Monthly Archives: January 2010

The Champagne Bottle : Beautiful & Scientific

The Champagne Bottle - Beautiful and Scientific

Essentially unchanged since 1894, the champagne bottle is a study in beauty, elegance, and scientific function. Everything about it, from the cork on the top to the indentation on the bottom, serves a crucial role in keeping your champagne safe and at its best.

The Cork Usually larger than corks used to seal wine, champagne corks are made in two parts: the bottom (inside the bottle) is a natural cork composite while the top (outside the bottle) is a mix of cork bits glued together. Corks are straight when first put into the bottle then swell when removed, creating the famous mushroom shape.

The Wire Cage The first champagne bottles used string to restrain the cork, but in 1844 Adolphe Jacquesson invented the metal cage system we still use today.

The Foil Foil was needed to deter rats and other pests from nibbling on the cork. Now it’s a decorative and traditional part of the champagne experience.

The Rim It’s there strictly to serve as an anchor for the wire cage.

The Glass The glass in champagne bottles is much thicker than that in wine bottles due to the pressure, which can be upwards of 70-100 pounds per square inch. The very first champagne bottles were not as thick and strong as they are today and bottles (especially when kept in volume in champagne cellars) were considered somewhat dangerous as they regularly exploded.

The Indentation The indentation in the bottom of the bottle isn’t a sneaky way of serving less champagne per bottle, but instead a means of keeping the pressure from building up near the bottom. Also called the punt or ‘kick-up,’ it helps redistribute the pressure to keep the bottle from exploding.

By Rigel Celeste | Source :: www.luxist.com

Pommery Wintertime – Seasonal Champagne is Better

Pommery Wintertime - Seasonal Champagne is Better

Nothing says luxury like seasonal champagne. After a successful run with Falltime last year in France, The House of Pommery has now brought Wintertime to America, a blanc de noirs champagne with special attention to the foods, lifestyles and activities of winter.

The champagne is straw gold in color, rich and full of red fruits and quince — and bubbles. It’s a 75 percent pinot noir, 25 percent pinot meunier blend from the Montagne de Reims and Little Montagne de Reims, and Vallee de la Marne and Vallee de l’Ardre. It’s aged 30 months and its unusually hearty flavor is suggested for pairing with chicken breast or veal.

Pommery Wintertime Champagne is available from Sherry-Lehmann for $59.95, and you can find it by the glass at New York City’s Crosby Street Hotel and SD26.

By Annie Scott | Source :: www.luxist.com

Vin du Soleil Wine

Vin du Soleil Wine

L&Ganse communication agency designed a label achieving a surprising alliance between the British newspaper world and the wines from South of France.

The Sun, one of the most widely sold English-language daily newspapers, has launched a “sunny wine” intended for its readers – elaborated by Maison Skalli and distributed by ASDA – for which a specific packing was required.

The briefing aimed at describing the product in its original set: a wine grown under the sun in South of France by the newspaper’s wine specialist, with a strong emphasis on The Sun arranging newspaper clippings. The expectation was to highlight the product quality and its French origin as well as the newspaper involvement, avoiding interfering with legibility.

Source :: Packaging of the World

What happens to your wine bottle once it hits the curb?

What happens to your wine bottle once it hits the curb

Once you finish your bottle of wine and toss it into the recycle bin do you ever wonder where it goes? It turns out that while in Europe wine bottles are often sterilized and reused. Here bottles, if they don’t end up in a landfill, end up going through a not-so-carbon-friendly process of being melted, molded and reformed into something else. Now one company wants to make wine bottle reuse a standard for America. Sonoma-based Wine Bottle Recycling has a goal of collecting and redistributing 3 million to 5 million cases’ worth of used wine bottles each year by sometime in 2010.

The company has secured a retired Del Monte fruit-canning plant in Stockton, California and plans a conveyor line with an optical sorting machine and a washing machine that can process over 70,000 bottles an hour. The sorting machine is necessary because while those 750 ml bottles may look similar there are actually around 400 different molds, differing slightly in glass thickness, nozzle length and all sorts of other tiny details that can make a big deal when bottles are being refilled and relabeled. Only around 20 of these styles make up the bulk of bottles but the machine will sort them all out. Bottles will be sterilized the day before shipment to a winery.

Getting the bottles may prove a challenge but starting in wine-friendly Northern California is a good start. According to a comprehensive article in the Bohemian the company plans drop-off “bottle shacks” around Northern California. Those dropping off wine bottles will be given a cash refund. Obviously getting restaurants, event centers and other large consumers in the mix is key. But the company promises to offer small wineries significant savings and every bottle that gets more than one use makes the world just a little greener.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com

Will Sonoma’s Slowness Drive Tourism?

Will Sonoma's Slowness Drive Tourism

In this fast-paced world slow is becoming more and more of a virtue. The wine country town of Sonoma has received an official designation as a “slow city” by Cittaslow, an international group that advocates for a more relaxed way of life. Sonoma is the first place in the United States to win the title partly because the town has sought to create an old-fashioned small-town atmosphere.

The Cittaslow network includes 129 towns spread across 29 nations. The town each have populations of less than 50,000 and are evaluated on criteria including environmental management, infrastructure, quality of local historic buildings, parks, local produce, products, craft, and availability of healthy eating.

While a recent NY Times article questioned whether or not the “slow city” label is a sign of a wealthy enclave stuck in a rut, it is hoped that the new title might attract more tourists. After all, these days one of the major reasons people go on vacation is to escape the pace of their hectic lives. Where better to do that than in a town celebrated for its quality of life? A bunch of hotels including the Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa are celebrating the news.

The end of this month might be a good time to visit. CittaSlow President Gianluca Marconi, director of CittaSlow International Pier Giorgio Oliveti and Dr. Paul Knox, professor and senior fellow from Virginia Tech will make an official visit to Sonoma beginning January 26 to tour Sonoma’s many “slow” features like wineries, restaurants and community gardens and talk with the community about the slow” philosophy. Slow Food Sonoma Valley, led by Gary Edwards, will host a Slow Soup Supper featuring locally grown winter vegetables.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com

Sarah Palin To Speak At Wine Conference

Sarah Palin To Speak At Wine Conference

Sarah Palin recently announced her new job as a commentator on Fox News but she has another gig coming up. She will be the keynote speaker at the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) convention in Las Vegas in April. What might the former VP Candidate have to say to the alcohol industry? Wine Spectator quotes a statement from WSWA president Craig Wolf that says, “Governor Palin is a great supporter of America’s free enterprise system and understands that industries like the beverage alcohol industry play a key role in driving our national economy. We’re proud and honored to welcome her as a speaker.”

One of the key agendas of the WSWA is getting the approval for wineries and retailers to ship to consumers nationwide, it will be interesting to see if Palin weighs in on the current baroque ‘three tier system’ of wholesalers, retailers and middlemen currently in place.

Her fee for the appearance hasn’t been announced but it has been said that she can get as much as $100,000 for a speech. Palin is not associated with the Palin wine label which suffered a drop in sales after she was announced as a VP candidate for the Republican party. It’s not really clear what her personal drinking status is.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com

New Program To Certify California’s Green Wines

New Program To Certify California's Green Wines

California’s wineries have been on the green trail for a while but now they have a new official certification program. Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing is a certification program that provides third-party verification of a winery or vineyard’s commitment to a “process of continuous improvement” in the adoption of sustainable winegrowing practices.

While wines are certified organic, the other aspects of green (solar power, water conversation etc.) have largely been a question of wineries opting to police themselves. Wineries could declare themselves to be green minded but for consumers it was mostly a matter of trust.

The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance which had handled self-assessments, is behind the new initiative. The comprehensive self-test quiz looks at 227 winery practices and provides a good starting point for wineries taking a closer look at steps toward sustainability.

What is particularly interesting about the new certification is that, at least for now, it’s not being pushed to consumers. In a comprehensive article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Chris Savage, director of environmental affairs for E&J Gallo Winery, says that the program isn’t “about putting a label on the bottle yet.”

Auditors haven’t been chosen yet but once they are in place they will perform on-site visits at wineries and follow up with online audits. Major winemakers including Gallo, Diageo and Constellation have signed up. Some critics say the current standards are too modest and too vague but the planners say that the certifications will evolve over time. It’s at least a good place to start.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com

Have a Glass of Wine at the Bookstore

Have a Glass of Wine at the Bookstore

A nearly 200-year-old bookstore in Sydney, Australia, is uniting bibliophiles and oenophiles with a simple, yet brilliant idea: serving wine in their reading room.

Like languishing in the library of someone’s country home, guests at Berkelouw Books in Leichhardt, Sydney, can lounge on plush couches and at comfortable tables with plates of cheese and Australian wines while perusing their selection of rare, out-of-print, secondhand and new books. It’s a wonderful way to create community, allowing book-lovers to enjoy a book in their store the same way they would at home.

Berkelouw Books has a rich, six generation history of trading in rare and antiquarian books. “Now that people are getting to know about us, we’ve had great success with our boutique wines and lots of positive feedback,” owner Colin Cappelleri told Reuters.

It makes the Starbucks in Barnes & Noble seem positively vulgar.

By Annie Scott | Source :: www.luxist.com