image: wine.answers.com

A bit on the early side, but what the hell, we’re all drinking so it’s all good, right? Right?!? C’mon, don’t tell me I’m the only one of you tasting at 8AM ET (hell, some of you West Coasties might still be up drinking from last night as you read this…)!

Anyway…

Herewith you will find the roundup of this month’s articles from my Wine.Answers.com gig. Much edu-tainment, and, hopefully, some review-related insights await you:

Wine Product Review: Sommelier’s Preference Bordeaux 1855 Classique Wine Aerator

For those of you who don’t already own a Vinturi, there’s this little number, similar in appearance (and in sound) but quite different in terms of internal design, and about as effective. Apparently, we did, in fact, need yet another entrant into this crowded accessory market.

Wine Product Review: Sip & Save Vacuum Wine Pump

Vacuum wine pump style preservation systems either suck air, or just plain suck, depending on to whom you speak in the wine loving company that you keep. I take a middle-ground view here, in that I think they have their place in the preservation of simpler wines. If you fall on the “they’re not so bad” side of the debate, you’d be hard pressed to find a higher quality version than the Sip & Save.

 Wine Book Review: “Wine To Water” by Doc Hendley

Ok, technically this is far from a wine book. In fact, it has almost nothing to do with wine in the grand scheme of the memoir that Wine to Water founder Doc Hendley has spun. BUT… “Wine to Water” is a terse, friendly, and moving yarn of a tale, and it just might get you rethinking your jaded, wine-soaked stance that one person cannot really make a difference in this world.

Three Things You Didn’t Know About South African Wine Country

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, you already knew all of this stuff. Including the production figures. Because you are a bad-ass of the highest vinous order. Whatever…

Cheers!

In episode four of my Hungarian jaunt in search of dry Furmint, I visit Paulay Winery and guest house.  Yeah, the sertting is just as pretty as all of the previous Tokaj stops. Feel free to hate me!

image: furmintusa.com

The owners of Paulay (the Hudáks, who you will “meet” in the video below), have both a pretty and a pretty interesting site on their hands. First, their guest house is  the former home of the 19th century playwright Ede Paulay, a celebrated figure in Hungarian history. Second, they’ve mirrored the historical connection in their tiny, steep vineyard, by experimenting with some traditional, pre-phylloxera grape varieties. And finally, while they’ve got a typically awesome moldy Hungarian cellar for aging their wines, their soil isn’t typical of the region.

Basically, it’s a wine geek’s Hungarian trifecta!

So… another beautiful landscape with historical vinous significance in Tokaj. I wish that I could tell you that makes this episode special, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to see quite a few more beautiful landscapes with historical significance before this is all over. Enjoy…

Furmint Adventures – Episode 4.: Paulay Winery

Cheers!

There have been some behind-the-scenes changes going on here at 1WD HQ. The more observant among you will notice that I finally ditched the comment engines altogether and have declared that war officially over, it having ended in my inglorious defeat. We’ll be sticking to some enhanced WordPress comments from here on out.

1WD also has a new home, courtesy of WPPronto.com, with whom so far things have been going swimmingly. I’ve tweaked some other technical hosting items here and there; just enough to get me in trouble.

Anyway, today’s update is supposed to be about how this month, for the Wine.Answers.com gig, I decided to go with a double-shot of two themes. So let’s stop messin’ around and get to it, already. Those themes are —

1) The love-it-or-loathe-it “three things…” trivia (primarily because I am a nerd), and

2) Wine book reviews (primarily because I am getting sick of looking at the ever-increasing piles of yet-to-be-reviewed sample books on my office floor).

And so, linked for your reading edu-tainment:

Three Things that You Didn’t Know about Wine Tasting – Seriously, you need to respect the epithelium, people. I mean it. Get on it, your schnoz has power!

Three Things that You Didn’t Know about Burgundy – Yes, I mean besides the incredibly-priced rarities. Anyway, you’ll be able to impress your wine-snob friends with a few of these tidbits, I’ll wager.

Wine Book Review: “Wine and Climate Change” by L.J. Johnson-Bell – “Wine and Climate Change” is a bit of a schizophrenic read (in terms of tone), but it will likely have wine geeks fascinated anyway by its well-researched and well-argued opinions (not to mention the “what-if” scenarios) about how global warming is and will f*ck-up the wine world as we currently know it.

Wine Book Review: “Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and other Alcoholic Beverages” by Patrick McGovern – Call me a homer for a wine history tome written by a fellow PA guy, but nobody covers wine’s distant past like McGovern, and “Uncorking the Past” is at turns witty, insightful, and almost brilliant.

Cheers!