This interview with Don Reha, Winemaker at Thornton Winery, was a truly enjoyable conversation.  In the press tour I took with the Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance, the one commonality between the participating wineries, aside from their desire to create quality wines, was the ability to articulate their passion creating for good wine.  This quality alone makes me enjoy listening to the interviews repeatedly.  

In this first interview with Don, he explains why he was drawn from Northern California to Temecula  ("down there") and the type of potential he saw.  Five years into his adventure, we're starting to see his vision come to fruition. Perhaps in the next interview he'll prove it in a wine tasting!

This week, Owner and Wine Maker of Hart Winery in Temecula Joe Hart joins us to drink his award winning Sauvignon Blanc which is truly delightful. He also gives us a quick lesson on wine making and the mysteries of yeast. Did I mention that he fed me wine?

My thanks goes out to the Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance for making these interviews possible and for emphasizing that great wine comes from great grapes. And if it's up to Joe then great wine also have to be something he can eat with.  I'm not sure how he stays so skinny with that attitude!

Read more about Hart Winery wines at their website here. You can buy his wines online but if you are lucky enough to go in to taste their wines, make sure you upgrade to the premium tasting to get the really good stuff.

This week, Owner and Wine Maker of Hart Winery in Temecula Joe Hart joins us to talk about what quality wine making means to him. Aside from the ABC comments (Anything But Chardonnay), he repeats the mantra of the newly formed Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance that great wine comes from great grapes. This persnickety wine maker also touts his personal preferences of never making something that he doesn't want to make. It's about drinkability, not marketability.

Read more about Hart Winery wines at their website here. You can buy his wines online but if you are lucky enough to go in to taste their wines, make sure you upgrade to the premium tasting to get the really good stuff.

I love Zinfandel. The big jammy fruit followed by that black pepper finish makes Turkey dinner seem decadent.

St. Francis Old Vines Zinfandel 2005 happens to be one of my bigger standby wines. And by bigger I mean there is nothing subtle about this wine. I live beautifully balanced French wines with their delicate terrior and complex smells, but sometimes I just need to satisfy my California, New World big bang wine and Zinfandel fits the bill every time.

St. Francis Old Vines Zinfanfel 2005  This distinctive wine, clearly in the "old style," is remarkable in its intensity. The nearly pungent aromas of brambleberries, chocolate and rose petals unfold on a palate of opulently rich and seductive fruit flavors characterized by great concentration and depth, with an alcohol level not immediately evident beneath the fruit density. The distinct spice and oak notes carry into the finish, which is nearly endless.

Click here to buy some for yourself from Wine.com when you're feeling less than subtle.

 Calories in Wine went on site to interview Peter Poole of Vitis Consulting. In this third part of three interviews, we discuss the Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance and how they as a group plan on being accountable to each other for the production of quality wines.

You can listen to the interview on YouTube or below.

And if you would like to get more information from Peter Poole directly please contact him at vitisconsult@verizon.net.

I received this email today and had to share it with all of my readers:

Our biggest half-case discount!

Dear Stacy Nelson,

Get 20% off on any 6 wines at our Clearance Sale at Wine.com!

Starting Friday, wine lovers can save 20% when they buy 6 or more select wines from our Clearance Sale. We've just added lots of new wines ¿ some even highly rated. Stock up on wine for Fall entertaining, and help us make room for more new vintages. Mix or match any six or more bottles from this selected list to save. Enter promotion code CLEARANCE at checkout to save. Hurry, this offer ends on 09/30/08.*

Cheers!
Wine.com

*Order must be placed by 11:59pm PT on 09/30/2008. Order must contain at least 6 bottles from the "Clearance Sale" wine list. Promotion does not apply to corporate orders. No other promotion codes or corporate discounts may be applied to order.

Clearance Sale at Wine.com! Save 20% off any 6 or more bottles of clearance sale wines. Enter promotion code BARGAIN at checkout. Hurry, offer ends 9.30.08. Just clcik here and you'll be taken to the right spot to start your order today

Calories in Wine went on site to interview Peter Poole of Vitis Consulting. In this second part of three interviews, we discuss what people should know before they venture out to become wine growers and how the Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance is helping people get the right information from the start.

You can listen to the interview on YouTube or below.

And if you would like to get more information from Peter Poole directly please contact him at vitisconsult@verizon.net .

Calories in Wine went on site to interview Peter Poole of Vitis Consulting. In this first part of three interviews, we discuss the Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance. We also figure out what it means to a viticulturist to produce great quality wines in a region not necessarily known for it's fine wine. Guess what... it's all about the grapes! Temecula is not a classical wine growing region, leaning towards a more Mediterranean climate but, with proper planning we can produce some dynamite wines with perhaps we'll see some Grenache in our future? I can only hope.

Please make sure you check out the Temecula Valley Quality Wine Alliance here.

And you can listen to the interview on YouTube or below.

And if you would like to get more information from Peter Poole directly please contact him at vitisconsult@verizon.net .

I get the question asked of me all of the time - what wine would you recommend with this meal? Really? I don't know.  And I'm not one who really fully understands the science.  Yes, I said science.  When pairing wine and food it is a science of balance with the acidity and sweetness of both the wine and the food.  So in general, I drink and I eat but I rarely do both at the same time.  Odd but true - I just don't want to contaminate my wine! 

This article from The Arizona Republic has a wealth of information that I can point people to so I don't have to answer.  Reach Tarbell, the author, goes into great details about cooking with wine, pairing it up with Asian or spicy flavors but in a nut shell says

Food and wine pairing is all about alcohol content, acidity and/or tartness. Acidity acts to liven and support flavor at the same time that it cuts the oils, richness and heaviness that come from fish, red meats or dairy.

Alcohol, or lack thereof, relates to the style of cuisine or complexity of it. Wines with high alcohol levels will create a hot, peppery and spicy feeling with most any dish - and not in a pleasant way. So those from warm climates that have low acidity and high alcohol (warm-climate Chardonnay, red Zinfandels, Shiraz and Merlot) are best served as cocktail wines or on their own as a meal unto themselves. There are always exceptions, of course. A high-alcohol Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand has enough acidity to cut and balance the alcohol.

 For the full article please click here and enjoy!

I read a lot of articles about wine and wine tasting in general, but we actually tasted this wine on the air so when I came across the article in the New Zealand Herald (I know - I am such a wine geek that I can find articles from the other side of the World) it ticked me that of course, the name 'Arrogant Frog' has a deeper more esoteric meaning that is so quintessentially 1960's French. 

There is a declining wine market in France, according to Jean-Claude Mas, the 2006 International Entrepreneur of the Year for southern France.

"We shoot ourselves in the foot. The politics of wine is frustrating and stupid, we are too apathetic and arrogant... I blame 20 years of a 35-hour week and serious socialism - it's madness."

The soft-spoken Frenchman looks like an earnest adult student or young professor majoring in existentialism and post-modern European art at the Sorbonne.

He is neither. He represents the new breed of French wine producer from what has long been regarded as the most

obscure, backward and inconsequential wine region in France, the Languedoc Roussillon. Probably the site of France's first vineyards, its reputation was largely based on quantity not quality.

In the modern era, its penchant for cheap table wines has seen it become a major casualty of fashion. Worse, in France bad reputations die slowly.

All this is changing. As wine prices elsewhere in France lurch into the stratosphere, and as the new breed of winemakers seek to sweep clean the Languedoc's hangdog look, suddenly they're becoming fashionable and affordable.

As Mas observes, "The potential in Languedoc is huge. Too much planting wasn't very good, we can do better."

His current mantra - "proud to be French, but daring to be different" - has seen the release in New Zealand of a cleverly marketed series of wines, the Arrogant Frog. It's a fun wine with modern, appealing packaging and tongue stuck firmly in cheek. Not the finest French wine you'll ever taste, but well made and extremely well priced, and likely to be the talk of the table. Already 250,000 cases have been made.

"The wine is called Arrogant Frog because we have been arrogant and we do eat frogs' legs, but the wines demonstrate the consumer is our friend no matter what the arrogant frog thinks," says Mas. "It's old world wine with new world attitude."

It is already a runaway success in the US and Australia and is available at Glengarry's and specialist wine stores here. He does not mention the Rugby World Cup. I do not mention the Rainbow Warrior.

Original article can be found here.

Now you have to appreciate two things.  One that while they are touting a New World Wine from an Old World region, that just means to them another mass-produced well bottled wine that is drinkable and is marketed well.  It doesn't mean that the quality is better - which is of course right in line with the arrogant part. Two that the author from New Zealand disses him right back with a reference to the pounding they regularly give the French Rugby team.  You have to love that play!