2000 Columbia Valley
Cabernet Sauvignon
After tasting this wine and knowing that it sells for only $17 a bottle I immediately had the following scenario play through my mind, and I call it “If I worked at the Barnard Griffin tasting room”.
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I have been asked regulars to give them the low down on Meritage wines. What does it mean in the wine world, how is it pronounced, is it an important wine style to know, and should I be drinking them.

Well yes, you should be drinking them. Some of my favorite wines in the world are Meritage wines and if you give them a try they will most likely creep onto your favorites list also.

First off, Meritage is pronounced as if it rhymed with Heritage. It is actually a name derived from combining the words Merit and Heritage. It is NOT pronounced as if it were a French word, Mer-it-ahhhhjje. Meritage wines are fashioning themselves after the classic blended wines of Bordeaux, France. The famous Bordeaux region uses five grapes to produce their great red wines. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petite Verdot. The white wines of this region are blends of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle. The red wines dominate the scene in Bordeaux, getting recognition as some of the finest wines produced in the world and collected by countless wine enthusiasts whose cellars would never be complete with out these precious French masterpieces.
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The skin of grapes and derived from it during fermentation tannins, pigments and aromatic substances are paramount in the creation of red wine. During the fermentation, and often after its completion, is the extraction of poly phenols. The art of creating red wine – to make this process efficient and on time to stop him. As for the white varieties, an important criterion for the maturity of red grapes is the level of sugar and acids in berries, as well as the quantity and quality of tannins in their skin and bones.
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As my wine collection started to grow, I began to be concerned about the quality of my storage facilities, by which I mean the closet in my office. You see, I read somewhere that if you allow a nice Cabernet to spend any time at all over, say, 20 degrees Celsius, you might end up with a not-so-nice Cabernet. This concerned me quite a bit, since I tend to like my house a little over 20 degrees most of the time. In fact, what I read was that you should really store wine between about 10 and 15 degrees, which, unless you happen to have an actual cellar, means you have to buy one of those wine refrigeration units. Not real cheap.
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Several weeks ago, an active owner of Tuscan winery Fattoria di Petroio Pamela Lenzi confessed to me that the sale of Italian olive oil (no fooling, excellent), they sometimes earn more than the export of wine. “Especially hard in Britain. We tried to find partners there, and at first everything seemed to went well, but then they – bang! – And closed “, – said Pamela.
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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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