Australia is a nation of vast plains, few people and towering ambition.
“We’re a country nearly the size of the United States, but with only 20 million people,” notes Chris Hatcher, chief winemaker for Beringer-Blass Australia. “Anyone who wants to have a successful business must export.”
Indeed. Over the past two decades, American wine merchants have nearly drowned in a sea of Australian wine. Willingly, I might add.
SICILY There is evidence to suggest that vineyards flourished near the Greek settlement of Agrigento sometime around the 5th century BC.
That’s ancient history, of course.
Throughout antiquity the wines of Sicily were held in high esteem, the favorites of royalty. The island’s many seaports made trade with the outside world easy and profitable, and Sicily’s agricultural bounty, including wine, was in demand.
Much of the good will from the Sicilian wine trade had been squandered by the end of the 20th century AD. That’s current events, of course.
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by Kate Fiduccia
The Quotable Wine Lover by Kate Fiduccia is a great little book that all wine lovers should have on hand, whether as a coffee table book, on your desk to visit frequently, or in between the couch cushions where you know you won’t lose it. I personally enjoy picking it up and reading some quotes with a couple glasses of Cabernet while somewhat horizontal on my eight-foot chaise lounge… But you choose your own way to enjoy it.
The book is a couple hundred pages of fun quotes, sayings, and thoughts on wine by all kinds – poets, celebrities, authors, wine makers, chefs, newspapers, the Bible, and more. There is a quick forward by Daniel Johnnes, wine director and head sommelier at Montrachet, a fine New York restaurant. The Quotable Wine Lover is broken up into six fun, well thought out sections:
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