Michael Pinkus Wine Review - On the Road with the Grape Guy

Report from - Brazil Tasting - September 14, 2007

02 Oct 2007

Details: Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

If I asked you to name the top 5 largest wine producers in the Southern Hemisphere I’d bet you the farm you wouldn’t get all 5. You’d probably come up with Australia (no.2), maybe Chile (no.3) and South Africa (no.4). You might be surprised to find out the number one spot belongs to Argentina – if you think about Argentina at all and if you did you didn’t think it was number one. But I’d be really surprised if you guessed the number five slot. Well, from the title of this tasting I bet you’ve figured it out; but would you have guessed it had I not been attending a Brazilian wine tasting? I didn’t think so.

Currently Brazil has about 900 wineries and 87,000 hectares under vine – it truly is enough to boggle the mind … Brazil? The land of diminishing rain forests and expanding cattle herds; the land that exported the idea for the smoothest waxing job in the world makes wine … who’d a thunk it? But then again it seems every country in the world makes wine in one form or another; the real question is: do they make good wine? And if so, how do I put my hands on some? ... (Read more)

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Report from - Chilean Preview Tasting - September 12, 2007

02 Oct 2007

Details: Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

As with my fetish for Franc, I make no bones about my love for Chilean wine; Chilean Merlot is where I first began my love affair with red wine and thus, as with all our first loves, Chilean wine holds a special place in my heart (and on my palate). So wouldn’t it just figure that I’d screw up my scheduling so that I am nowhere near Toronto for the Chilean Wine Fair (October 3, 2007) - details of which can be found below; but before you go off and check that out, let me tell you about the Preview Tasting held at the Boiler House Restaurant in Toronto’s distillery district. This preview had an unusual twist … each flight was served blind (we knew the grape variety but not the producer); with a total of 8 flights, some with as many as 9 wines and some with as few as three. There were most definitely some surprises, some “aha!” moments and some real revelations; so let’s take a brief look at some of the wines of Chile, flight by flight ... (Read more)

Check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog and all the other feature articles click here.