What's Going On in the World of French Wines

A quick newsflash – Cabernet Day is Thursday, September 2nd. Across the US and around the world, people are going to be opening a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (or a blend featuring Cabernet Sauvignon) and taking to various social media sites to share their experiences. I can’t wait – I’m a big fan of Cabernet Sauvignon and so I will be participating in the fun and tweeting about my experience.

To find out more information, go here. According to their press release, #Cabernet Day will be hosted on all social media sites and blogs including Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Friendfeed, Gowalla, Wordpress, etc. Those wishing to participate need to use the hashtag, #Cabernet, …

In my previous post on Bordeaux last month, I covered some of the major appellations for white wines, both dry and sweet. This month’s post will concentrate on some of the red wines that Bordeaux is so very famous for.
Let’s first start out with a little about the red grapes that are grown in Bordeaux. There are three major varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. There are also two lesser-known grapes that are sometimes used in the blend as well: Petit Verdot and Malbec. A third grape, Carmenère, used to be part of the blend, but after Bordeaux was hit by phylloxera in the late 1800s, much of it was not replanted and so today it …

When we talk about the most important grape varieties in the wine world, there is no doubt that when it comes to red grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon is considered the King. Few grapes have proven as age-worthy, as consistently reliable and as downright delicious as Cabernet Sauvignon.

Thanks to work in the late 1990s by grape geneticist Dr. Carole Meredith and the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, we can trace the origins of Cabernet Sauvignon to a chance meeting in a vineyard in Southwest France between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc that occurred sometime during the 17th century (sounds romantic, right?). Although there had been some speculation that Cabernet Sauvignon had more …

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Nancy Rugus, who is the Director of the Americas for Compagnie Medocaine Des Grands Crus, a Bordeaux negociant. She was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about a subject near and dear to her heart – French Wine!

1. How did you get started in the wine business?

I fell in love with food and wine. I was teaching in the NYC public schools and took a leave of absence to start selling wine in NYC for a wine division at one of the larger distributors. I had no …

People always want to know how I got started in the wine business.  I always enjoy telling the story of how I used to sit in the back of the classroom at the International Wine Center, nervous as anything that I would get called upon to read my tasting notes.  A complete novice, I barely knew my Chardonnay from my Cabernet Sauvignon and I probably would not have gotten very far with my tasting notes were it not for the fact that two sommeliers who were sitting next to me decided to take me under their wings.  Luckily for me, one of those guys was Bernie Sun, one of …