If you would like to try something special and different for Valentine’s Day try some wine called Mead. It is brewed from honey rather than grapes; it has a beautiful golden color and a very long tradition of love.

Mead goes by many names and over the centuries it has been called honey-wine, nectar of the gods, and even honeymoon wine. This last name stemmed from a tradition to give a 30-day supply of it to newly married couples. It was said that if they drank a glass every day for the first thirty days of their marriage it would bring them happiness and fertility.

Chocolate, flowers, candy and cards are wonderful traditions that have lasted decades now. But for centuries longer there was the tradition of drinking Mead that was shared by couples. Make this holiday special and try some. It has been around for many hundreds of years and it has been speculated that it was the first alcoholic beverage ever made. This is a matter of debate but one thing that is not up for debate is the delicious nature of this beautiful wine brewed from honey.

So If you are looking for a little something special to do on Valentine’s day I recommend you give Mead a try. It is a brilliant little drink and will make for an interesting new experience and conversation piece.

Honey wine is a very popular drink world-wide but is lesser known in North America and if you are considering a purchase of it you may want to call your local wine retail shop ahead of time to see if they have any in stock.

Want to learn how to make your own honey wine mead? Visit the author’s website where he has tutorials, articles and videos all about this wonderful ancient drink:
The Art of Making Mead

Many thanks to wine lovers around the world, because of them the idea and creativity came, and growing to be an industry all around the world, although we never knows where, when or whom an idea for wine bags starting.

Right now, each country have specific / unique design for wine bags and sometimes very identical with that country.

Example:

1.-China - the style of wine bag is Cheongsam, it’s traditional Chinese skirt, it’s very cute design, and when we look the fabric, everybody will directly knows that wine bags came from China.

2.-South Africa - identically with animals skin (ex. tiger, lion), that’s why the wine bags design is animal skin fabric.

3.-Tahiti, French Polynesia - popular with Hibiscus flower, the wine bags design with Hibiscus flower applique embroidery.

4.-Many others countries : Thailand with silk fabrics, India with embroidery fabric applique gems, etc.

Few examples above, give me an idea to create and made wine bags with design and fabric specific to my country. So cause in my country INDONESIA, specific fabric is BATIK and I love batik fabric very much, I design and create wine bags with batik fabric and applique with embroidery. The result is very fantastic, everybody loves the design especially expatriate in my country. They comment : beautiful and gorgeous.

Besides fabrics, wine bags also made from leather, canvas, plastic or paper, and gives various option for everybody to choose which ones, but usually according to our experience it’s depend on the design, material, color, and the important thing is the price. The cheaper price of course is paper or plastic, but after open the bags the paper or plastic will throw away. Affordable price is fabric and you can use this bags as a souvenir or as a gift although without wine inside. And later, the expensive one is leather.

Usually wine bag with fabric material designs for 1 bottle but others material leather and canvas can make for 2 or 3 bottle wine. That’s cute design.

Hopefully with this articles, will encourage people, give an idea to explore and love the unique fabric or other materials from each country, to create and made wine bags too. Or very appreciate if you can share your idea about Wine Bag with me, Asiani Megawati by e-mail: asianim@indo.net.id, or you can contact by phone: 62-21-4584 5386 (Indonesia), Mobile: 62-812-9138291.

Click www.1winebags.com to explore few samples of my beautiful wine bags.

The ritual of using a wine decanter makes serving wine a celebration. The process of decanting wine is simply to move the wine from its bottle to another container before serving it. This practice is normally only done with red wines as white wine should be served chilled. The traditional method is to use a clear glass decanter with a narrow neck; for pouring the wine into; and a large base to allow for an increased surface area which accelerates the breathing process.

Why decant wine?

There are 3 main reasons to decant your red wines.

1.Aesthetics - decanting wine adds some theatrics to the evening and helps to create the perfect ambiance. When decanting wine for this reason leave the bottle and cork at the table so your guests can still observe them for more details about the wine.

2.Old wines - are most commonly decanted to remove the sediment from the bottom of the bottle before drinking. The formation of sediment in older wines is part of the natural aging process and usually occurs because of poor filtration or in most cases no filtration at all. Well sediment is not appealing to the eye and it has a bitter taste, it will not cause you any harm. Nor will it affect the wine in any way, in fact in most cases it will help to bring out the flavor of the wine during aging. Note: some older wines will dissipate with too much exposure to oxygen so drink these ones within half an hour of decanting.

3.Young wines - are not likely to contain sediment because in today’s market producers use more advanced filtration systems but they can still benefit from decanting. Since the market today demands most wines be ready to drink immediately after purchasing the aging process is normally accelerated. This often leaves young wines lacking in flavor. Decanting them and exposing them to oxygen creates a chemical reaction that allows the aromas and flavors to loosen up and become more vibrant.

The benefit of using decanters is still a great debate among connoisseurs, the English swear by it and the French tend not to use it at all. Decanting wine will at the very least add some theatrics to your evening.

Valerie Kane

Canada’s Wine Education and Tour Guide

Stoudt’s Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout - Can It Run With the Big Dogs?
Dateline: Western Pennsylvania, April 3, 2007 (9:22pm EDT).

As I sit here writing this, it’s 72 degrees outside at 9:22pm on April 3rd. Seventy-two degrees!?!? Yes, hard to believe. It went all the way to 82 today and tomorrow, the bottom falls out. Snow, yes snow should be falling about this time tomorrow evening and snow will fall supposedly throughout Easter weekend. Wow! For the craft beer drinker here in Western PA it’s a typical spring swing, a roller coaster of temps, weather and extremes. Nothing all that new. But it does pose a slight problem when it comes to embibing in a suitable malted beverage. What to do, what to do?

Should I go with a Maibock or Doppelbock? Something lighter, maybe even a fruit beer? Heck no. We’ve got snow on the way, and April or not, when it’s snowing outside, nothing goes better inside than a winter-style beer. Digging deep in the back of the fridge, I’ve found my poison of choice for this evening. An oatmeal imperial stout it is. Stoudts Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout to be precise.

Brewed all the way over in the eastern side of Pennsylvania in Adamstown, Stoudt’s craft brews have long held a respectable slot in my microbrew and craft beer rankings. Their Fat Dog Imperial Stout does not disappoint either.

Pouring my chilled 12 ounce bottle into a 16 ounce Stoudt’s American Pale Ale pint glass (yes, acquired direct at the brewery on a visit a few years back), this ale spills a licorice black, but not quite as thick as I’ve typically experienced or might have expected in an imperial stout.

A light caramel, filmy head shortly leads to a quick meltdown to nothing more than a toffy corona of meek foam clinging only to the glass wall. I’ve seen Cokes with more creamy patches floating about than this brew.

Taking a deep whiff of aroma off the top, there is really a very true and rich chocolate scent. Along with the chocolate, there’s only a twinge of roasted coffee that I could pick up. That’s a little different right off the bat from many imperials that I’ve tried. Twinges of alcohol pinch at the nostrils just a bit as well. To be expected I guess from a 9+% ABV adult beverage.

Taste features a suitable chocolately flavor, but yet, yes there are the roasted coffee tones as well. In fact far more than I perceived from the smell only. But still, dark and creamy chocolate rules the day here. Even some punches of molasses can be found in the overall ambience of flavor.

Mouthful is not quite as thick as I would have expected either. A little more thin than I would like in an Imperial Stout, but hey that’s just me talking. Lacing on my glass is also quite non-existent. In fact, the glass is almost as clean, as I finish the beer, as it was when I started. It almost has that scrubbing bubbles type of effect. I could stick this glass right back in the cupboard and my wife would never know!

In the whole sense of things, if you were asking me, I would highly recommend Stoudt’s Fat Dog Oatmeal Imperial Stout. I personally would certainly rank it in my Top 10 of Imperial Stouts (of those that I’ve tried, limited as that may be). It definitely fits well within the guidelines of what one would expect to find in a quality, craft brewed imperial stout. It is enjoyable, with enough flavor to satisfy some of the more discriminating stout afficianado tastes. While not perfect in my book, it does present iteself well, is chocolately, warming and memorable. A great microbrew to partake of on a warm and balmy, early April night, on the eve of an impending cold front and blowing snow and squalls. Grab yourself a Stoudts Fat Dog Oatmeal Imperial Stout before things really heat up in May. This is not a beer for a mid-summer night’s dream.

About the Author:
There is nothing quite as enjoyable as a finely produced craft beer (if you like beer of course). Being a microbrew enthusiast for the better part of 10 years now, I am constantly on the hunt for the holy grail of all craft beers. My endless quest has allowed me to sample some of the finest microbrews around. Where each of these beers rate in my quest for the best I’ve put into words for casual perusing by experienced samplers and beginner enthusiasts alike at http://microbrewreview.blogspot.com/ and http://www.squidoo.com/microbrewreview/

Let me know what you think and feel free to offer your suggestions on a craft beer you’d recommend that I should rate for my next microbrew review.

I think a lot about wine: Pinot Noir is on my mind whenever dinnertime rolls around, Beaujolais is in my thoughts as the holidays approach, Merlot and Cabernet share time on my brain when I attend a local happy hour. Sometimes wine is even in my dreams: bottles of White Zinfandel, knowing I am not a fan, chase me into dark and desolate alleys. But then, of course, there are the times when I don’t think of wine at all; one of these times is when I think of Canada. In my thoughts, the words “Canada” and “Wine” are rarely side by side.

However, my thoughts are wrong (my thoughts, mind you, not me). Canada and wine are two things that actually do go together. Up and coming, Canada is one nation hell bent on climbing the grapevine of the wine industry. Look out drinkers, the Canadians bacon, I mean, beckon.

Now, Canada is certainly not a wine region as well known as the Napa Valley or Italy - Canadian grapes can easily mix with the public without being bothered by paparazzi - but their subtleness is due mainly to the fact that Canadian wineries are some of the newest in the world: they are just getting started.

This is not to say that the idea of growing wine is a new concept to Canadians - wine can hardly be a new concept to any country that once had areas owned by France - it’s just that wine, until recently, has been unable to flourish in Canada. This was mainly due to the economic restraints placed on vineyards: owning a winery simply didn’t pay and potential growers were forced to chose between making wine and making money. In the 1990’s, however, the government monopolies that controlled the production and sale of alcohol changed and producing wine in Canada became a much more profitable endeavor.

Ontario and British Columbia shot out of the gates to lead the country in wine production, a lead they still maintain today. Ontario accounts for 75 percent of wine sold, wine that is grown in a unique environment: with a close proximity to the Great Lakes, the vineyards of Ontario undergo a bit of a warming affect, just enough to stop arctic winds and make growing grapes feasible.

British Columbia produces the majority of the remaining wine. One of the most northern vineyards in the world, the climate in British Columbia is ironic: it is not as arctic as one might assume. The valleys of the region are tucked away behind mountain ranges, allowing the temperatures to be warm, sunny, and usually dry.

The vineyards of Canada contain mostly white grapes. Riesling, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris are frequently planted. Red wines, however, are showing some potential and grape growers have been able to find success with Cabernet, Gamay, Merlot and Pinot Noir. That aside, moving Merlot over and telling Riesling to give it a rest, the true wine belonging to Canada is ice wine.

Ice wine is a type of dessert wine that is made from grapes frozen while they are still on the vine. The sugars in these grapes don’t freeze, but the water inside them does. This results in a wine that is very sweet tasting. But, because the freezing happens before fermentation takes place, the wine also keeps its acidity. The end result is a wine known for being both sweet and acidic, a rare combination for any concoction.

While ice wine is made in a variety of places - Germany, the US, Austria, France, and Australia to name a few - the best ice wines, and the most expensive, come from Canada. This honor is likely two fold: first of all, Canada contains wine regions with climates unique to most other places in the world; second of all, Canada takes their ice wine very seriously. By law, the grapes used in Canadian ice wine must weigh less than 35 brix, with a brix being a unit that measures the ratio of sucrose to water. The grapes must also be picked when the temperature is no higher than 17 degrees Fahrenheit. Lastly, the grapes must freeze naturally.

Canadian ice wines are often made using Vidal, Riesling, and - although ice wines from Canada are usually white - Cabernet Franc grapes. As for characteristics, ice wines are known to be quite refreshing with a medium to full body of flavor. The flavors are dictated by the type of grape used but are often described as tasting of peach, apricot, pear, apples, and even honey and caramel. Canadian ice wines typically have a alcohol content between 8 and 13 percent.

The past decades have seen other types of wine - table wines, sparkling wines, even boxed wines - fill the glasses of drinkers, but ice wines are slowing leaving their mark on the viniculture world. As Canada becomes a more prominent player in the wine industry, ice wines will increase in popularity and soon everyone will know that this type of wine is so much more than just adding a cube of frozen water to a glass of bubbly.

Jennifer Jordan is the senior editor at http://www.savoreachglass.com With a vast knowledge of wine etiquette, she writes articles on everything from how to hold a glass of wine to how to hold your hair back after too many glasses. Ultimately, she writes her articles with the intention that readers will remember wine is fun and each glass of anything fun should always be savored.

Wine has a long and venerable history, with references to its use cropping up in ancient texts from thousands of years ago - not least, of course, in the Bible. We know for a fact that it was firmly established in the Middle Eastern culture of around two thousand years ago, and for it to be so commonplace at that time it must have been around for quite some time before that.

Viticulture was certainly a large part of the economy of the Roman Empire, and the spread of Roman civilization included the spread of wine growing and wine drinking as the colonizing soldiers moved across the Old World. In ancient Rome, a common form of wine was known as mulsum, heavily sweetened with honey, and produced on large agrarian estates largely by the slave population. What remained in the wine press after crushing the grapes - seeds and skins mainly - was often fed to livestock, or alternatively brewed into a very low quality ‘wine’ and given to the slaves who’d grown the grapes.

We also know that winemaking was familiar to the ancient Greeks, from whom the Romans learned so much, and there’s physical evidence of this in the form of a stone wine press found in a Minoan villa on the island of Crete, dating back to around 1600 BC. The wine making facilities discovered there appeared to be quite advanced and sophisticated, suggesting that the Minoans had been practicing the art of wine making for a considerable period before that date.

Prior to this, the trail is a little less clear as we go further back into history. The ancient Greeks had strong trading links with nearby eastern cultures such as Egypt, and although we can’t be sure, it seems that it was from the ancient Egyptians that the Greeks learned to make wine.

Physical evidence of wine production in ancient Egypt includes remains of wine jars and stoppers dating back to the earliest years of the civilization, and wine was used both as a food and a medicine. Wine in pharonic times was not only made from grapes, but also from figs, pomegranates, and other fruits, a practice which continues across the world to this day in the rural production of ‘country wines’ such as damson and elderberry.

The first great civilization of historic times was in Mesopotamia, close to Egypt, in what is modern day Iraq and surrounding areas. Although records from this era are sketchy, considering that writing was not invented until the latter part of the civilization, there is evidence that wine was produced here too. A clay jar bearing traces of what could have been wine has been discovered in what is now northern Iran, and carbon dating shows that it was made around 5000-5400 BC. This is the oldest known evidence of wine consumption, but as this period of pre-history stretches back to 8500 BC, it is likely that wine making had been known and practiced for maybe thousands of years before that.

So, next time you relax with a glass in your hand, ponder for a moment that what you are drinking could be the results of over ten thousand years of cumulative learning and experimentation with the magical process of fermenting grapes!

Andrea writes for a wine guide site, 1Stop Wine, where you can read wine articles and search a database of relevant sites.

The Alsace region lies in northeastern France and is an area of land approximately 50 km wide and 190 km long running along the border between France and Germany and which has been producing wine since the Romans first occupied the area in about 12 B.C. The principle city of the region is Strasburg, the home of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, which lies on the banks of the Rhine and is often mistakenly thought by many to be a German city.

Approximately six thousand wine growers live in this smallest of the French winemaking regions and the people of this area are very proud of their centuries old winemaking tradition.

Alsace is situated between to Vosges mountains to the west and the Black Forest to the east and is thus sheltered from both easterly and westerly winds. This makes the area particularly hot in the summer and leaves it very cold in the winter. The soil in this area is very diverse including sand, granite, clay and marl and the combination of the climate and soil conditions means that this is not the easiest of areas in which to grow grapes. Nevertheless, the region produces some of the finest Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Gewürztraminer grapes.

The area produces about 20 percent of France’s annual production of wine (approximately 165 million bottles) and the vast majority of the grapes grown are used in the production of a number of world famous white wines whose names echo their German influence. The most well known of these are Riesling and Gewürztraminer, which together account for about 40 percent of Alsace wines but other wines include Tokay and Sylvaner.

Although perhaps not well known, Tokay is a full-bodied white wine made from the Pinot Gris grape with a wonderful aroma of wood and spice and is perfect alongside Quiche Lorraine. As a full-bodied wine it is also an excellent choice as an accompaniment for meat for people who prefer a white rather than a red wine.

Sylvaner, which was originally made in Austria, has been produced in Alsace for about two hundred years and is a fruity and dry white wine which is often served with both fish and pork.

Another excellent wine from this region is the Cremant d’Alsace, a sparkling white wine made in the manner of Champagne. Cremant d’Alsace is a blend of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris or Pinot Noir grapes and has an aroma of red fruits, apricots and almonds.

If you are buying an Alsatian wine, either for yourself or as a wine gift, be sure to look for the words ‘Grand Crus’ on the label which distinguishes a wine as being one of this region’s best wines.

GreatWineTastings.com is a growing resource for those interested in wine and looks at wines from various different wine regions of the world including the wines of Alsace, Australia, California, Canada and others. Resources are also provided for those looking for that special wine gift.

If you are absolutely clueless when it comes to wine appreciation and wine tasting, the prospect of dining with wine fanatics can be quite daunting. The one thing you should know is that wine lovers in general, take their hobby quite seriously and the last thing you want to do is to embarrass yourself by making inappropriate comments. Wine tasting is not at all as complicated as some people make it out to be. It’s a bit like appreciating a fine painting - you simply need to know what to look out for.

Making wine is without a doubt an art form and many of the fine wines from all over the world is the result of generations of knowledge that’s been handed down and refined by master wine makers. Although paying $1,000 for a bottle of wine might sound ridiculous to some, to others it might be a bargain. To the untrained eye, there is no real difference between a genuine Picasso and a print you buy in Kmart.

Appreciating fine wine is very much the same in that you have to simply learn to appreciate the beauty and this start by learning what to look for. Wine is obviously about taste, but to the more discerning wine lover it also involves smell, texture aroma and all the other senses.

Learning to appreciate fine wine is not something that happens overnight. There is quite a bit to learn and just familiarizing yourself with the ‘lingo’ is quite a task in itself. So, whether you are heading over to your future father-in-law’s for a dinner or whether you are about to entertain some important clients, here are some handy pointers to avoid making a complete fool of yourself.

* Don’t pretend to know something you don’t. Most knowledgeable people are keen to ’show off’ and nowhere is this more true than with wine enthusiasts. Acknowledge that you are learning about wine and show a keen interest instead of trying to ‘fake it’.

* When dining out, don’t choose the wine unless your guests insist on it. If you are uncertain about which wines to pick, be polite and hand the choice to your most important guest. That way you will be a polite host and even if the wine sucks, no one can point any fingers at the host.

* When dining with a wine fanatic, it’s best to follow their lead. Since there is quite a bit of etiquette involved, it’s best to let the expert lead the way. When asked for your opinion of the wine, just be honest and be very wary of making negative comments.

* Rest assured that wine tasting is a lot about personal opinion and taste and most of the time a sincere and accurate comment of your sensory experience of a particular wine will be more than satisfactory to provoke a discussion.

Article by Deon Du Plessis of The Fine Wine Guide - for more info please visit http://fine-wine.cc

So surprised was my Costa Rican friend by the price of the beer when he arrived to Panama for the first time that he ended up inviting a pool hall of about seven men to 3 rounds of brewskies while waiting for me to arrive - at 11 in the morning.

Grocery stores sell beers for 39cents a can, local bars outside of the city often price theirs at 50 or 60cents, while the one dollar beer in Panama City is quickly becoming obsolete. The affect of this phenomenon on the male psyche is truly an amazing thing to witness. The initial elation is quickly enhanced by intoxication which can lead to wonderful sensations, or drunken mistakes. I challenge anyone with a more scientific background to study this. The findings could be life-altering.

My apartment mate who has been living here for about three months has acutely calculated his beer consumption to valuing about $242.10 a month. He admits to regularly “pre-gaming” with eight beers before even starting his nights out at the bars. It should, however, be taken into account the fact that the beers here mostly contain a meager 3.8% alcohol.

The top four beers of Panama are Balboa, Soberana, Atlas, and Panama (how appropriate). They are all similar in taste, value and alcohol content, although die-hard beer drinkers often swear by only one of the brands.

After analysis of the effects of this high rate of consumption the major negative ones are the obvious: extreme intoxication and the occasional bed-wetting. But is this shortsightedness, a lifestyle choice or is it the low price that leads these men to over consume? Either way, I like it.

A night in New York City could easily lead to a bar tab valued at the same price of my alcoholic apartment mate’s monthly beer bill. Dates are cheaper, nights out are more carefree when the weight of the wallet isn’t a huge consideration, and people buying rounds of beer for everyone becomes inevitable. Just remember to save up those quarters, and drink responsibly.

Claire Saylor has been living in Central America since last June, and is now focusing her time writing about Panama culture as well as general Panama information.

The affects of climate change is causing concern across the world and it seems that France is no exception.

Last week, scientific experts gathered at the University of Burgundy in Dijon to discuss the effect that global warming could have on France’s wine growing regions.

One claimed that the changes would be so pronounced that by the end of the century it would be possible to grow Syrah grapes as far north as Champagne.

Yet concerns have been raised that many parts of France, including the famous Burgundy region, could get too hot to grow grapes for wine.

Burgundy celebrates its love of wine
But it looks like for this year at least, the French wine industry is as booming as ever with Burgundy locals looking forward to a number of wine related events for 2007.

Two that are set to prove particularly popular with both visitors and locals alike are the traditional Beaujolais Nouveau celebrations held in November and the Chablis Wine Festival which takes place in the same month.

The former is hugely popular in villages and towns where it brings crowds together all over from France and Europe.

For those who want more than Burgundy wine
For those looking for a trip than involves more that booze there are plenty of other events and things to do in the Burgundy region.

Dijon is famous for more than just mustard and every year thousands of visitors head to the city’s botanical gardens which were founded in 1833.

Set in the Jardin de L’Arquebuse, the gardens were created in a bid to grow, study and protect plants and flowers from the region and all over the globe.

Howard Farmer

1st for French Property

Burgundy Property

We have French property from 15,000 euros - stone houses, land and farms. Residential, vacation and investments property for sale across all of France. Investments: leaseback, buy to let and reversion property.