New Zealand is counted to be a new world wine country, but despite this fact you can hardly find such taste of wine which New Zealand wines obtain. Such New Zealand wine styles as Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are famous all over the world. All this is connected with perfect climate conditions that guarantee long sunshine hours and good temperature value, but of course wine making would be impossible without great desire and skills of New Zealand wine makers.

Today our talk will be about so aristocratic kind of wine as Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir was brought to New Zealand in 1975 and for the next ten years they produced it in the Wellington region of this country, in a small town called Martinborough. Also they used this kind of grapes for producing sparkling and high-fermented type of new zealand wine as Chardonnay. Today Pinot Noir kind of grapes is counted to be one of the most widespread kinds of red grapes in New Zealand and Pinot Noir style in wine is proclaimed as one of the most desirable ones. Continue Reading »

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In the previous article we discussed such a continent as Africa and spoke about wine history of this country. Today we will discover where they grow grapes for their wine – in other words, we will talk about wine areas of South Africa.

Wines from South Africa differ from other wine labels by their relatively low prices and a great variety of quality level. South Africa is counted to be famous as New World wine country because they not far a long reached the world wine market, despite the fact they started their way of winemaking in the 17^th century.

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In our previous articles we discovered many countries and continents where people produce wine, except Africa and Antarctica. Of cause as for Antarctica now we have not any facts about winemaking industry there, but as for Africa we have got a lot of information to tell you about it and it is even some kind of shame we didn’t tell you about it before.

So let us start our conversation about this continent with wine making history of South Africa. It starts in 1652 and it is connected with the arrival of settlers from Europe to this continent. Three years later the head of company in India, Jan van Riebeck, planted first grape in the Table Bay area. And in 1659 he was very happy to report that first south africa wine was produced. At that time the only region of grapes growing in Africa was located in Cape. Continue Reading »

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Without a doubt this is the only wine region people can name you if you ask them: “What do you know about wining in Australia?” And be sure that if they won’t mention even this region they know nothing about wine at all.

There well-known Australian wine producers grow their grapes – among them we can mark Penfolds , Peter Lehmann, Wolf Blass, Krondorf, Orlando, Seppelts and Yalumba. Also we can add to this list such boutique owners as Greenock Creek, Rockfords, Torbreck and others. Continue Reading »

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Every country is proud of its greatest wine regions, wines and of cause of wineries where these wines are produced. Today we will have a talk about Australian wine regions and name their greatest wineries.

As we have discovered in the previous article first grapes was brought to Australia from France and also we know there a lot of wine regions in this country. In this column we selected the most famous eight wineries you will be interesting to know.

So first winery we will touch is “Stumpy Gulley Winery”, this wine region is located in the Mornington Peninsula, this winery is noble for its chardonnay wine and also for its Pinot noir and Pinot Grigio. This winery is owned by one family from the beginning till nowadays. “Stumpy Gulley Winery” owners organize wine tasting affairs every weekend. This winery produces wines from 10 grapes sorts…

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Practically on all continents we discovered some wine regions, so today it is high time for us to meet Australia continent. And let us begin our discussion with outstanding Australian wine style that is called Shiraz.

This kind of wine has its own traditions and technique of wine making. Experts suppose that it is better to taste red types of shiraz wine. People thought that this grape was brought from France to Australia, also practically every resident of Australia can tell you the name of France region it was brought from, the name of it was Hermitage. This fact is explained by one popular Australian belief that due to Phylloxera disease Australian wine regions are more likely to Hermitage now than Hermitage itself.

Australia is an old wine country that’s why it is nothing extraordinary in the fact it has some vineyards that are 100 years old and didn’t change during this time. Of cause the amount of grapes these vineyards can offer is not as big as new ones, but it is very quality grapes even now.

But the fact that Shiraz leaves the best example of Australian wines is undeniable. Grapes for australian shiraz wine are grown practically in all wine regions of Australia. In most cases this wine is a mix from different grapes of this type. You can meet Shiraz grapes kind in such noble wines as Grange or Henschke Hill of Grace and others. Also they use Shiraz grapes for producing more dry wine types in such styles as Vintage Port. Continue Reading »

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Portugal is a very rich wine country due to its climate and thousand years of wine making traditions. In the previous column we were talking about Port, the most famous wine between red wines in this country. This time we will discover the most famous wine between white Portugal wines which is called Madeira. And also we will talk about Table Portugal wines variety.

Madeira got its name from the island on which they produced it. Portugal people use for madeira wine the same technology they use for Port wine. But of cause there is a difference between these two methods because if they didn’t have it they would produce the same wines. In the beginning of the process of fermentation Portuguese intentionally over-heat Madeira wine, due to this they got caramelized flavor in it.

There is a great variety of Madeira wine types from sugary types to dry ones. Also you can find different Madeira wine types by its price, so you should be prepared that cheap Madeira wine was made from grapes which are called Tinta Negra Mole, its not bad but the best Madeira is made by the four well known kinds of grapes. If you will find Madeira wine on the label of which you can see such notes as “was made from Bual”, “was made from Malvasia”, “was made from Sercial” or “was made from Verdelho”, than be sure it is the best Madeira wine you can see in Portugal. Continue Reading »

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Fortified wines from Portugal are noble all over the world for its marvelous taste and bouquet. When we think about Portugal wines we usually mean such wine kinds as Madeira and Port, although these wines are produced on an island outpost Portugal, but don’t be hurry to say that you know Portugal wine world, this country have a lot of surprises for you.

Now let us touch the basic element in wine making and as you could guess the conversation will be about grapes in Portugal. Climate conditions of this country allow growing of grapes of various types. We ought to tell that nobody brought grapes there, so all grape types in this country are native for it.

Portuguese use different grapes for their red and white wine types.

For their red wine people from Portugal use grapes called Touriga Nacional, this grapes is also an important element in producing Portugal port wine. Also they can use such types of grapes as Periquita or Baga. Continue Reading »

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It is not a secret that Argentina is in the list of largest wine making countries of the world. But it is also not a secret that previous fact is practically unknown to the public. So lucky you are that you can read this article and find more interesting facts about this country.

But first let us discover geographic location of this country. It is located in the south part of South American continent. If we talk about wine growing regions of this country we will touch Mendoza province, because it is the most outstanding region of wine making. It is in the central part of Argentina and it is like Tuskany in Italy for wine lovers.

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Perfect climate conditions always supported Chile to be one of the leading wine making countries. The history of wine making in Chile is very long and it lasts practically about five hundred years.

So let’s start from the very beginning of the wine history in Chile. If we could travel to the past with help of some machine then to see the start of Chile’s wine history we should enter “mid-sixteenth century”. As we know from the history lessons it was a time of missioners and conquistadores, who tried to provide the leading position of Spain in the countries of American continent. Conquistadores were the first who brought cuttings of grapes to Chile, they planted it near Santiago, because its climate was very close to their own. Conquistadores used wine for religion purposes but the first grape harvest in Chile was bigger that they expected, so they decided to use it in export.

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