It has been several weeks since I have published here because I have been wine traveling and hosting large food and wine parties – but I am back! Julie and I took a long, fabulous wine tasting trip in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, which you will be reading much more about in the next couple of weeks. We also have been entertaining this fall on a large scale, featuring some of our trip’s most interesting wine and food experiences, which I will write about as well. Great wine and food make for great parties. Now, as we prepare…
Wine grapes, like Goldilocks, like it to be not too hot and not too cold. Growing grapes for fine wine requires avoiding temperature extremes. That is why most wine grapes in the world are grown between 30 degrees and 50 degrees latitude in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Those are the temperate climate zones, providing on average enough sun and a sufficient number of warm days to allow vinifera grapes to grow and ripen. It is not just about latitude. Microclimates can alter the average temperature and rainfall within a larger zone. Many of the most prestigious wine regions in the world…