We do accept samples of wine from wineries and books from publishers and authors. We promise that our team will evaluate any items sent unless we become aware of any conflict of interest or challenge to our ethical guidelines. We will write a review of any wines or books we like with the disclaimer that we have been given the sample.
Many of my associated wine professionals have been raving about the quality and value of Cameron Hughes wines. So, I thought I would do some sampling on my own. I purchased the 2009 Lot 303 Stags Leap District, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2009 Lot 271 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.
The Cab had wonderful scents of blackberry and plum, and had a good minerality with overtones of dark chocolate. It had very fine tannins. For $34 where are you going to find this quality of wine? Not any other place in Stags Leap appellation. Perfect for that rib roast or grilled steaks.
The Pinot Noir has already won a Wine Enthusiast 90 Pts. It had fragrant fresh cherry and raspberry aromas. There are some good toasty spices noted. Where can you find this quality Pinot Noir from Sonoma's Russian River Valley? Here at Cameron Hughes. Fabuous paired with a pork roast or turkey for Christmas dinner.
In the latest issue of The Tuscan Magazine, you will find my detailed Top 10 tips on "Hosting a Tuscan Wine Competition at Home". Wine professionals recommend having tasting exercises often and recording your handwritten observations immediately. Can you image a wine judge tasting over 100 wines at a competition and not taking notes?
Our recommendations for a Tasting Competition at Home can apply to any vertical or horizontal tasting exercise. Expose your guests to some new as well as some familiar wines. Broadening the palate and "sensory rolodex" is important for improving sensory detection for any level of wine-drinker.
The Tuscan Magazine new edition for July 2011 can be found at this link. The article appears on page 17.
The Tuscan Magazine now has both an iPhone and an iPad app that can be downloaded free. Check out the new articles on Tuscan wedding and travel recommendations in this terrific issue.
I was asked to put together a snack-friendly wine list for my editor at Tuscan Magazine. It's soccer/footie season in Italy. Italians have the same desire as we do in the States to find wine that is a complement to their snacks. Go Fiorentina!
I'ts April Fools Day. You don't want to be the fool caught drinking a poor value wine. The most commonly asked question I get is: Are there any good value wines out there? The answer is "yes", literally there are hundreds of them. Be discerning, do a little research, and you should be able to find some wonderful wines.
I just returned from the Premiere Napa Valley Wine Auction and the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers. A new star has emerged from the Auction - Scarecrow - by winemaker Celia Welch. A Japanese importer paid $125,000 for a 5 cases, or $2083 per bottle. Two years ago that same lot went for $80,000.
The Auction took place at the Culinary Institute of America, Napa Valley, where the crowd of 1,000 consisted of vintners, retailers, restaurateurs, distributors, brokers and media from across the country and around the world. The PNV Wine Auction began in 1997 as a "bake sale" by the Napa Vintners Association to preserve and protect the Napa Valley appellation and has evolved into a week-long event. The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers featured attendance from 85 of the most well-know editorial wine writers including Susan Kostrewza (Wine Enthusiast), Richard Bradley (Worth Magazine), Karen MacNeil (The Wine Bible), Lettie Teague (The Wall Street Journal).
Do we have a new wine star? A new Screaming Eagle? The buyer of the Scarecrow lot, Ichizo Nakagawa, owner of Tokyo-based Nakagawa Wine Company, receive a standing ovation from a record crowd. He said he was determined to buy the lot "no matter what",
"I'm amazed, I'm shocked," said Scarecrow owner Bret Lopez stepping outside to catch his breath. "We never dreamed we'd reach this stature and (winemaker) Celia Welsh is a genius, a humble genius who coaxes the sublime flavors from the old men," referring to the 66-year-old-vines that produce just a 1/2 ton per acre.
Here are some of the other statistics from Premiere Napa Valley courtesy of the Napa Vintners Association:
Premiere Napa Valley 2011 – By the Numbers
Nearly $2.4 million in sales
23% y/y increase
Topped record year 2008 ($2.2 million) by 5%
Successful bidders: 68
Cases purchased: 1530
Average price per case: $1546 ($128/bottle)
Rounding out the other top ten highest earning lots of the day: Schrader Cellars, Ovid, Levy and McClellan, Shafer Vineyards, Robert Mondavi Winery, Reynolds Family Winery, Duckhorn Vineyards, Silver Oak Cellars and Beringer Vineyards.
Since the SuperBowl is in Dallas next week, the partying in our hometown has started early. Last night I was at a wine event – Côte du Coeur Wine Society of the American Heart Association - and this wine/snack pairing discussion came up frequently. Beer is terrific with snacks, but some of us just want a great value wine with our nachos, sliders, and chili.
Here are my best rating-for-the-dollar recommendations (under $20/bottle in most places) for the best wine that will hold up to unusual and spicy tastes of snack foods.
(RATINGS NOTE: WS-Wine Spectator, RP Robert Parker, W&S Wine and Spirits, WE Wine Enthusiast)
During my month-long trip to Italy in October, I had the pleasure of meeting with Sarah Frasier, editor of the Tuscan Magazine. I join British, Canadian, Irish, German, and Italian writers as their sole American journalist. It's a privilege.
Sara and her husband, Richard are Brits who have relocated to Lucca, Toscana, Italy and are the authors of Tuscan Living: From the Yorkshire Moors to the Tuscan Hills. I have featured their book in my Amazon.com "I Recommend" section.
To get a glimpse of this wonderful English-speaking publication of Tuscany, go to:
My article appears on Page 40 of the Body and Soul section of the on-line version. " Have a Healthy Wine: Healthy Italian Wines, the Difference is Skin Deep". For a reprint of the article, write us at: maggie@grapestoneconcepts.com.
We're grateful for our nation and all its blessing this Thanksgivings. Have a Healthy Wine!
Page 40: the Tuscan magazine
It has long been realized that red wine brings to our bodies a group of organic chemicals that can serve as clot-inhibiting, bad cholesterol reducing, antioxidant-enriching properties. How do the wines of Italy stack up in delivering these benefits?
The latest studies on red wine have been truly amazing. The health effect of wine drunk in moderation are not just the anti-atherosclerotic (anti-plaque in vessels), antithrombotic (anti-clot formation), but also are the angiogenic (inhibit the production of blood vessels) properties against tumors. Many new therapeutic cancer-fighting drugs work on the premise that the prevention of growth of new blood vessels inhibits the growth of tumors. These tumors need new blood vessels to grow.
Red grapes, dark chocolate, blueberries, garlic, soy and tea are some of the ingredients that starve cancer while feeding our bodies.
Dr. William Li, M.D., Medical Director and President of the Angiogenesis Foundation, Cambridge, MA, USA, was recently covered by Wine Spectator Magazine for his presentation at the TED Conference, a small non-profit where the world’s thinkers and doers gather for “Ideas Worth Spreading”, in February 2010. Dr. Li says,
“By examining the potential of antiangeogenics in food, we will find answers to cancer all around us…In our groceries, in our food, and in our glasses”.
This is a webzine that you'll want to visit often if you love chocolate, and need advice on all things and places "Chocolate Covered". I have a new article: Wine Roads and the Chocolate Valley of Italy: Take the A-11 Autostrada to Health.
I was asked in September to participate as a Certified Wine Professional to help promote a wine and chocolate pairing on Dallas’ KDAF TV 33 segment, “The RC Project”. This pairing of chocolates from Steve Smith’s company, Nib Chocolates, and Waterbrook Winery, Columbia Valley, WA, will be served at the after-party of the AT&T Dallas Symphony gala, September 11. The Côtes du Coeur of the American Heart Association, of which I am a Society member, is providing the wine. This appearance made me contemplate the healthy pairing of wine and chocolate as part of our GrapeStone Concepts “point of view” on the benefits of drinking wine and eating healthy foods slowly.
(Roni Proctor, Dallas’ KDAF Channel 33 The RC Project; Steve Smith, Nib Chocolates; Tricia Conover, C.W.P., GrapeStone Concepts, Candice Crawford, The RC Project)
It has long been realized that red wine brings to our bodies a group of organic chemicals that can serve as clot-inhibiting, bad cholesterol reducing, antioxidants. Recently, chocolates also have been known for their health-inducing and psychoactive properties. The Aztecs were the first to use a hot, steamy chocolate drink from the seeds of the cacao tree, species theobroma cacao ,“food of the gods”, for its restorative properties. The consumption of chocolate triggers the release of endorphins which contributes to that inner glow induced in susceptible chocoholics, according to the Directory of Chocolatiers. Chocolates have organic compounds of anandamide and theobromine which cause relaxation and happiness.
The latest studies on red wine have been truly amazing. The health effects of wine drunk in moderation are not just the anti-atherosclerotic (anti -plaque in vessels), antithrombotic (anti-clot formation), but also are the angiogenic properties (inhibit the production of blood vessels) against tumors. Many new therapeutic cancer-fighting drugs work on the premise that the prevention of growth of new blood vessels inhibits the growth of tumors. The tumors need new blood vessels to survive and spread. Resveratrol, a polyphenol found in the skin and seeds of red grapes, is one of the agents that can inhibit cancer-feeding blood vessels.
Red grapes, dark chocolate, blueberries, garlic, soy and tea are some of the ingredients that starve cancer while feeding our bodies.
Dr. William Li, M.D., Medical Director and President of the Angiogenesis Foundation was recently covered by Wine Spectator for his presentation at the TED Conference, a small non-profit where the world’s thinkers and doers gather for “Ideas Worth Spreading”, in February 2010. Dr. Li says,
“By examining the potential of antiangeogenics in food, we will find answers to cancer all around us…In our groceries, in our food, and in our glasses”.
So the pairing this week of fine Oaxacan Spice and Tahitian vanilla bean chocolates with Waterbrook Winery’s 2007 Mélange Noir, a blend of Cabernet sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc grapes, is not only fit for the spectacular Dallas Symphony Gala, but will make us fit, too.
I just returned from the Professional Wine Writers Symposium
in Napa Valley, www.winewriterssymposium.org. Our keynote speaker was the eloquent Frances
Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun, and her new book: Every Day in
Tuscany, Seasons of an Italian Life. I was encouraged by Frances and several
well-know wine editors to really consider documenting the positive health effects
of great wine with delicious, local food ingredients, and inspiring travel
adventures….”una bella vita”.
Gary Walther, one of our distinguished lecturers and former
editor of the luxury lifestyle magazine, ForbesLife,
specifically discussed the trend of pressure-strained
folks to seek a healthy, stress-reducing
destination for their next escape. These
destination choices more and more include wine country travels.
One of the hottest books describing this trend comes from
the successful author of Judgment of Paris, George Taber. (As you may
recall, Judgment of Paris became the movie Bottle Shock. The book and the movie detail the famous 1976 blind
wine tasting in Paris which pitted the best of the nascent Napa Valley wines
against the top French wines. Napa surprisingly won. )His new book, In Search of Bacchus
-Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism, describes the
immergence in all the world’s top wine countries of businesses and events aimed
to pull travelers “ in search of La Dolce Vita “off the road.
And yes, Napa Valley is now the second most-visited tourist
destination after Disneyland in California.
It is with this trend in mind that I focus future articles on the top destinations and purveyors of healthy
lifestyles.
“WINE TO ME IS PASSION.IT'S FAMILY AND FRIENDS. IT'S WARMTH OF HEART AND GENEROSITY OF SPIRIT.
WINE IS ART. IT'S CULTURE. IT'S THE ESSENCE OF CIVILIZATION AND THE ART OF
LIVING.”
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