Warm Climate Wine vs Cool Climate Wine

Wine grapes grow from Mexico to British Columbia. The wide range in climates that grapes can grow results in different tasting wines. For this reason, wine regions are grouped into two major climate types: Warm Climate vs. Cool Climate. If you understand the general characteristics of both climate types, you can explore new wines from the climate type you prefer.

Warm climate regions tend to have more consistent temperatures throughout the season. The slow drop off from summer into fall gives grapes ample opportunity to become fully ripe but the negative is that more natural acidity in the grapes is lost. You can generally assume that warm climates produce grapes with more ripe fruit flavors and less acidity.

Examples of Warm Climate Wine Regions

• California
• Argentina
• Australia
• Southern Italy
• Greek Islands

• Central & Southern Spain
• Central & Southern Portugal
• Most of South Africa
• Southern France
• Southern Italy

Cool climate regions definitely get just as hot as warm climates in the peak of the season. However, it is the fact that the temperatures drop off so quickly towards harvest that make the wines taste different. Lower temperatures preserve the acidity but they also make it difficult for grapes to ripen. You can generally assume that cool climate wine regions tend to produce tart fruit flavors and have more acidity.

Of course, the vintage plays a major role in the outcome. You can have a cool vintage create incredibly ripe tasting wines and vice-versa. This is why vintage matters so much, particularly if you tend to prefer cool climate wines.

Examples of Cool Climate Wine Regions

• Northern France
• Oregon
• Washington State (see chart)
• New York
• Chile
• Hungary

• New Zealand
• Northern Italy
• South Africa
• Austria
• Germany
• Northern Greece & Macedonia

The lists of climate regions are a little generalized. It’s possible to have a ‘micro-climate’ that’s within a larger climate type. A great example of a microclimate is San Francisco. Technically, the city should get really hot in the summer, because all the surrounding areas do. However, because San Francisco has a marine fog layer in the mornings, it stays a lot cooler.

Jacaranda

Jacaranda has a very elegant in Chinese (蓝花楹), but sometimes, someone does not like it, because blooming Jacaranda mean exam time in Australia. Are you ready? good luck for everyone~  

Young Wine May Be Better Than Old Wine

Youthful red wines may be better for you than older vintage red wines. New research reveals that 90% of several antioxidants in red wines are lost as wines age. We’ve raved about antioxidants in wine because of their potential health benefits. However, we may be drinking wines too old.

Hahndorf Hill Winery

I went to the cellar door of Hahndorf Hill Winery after tasting the delicious German food at Hahndorf Inn, bought some wine there, and really like the GRU Gruner Veltliner, 

Oyster Bar

A leisure afternoon.. at Oyster Bar in Glenelg, with white wine.. with friends, but feeling sooo guilty now, must control the diet from tomorrow!!

Where is Australian Wine Country?

As we know, the largest wine production region by far is South Australia. 

There are three major wine regions in Australia by shear volume are South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. South Australia and NSW tend to be more famous for their warm climate varieties such as Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon whereas Victoria is known for cool climate-loving Pinot Noir.

South Australia

Adelaide is the hub of the largest wine growing region in Australia. A few miles from Adelaide is Barossa Valley, South Australia’s most prestigious growing area. It’s interesting to note that the majority of the wine from the area is actually grown in Lower Murray and Fleurieu (see the geeky list of GIs below)

Barossa Valley–oldest living vineyards in the world?!
45 minutes from Adelaide are the rolling hills of Barossa Valley. The region is unique because of its isolation from the rest of the world. Phylloxera hasn’t yet infected vineyard soils in Barossa, which means it’s home to some of the oldest living vineyards in the world.

New South Wales

The major production in New South Wales comes from the inland Big Rivers Zone. This area has historically produced much of the commercial Chardonnay and Shiraz from Australia. However, because of severe drought in recent years, more wine grape growers are experimenting with drought friendly varieties like Tempranillo and Verdelho.

Victoria

Commercial winemaking in North West Victoria makes up the majority of wine production in the entire region. However, the growing areas of interest are cooler and closer to Melbourne such as Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. The cool climate areas in Victoria have received a lot of praise for their Pinot Noir.

Ulithorne Dona Grenache Shiraz 2013

Recently, doing a lot research about our final assignment of Advanced Wine Marketing, I chose Ulithorne  winery which located in McLaren Vale, I tasted some wine of this winery and really recommend the Dona Grenache Shiraz.
textured with soft tannins and sticky mouth feel, although it is still too young, it is worth to collect.

Coconut detox!

drink too much wine and junk food recently, just starting my detox plan!

Learn The Secrets of Each Red Wine Color

The color and opacity of a wine gives you many hints as to the style of wine you’re about to enjoy. Most places where we typically enjoy wine are too dark to observe a wine, such as a low-lit restaurant or, in my case, an office room lit by a computer screen at 2am in the morning! However, if you look at the color of wine in a more scientific setting with clean lighting (and a white background) you’ll see how the colors of red wines are substantially different from one another. Learning how to identify the colors in red wine will help you become a blind-tasting master.

Color of Cabernet Sauvignon

Red Wine Color Chart, Item 1 Cabernet is near opaque but not as opaque as syrah. At a young age the colors are dark ruby in the center to a magenta tinged edge. Cabernet does not stain orange at a young age and takes a long time to develop the look of an older wine (i.e. pale color, brown/orange tinged and a wide rim variation). Cabernet varies in intensity of color dependent on winemaking and climate. In a cooler climate such as Washington State or Bordeaux France, cabernet sauvignon is more pale and contains less pigment. Again, a winemaker can manipulate these results by letting the grape skins soak in the wine longer to produce a deeper richer color. In my experience, lighter colored and less dense cabernet sauvignon wines tend to have higher acidity. A more opaque cabernet sauvignon will generally indicate a warmer growing region such as California or Italy.

Color of Old Cabernet Sauvignon

Red Wine Color Chart, Item 2 As wines age, density of color decreases and the rim variation becomes greater showing more orange (sometimes brown) colors. The rate at which a wine changes to look this way depends on the variety of wine, producer and region. Generally, fine wines take longer (at the most 10-12 years) to begin to take on old wine characteristics as shown. However sensitive varietals such as merlot, zinfandel and pinot noir can change faster. After four years in a bottle I observed an organic zinfandel from Arizona that was orange-rimmed and looked like an old wine. Wines also take longer to age in larger bottles because of the ratio of wine to air in the bottle.

See GuideLearn Your Wine Preference in One Minute

Color of Merlot

Red Wine Color Chart, Item 3 Merlot tends to be slightly lighter in color than cabernet sauvignon but it also has a special indicator that you can almost always pick out on a younger wine. It has slightly orange tones on the rim. In my most difficult blind tastings of fine merlots, where the density of the wine is that of a fine cabernet sauvignon, the lucky clue has always been identifying the brick red rim. This wine color also looks very similar to tempranillo (as in Rioja), sangiovese (as in Chianti or Brunello di Montalcino) and Montepulciano (as in Montepulciano d’Abruzzo).

Color of Syrah or Shiraz

Red Wine Color Chart, Item 4 Syrah or Shiraz is very opaque as is petite syrah, mourvedre (aka monastrell in Spain) and malbec. These wines have very little rim variation and at a young age go from an opaque purple-black center to magenta right at the edge of the wine.

Color of Young Pinot Noir or Burgundy

Red Wine Color Chart, Item 5 Pinot Noir is one of the most pale red wines where immediately you can see right through it. It has pale red berry (cranberry, raspberry) colors although some fine pinot noir producers (mainly in Burgundy) are able to extract more color from the wine. Pinot noir is one of the most identifiable wines because of it’s pale translucent color. A nebbiolo from the Langhe region in Italy can also be as pale as this, as can some cooler climate grenache based wines.

Color of Old Pinot Noir or Burgundy

Red Wine Color Chart, Item 6 As pinot noir ages it becomes more brick-like in color and a very aged pinot will be orange and brown tinged. The rim variation on an old wine is wide and the color tends to be weaker and more pale.

Guide to wine for beginners

find a infographic about basic wine knowledge~
share with everyone! :)

How to stay healthy and drink wine?

•  Eat protein before you drink

Have some quality protein before you drink. Long sustaining energy calories will help curb your craving while you drink.

•  Stick to moderate drinking

Unfortunately, a bottle of wine is not a single serving. It’s important to understand your own limits. If you’re 140 pounds or under, you should stick to just one drink and only 2 if you’re over that weight.

•  Avoid the drunk diet

If you do get drunk, it seems reasonable to assume that food (e.g. cheesy bread, pizza and apple pie) could help absorb the alcohol in your system. The truth is, there’s nothing to stop or slow the long painstaking process your liver will need to go through to carefully convert every milligram of poisonous acetaldehyde into not-so-bad-for-you acetic acid. Be a friend to your liver and stay up on your fluids by drinking lots of water. Our favorite hangover food is a Pho (pronounced ‘Fuh’) noodle soup, the Vietnamese know what’s up.

Why does drinking make you hungry?

Wine doesn’t make you fat, but eating pizza when you’re drunk does.

Why do we end up eating a whole cheese pizza after a night of drinking? The effects of alcohol on the brain causes a skew in how we regulate calorie intake for 2 reasons:

• BLOOD SUGAR DROP: Drinking dry wine actually causes your blood sugar to drop. This is because your body focuses on metabolizing the alcohol calories first before food calories. The result is that your brain sees this information a little blindly and responds with ‘uh oh, we need more blood sugar. Go eat something!’
• TRICKS YOUR ‘PRIMITIVE’ BRAIN: Alcohol causes a temporary effect on a part of your brain that causes you to feel hungry, aroused and have to pee at the same time. These activities are controlled in your hypothalamus (high-po-thall-lam-us) which is an early part of the human brain located above the brain stem. It regulates everything from sex drive and body temperature to appetite.

Peter Lehmann

Today, shared Peter Lehmann Shiraz with dear cousin, Peter Lehmann has been described as one of Australia's most respected and innovative wine makers.

He is one of the symbols of Australia wine, although he has passed away, we won't forget him.

Happy birthday, River~

Made a red velvet cake for my dear friend's twenty second birthday

and thanks Chien brought the Yellow Tail

Happy birthday, River

Why not spicy~?

I like spicy food, and I also like wine. But someone said spicy foods being tough to pair with wines~

For me, I think the only rule is avoid some high alcohol..

Sometimes, just break the rules, just do what you want to do~