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CANADIAN HARVEST BEGINS
Published at Decanter.com on August 25, 2010
By Carolyn Evans Hammond
The Canadian Harvest started today in Ontario's Niagara region, the earliest commercial picking there in more than 20 years.
21 Wines Under $21
That Could Sell For Much More
Prepared for Tidings Magazine, November 2010 issue, by Carolyn Evans Hammond
I taste a lot of sock squeezings disguised as wine that sell for way too much dosh but I don’t write them up much. Nor do other critics. We tend to focus on what’s good instead. How badly do you really want to read about a $50 bottle of wine that tastes like under-ripe raspberries crushed in someone’s armpit, steeped in black tea for 32 hours, and then strained through a pair of used boxer briefs?
I assure you, under par wines are out there and, though they’re annoying to come across at trade tastings where the spittoon is a discreet saving grace, nothing’s worse than paying good money for a poorly made, past its best, flawed, or just plain overrated bottle. Reverse that and spend, say, less than $21 on a wine that can make you believe in God, and we’re talking wine appreciation.
Looking Beyond the Critter: How to Trade up Successfully
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, for Taste Magazine, Autumn 2010
How far do you have to fly before you start circling back? Guess that and you’ll know what country sells the most wine to
It used to be cheaper and more cheerful than a gigolo’s come-on. But Australian wine is changing lickity split.
Death of French Cuisine
And has French Wine Gone the Way of French Cuisine?
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, published in Tidings Magazine, October 2010.
Remember all the things that French culture produced in the 19th and early 20th centuries — the books, the pictures, the music, the architecture, the hats — and now think about contemporary French literature, art, buildings, music and fashion. The thing you’re seeing in your mind’s eye is tumbleweed blowing down the Champs-Elysées. And that hideous screeching, that’s Carla Bruni singing French pop music. French food didn’t die; the culture that supported it did.
Aren’t you glad we can count on A.A. Gill, The Times restaurant critic in
THE PROCESS: A WINE COURSE IN FOUR PAGES
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, published in Tidings magazine, September 2010.
The business of wine tasting is a curious thing. It’s very different than wine drinking. When I taste a wine wearing my critic’s cap, I pull apart the pleasure experience. I hold each aspect of the wine up against the cold yardstick of imaginary perfection. How’s the colour, fruit, alcohol, and acidity? What about the tannins, balance, complexity, and length? Is it typical? Mature? There’s no quiet conversation, eye-batting flirtation, suggestive comments, or even jazz. Instead, I’m alone at home or with other wine critics in a lab or professional tasting, spittoon in hand. Yes, I spit; inebriation wreaks havoc on tasting notes.
GREAT CANADIAN RIESLING
By Carolyn Evans Hammond for July 2010 Issue of Tidings Magazine
So does this happen to you? Every time you go for a facial, the aesthetician tries to sell you hundreds of dollars worth of skin care products? It happens to me without fail. There I lie, damp cotton circles on my eyes, soft music playing, face steamer puffing away, alone with the aesthetician, and the pitch begins:
“What do you use on your skin?”
I could say $5,000 per ounce cherub spit and it wouldn’t matter. The next line is always the same.
Sauvignon Blanc: The Ultimate Summer Sipper
By Carolyn Evans Hammond for Summer 2010 Issue of Taste Magazine
Summer is almost unfathomable without the thrill of that party-in-a-glass wine, Sauvignon Blanc. From the restrained stone-and-grass versions of the Loire,
What Your Wine Really Says About You
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, Published in the May Issue of Tidings Magazine
Why is it that being caught with a glass of White Zinfandel is like being caught staring at a computer screen full of topless carwash girls holding dipsticks?
Why? Because wine is unequivocally and absolutely not just a drink. It is an admission and extension of who we are, or at the very least, our arms. It’s an accessory. Frankly, our wine choices say as much about us as our wristwatches, iPod menus, reading material, and shoes.
21 Wines You Must Taste
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, for Tidings Magazine, April 2010.
We’ve all met them. They talk loudly at dinner parties, swan about with inflated chests wearing flashy designer clothes, and drive red Porches or some other symbol of early- mid- or late-life crises. They sport supermodels as arm accessories. And they adore top wines—which, to them, are anything with cult status. You can always spot them ordering bottles of Dom at bars. And bragging about mixing it with orange juice on special mornings, not realizing their mistake.
Through Rosé-Coloured Glasses
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, for Taste Magazine, Spring 2010
What’s in your glass says more about you than your shoes, your haircut, or your gossipy neighbour. And swanning about with a drink of something dry and pink these days is like showing up at a party with Michael Bublé or January Jones on your arm. From
It used to be that only downy-fresh, debutante-wanna-be, twenty-somethings in Victoria Secret sweats drank pink. Now really concerned, thick-lensed types with furrowed brows on Mediterranean diets, who listen to jazz and read the Globe and Mail are pouring the stuff too. Along with the svelte, smart, successful set with three luxury cars, a ski chalet, two kids, a dog and a nanny. And everyone in between. So what gives?
Affordable Holiday Wines: Six Top Picks
Carolyn's thoughts appear at "My Gourmet Connection", December 2009. Go to:
http://www.mygourmetconnection.com/articles/wine-spirits/affordable-holiday-wines-six-top-picks.php
Your Vinous Secret Weapon
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, published in February 2010 issue of Tidings
What’s the world’s most undervalued wine? This tidbit can change your life. Knowing its name will save you money so inadvertently make you richer. Pouring it for family and friends will dazzle them, making you smarter, cooler and instantly more popular—so relatively more famous in your sphere. It may even make you sexier if you consider the halo effect the newfound richness, smartness, coolness and fame will have on you, combined with the fact that your beloved will probably end up drinking more because the wine is delicious. And you know where that leads, pussycat.
How to Snag a Great Bottle of Merlot
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, published in Taste Magazine, Winter/Holiday Issue 2009
Imagine swirling a perfectly ripe cherry around in a pot of melting chocolate and popping it in your mouth. That’s what fine Merlot tastes like. It’s the most lush and supple of all reds and it has been described as “Cabernet without the pain”. Not surprising then it’s been the darling of the masses for decades. In fact, one of the world’s most sought-after wines is pure Merlot—Chateau Petrus from
Though Petrus is out of reach for most of us, you can get huge pleasure from a glass of Merlot for a fraction of the price because to some degree Merlot is Merlot—much like vanilla ice cream is vanilla ice cream. Obviously, the two-buck supermarket brick variety isn’t a scoop from Berthillon, the top luxury glacier in Paris, but if you buy a solid brand like Häagen-Dazs, you’re in good shape. It’s kind of like that with Merlot; reliable makers don’t disappoint. But how do you know which makers are winners?
Pinot Grigio and Peanuts? Get Over It!
Written by Carolyn Evans Hammond. Published in Tidings Magazine, November 2009
People go to parties for a good time—not because they are hungry or thirsty. As party patrons, we all know this. So why then does this knowledge seem to evaporate in the brains of so many hosts and hostesses? As soon as they start planning a do, off they go to shop. Some of them have the good sense to limit the quantity and insist on quality but far too many get giddy and start with great long shopping lists pinned to recipes for gloppy potato salad and other horrors of Texan proportions. They stuff their fridges with hideous alcopops, too much beer, and bottles of heart-sinking wine—not to mention cans of soda and cheap liquor. It’s madness. And then, sadly, they invite us.
Canada's 2009 harvest starts in Okanagan Valley
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, published at Decanter.com September 3, 2009.
Canada kicked off its harvest Tuesday morning with Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estates Winery in British Columbia picking Sauvignon Blanc at 6am Pacific Time. Other wineries in the region will follow suit within days.
'The fruit looks very good and the vineyards are in great condition. It's pretty exciting to be quite honest,' says James Hopper, senior viticulturalist with B.C.'s Mission Hill Family Estate, who starts picking Tuesday.
First Unsulfured Champagne Released
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, published on Decanter.com August 5, 2009
Drappier Champagne has released the first unsulfured bubbly - Brut Nature Zéro Dosage Sans Souffre NV, a Blanc de Noirs.
The new Champagne means the Drappier family - all of whom are allergic to the preservative - can now freely drink their own product.
South African Wine Under Fire
By Carolyn Evans Hammond
Prepared for Tidings Magazine, October 2009
With thunderclap intensity, the cloak is being ripped from the truth about South African red wines, leaving
Five Unspoken Rules of Californian Wines
Nail That Thrill Factor
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond
Published in Taste Magazine Summer 2009
Certain wines can put thunder in your life. A great wine can be like a great kiss that way. Maybe thousands of potential suitors aren’t competing for your affections like wines do, flashing their fancy labels at you as you stroll through the aisles, but that selection process is equally vital. Wines from
THE IMPORTANCE OF COUTURE CUVÉES
By Carolyn Evans Hammond for Tidings Magazine, Sept/Oct 09 issue
Couture. That high-end fashion that sashays down runways, ricochets through the pages of Vogue, and lands in swank shops is the very engine that drives what we see later at Harry Rosen, Zara, and even Le Château as bastardized versions of the top stuff. And so it is with wine. The bespoke, hand-stitched wines from the finest fruit come from the top houses—the classed growth châteaux of
Canadian Wines: So Much More than Icewine
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, prepared for Tidings Magazine in July/Aug 2009
Great Canadian table wine is our little secret. We don’t export it much. When you mention it to people abroad, they think they misheard you. And when you look at the facts, it’s rather surprising how quickly our local winemakers have started to spin out some stunningly delicious stuff.
The Next Big Thing: Premium Pink
Fine Wine Comes in Three Colours Now
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published in May 2009 issue of Tidings Magazine
Scantily clad French folk quaff it on beaches of the
Move Over Pinot Grigio…. Hello Pinot Gris!
Remember the 90s? The OJ trial, Lewinski, Y2K fears, the Macarena, and palm pilots. There was MC Hammer in his absurd parachute pants, Madonna voguing, and Vanilla Ice chanting, ice, ice, baby. And who could forget the passionate love affair with all that oaky Chardonnay from
Then, like a dream, in walked the very lean, very clean, unwooded Pinot Grigio whispering a compelling proposition: to quench and refresh like that old flame Chardonnay never did. Even its lilting name—Pinot Grigio—seemed exciting as it rolled off the tongue.
Pinot Noir: Can The New World Match The
by Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published in Taste magazine, 2009 Spring Issue
Tasted Pinot Noir? If you’ve seen the 2004 flick, Sideways, you probably have.
Before that movie, Burgundy-philes were like a secret club of hardcore oenophiles sharing their private passion for Pinot Noir, the grape of
Icewine Harvest Begins in Niagara
by Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com 09/012/08
Canada's icewine harvest began on 7 December in Niagara, as temperatures dipped below -8C (17.6F) and grapes froze on the vine.
Winemakers across Ontario are optimistic about the vintage, with Henry of Pelham, Inniskillin and Peller Estates among the wineries to start harvesting.
Holiday Cheese and Wine Pairing
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published in Tidings m
I was at my friend’s place the other day and she asked me if I had tasted the cheese, Chèvre Noir. I hadn’t. She sliced me some and it was sublime—struck me as quite similar to Parmigiano-Reggiano cut fresh from the wheel, with its tender-crumbly nutty sharpness. I skipped over to Whole Foods Market in
Chèvre Noir’s creamy colour against its black wax coating reminds me of peep-toe Betty Boop-style shoes, which are big right now. I like the idea of peep-toe shoes because they extend the footloose and toe free season into snowfall and the holiday soirée season. And on the right women, peep-toe pumps allude to the archetypal film noir seductress circa 1940—a vampy suggestion not lost on certain men including but not limited to drag queens.
Sherry: Not Just for Santa and the Over 60 Set
by Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published in Taste magazine's 2008 Holiday Issue
Santa’s preference for Sherry and mince pie shows he’s in the know.
Sherry is one of the best kept secrets of the wine world. Just ask anyone in the wine trade and they’ll tell you, it packs more pleasure than almost any other wine style. Sherry is very, very cool. And not just for the over 60 set.
Canadian harvest begins
by Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com 19/09/08
Canadian wineries picked the first fruit of the 2008 vintage this week and winemakers appear more than satisfied with quality.
Matthew Speck, viticulturalist at Henry of Pelham Winery on the Niagara Escarpment, said they were slightly behind normal harvest but the grapes looked 'fantastic.'
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published in Taste
Can any wine be worth $210,000? The price of a small house? If it’s a great
Niagara kicks off 2007 ice wine harvest
by Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com 04/01/08
Winery workers in Niagara
With temperatures dropping below -8C (17.6F) in the early morning of 3 January, the conditions were cold enough to freeze the grapes on the vine – a prerequisite for harvesting ice wine.
A complex nose with subtle hints of poo: Burgundy is mad for a new kind of winemaking whose secret ingredient is cow dung
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, Published in Maclean's magazine, 1/16/2006
Nine years ago, the prestigious 289-year-old Burgundy winery Domaine Leflaive hosted a blind taste test of two of its wines. To be exact, the tasters, from the London wine merchant Corney & Barrow, were comparing two samples of the same wine: the 1996 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clavoillon. But one was made with organic grapes, the other with grapes grown using biodynamism, a method that's gaining popularity in wine circles -- although even its advocates will admit it sounds like something out of a Wiccan manual. Growers following one preparation are instructed to pack manure in a cow horn and bury it among the vines during the fall, dig it up in the spring and stir in rainwater vigorously for an hour, then apply it to the land after 3 p.m. The result: better grapes, apparently.
Constellation raises Vincor bid in 'final offer'
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com, 29/11/2005
Constellation Brands has raised its hostile takeover bid to CAN$1.1bn to acquire Vincor International, North America's fourth-largest wine producer.
'In the absence of cooperation by Vincor, CAN$33 (€23.9) [per share] is Constellation's best and final offer,' Constellation's CEO Richard Sands said.
Red wine tablet for teetotallers?
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com, 1/16/2005
Recent studies suggest red wine may prevent ulcers and strokes, clear the arteries, suppress cancer, help the lungs, and act like an antibiotic against certain bacteria. Research has now shown the benefits could be captured in a tablet.
HAS THE BUBBLE BURST FOR CABERNET SAUVIGNON AND CHARDONNAY?
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond
Plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay have been increasing for the last decade in all of the major wine producing regions in the world, fueled by consumer demand. Now, the wine trade and wine industry is starting to react to what has become a surplus of these two varieties.
Beaujolais Bans Use of Agglomerate Corks
The Beaujolais Newsletter
The use of agglomerate was banned on 1st October for all bottling of Beaujolais, and across all appellations. This is just one of the 29 measures presented and implemented during the "Assises du Beaujolais", which took place last July in Lyon.
Port and Sherry Production, Marketing and Sales: The Quiet Revolution
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond
Labour shortages and rising production costs have plagued the port industry over the past 50 years and a steady decline in sales since 1980 has burdened the sherry industry. These regional pressures coupled with an increasingly competitive marketplace are spurring investment and innovation in production, marketing and sales.
New territories : KMPG's latest report urges a radical shift in the way Australian wineries view export markets.
by Carolyn Evans-Hammond, Published in Wine & Spirit International, January 2004
Supermarkets account for an ever-growing share of wine sales around the world. This trend is reshaping the playing field, and has prompted a re-evaluation of the ways in which wine producers compete in the demanding grocery sector and beyond.
NEW ZEALAND’S WINE INDUSTRY IN THE UK
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published in Wine & Spirit International, January 2004
At first glance,
Challenges Ahead for the
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com, 1/22/2004
Australian wine exports plummet
The value of Australian wine exports has dramatically fallen by over a quarter in just one month, according to a new report issued by the country’s Bureau of Statistics.
KMPG Wine Industry Report
Shelf space…is there room for me?
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond
Supermarkets continue to seize an increasing share of retail wine sales globally. This trend is reshaping the playing field, and gives rise to the question of how to compete in the demanding grocery sector and other market segments.
Red wine may combat lung disease
by Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com, 10/31/2003
Red wine can help fight lung disease, a new study has revealed.
25% of corks rejected after analysis by maker
by Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com, 10/21/2003
An Australian cork manufacturer says its Portuguese quality control laboratory rejects a quarter of all corks after analysis by its revolutionary new TCA detection equipment.
ENGLAND HARVEST REPORT
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com, 9/30/2003
This year will be one of the best years ever, according to Chris White, general manager of Denbies Wine Estates in Surrey—England's largest wine producer. Others agree. Tom Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyards in Gloucestershire, is calling this year's fruit 'magnificent.'
Scientists reject GM for cold-resistant vine
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, Decanter.com, 9/23/2003
Canadian scientists are close to identifying the gene that protects vines from extreme cold – and they're doing it without genetic modification.
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published on Decanter.com, 9/22/2003
Producers in
A TOAST TO SPRING
By Carolyn Evans-Hammond, published in Outreach Connection in
South African Wine Under Fire
By Carolyn Evans Hammond
Prepared for Tidings Magazine, October 2009
With thunderclap intensity, the cloak is being ripped from the truth about South African red wines, leaving
South African Wine Under Fire
By Carolyn Evans Hammond October 18, 2009
With thunderclap intensity, the cloak is being ripped from the truth about South African red wines, leaving Cape producers reeling and scrambling. What, until recently, has only been whispered in wine circles is hitting the press hard from London to New York.
Too many South African reds smell of burnt rubber—particularly Pinotage but also Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends. And wine critics are finally committing the fact to print. Jane MacQuitty, wine columnist for The Times newspaper in London, was probably the first to commit the words to print when she wrote, “South Africa has yet to tame its red wine’s peculiar burnt rubber and dirt odour.”
Your Vinous Secret Weapon
What’s the world’s most undervalued wine? This tidbit can change your life. Knowing its name will save you money so inadvertently make you richer. Pouring it for family and friends will dazzle them, making you seem smarter, cooler and instantly more popular—so relatively more famous in your sphere. It may even make you sexier if you consider the halo effect that your newfound richness, smartness, coolness and fame will have on you, combined with the fact that your beloved will probably end up drinking more because the wine is delicious. And you know where that leads, pussycat.