by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
For hundreds of years, stoppers made from cork have been the closure of choice for wine bottles. A cork, even under the best of conditions, has a life span of only about 30 years and because of that old wines require re-corking every thirty years or so. Natural cork...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
Zinfandel can be considered the illegitimate child of the wine grape family.” It ain’t got no momma and it ain’t got no poppa” and nobody knows for sure where it came from. It probably arrived in California in the 1850’s and because of its hardiness became...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
Bargain hunters attention, the latest vintage of Alamos wines from Argentina has arrived on our shores and they are better than ever. Alamos wines have always been popular here because of the quality they offer at very reasonable prices. Their current releases are...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
Had the opportunity to review the new packaging of the Pepperwood Grove wines but only mentioned the wines in passing. We intend to rectify that oversight now. Pepperwood Grove is the brainchild of Don Sebastiani. Don comes from one of the pioneer winemaking families...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
In the “way back when;” you know, the past that historians love and school children hate, wine came in assorted sizes of bottles. The 750 milliliter bottle became the most common here because that was the size the French used and at that time our wine industry was...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
We feel that in our rush to tell you about all of the white wines for summer we have neglected the reds. While white wines may be the perfect accompaniment for seafood, salads and all of the other light summer dishes, they cannot stand up to the fare of the great...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
We feel that in our rush to tell you about all of the white wines for summer we have neglected the reds. While white wines may be the perfect accompaniment for seafood, salads and all of the other light summer dishes, they cannot stand up to the fare of the great...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
About five hundred years ago, the French decided what grapes would grow where and set their decision in stone and that system still exists today. California is another story. The fertile hills and valleys there can grow almost everything to perfection. There, cabernet...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
Dry Creek Vineyard has just released a couple of blancs; a Chenin Blanc and a Fume Blanc. Both of these varieties have had great success in France and South Africa but have had a checkered past in the United States. Up until the 1960’s, the Chenin Blanc was an also...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
There are enough myths, fallacies and misinformation about wine to intimidate or scare off the average buyer and we think it is about time to blow the top off of them. Most of these wine bloopers have been around for decades, some for centuries. Let’s start with wine...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
A short time ago we wrote about the new sweet wines from Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi. We can assure all of the people who enjoy the other, drier wines of Woodbridge, that they will still be available and if possible, better than ever. To usher in the warm seasons...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
Dry Creek Vineyard has just released a couple of blancs; a Chenin Blanc and a Fume Blanc. Both of these varieties have had great success in France and South Africa but have had a checkered past in the United States. Up until the 1960’s, the Chenin Blanc was an also...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
About five hundred years ago, the French decided what grapes would grow where and set their decision in stone and that system still exists today. California is another story. The fertile hills and valleys there can grow almost everything to perfection. There, cabernet...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
We feel that in our rush to tell you about all of the white wines for summer we have neglected the reds. While white wines may be the perfect accompaniment for seafood, salads and all of the other light summer dishes, they cannot stand up to the fare of the great...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
In the “way back when;” you know, the past that historians love and school children hate, wine came in assorted sizes of bottles. The 750 milliliter bottle became the most common here because that was the size the French used and at that time our wine industry was...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
Bargain hunters attention, the latest vintage of Alamos wines from Argentina has arrived on our shores and they are better than ever. Alamos wines have always been popular here because of the quality they offer at very reasonable prices. Their current releases are...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
Do you remember Fred MacMurray? He was the star of a television classic, My Three Sons which ran from 1960 to 1972. He was also a top Hollywood personality before the TV series starring in many first class movies. While many of us know of his carrier, very few of us...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
There are enough myths, fallacies and misinformation about wine to intimidate or scare off the average buyer and we think it is about time to blow the top off of them. Most of these wine bloopers have been around for decades, some for centuries. Let’s start with wine...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
A short time ago we wrote about the new sweet wines from Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi. We can assure all of the people who enjoy the other, drier wines of Woodbridge, that they will still be available and if possible, better than ever. To usher in the warm seasons...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
We believe that it must be very intimidating to a wine buyer strolling down the isles at their favorite wine vendor where shelves display a myriad of wines with strange colored labels, in bottles of all shapes and sizes each seeming to scream out “buy me.” Perhaps...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
You can tell it’s spring by the weather, the bright clothing , the smoking barbecues and the appearance of the new wines of this vintage season. We recently came across several little known but very worthy wines and felt it was our duty to bring them to your...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
Location, location, location: it means a great deal in business but it means everything to grapes and therefore to the wine made from them. Most of us have seen the legend on a label saying California, Napa, North Coast etc but what does all that actually to do with...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
From all indications, Spain should be in the same class as France as a leader in the world of wines. It was only recently however that Spain achieved the prominence long denied them. The almost total destruction of the vineyards of France in the 1860’s by a small bug...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
We believe that it must be very intimidating to a wine buyer strolling down the isles at their favorite wine vendor where shelves display a myriad of wines with strange colored labels, in bottles of all shapes and sizes each seeming to scream out “buy me.” Perhaps...
by Ben Bodenstein | Reviews
There are enough myths, fallacies and misinformation about wine to intimidate or scare off the average buyer and we think it is about time to blow the top off of them. Most of these wine bloopers have been around for decades, some for centuries. Let’s start with wine...
High Vacuum Engineer: Senior Technical Adviser and Feature Writer for Modern Photography Magazine (1967-1973), co-founder of Together Vineyards, an experimental vineyard in South Florida which was the southern most registered vineyard in the Continental United States. Co-Author of several books on Home Wine Making, Home Beer Making and Distillation of Spirits. Co-owner of Camera & Video Repair Institute in Sunrise Florida.