacks the fervour to move you, just on certain rare occasions, where such an excuse is the best permissible
Blog: Magandeep Singh
So here I am in the most metropolitan city in the world, where English has been relegated to an optional language and you can hear more tongues in a single bus ride than Christopher Columbus did on his entire trip. This is London and I am here with a purpose, for a change, that doesn't just involve shopping till my bank feels a minor dent in its holdings, and my accountant
Blog: Steven Spurrier
One of the great joys of wine lies in comparisons. Even if a type of wine can stand on its own - Champagne is the perfect celebration glass for example - there is no reason not to compare the taste of one Champagne to another, or of Champagnes in general to the excellent sparkling wines made all over the world. Another fascinating comparison is that of a young wine from a
Blog: Magandeep SinghThe problem with wine is not how it is made, or drunk, but how it is presented between the making and the drinking. The bigger problem, of course, is the fact that I always find so much wrong with the world of wine (or world in general) but please reader, for a minute, focus.
Let's face it. We will never know enough about wines. We prefer to leave that whole tasting and
Posted by: Steven Spurrier in Untagged on
May 04, 2009
Blog: Steven Spurrier
The wine market in Bordeaux, the world's largest fine wine producing region with over 110,000 hectares under vines and a history going back to the Romans, is unique in that its wines are tasted by international professionals only a few months after each vintage and long-ranging decisions are then taken by the estates who have their wines to sell and the international wine
Blog: Magandeep SinghThe thing with wine is that it has a capacity to bestow humility. I am not talking about drunken antics which make it to all our friends' wall of shame. I am talking about the sheer length and breadth of knowledge that this field accommodates. A lifetime is too short to learn of your ignorance in the field of wines.
I thought myself to be quite a maverick for already knowing
Blog: Magandeep Singh
There is more to Italy than pasta and Marlon Brando, and both are more American than anything else. I have often been to Vinitaly in the lovely town of Verona (think Romeo and Juliet) and each time I have come back a learned man. Mostly, they were kind enough to invite me; the learning however was mostly pieced together through my keen and supernatural powers of observation.
Blog: Steven Spurrier
Last time we looked at the principal white grape varieties - grapes that were once identified with specific regions in the traditional vineyards of Europe, but are now seen in wine-producing regions all around the world.
This time, it's the turn of the reds. It's worth noting that, with very rare exceptions, the pulp of a vitis vinifera grape is colourless. If you squeeze the grape, the juice is clear, because it is the skin of the grape that contains the pigmentation. By macerating the skins with the pressed juice before, during and after fermentation (the process which transforms the grape's sugar into alcohol), that gives the colour. All red grapes can be used to make a rosé wine, the pink colour coming from a very short maceration period. The skin of the grape also contains the tannins, which, along with the fruit, allow red wines to age.
