Monthly Archives: January 2013

Jan30

Wine Apps for Blackberry 10

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Wine Apps for Blackberry 10

Blackberry released its new Blackberry 10 operating system today, along with two new phones – the iPhoneish Z10 and the more traditionally Blackberry-style, keyboard-laden Q10. In the release, Blackberry announced that there are over 70,000 apps immediately available. So this got me wondering how many wine apps are there? So we did some digging, and here’s what we found (and most of them are not your usual suspects).

Mobifusion has been busy for this release, and among their apps are a couple noteworthy wine apps, Instant Wine Expert, with a $5.99 price tag and which is by the sound of it is a 1WineDude-esque “tool for working out what’s what in the world of wine, without pretentiousness or pomp”, and Top Wines of the World, a “companion guide for wines from Australia, California, France, Spain, Italy, Chile, Argentina, and [elsewhere around the world]. Both these apps sound bookish, but that is the case with many wine knowledge apps across platforms.

Cytrus has put out a crowdsourcing type wine app called Top12Wines  that you can download here.

The new version of the Vivino Wine Scanner (also familiar on iOS and available in the iTunes App Store) released today to be compatible with OS10, allows users to take a photo of any wine, and the app will automatically match it against an online wine database of more than 500,000 wines.

Wine Secretary looks to be a new app on the Blackberry platform, made specifically for the OS10 release. With it, you can guide your wine purchases using ratings, prices, and reviews from an archive of 1 million+ wines.

So where are apps from the Wine Spectator, Snooth, Nat Decants and others that are staples in iOS? Let’s hope they join the BB10 party soon!

We’ll keep updating as we find out about more wine apps, so keep checking back…

 

 

Jan29

App Review: Pocket Wine

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App Review: Pocket Wine

PocketWine1In this week’s app review, I’m taking a closer look at Pocket Wine, an app that, in the words of the developer, “unlocks the complex world of wine” and “enables you to easily navigate, explore and gain a clear understanding of all the major grape varieties and blends”. Pocket Wine’s main features are a wine Style guide, a listing of Grape varieties, a Food section that allows you to find a suitable wine match for whatever you’re looking at making for din-din, and My Taste (a taste profile feature that’s seriously fun).

The design is warm and inviting. The text pops out well, and the icons are distinguishable and memorable, so they’re doing their job. The navigation is traditionally iOS’sy and as such intuitive for anyone familiar with the platform.

The Style feature is a great access point into finding wines that suit my style (or what I think is my style – more on this below), and going into reading about a wine variety that I find interesting opens up so much information about everything from the variety’s origins, regions where it can be found, potential food pairings, and even a place to put my notes. The one thing that could open it up even more is a link from a proposed food pairing back to that food’s page in the Food section, so that maybe if I don’t like, say, Pinot Grigio with that fish, I can go to the fish’s Goof section page and find other potential wine matches.

The Grapes feature is a more direct link to what I just talked about above, and its inclusion on the menu is a great choice on the part of the developer as its an oft-needed reference not only for beginners but for more seasoned wine lovers wanting to venture into that more unfamiliar territory manned by the Arintos and Assyrtikos of the vine world.

PocketWine2My Taste, a feature that allows you to create a taste profile, is interesting and fun especially when comparing with friends while sharing a bottle and a few laughs. But more than that, it’s truthful. It doesn’t give you a Facebook game-like result of “You are a Cab Man!” but instead sliding-scale results for how you could potentially like multiple wine styles. And you know what? It was pretty spot on with my tastes – I do like smooth reds even if I’ve got a thing for powerhouse Cabs on occasion. What this feature may be missing is a direct link out of My Taste to a wine style. When I saw 80% compatibility to Smooth, I tapped on “Smooth” but nothing happened. Having said that, it’s not a long jaunt back to the Style view, but in this world of multiple access points, that direct access is something that would be a nice-to-have feature.

Pocket Wine is designed for both the iPad and iPhone, which – although almost being a must for most apps these days – is convenient as I like to have this kind of information with me on the go on my iPhone, but when settling down for some lengthier reading on grape varieties or that food-wine match for this Saturday’s dinner, the iPad is easier on the eyes.

All in all, this is a great wine app for both newbies and as a reference tool for veteran wine geeks, and definitely a step up from the various competing free apps that are out there.  It’s available on the US App Store at Pocket Wine – USA and on the Canadian App Store at Pocket Wine – Canada.

Rating: 4 stars

Jan23

Francis Ford Coppola Presents “Inglenook Now”

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Francis Ford Coppola Presents “Inglenook Now”

Rubicon_Vineyard

Francis Ford Coppola, he of Godafther and Apocalypse Now cinematic fame, is probably even more known to some wine folk for his endeavors in California wine for many years now. And when it comes to wine news concerning Mr. Coppola, the recent news of him re-booting the Inglenook brand, and the old Inglenook property’s vineyards, after buying back the Inglenook trademark in 2011 is the cherry on the cake he’s been putting together when not busy bankrupting himself and avoiding Hollywood slavery while making groundbreaking films.Inglenook1941

Coppola bought the Niebaum mansion in 1975 and over the past four decades, he began buying back the property that had been sold in pieces, made it his family home, and poured money into it even when he wasn’t flush with money – but that’s what a labor of love does to you. It’s the one thing he has stuck with, even as he has easily abandoned Hollywood, parting with mainstream filmmaking, something most of the world knows him for. But then again, Coppola has always been one to walk his own path

IInglenook_Winerynglenook’s fame is decades old. Over a hundred years ago they were already making award-winning wine on this estate founded by, of all things, a sea captain from Finland. It garnered the kind of legendary status that has made it, as Robert Mondavi called it, “the most important winery property in the Napa Valley.” So to Coppola, it was a no-brainer to buy back the original Inglenook brand, and replace the Rubicon brand with it, when it became available.

But it doesn’t stop with just a brand. Coppola is intent on reviving the lighter style of wine that made it famous, Cabernets made with few of the modern techniques that seem mandatory in today’s winemaking process. He’s even ready to abandon the usually over the top, oaked fruit bombs of Cabs that Napa has made famous and turn to an older style, some would even say a more Bordeaux style. The shift also requires a change to the hundreds of acres of vines at Inglenook’s vineyards. Coppola has always been very attentive to the farming of his land, and is one of the only vineyard owners in the region to keep a full crew year round to better achieve this purpose.

Now we are beginning to see the first vintages, but a hundred years ago it was the long lasting quality of the Inglenook wines that made them special, so it could be expected that the success of the results of Coppola’s work can only be weighed years, if not decades from now. But if the long-lasting success of his greatest cinematic labor of love, Apocalypse Now, is any sign, there may be great things to come.

           

Jan18

Rolling Stones on a Whole Lot of Wine

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Rolling Stones on a Whole Lot of Wine

Over the last little while I’ve noticed that the Rolling Stones appear on a whole lot of wine out there, or at least it seems that way. On California wine from Mendocino, Canadian ice wine, and sometimes on wine where it’s pretty damn impossible to figure out where the wine comes from or even what grapes are involved.

This is nothing new and other celebrities from Elvis to the Grateful Dead have gotten in on this. After all, beyond the wine itself, these items exist as collectibles and the bottles will surely last sealed and cherished long after the Best Before date of the juice inside, and dare I say it, even beyond the seemingly unending the lasting power of the Stones themselves.

What’s interesting is the depth of the Rolling Stones band’s and brand’s involvement. This is a global brand with amazing reach so why do the Stones tongue logo, and for example, the names of their most memorable tunes Satisfaction and Sympathy for the Devil appear on the labels of a small release of Canadian ice wine? Perhaps it’s just another conquest in a long line of supermodels, platinum records and other triumphs. Though the Stones have apparently tried the Pinot Noir ice wine and have given it the thumbs up, says Jeff Harder, owner of Ex Nihilo winery in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, where the wine hails from.

Whatever the reason, the business model is working both for the celebrities and the wineries. Sales of celebrity based wines have been on the rise the last few years. Gary Vaynerchukonce said that celebrity wines are “the next new marketing oasis”, but that oasis is running dry. Market saturation and overload are close at hand, but in the spirit of the Stones, why bother with those dreary details. No, let’s concentrate on the rock ‘n’ roll, and at least for now, a good – or even half decent – wine can be a part of that rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.

Jan10

M. Chapoutier Les Vignes De Bila-Haut Cotes Du Roussillon Villages 2010

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M. Chapoutier Les Vignes De Bila-Haut Cotes Du Roussillon Villages 2010

Thanks go out to Wine Chateau, a family-owned online and bricks & mortar wine retailer based in New Jersey, who provided us with a sample of this wine.

Bila-Haut, composed of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan, is a wine grown in the Roussillon commune of Latour-de-France. The plots where this wine hails are located on the slopes of the high Agly Valley, composed of gneiss and schist from the Devonian Period.

In the glass, it’s a deep, dense garnet. So let’s take it for a whirl.

On the nose, there are black currants, raspberry, spices, figs and chocolate. much of the same carrier through to the palate: the dark berries, a hint of chocolate, and coffee notes. This wine has lovely balance. Medium tannins and a comfortable load of fruit, the 2010 is not at all heavy. The alcohol clocks in at a solid 14% but it’s a smooth fourteen, without any burn.

It also provides great value, and looks like a good value – maybe even too good as Wine Chateau looks to be completely sold out at the moment.

About M. Chapoutier:

M. Chapoutier has a two hundred year old history in the Rhone Valley, and is now also in the Roussillon. Chapoutier’s own vineyards and the vineyards they source from are either organically or biodynamically cultivated.

Jan3

A Brief History of Merlot

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A Brief History of Merlot

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you have a great 2013 in and out of wine.

2012 was fabulous. We had a chance to taste some great great wines, and there’s only one corked bottle among the bunch that comes to mind, which is a Dionysian blessing itself. Great new connections were made, and can’t wait to keep spreading these here Wineshout wings in 2013.

One of my favorite things from 2012 was a video that won the Wine Spectator video contest last year. It’s called “A Brief History of Merlot” and was made by the folks at Gundlach Bundschu, the oldest family owned winery in California.

Can’t embed it here, so we’ll link you up. Hop on over to http://www.winespectator.com/video/index/playerid/609848879001 for your viewing enjoyment!