Owner: My Wine Cellar URL:http://www.brandonmarc.com/ Join Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:45:49 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: My Wine Cellar,South African Wine,By Brandon Marc. A friendly community for Wine Fanatics! Site statistics:Click here
The Colour of Wine 2008-07-21 08:00:00 Wine is quite obviously more than just a colour. But, by the simple analysis of wine colour, can we predict anything about its attributes? Well, not entirely. But there are some rough guidelines that, together with other methods of analysis, may help us to approximate such things as wine quality, age and even alcohol content.
When [...] Read more:Colour
My Secret Red Wine Sauce 2008-07-18 08:00:12 Psssst… listen up. Here is (or was) my secret red wine recipe. I’ve used it many times over and ‘tweaked’ it over the years. It can be combined with whatever you desire but goes best with Ostrich fillet medallions. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
My Spicy Mushroom Red Wine Sauce:
250ml [...]
Put a Cork in it! 2008-07-14 12:43:10 The debate regarding screw caps versus the traditional cork is not a new one. In fact, it annoys me how people seem to think the matter is absolute and that there must be a single correct answer. It depends on so many different factors that one cannot possibly do away with the one and only [...]
Welcome to My Wine Cellar! 2008-07-11 13:50:41 Hello and welcome Everybody to a place that is as much your home as it is mine. This blog is intended to be a friendly community for wine fanatics rather than an arena for another self-professed ‘expert’ to spew out wine jargon and personal opinions. Although, I must warn you in advance, my sheer passion for [...] Read more:Welcome
, Cellar
Wine 101 2008-08-08 08:00:14 What exactly IS wine? Ok, I know what you’re thinking… lame! But I think you’d be surprised as to how many people couldn’t accurately answer this question. And since people are often too proud to admit this fact, I thought I’d take the liberty to explain…
Wine is simply fermented grape juice. Ok, but then [...]ShareThis
Times are Changing… 2008-08-04 08:00:51 I think I was about 18 years of age when I fell in love… with wine of course. At the time it was a little unusual that, while in the company of my beer guzzling friends, I instead decided to enjoy a soft Merlot… albeit from a box.
“The commercialization of the wine industry [...]ShareThis Read more:Times
, Changing
Going Sideways 2008-08-01 08:00:16 You owe it to yourself as a self professed wine enthusiast and welcome visitor of My Wine Cellar to see Sideways
. The movie, directed by Alexander Payne and starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, takes you on a rather comical trip through California’s Napa Valley, where the twosome engage in numerous wine tastings… amongst [...]ShareThis Read more:Going
Stellenbosch Wine Festival 2008 2008-07-28 08:00:27 This weekend brings us the Annual Stellenbosch Wine Festival
to take place at the Paul Roos Centre, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Each year thousands of local and international visitors flock to the event and are treated to a selection of more than 500 wines from over 100 wineries on show.
Included in the weekend long wine [...]ShareThis
Tasting Tips 2008-07-25 08:00:47 To the average wine-lover, like myself, the process of tasting wine can look more like an amusing ritual rather than practical necessity. But, in actual fact, there are sound reasons behind every step of the ancient process. And for your benefit I have compiled 3 simple steps below, deciphering the simple science and enhancing your next salivary [...]ShareThis
The Colour of Wine 2008-07-21 08:00:00 Wine is quite obviously more than just a colour. But, by the simple analysis of wine colour, can we predict anything about its attributes? Well, not entirely. But there are some rough guidelines that, together with other methods of analysis, may help us to approximate such things as wine quality, age and even alcohol content.
When [...]ShareThis Read more:Colour
My Secret Red Wine Sauce 2008-07-18 08:00:12 Psssst… listen up. Here is (or was) my secret red wine recipe. I’ve used it many times over and ‘tweaked’ it over the years. It can be combined with whatever you desire but goes best with Ostrich fillet medallions. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
My Spicy Mushroom Red Wine Sauce:
250ml [...]ShareThis
Put a Cork in it! 2008-07-14 12:43:10 The debate regarding screw caps versus the traditional cork is not a new one. In fact, it annoys me how people seem to think the matter is absolute and that there must be a single correct answer. It depends on so many different factors that one cannot possibly do away with the one and only [...]ShareThis
Welcome to My Wine Cellar! 2008-07-11 13:50:41 Hello and welcome Everybody to a place that is as much your home as it is mine. This blog is intended to be a friendly community for wine fanatics rather than an arena for another self-professed ‘expert’ to spew out wine jargon and personal opinions. Although, I must warn you in advance, my sheer passion for [...]ShareThis Read more:Welcome
, Cellar
My Online Wine Store! 2008-08-23 09:11:28 My Wine Cellar is proud to announce the launch of our Online Wine Store
! Here you can purchase all your favourite South African wines with the click of a button. Our affiliation with Wineweb allows you, the online customer, to have South African wines delivered to your door in almost any location across the globe! [...]ShareThis
Wine: Healthy Habit or Deadly Dose? 2008-08-18 08:00:41 The information available on wine and its role in human health is vast as it is ambiguous. Depending on what decade the data is sourced, one will discover that the conclusions declared differ somewhat.
For example, if one where to consider the American prohibition of the 1970’s, any medical texts concerning alcohol (wine included) were suppressed, [...]ShareThis Read more:Habit
Red, Red Wine 2008-08-15 08:00:17 Red, red wine
Go to my head
Make me forget that I
Still need her so…
Familiar lyrics to most, and perhaps even more familiar to those of you who have overindulged in the alluring liquor. Surely this includes most, if not all of us If it’s not already clear, I’m talking about hangovers. But why [...]ShareThis Read more:Red Wine
Meet Brett… 2008-08-11 08:00:49 I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce you to an all too familiar member of the international wine industry, Brett
anomyces… or just Brett for short. For those of you who are unaware of Brett’s specific role in the wine industry, let me explain…
Brett is a yeast able to grow quite comfortably in wine, converting [...]ShareThis
Labels: Old World vs. New World 2008-09-15 08:00:38 I don’t think it can be disputed that there is an apparent difference between wine label style when comparing New world and Old world wines… at least in most cases. I myself am a little mystified as to which I prefer and why.
‘We might not be drinking history, but there’s no reason why we shouldn’t [...]ShareThis Read more:Labels
, World
, New World
Wine Tasting With a Difference 2008-09-12 08:00:39 I’ve never been a fan of American TV… except for one particular late night show with the comical Conan O’Brien as host. Late Night with Conan O’Brien is undoubtedly my favourite talk show… sorry Oprah
But it is when Conan O’Brien, the unconventional US wine expert, Gary Vaynerchuk and wine are mixed together, that [...]ShareThis Read more:Wine Tasting
Why Wine? 2008-09-08 08:00:32 I like wine because it’s alive. Each bottle is different from another, and if you taste it the one day it would have changed by the next.
The trip to your local wine shop is always an interesting one, as there is just so much variety out there. This allows one to experiment with different wines [...]ShareThis
South Africa’s Premier Wine Festival 2008-09-05 08:00:04 This September brings us SouthAfrica
’s premier wine festival, RMB WineX 2008, to be held at the Cape Town International Convention Center for the sixth consecutive year.
Wine enthusiasts and the like are highly recommended to attend
the celebrated annual wine festival, showcasing over 1200 wines from 200 local and international producers.
Dates: 10 – 12 September [...]ShareThis Read more:Premier
, Festival
, South Africa
Wine: A Complex Concoction 2008-09-01 08:00:39 Ever wondered what it is that’s swimming around in your wine glass? Quite a lot actually. There are believed to be almost 1000 ‘ingredients’ identified in wine, and more yet to be discovered.
Wine is 85% water with a varying alcohol content that averages 12%. Many different acids are present, tartaric and malic being the most [...]ShareThis Read more:Complex
Gôut de Terroir 2008-08-29 08:00:21 Or Terroir for short :) The term that tries to describe the properties of a vineyard with regard to it’s soil conditions and the attributes imparted on the resulting wine. Since I see this word thrown around with reckless abandon, sometimes correctly and more often not, I thought it a good idea to clarify its meaning.
‘As [...]ShareThis
The Myth Behind Pinot Grigio 2008-08-25 08:00:52 I was once told that of all wine the Pinot
Grigio variety specifically was most ‘preferred’ by women. I will not delve into the specifics regarding my friends rather crude explanation as to why every self respecting single male should have a bottle of ‘The Grigio’ in his fridge, but I would like to know [...]ShareThis
The Worlds Most Expensive Wine 2008-10-03 08:00:04 Ever wondered what the worlds most expensive bottle of wine is? I’ll tell you… it’s a 1787 Chateau Lafite sold at a London auction in 2003 for a staggering $160 000 or approximately R1,2 million (see picture below). The bottle of Bordeaux had belonged to third American president, Thomas Jefferson, and was bought by a Thomas [...]ShareThis Read more:Worlds
The Origin of Wine 2008-09-29 08:00:54 Ever wondered where wine comes from? Grapes of course J But seriously, where did wine first ‘begin’? Well, let me first say that it wasn’t in France… in fact neither was it anywhere in Europe!
‘I guess you could say wine production has come a long way since 6000BC.’
Archaeological evidence has suggested that wine, made by [...]ShareThis Read more:Origin
The Corkage Phenomenon 2008-09-26 08:00:03 For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of `corkage´, allow me to explain… If a restaurant or even a bar allows corkage, it means that patrons of the locality are allowed to bring their own bottle/bottles of wine with them paying a small fee per bottle opened.
Growing up and living most of [...]ShareThis Read more:Phenomenon
It Must be Something in the Water 2008-09-22 08:00:32 Currently there is a heated debate raging through the South African wine community that has distinct bearing on the direction of the South African wine industry. For those of you who don’t know, I’m referring to the ‘earthy characters’ detected on the nose of many South African wines.
These undesirable characters have also been compared to [...]ShareThis
Summer Sangria 2008-09-19 08:00:52 There’s reason to smile… the South African summer will soon be upon us :) It may be obvious that I enjoy a good glass of wine pretty much any day of the year, but on the side I am a secret Brandy lover too. And when these two are combined with fresh summer fruits on a sweltering [...]ShareThis Read more:Summer