With summer here you will be enjoying plenty of cold wine.

Chances are though that it is TOO cold!

You have paid good money for your wine. If you want to get full bang for your buck and taste all the aromas and flavours you have paid for, don’t plan to do so by pulling it out of your fridge at 4 degrees C. That is way too cold for anything other than sparkling wines.

White wines and Rose at this time of year generally just need an hour in the fridge. When you start serving the bottle either pop it in an ice bucket or return it to the fridge.

Don’t believe me? Try this.

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Planning a wedding? Got a staff Christmas function to arrange later in the year? Family birthday celebration or christening to arrange?

Whatever the event, there will be a bunch of people there who will need feeding and watering to some extent.

I am regularly asked how much wine to buy for a party, wedding, function, event… and how much of each type.

Now of course every situation and group of people is different but below is my ’magic formula’ for working out how much wine to serve – magic because it is usually pretty accurate!

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One of the things I love about working with wine is its ‘mystery’.

Wine is even more mysterious to those who don’t grow it and make it, and as a result I get asked a lot of questions.

Here are three of the most frequently asked questions, and some answers…

1. What are ‘legs’?

I am a ‘leg man’. Of course, legs are the lower limbs of a biped such as a human being, or any of the paired limbs of an animal, that support and move the body! Duh!

Betty Grable, Marlene Dietrich, Angie Dickinson and Jamie Lee Curtis all had great legs that were insured for millions!

However wine “legs” are the streaks of liquid that slide down the inside of the glass after (more…)

I am multi-tasking.

Seriously.

I am writing this Blog in between loading bins of Malbec & Cabernet Franc into the crusher. Awesome grapes! I have to keep washing the grape juice from my hands to prevent my keyboard going sticky!

However, my ‘multi-tasking’ capabilities, which are substantial (at the gym I catch up with my reading while at maximum pace on the ’step machine’ – see, getting fit AND learning at the same time) are not the subject of this Blog. My sticky hands are. (more…)

Terroir (pronounced “tear-wah”)…

I see that word a lot these days. In fact, I think it is used so much it has lost its original meaning.

I think a lot of wineries either deliberately lie about terroir or don’t understand what terroir is.

Marketing people love the word “terroir” which almost guarantees it will be abused!

So what is “terroir” supposed to be?

“Terroir” is a French word that (more…)