Wine Line - Wine Education and Tasting Podcast

In addition to the tasting of Joost Villebois's 2012 Villebois Sancerre (Sauvignon Blanc) in the last segment of my show for Feb. 21st, I will be giving you updates on the latest "Wine News" featuring (1) A fake wine company which accepted more than £1 million in sham investments in Bordeaux fine wines. (2) A long-running battle between renowned producer Château Lafite Rothschild and Côtes de Bordeaux producer Chateau Lafitte over the trademarking of the Lafitte name. And, (3) Bottles of wine made by convicted murderers are to go on sale at some of New York’s most stylish restaurants.Go to www.wineworldtravels.com to get the results of the tasting AND get $100 OFF your purchase of $160. or more fromwww.nakedwines.com. What a deal!

Big Show this week folks. I am going to continue talking about wines from “Down Under.” I will give you some interesting tidbits of “Wine World News” and, it will be “Naked Wine Tasting #5″ during the last segment of the show… don’t miss it. HERE’S SOME BIG NEWS: GO TO MY WEBSITE, WWW.WINEWORLDTRAVELS.COM BECAUSE I HAVE A VERY SPECIAL DEAL FOR YOU WHEN YOU BUY YOUR FIRST ORDER OF WINE FROM WWW.NAKEDWINES.COM. ON THE SITE I HAVE A VOUCHER CODE GOOD FOR $100. OFF YOUR ORDER OF $160. WORTH OF WINE… That’s right get $160 worth of great wine from www.nakedwines.com for only $60. Just enter the code when you check out. Another big deal from OverseasRadio.com, WineLine Radio and NakedWines.com… just for you, from all of us.

This week on wine line, I will talk about a variety of wine oriented subjects which, I hope, will be of interest to you. As we have been doing for the past three weeks I will be tasting a Naked Wine with Ryan O’Connell, marketing director at www.nakedwines.com. This week, we will be tasting a unique Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo blend by winemaker Macario Montoya. Macario makes a number of different wines and, personally, I am looking forward to tasting this one. Also, I will be making announcement about how you can get my voucher for $100. OFF your purchase of $160. of Naked Wines… That’s A Great Deal. On my website www.wineworldtravels.com you will find a link to Macario Montoya’s profile page

This week we continue tasting a “Naked Wine” during the last segment of our weekly show. Agasin, we will be doing a remote tasting with Ryan O’Connell, Marketing manager of NakedWines.com and a winemaker in his own right. Also, I will be touching on a variety of topics… Since it’s Super Bowl Week, I will give you the low down on Charles Woodson who had a Hall of Fame career in the NFL and who wears a Supper Bowl ring from his 2010 season with the Green Bay Packers. Guess what Charles is doing now? He is making wine and looking for respect. And, he is getting it. This and other topics will be covered this Friday at 1 PM EST on WineLine.

This week, I will discuss a variety of subjects including "All about Malbec", "Getting rid of the Foodie Pass", "Your local wine merchant is your best bet" and, whatever else comes to mind. The last segment of Friday's show will be devoted to tasting another "Naked Wine" with NakedWines.com's Marketing Manager, Ryan O'Connell... a winemaker in his own right. Last Friday, we tasted Ryan's O Vineyard's O'mg - a blend of Cabernet, Syrah and Merlot. This week, who knows?

Yes, Naked Wines! This week I will be talking about the unique structure of a company who's raises millions of dollars per month from angel investors and take that money to fund startup winemakers. You can become an angel investor for a little as $40 per month, which you can let ride at interest or, spend on wine a low wholesale prices. It's a fantastic concept that has the wine world in a buzz. Following this week's show, I will be interviewing one of Naked Wines winemakers followed by 12 weeks of tastings of a wine a week from a different Naked Wine winemaker... this will happen in the last segment of each show and will be called "NAKED FRIDAYS." Tune in to learn more.

It's the last show before the Christmas holiday. I am going to dip into Santa's bag and see what I can come up with. There will be a review of a specific grape variety, a nod to Champagne for a New year's toast and whatever else I can come up with that will be of interest to you… maybe even a holiday dish to grace your table. So, join me to discover what wine news Santa has in his bag for us. The next two shows will be repeats of my interview with Aurelio Montes, Jr., "The Flying Winemaker" on Dec. 27th and Jan. 3rd. Have a wonderful holiday season and I wish you the very best for 2014. See you in the New Year.

2013... Will it be a vintage to be remembered?Join me on Friday Dec. 6th and 13th as I take a look at the 2013 vintage, worldwide. How was the weather through the growing season? Too hot? Too cold? Too much rainfall? Or, was it just right bringing us the promise of another great vintage?All will be revealed during the next two WineLine shows on OverseasRadio.com, Fridays at 1:00 PM EST.Thanks for listening. Any suggestions, please send me an email.Happy Holidays,Robert

Friday, November 29th is "Black Friday." Are there wine store deals to be had? I will answer that question and give you, what I think is the best "Black Friday" wine deal on the internet… 15 exceptional wines for 69.99 plus shipping. A savings of over $150 on some top flight wine for the holidays. Also, I will tell you what to do with that leftover Thanksgiving turkey and mashed potatoes. It's Mario Batali's Holiday Stuffed Shells. You can download the recipe from my website,www.wineworldtravels.com.Hope you had a great start to the holidays with family and friends.

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, there is no better time to start planning your Thanksgiving dinner menu and selecting wines to complement the feast. Historically, the week before Thanksgiving is a great time to buy wine as many wine merchants run specials on preferred wines.The big question - which wines to go with the variety of tastes, textures and aromas that uniquely present themselves on Thanksgiving Day? Should you choose one wine to carry you through appetizers to desserts – a tough request, but doable. Or should you choose several wines to accent different components of the meal and cater to a variety of guests’ palates? The choice is entirely up to you, but i will give you some options to get you started.

This week I will discuss the best way to buy wine… by getting to know your local wine merchant. Try several merchants then, patronize the one that most closely appeals to your tastes. Make friends and you may be invited to special tastings and be able to get some special deals. When you have had a great dinner but haven't finished that tasty bottle of wine, how do you keep the remainder to drink another evening? I will discuss some very simple methods for all us "waste not, want not" folks.Then we will go to Abruzzo, Italy to discover a great value wine, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Make it a point to go to your local wine merchant and ask him to point you to some good examples of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo to try this weekend.

This is the second of 2 interviews with Aurelio Montes, Jr., "The Flying Winemaker." This interview concentrates on his efforts in California with Napa Angel Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine makes you feel the elegancy directly on the nose with the pepper, ripefruit and tobacco notes that blends together to make this wine one of a kind. The roundness of the body plays with the concentration of this wine achieving balance and structure. And, Star Angel Syrah, Star Angel Red and a new offering, Star Angle Pinot Noir from Paso Robles. Listen in to learn more and go towww.wineworldtravels.com and click on the Montes page.

Friday, Oct. 25th's show is the first of two back to back interviews with Aurelio Montes del Campo, of the famous Montes wine family of Chile. Aurelio moved over the Andes mountains to establish Kaiken Winery in Mendoza, Argentina. Then, he flew north to California, establishing wineries in Napa and Paso Robles for the production of Cabernet and Syrah. Just as his father, Aurelio, Sr. created the first "Icon" wines of Chile, Aurelio, Jr. is making his mark on the other side of the mountain and north. His wines are exceptional and, he is a great interview. Please tune in this Friday and November 1st to hear both section of the interview. For more information on Aurelio Montes, Jr., go to my website: www.wineworldtravels.com.

This week, I was searching for a topic to explore with you when I picked up a copy of the March 2013 Wine Spectator with a feature on Bordeaux and the 2010 vintage that was recently released. I gave it some thought and decided that maybe you should know more about this incredible vintage. Many of you are familiar with first and second growths that carry prices of hundreds, even thousands of dollars. You are probably familiar with the wine districts of Bordeaux - Medoc, Pauillac, St. Julien, St. Emillion, Pomerol, etc. But, I will bet that you are not familiar with BLAYE. Blaye lies on the right bank of the Gironde River, north of St. Emilion and it is the "My Secret Bordeaux" and I am going to tell you about it.

Le Marche, that beautiful region of Italy just east of Umbria with mountains and rolling hills that cascade down to the Adriaticcoast. I will talk a little about the region and its history. I will give you a overview of the wine production in La Marche with an emphasis on my favorite winery, Fattoria Colmone della Marca and my friend Giovanni Meschini. They produce a white Sangiovese, Bianco del Moro...very unusual. Tune in to learn more about the wine and food of La Marche.And, you can go to my website, www.wineworldtravels.com to download a famous regional recipe, Tournedos alla Rossini, that has become an elegant worldwide favorite. It's easy.

My report on what's going on in the Italian Wine World. I will review regional happenings and suggested bottles for you to try. In addition, I will give you a great personal recipe for a hearty Baked Pasta with Sausage. It's easy to prepare and includes my personal recipe for a terrific red sauce that you can adjust to fit your taste. As always, you can download the recipe from my website - www.wineworldtravels.com. Just click on my picture when the site loads and you will be taken to the WineLine page. You will see the download box for this week's recipe. Just click on the box and a pdf will pop up for download. ENJOY!

This is the tasting show. It's going to be a little bit technical but, I hope it helps you understand the factors that go into tasting wine. There is a lot of stuff happening as we taste a glass of wine. Is our perception of the price of a bottle of wine a factor in determining the taste of the wine in our brains? You bet! The reason I harass my dinner guests is that our stories have consequences, that our beliefs often matter more than the grapes. The question is what those stories are. If the only story we can tell about wine is its price, then our pleasure will always linked to cost, even though this link doesn’t exist in most taste tests. Let me know what you think about this narrative.

This week I an going to review the 2010 vintage of Chateauneuf du Pape which looks to be exceptional. Get lowdown on this very special wine from the Southern Rhone region of France. I am going to paraphrase a New York Times article by Helen Cooper detailing her experiences in discovering the black truffle of Le Marche, Italy. As always, I will pair the Chateauneuf du Pape wine with the "tartufo nero" by giving you not one, not two, but three easy recipes that you can download from my website www.wineworldtravels.com. Download the recipes, see if you can find a black truffle to shave or simply substitute truffle oil - which you should be able to find at your local supermarket or gourmet store.

This week, I will report on our annual visit to the incredible, historic Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst North Carolina for the Silver Anniversary of their Food & Wine Festival. I will give you a blow by blow narrative of each day’s events from Friday through our return by train on Sunday night. Last week, in anticipation of the festival, I posted the Pinehurst recipe for their savory “Biscuits and Gravy” on my website www.wineworldtravels.com. It’s there for you to download… just go to the WineLine page and look for the yellow download box on the lower left. You will be glad you did!

A Friday afternoon discussion about wine, wine oriented travel and food and wine pairings. A weekly wine pairing recipe is selected to match the featured wine. Occasional interviews with leading winemakers and winery representatives make Wine Line a Friday treat. Robert invites you to join him in exploring the great world of wine.