Monday, January 26, 2015

An Update on Recent Publications: Sparkling Wine Trifecta in Details, Drinks, Beverage Media; Torgellen in Intermezzo; Bourbons in Taste; BevMedia with 2015 Crystal Ball; Sweet Roussillon in SommJournal; Super-Bordeaux in Palate Press

The end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 was a very busy time for keeping track of articles published. Here is a recap: In Details, we took a look at all those great sparkling wines that aren't from Champagne or Cava, then examined for Beverage Media how merchants stimulate Champagne sales. Our final bubbly story, for Drinks, did a rundown on the ins-and-outs of buying "real" Champagne. In Intermezzo, we reported on Torgellen, an annual post-harvest food-and-wine hike in the mountains above Bolzano in Italy's Alto Adige region. (The opening photo for the article is shown below.) For the Pennsylvania LCB magazine, Taste, we took a look at how Americans are again falling in love with Bourbon, cask by cask. The second of two stories on Roussillon in Somm Journal focused on its marvelous sweet wines, chiefly Banyuls and Rivesaltes. Then, as we turned the corner in January, another article in Beverage Media has some of the best minds in the drinks examining their crystal balls for the new year. Finally, for Palate Press, we drop in on the folks as chateaux Palmer and La Lagune who are making not-quite-Bordeaux wines by an old method - mixing estate-based cuvees with Syrah-based wine from the Rhone Valley. Dare we think, "Is this the beginning of Super-Bordeaux?"