Wednesday, September 01, 2004

About me

I don't remember exactly when I really started enjoying wine, maybe during one of my college year that I spent in Bordeaux. I didn't know much about wine at that time and I remember buying wines based on the label design rather than on the name of the château.

I realized how ignorant I was when I got invited to a wine tasting weekend at a friend's family house near Chablis. Each guest was asked to bring a wine and hide its identity by pouring it into a different bottle. I had no clue about the differences between a Bordeaux and a Bourgogne or any other appellation for that matter, and I could not guess any of these wines.

I don't know whether I could, even today, blindly identify a wine from Bordeaux from a wine from Burgundy, but for sure, I am still amazed at how much there is to know about wine.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

C'est coool
J'adore la photo

Le site de Fay ne marche pas tres bien

Unknown said...

I saw your blog about the bottle of Bellini Favola Vino da Tavola Rosso. (The bottle in the shape of a soccer ball and shoe). I have been searching high and low for this bottle. Where did you get it and do you have any reccomendations where I might be able to find it?

Thanks!
Lesley

Catherine Granger said...

Lesley, have you tried Ebay?

Anonymous said...

Catherine,

I noticed you are 250 year old. Would you share the secret of the wine you drink that keeps you so young?

Anonymous said...

I have a small vineyard, and I'm new to this. The crushed grapes are in a vertical glass fibre barrel and fermentation is just starting. Some people say leave it open to the air, others say cover it with a (non-airtight obviously) cover. Help! Which?
Thanks,
John (Dordogne)

Catherine Granger said...

John,

Here is some information that could help you:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/basics.asp
http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-grape.html
http://www.crushpadwine.com/crush30.php

Catherine.

Zzzz said...

A number of these links are out of date. For instance the Croatia link is at www.bluedanubewine.com/regions/croatia/

Just letting you know.

JamieStro said...

I think we need more regional California blind tastings

Dry Creek
Sonoma
Napa
Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Rita Hills
Paso Robles
El Dorado
Amador


Red blends
Sauvignon Blanc
Zinfandel
Oddball varietals, e.g., Malbec, Tempranillo
Mountain wineries vs. valley floor wineries
Cabernet Franc
Merlot (we've never done)
Barbera
Grenache (re-visit)
Sangiovese

Anonymous said...

Hi, this is dondon of mustlovewine.com a social network where wine lovers like you meet.

Would you mind if we do link exchange?

Please shoot me an email if you are interested.
(linkbuilder@twobudz.com)

Thanks and hope to hear from you.

Anonymous said...

Hi Catherine,
I discovered your blog when I was looking for info about Airén. Your posts are very interesting! I think you are in very nice connection with wine :)
I´m from Czech republic and I got an idea: do you know czech wines? Had you ever drink czech wine?
If you´ll want to write me, pls on tomas.tosovsky@gmail.com.

Have a nice day, Cathrine.

Best regards
Tomas Tosovsky

P.S.: and sorry for my horrible english...

Marc said...

Bonjour Catherine.
J'aime beaucoup votre blog.
Je vous propose de visiter notre site sur les vins à;
www.fidelesdebacchus.com

mmmeng said...

Hi,

Is there an email address I can contact you at? I have some thing I would like to ask you?

You can reach me at nommmeng@gmail.com

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Enjoy your blog !

My husband and I recently discovered wines from Napa that we enjoy very much + they are doing great work to help fight breast cancer. I am a 2 time survivor so the cause means a great deal to us.

Cleavage Creek.
www.CleavageCreek.com

Seems that the owner is an elderly man who lost his wife to breast cancer. He bought the wine label and is using it to fund breast cancer research.

The wines are quite good - really like their Cabernet and their Secret Red.

Hope you will consider writing about this incredible story.

Be well.

Cheers,
Missy

misspinkie@gmail.com

Catherine Granger said...

Hi Missy,

Thanks! I wrote about Cleavage Creek some years ago:
http://manageyourcellar.blogspot.com/2006/03/cleavage-creek-just-wine-for-macho.html