Author: Rickie

How to Buy Wine for your Atlanta home

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Wine Buying Tips, Atlanta Buying Wine for Home

You are having some Atlanta area friends over for dinner and you know they like wine. You want to make a good impression on your Atlanta friends but you have no clue how to buy wine or where in Atlanta you should shop for the right wine. Which bottle do you pick? What will they like? Does it matter what I serve? What do names like Chardonnay, Chianti, and Zinfandel mean? This is called a wine emergency. Fear not!

The Atlanta area is not well known for having lots of wine experts like maybe Chicago, New York, or even Miami. Most Atlanta wine stores fail miserably in supporting their clients with a well-trained knowledgeable staff. Even if they do, the staff will only want to discuss high-end wines. Sherlock’s believes that every wine purchaser should have access to the staff and the knowledge they need in selecting the proper wine. We have written this guide to simplify the world of wine and help Atlanta wine buyers get a head-start and find just the right bottle!

Wines from the Old World (Europe) and the New World (everywhere else) have a system for naming and classifying wines. Old World wines are usually named for their place of origin (like Chianti and Chablis). These areas have been producing wine for hundreds of years, and they know exactly which grapes and styles work best in those regions. In the New World, wines are named for the predominant grape used in the winemaking process (like Merlot and Chardonnay). Certainly there are exceptions to these rules, but understanding the basic nature of wine names will help make all the selections easier to grasp.

American and especially Atlanta wine drinkers do love Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and Merlot, but those are not the only options if you want to please your guests. You can look like an Atlanta wine expert with your selections (without actually being a wine expert). Here are some “under-the-radar” wines that are sure to delight:

1. Cotes du Rhone Red. Hailing from southeast France, this red wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre grapes. It’s soft and dry with aromas of cherry and spice. Generally available for $ 10-$ 20 in most wine stores, Cotes du Rhone is easy to like and great with foods like lamb, roast chicken, or pork. 2. Pinot Gris from Oregon. Pinot Gris is the same grape as Pinot Grigio, but grown in Oregon, the grape offers more exciting tastes. Though it’s a dry white, you will find fruit-basket smells like honeydew melon and citrus with a hint of flowers. If you are serving a full-flavored fish like salmon, this style of wine will sing. Usually sold for $ 12-$ 20. 3. Valpolicella Ripasso. A sumptuous red wine produced near Verona in Italy, it is created using a somewhat complicated process. Don’t worry about the “how”; all you need to know is the resulting wine is delicious, and even your most “wine geek” friends/family will ooh and ah upon tasting. Silky textured and chock full of tangy cherry, berry, and plum flavors, try this wine if you’re serving Italian sausage pasta or veal parmesan. Sells from $ 15-$ 30.

How to find the right wine for a meal is probably the most challenging aspect of selecting wine for most Atlanta area people. You may have heard the adage “red wine with meat, white wine with fish,” and there is definitely some validity to this statement. But finding the right complement for a meal requires more insight. There is an art to pairing wines with foods (hence why sommeliers in restaurants undergo years of training), but it doesn’t have to be that difficult. Here are some handy tips:

1. Power to Power. If your meal is a hearty meat like grilled ribeye or pot roast, select a powerful red to accompany. Good examples would be Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, or Shiraz/Syrah (they’re the same grape, just called differently depending where it’s from). If you are serving, for example, veal cutlets or another more delicate meat dish, try a less-powerful but no-less-flavorful red like Pinot Noir, Grenache, or Barbera. 2. Spice needs Spice. For heavily-herbed foods like rosemary baked chicken or eggplant parmesan, choose a wine with its own spice, like Zinfandel, Chianti, or Gewurtztraminer (white wine that is hard to say but easy to love). If your dish leans toward the “heat” side of spice, like curry chicken or jambalaya, a good idea is a fruitier, softer, possibly sweeter wine like Riesling, Beaujolais, and Chenin Blanc. 3. Match the Texture. Texture is an important component in wine pairing. You will want a wine that has a similar feel to the dish. For example, cream-sauce pasta like Alfredo screams for a buttery Chardonnay. By the same token, grilled shrimp over mixed greens requires a lighter touch like Sauvignon Blanc, Albarino from Spain, or Pinot Grigio.

The world of wine is extremely varied and admittedly complex, but it does offer a lifetime’s worth of discovery and pleasure if you try it. Don’t fret over an “Atlanta wine emergency” because there is no hard and fast rule about what your Atlanta friends and family will love and what wine will pair perfectly with a meal. Use the tips above to make a more educated decision, but the real fun is in experimenting. Also, don’t hesitate to ask your local wine merchant. Chances are your Atlanta area guests will love what you pick.

Visit http://www.Sherlocks.com for more valuable information on wine selections and purchasing tips for Atlanta.

 

Want Adventures In Wine? Join a Wine Club

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The Internet is good for quite a number of things – not least of which is its propensity to make information and opportunity available to the masses. Now, with holidays on the horizon and approaching fast, there’s another opportunity arising – and that, of course, is to join up with a wine club, or to get a membership in one for a loved one. What better way to start the festive season or to enjoy what would normally be an ordinary month of January, than by sampling some of the best wines that new and old worlds have to offer?

A wine club works like this. You get wines selected for you, by the expert buying team at the wine retailer of your choice. Generally you’ll then receive a case of wine every quarter, which is composed of bottles and vintages specifically selected by the buyers who source wines for the wine retailer as a whole. The better clubs offer a great deal of flexibility along with their normal bottles – so you can start off by taking their advice completely, and then use the bottles you have liked to inform your future decisions.

A comprehensive selection of tasting notes and information packs further add to the joy of the wine club, allowing novice wine lovers to learn and grow as the year goes on. There are some excellent examples of these clubs on the Internet – notably including the excellent offering from the legendary Colchester Wine Company, which has gone to great pains to tailor a wine lover’s membership that brings a great deal of choice along with very little in the way of commitment. That makes club membership the ideal way to start the New Year, and even to enjoy the festive holidays itself to the fullest. People who know they like wine, but aren’t sure how to go about exploring that like to its best extent, can only benefit from wine club models like the one espoused by The Wine company, which offers a friendly and informative service along with some excellent selections.

It’s this idea of learning without feeling embarrassed that makes the club experience so rewarding. Wine is a wonderful thing, but it is also a famously involved and complicated obsession. The more you find out about the stuff, the more you realise how little you know. In the past, it has been quite difficult to get past this feeling of “novice hood” – before the Internet, the only way to get the information you need to expand your wine tastes was to seek it from people who can (whether they mean to or not) give off the same air that an educated elite does – a kind of “if you don’t know, then you don’t know” feeling that can be very discouraging to the beginner.

Using a wine club to get to know what you really like and what you don’t can be a fun, rewarding and fascinating experience. Enjoyment is always better with knowledge – and knowledge is exactly what the club helps you explore.

world’s second Red wine Auction Centre

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Abolition of wine duty in 2008, committed to developing Hong Kong into a wine trading and distribution center. Last year Hong Kong has surpassed London as the world’s second largest Red wine Auction Centre, also about 17% of the global top wine store in Hong Kong. Many people Zhongyi drink red wine, but wine drinking to be open to Wuduo generous. Last year the Government launched the “Wine Storage Certification Program,” the storage facilities which are very stringent security requirements. Hong Kong Centre for the world of wine, expensive wine will be stored in open storage, reflecting the lack of wine knowledge, wine master, because the wine in the whole process of transportation and storage are to maintain the proper temperature and humidity, open storage is absolutely unqualified, and open warehouse security is not reliable.

Sao Paulo shopping left to go to the supermarket Rum . Paul special bottle, very cute. Because the trunk has been filled, in my backpack. Brazilian Customs did not mind me, I was in Amsterdam embarrassing. The want to buy a bunch of cheese and wine (back) Please help put into the customs clerk in his pocket, was one rejected. As a result, had, at the airport after drinking a Rum, all poured into the female toilet in the sink. Rum on the plane with empty seats in front, then turn the cleaning staff when they were taken away. A shadow did not stay.

Rum each trip departure is always clear, and then fed with a third lag hangover seven back. City return from Portugal Porto, we should turn in Frankfurt, Germany, and I simply Xiaoxie one night, to visit about this small city. Accommodation in Frankfurt Frankfurt Niederrad Novotel, half of relieving fatigue, the hotel is not a star, but it is good quality business hotel, located at the airport and the city center, both of which arrive at the three stations, Mohammed will be brown Rum poured into the glass color, have been distributed very strong herbal scent, but also to his head and when to drink and drink alcohol sweet in intense pain, and deep in the mouth herbal sweetness distribution, and an more intense warming has spread to the throat from the mouth or stomach.

Napa Valley Wine Country And Wine Growing Region

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Napa Valley is truly an unbelievable Mediterranean oasis in the middle of Northern California’s gorgeous rolling hills. Nestled inside of what many refer to as the “wine country,” Napa is world-renowned for the incredible grapes and wine it produces. Visitors to the town will be astounded by both the incredible beauty of the area as well as the amazing amount that wine has infiltrated the culture here. It seems that everywhere you turn there is either an entrance to a majestic vineyard, rolling hills of vines, a quaint wine shop, or a sophisticated restaurant offering an extensive menu of fine wines for you to enjoy. A getaway to Napa will truly let you escape from your hectic everyday life, letting you live, if only for a moment, the Edenic, blissful life of Napa Valley.
Located in the heart of the region known as “Wine Country,” Napa contains more than 350 wineries for your enjoyment, most of which ship wine internationally and have gained international fame for their taste and overall quality. More than 3 million visitors per year visit this astounding region, wishing to catch a glimpse of the natural abundance for which the Napa Valley is famed. The reason Napa is so adept at growing grapes is the dry, warm Mediterranean climate afforded to it by its location in a protected valley of Northern California. The soil is very rich and arid, and this fertility combined with the magnificently temperate weather and moderate yet consistent waterfall means an almost ideal location – similar to that of the famed grape-growing regions of France and the rest of southern Europe – for vineyard cultivation. The Napa Valley is already well on its way to becoming an international wine powerhouse, but the discovery of its fertile soil is by no means a new development.
In the middle of the 19th century, pioneer George Yount moved to the Napa Valley and planted the very first crop of wine grapes ever in the region. During his lifetime, the wine industry did not take off, but after he gave his business to his son-in-law, Yount’s original intention finally came to fruition. Grape-growing soon flourished in the fertile Napa Valley, attracting many more affluent growers from around the country and world who were seeking out the Next Big Thing in American agriculture. Charles Krug began Napa Valley’s first actual winery, distilling and creating the first signature wines of the Napa Valley and in the process transforming the valley from what was just an agricultural area into the prosperous distilling and bottling region we know and love today. Interestingly, you can still visit the historic Krug family winery today, bottling many kinds of fine wines such as Cabernet, Chardonnay, Pinor Noir, and Merlot. At the turn of the 20th century, Napa had begun its rise to becoming the formidable and prosperous viticulture region to which visitors now flock from all over the world.
One of the best ways to take advantage of this wine-growing region is to take tours of the seemingly endless number of wineries located in Napa Valley. Surrounded by the majestic, rolling hills that will likely resemble the gorgeous slopes of Tuscany to any who have visited there, these tours will be a great way to get a taste (literally!) of the natural wonders of the Napa Valley as well as get a hands-on look at how some of your favorite wines are created. Usually, these tours take you on a guided tour around their various crops of grapes, then give you a behind-the-scenes look at how their winery operates, from the crushing of the grapes to a glimpse at the carefully-maintained barrels that infuse the grapes with the winery’s signature flavor. These tours can be a great way to get a behind-the-scenes look at how your favorite wines are crafted – and many times they offer free wine tasting as part of the package!
Napa Valley is truly one of the most exquisite regions of California. Covered in glorious vine-lined hills and dotted with quaint little towns that truly make you feel like king or queen for the weekend, taking a trip to this luxurious northern California valley will surely be a highlight of your year.
About Golden Horizon Travel: Golden Horizon Travel offers a different brand of service. A variety of qualities that make our touring experience unique and memorable. Our services are professional, designed to make each tour a personal experience. Top of the line vehicles, for groups of various sizes, ensure that the tour is comfortable.

Wine Tours in the Napa Valley

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Napa Valley, located in western California has a robust heritage of producing some of the world’s finest wine grapes since the 19th century – and as you might expect, this tradition remains true to this very day. While the area began to suffer in the prohibition era 1920’s, the end of World War II brought a new life to Napa Valley, but it wasn’t until 1976 when a Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon rated better than numerous fine French wines in a blind taste. Dubbed “The Judgment of Paris”, it was this wine competition that really put Napa Valley on the map – and the region has seen enormous success ever since.

On average, nearly 5 million tourists visit on an annual basis – this makes it one of the most popular attractions in the entire state; second only to Disneyland. And if you’ve ever been to the area you already know that there are plenty of great reasons to visit the area, no matter the season.

Winter is primarily the off-season, but in the spring the first sprouting of mustard flowers along with pink and white blossoms can be seen amongst the grapevines throughout the valley; and this is quite a sight for any visitor to the region. In summer the grapevines begin to develop their leaves, tiny grape clusters may even begin to develop on some types. The grape clusters are harvested in the fall, and as you might expect, this is the most popular time to plan a vacation to the area.

There are a number of wineries for you to visit while on your vacation. One of the earliest, the Robert Modavi Winery remains one of the largest and most popular wineries to date – but some of the smaller ones have a lot to offer in the way of great tasting wine, as well. This includes Bryant Family Vineyards, Diamond Creek Vineyards, Dominus Estate, Screaming Eagle Winery and Vineyards, just to name but a few.

But of course no vacation to the region would be complete with a wine tasting tour or two; and Napa Valley has plenty of them to offer that cater to all tastes and lifestyles. One of the area’s most popular tours is the Wine Train, a three-hour roundtrip train ride in and around some of the regions most prolific vineyards. Onboard you can sample anywhere from 30-40 local wines, including Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and much more.

For the tourist who would rather get outdoors and take on an exciting adventure while vacationing in the region, Adventure Tours may be just right for you. Here you’ll have guided tours of some of the area’s vineyards while hiking, rock climbing, while riding a mountain bike or even in a kayak. If you are feeling a little bit more adventurous, you can even have one of their experts put together a safe yet exciting self guided tour for you to relax and explore the trails of Napa Valley on your own. If you love the outdoors and outdoor activities, this may just end up being the vacation experience of a lifetime.

If you are looking to relax in a limousine with your own private chauffeur, there are plenty of wine tours in the area that offer the comfort of limo tours of the region, as well. Many have a variety of vehicles and options, allowing you to accommodate any size group and any level of luxury. If you desire the high class service that only a professional limousine service can offer, you’ll have more than enough choices here in Napa Valley.

As you can see, Napa Valley really makes every attempt possible to make sure all of our guests are entertained. And in your downtime, the hotels and resorts here will make sure you stay comfortable all night long.

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