Winemaker recreates fruity Spain, chunky Argentina

2010-07-05T04:15:53Z

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - If Spain's soccer team were a wine they would be a classy red, a blend of mourvedre, cabernet franc and tempranillo grapes with a dash of cabernet sauvignon reflecting their elegance and pace. Argentina would be a fruity and chunky wine with dominant shiraz and ...

Quake-hit Chile winemakers yearn to toast recovery

2010-03-26T12:30:41Z

PALMILLA, Chile (Reuters) - Last month's devastating earthquake destroyed 125 million liters (33 million gallons) of Chilean wine -- and with it a little piece of the country's heart. Wine serves as a proxy for Chile's ambitions. Although high in Latin American terms, the living standard here is not at a European level, just as the best Chilean wines are not yet classified like a B...

Uruguay is wine world's rising star

2010-03-19T00:16:05Z

Argentina has its Malbec. Chile has its Carmenere. Now Uruguay, not to be out-muscled by its more famous wine-producing neighbors, is taking the world of viticulture by storm, with its distinctive Tannat wines. Uruguay, the fourth most important wine-producing country in South America, grows a v...

Quake threatens important Chile fish, wine sectors

2010-03-03T08:45:31Z

Earthquake ravages infrastructure lifeline for Chile's important fish and wine sectors

The tsunami that hit this coastal city sent 50-ton fishing boats crashing onto land and demolished its port — wiping out the $40 million in business that courses through the local economy from the annual anchovy and sardine catch. Less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) away, Chile's economy took another beating as the mammoth quake downed ...

Quake damages Chile's wineries, production delayed

2010-03-02T14:00:28Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - As the death toll in Chile climbs to near 800, the toll from the 8.8-magnitude earthquake on one of its largest exports, wine, was still being assessed on Tuesday. "The impact on the infrastructure was considerable as the earthquake severely affected the heart of the Chilean wine industry: Maipo, Cachapoal, Colchagua, Maule and Bio Bio wine regions,"

It's a 'good crisis' for South American wine

2010-04-16T11:41:03Z

As the world grits its teeth and grabs another glass of something to chase the blues away, South American wine producers are contentedly watching exports bounce. International wine sales from places like Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru are up in the first quarter of 2009, and industry professionals are saying the...

Gain an Appreciation For Chilean Wine

2010-04-16T15:55:48Z

Gain an Appreciation For Chilean Wine By Paul Mcindoe Since the introduction of the Spanish vine in the 16th century, Chile has gone on to become one of the world's most famous wine producers. Although often overshadowed by its European competitors, Chilean wine has gradually grown in mainstream popularity and today is available on most supermarket shelves. As Spain colonised Chile, Spanish settlers, part...

US winery owner dies in Brazil

2010-04-16T15:29:28Z

German-born US winery owner dies in Brazil in swimming accident

A German-born businessman who owned a New York winery has died while swimming in the ocean off of Brazil, police said Friday. Christian Wolffer, 70, suffered two deep cuts on his back whil...

Clash of the titans: Bordeaux vs Burgundy

2010-04-16T14:34:33Z

One of my shameful wine secrets is that I crave good bordeaux more than I do good burgundy. Wine lore has it that bordeaux is more for beginners; a drink you enjoy before your palate is quite fully mature and you learn to understand the exquisite beauty of burgundy. Bordeaux is said to be cerebral: the algebra, the musical theory, the astrophysics and the essay; burgundy, meanwhile, is a scintillating flare of emotion and pure being that eclipses thought like the sound of an operatic ari...

SPECTATOR MINI-BAROFFER

2010-04-16T14:36:14Z

Organic wine is increasingly popular, in spite of the fact that few people know what the term actually means. The rules seem to be strict but variable, work differently from country to country, and are monitored by a bewildering number of autonomous organisations. Some of these allow a handful of additions, such as preservatives. But others ban certain physical processes, even if these don't involve chemicals at all. If the word has any useful meaning, I suppose it's something like: 'ma...

SPECTATOR WINE CLUB

2010-04-16T14:51:48Z

We have recently been offering many French wines, mainly from the intriguing new regions that make some wonderful bottles, usually for about half of what you would pay for similar quality in better-known areas. The present excellence of what used to be called vin de pays, and would once have been more fit for cleaning horse brasses than for consumption, is amazing and gratifying. Often the wines are made by outsiders, from Britain<...

Here's to More Research

2010-04-16T14:55:56Z

THE COMPLEX and pleasing taste of a well-made wine results from a cocktail of many chemicals mixing it up during fermentation. But why and how they manage to produce such a beguil-ing drink is something that's long stumped scientists. It's a secret that many of them are still trying to divine. For instance, Carnegie Mellon University chemical engineering professor Lorenze Biegler wants to develop computer...

Buenos Aires: Steak and the tango on a budget

2010-06-12T00:20:20Z

In Buenos Aires, steak dinners and the tango can be had on a budget

Argentina's capital Buenos Aires is a cosmopolitan city best experienced through its monumental passions rather than its monuments. Argentines adore steak and red wine dinners that stretch on for hours, the sultry nostalgia of tango dance halls, a nail-biting match between rival soccer titans ...

Wine with a twist at Washington's first self-service wine bar

2010-04-16T13:20:36Z

Ceviche is the first self-service wine bar in Washington and believed to be one of very few in the entire United States and features wines and food from Latin America or with a Spanish accent. Before Lana Shekim does the week's shopping, she likes to stop off ...

Firing blancs

2010-04-16T13:24:00Z

'Seventy-five centilitres of fun' is how the Australian producer Bob McLean describes a bottle of wine. The more time I spend tasting, drinking and writing about the stuff, the more I agree with him. Wine can be wonderfully complex, but for all the chitchat about clones, soil types and vintage variation, only one thing really matters. Does it put a smile on your face? The thought occurred to me recently during the first New Zealand? South Africa? Woody Allen's film Sleeper, the owner of a health food store called The Happy Carrot goes into hospital for a routine ulcer operation and wakes up 200 years later after a long snooze in a tank of liquid nitrogen. A bewildered Miles Monroe finds that society has changed considerably while he's been asleep, not least in its attitude to health. Contrary to what people thought in ...

NASCAR Pocono Auto Racing

2010-07-30T15:45:40Z

Driver Juan Montoya, of Colombia, pulls on his racing-suit before qualifying for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pennsylvania 500 auto race, Friday, July 30, 2010, in Long Pond, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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Argentina Gay Marriage

2010-07-30T10:45:25Z

Ernesto Rodriguez Larrese, right, and Alejandro Vanelli kiss each other as they hold up their marriage license after getting married in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, July 30, 2010. Larrese and Vanelli are the first gay couple to get married at the Argentine capital after Alejandro Vanelli, left, are married by Judge Adriana Vinacurt, right, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, July 30, 2010. Larrese and Vanelli are the first gay couple to get married at the Argentine capital after ...

Argentina Same Sex Marriage

2010-07-30T10:45:20Z

Ernesto Rodriguez Larrese, center right, and Alejandro Vanelli, center left, are showered with rice after getting married in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, July 30, 2010. Larrese and Vanelli are the first gay couple to get married at the Argentine capital after Alejandro Falla, of Colombia, stretches to return a shot to Ernests Gulbis, of Latvia, during their match at the Farmers Classic tennis tournament, Thursday, July 29, 2010, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

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