by Sean Ludford | Apr 1, 2024 | Wine
Offida is a modest commune in the southwest portion of the Marche region of Italy centered around the town of the same name. Offida is home to fewer than 6,000 residents and roughly 463 hectares (1,144 acres) of vines that comprise the Offida DOCG. The entire appellation produces less than 200,000 cases a year and most of these wines never travel beyond the Italian...
by Sean Ludford | Dec 12, 2023 | Wine
Méthode champenoise – no this is not the French rapper the kids are talking about. Like any self-respecting rapper méthode champenoise has many aliases: méthode traditionnelle, traditional method, and metodo classico (Italy) among others. If you see Méthode champenoise, or any of its aliases, you know that the sparkling wine is made in the traditional method first perfected in Champagne, France. As you likely...
by Sean Ludford | Jul 11, 2023 | News Feed, Travel, Wine
On July 14 we celebrate Bastille Day. This French National Holiday is celebrated by liberty loving people around the globe. In 1789 tensions were high in France as a growing group of ordinary citizens were pushing for a national constitution. These French citizens were inspired by the newly independent United States of America and their newly formed Constitution that was adopted that same year....
by Sean Ludford | May 30, 2023 | News Feed, Wine
by Shyla Cadogan CRANFIELD, United Kingdom — There’s a new reason to celebrate the 1400s, aside from Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the new world. Scientists have been able to track down the earliest known evidence of wine drinking in the Americas. They made the discovery inside Caribbean pottery vessels on a small Caribbean island dating back to the 15th century. Researchers examined 40 olive...
by Sean Ludford | Apr 23, 2023 | Wine
Walk by any sidewalk cafe in Manhattan, Houston, San Francisco, Atlanta, or Milwaukee and count the glasses of pink wine on the tables. My friends, we are in the midst of a Rosé invasion and unlike most invasions — this one is great and delicious. Three decades ago Rosé was a fringe category with anyone serious about wine occasionally waxing poetic about the great...
by Sean Ludford | Nov 22, 2022 | Wine
Colheita is a single-vintage Tawny Port. Colheita is Portuguese for harvest and in this case, harvest is synonymous with vintage. Colheita Ports are vintage-dated and include the bottling date/vintage typically expressed on the back label. Some have called this lesser-known sub-category of Port the ultimate Tawny Port — we agree. Colheita must be aged for a minimum of seven years in cask, but they...
