We’ve already talked a bit about the tenuous connection between price and quality that exists when purchasing wine. To recap, a number of economists have concluded that factors apart from the quality of a wine (as determined by expert taste tests) have a greater influence on the price of a bottle of wine.

But research from another side of the academy suggests that the price of wine may actually influence how people enjoy wine. It’s fairly easy to accept the idea that people might claim that they liked an expensive wine more than a cheaper wine. People still associate price with quality, and don’t necessarily want to admit they were incapable of telling the difference between a good wine and a mediocre wine. This axiom is easy to identify: When in doubt, prefer the expensive one, especially if you spent your own hard-earned money on it. Read the rest of this entry »

If there is anything we wine enthusiasts love as much as good wine, it has to be wine gear. Wine totes, decanters, stoppers: we have sections of our kitchens dedicated to our gear. And then there’s the issue of stemware.

Many of us swear that the type of glass used for drinking wine has a crucial effect on the taste of the wine. And whether or not this is true, manufacturers of stemware are happy to further this impression. For those who aren’t content with one type of glass for all of their wines, or a glass for reds and another for whites, Riedel is happy to provide specialized glasses for Burgundy Grand Cru, Hermitage, Loire, and Gruner Vetliner, to name a few examples. For the manufacturer, the impulse is clear; why sell a customer one set of stemware, whey you can sell them two, or even four? Read the rest of this entry »

I first encountered biodynamics before fully stepping into the wine world, on a dairy farm outside of Phoenixville, PA. At the time, I was researching a story on local agriculture, and this mission had taken me to Seven Stars Farm, a producer of biodynamic yogurt.

It was a mysterious concept, to say the least.  Pioneered by the Austrian philosopher/scientist Rudolf Steiner, the basic concepts of biodynamic agriculture seemed simple enough: treat the farm as an organism and keep the inputs and outputs to a minimum. On a dairy farm, this entailed growing all the hay and alfalfa for feed on site, while eschewing chemical and even organic fertilizer in favor of manure from the herd. So far, so good. This seemed to be in line with the spirit of organic farming, a subject with which I had some familiarity. Read the rest of this entry »

“Sophia Loren!” exclaimed the Bangladeshi taxi driver, when informed that the two young men in his taxi hailed from Italy. “My father loved Sophia Loren!”

Following an afternoon of tasting and talking about wine with Emanuele Colombo, the young winemaker from La Giribaldina in Asti, and his friend Matteo, who sells the wines in the Asti region, our driver’s enthusiasm was a reminder that great wines were only one of Italy’s notable exports. But if Sophia Loren’s international acclaim stems from her sex appeal, wines from the Barbera grape, like those from La Giribaldina, attract attention in the U.S. for their verve, acidity, and bright fruit flavors.

Loren once noted famously that “everything you see, I owe to spaghetti.” Barbera doesn’t owe spaghetti anything, but works exceptionally well with it just the same. The zippy acidity and natural spiciness of Barbera are the perfect complement to pasta topped with a tomato-based sauce, as these characteristics prevent the wine from being overwhelmed by the acidity of the tomatoes.

Giribaldina’s Barberas, from the Asti zone of the Piedmont region in Italy’s northwest, rely on the white, sandy soil of the area to infuse the wines with great smoothness and elegance. While the clay soil in the neighboring zone of Alba gives Barberas from this area slightly fuller body and deeper color, wines from this area have less acidity. As a result, they may be ready to drink when they leave the cellar, but don’t show the same potential for aging as do the Barberas from Asti. Read the rest of this entry »