By Maggie Smith
Are you one of the many confused wine drinkers that doesn’t understand why some wines are labeled Shiraz yet some are labeled Syrah? Lets do some myth busting and work this out!
Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape, just different styles. Syrah has been around for…let’s just say forever; and then comes this [...]

by Brett Ashley McKenzie
The first 9 people to tell me what city the first challenge of reality show “The Winemakers:Season 2″ was taped will receive a pass for 2 people to an advanced screening to “The Boys Are Back” with Clive Owens today, Monday, September 21, 2009 at 7 PM at AMC 600 N Michigan [...]

On Tuesday, February 17, I attended the first Languedoc Ambassadors Tour tasting and luncheon in Chicago, hosted by the Conseil Interprofessionel du Vin de Languedoc. Held at Avec, the event featured 28 wines that a jury of American tasters had deemed best-representative of the region. Considering that Languedoc is France’s largest wine region, I was surprised not to have heard more about the unique, intriguing wines produced there.

Grocery store circulars everywhere are touting the release tomorrow of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau. Granted, most people don’t expect to find fine wine in the same store stocking Twinkies and Chef Boyardee, but Beaujolais Nouveau has garnered a disrespect in some corners perhaps beyond proportion, considering it doesn’t aspire to much. What is it about this unique [...]

Throw around a phrase like “grand cru” (always said in an attempted foreign accent, right?), and you might impress your friends. Far more impressive, however, is knowing what it means, if anything, before you drop some serious dollars on it.
Literally, grand cru is French for “great growth.” In some regions, the use of the phrase [...]

OK, maybe you say it would taste good WITH chicken. But I think this bad boy is a flavor experience all by itself.
Famed blogger Dr. Vino, aka Tyler Colman, was in Chicago today at Just Grapes speaking about some wines coming out of France that do more than part with tradition—they go running from it.
Our fifth wine was [...]

His name is Dr. Vino, if that tells you anything.
New York-based author Tyler Colman is a wine pro by any other name. But he happens to write the award-winning wine blog DrVino.com. He also authored Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink, a compelling title if ever there was one. (Throw in [...]