Understanding Bordeaux

Bordeaux seemingly has it all. But if there’s one thing it sorely misses, it’s simplicity. Try as they may, the Bordelais do not make it easy to understand exactly what’s going on: With 120,000 hectares of vineyards, close to 60 distinct appellations and anywhere up to 10,000 individual producers, there is a lot to get your head around.

That’s before you get into official classifications: There are six different classifications or ranking systems covering the region, with the oldest dating back to the year 1855. Each has its own set of governing criteria, some are set in stone and others are updated periodically. These classifications cover all the finest and most expensive wines of Bordeaux, except for the most expensive Bordeaux wines, from Pomerol, which is not classified. Naturally. Still with us?

Which is not to mention the en primeur system of selling wine as futures, the Place de Bordeaux, and intricate network of middlemen and women known as courtiers, négociants and agents that no outsider (and very few insiders) will ever truly understand! We could go on, but we’ll leave it there. Hopefully you get the point: Bordeaux is a complex beast, perhaps unnecessarily so, and can be difficult to get a handle on.

Learning about Bordeaux

So, then, how can you learn about Bordeaux?

• Reading, for sure. As a longtime favourite of the world’s top wine critics, there is no shortage of published books on Bordeaux, either as a whole or its component parts.

• Formal education and training, in Bordeaux and throughout the world, will endeavour to teach you all about what is, to be fair, a wonderful wine region.

• Perhaps the most effective way of learning about Bordeaux is actually going there. In terms of hands-on education, there is nothing quite like traversing the treacherous D2 road from the city into the Médoc, passing one glorious château after another, or wandering the cobbled streets of Saint Emilion and tasting the local wines.

One problem with all of the above is that they’ll cost you time and money, which may not be an option. There is one other way that you can learn a surprising amount about Bordeaux wine, very quickly, and it won’t cost you a cent – Twitter!

How Twitter can teach you about Bordeaux wine

It’s not quite like walking the vineyards yourself or participating in a vertical tasting of Château Latour, but you’d be surprised just how much Twitter can teach you about Bordeaux.

• Follow the right people. There is a whole community of active and influential wine professionals that Tweet about Bordeaux. Try Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent Jane Anson for starters, and build up a bank of reputable, reliable people to follow from there.

• Organisational accounts can be very informative too, such as the official Bordeaux Wines account.

• Follow producers. The information you can get from individual châteaux is fascinating, and can give a real insight behind the scenes, including harvest, winemaking and blending. Some châteaux are (considerably) more advanced than others, with some good starting points including Château Bauduc and Château Palmer. The bigger name châteaux are not necessarily the best here, and often it will be lesser known estates that share the most interesting information.

• Make a Twitter list. Choose your favourites from the above and make a Twitter list to house them all in one place. That way, you can have your own personal feed of news and information about Bordeaux wine in one easily accessible place.

• Join the conversation. Don’t be afraid to join in. Have a question about the 2016 vintage in Bordeaux? Who better to ask than a producer or winemaker from the region who has lived through it? Look out also for trending hashtags and use them to find interesting and educational conversations.

Do you know of any other ways to learn about wine through Twitter or other unconventional means?

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Over the past few years, internet memes have become very popular. It seems that there’s a meme for everything: From the Harlem Shake craze to the ubiquitous popularity of cats in space, motivational posters and de-motivational posters, from Kanye West interrupting things all the way to memes inspired by popular TV shows like The Simpsons, South Park and Game of Thrones. Even the origins of the word “meme” and Dawkins himself have become a meme!

What about wine, then? Is there such thing as a wine meme? Of course there is.

What is a wine meme?

Wine is popular, so memes about wine are pretty popular too. Do a quick Google search for “wine meme” and you will get well over 2.5 million hits! Some are visual, some text-based, some designed as greeting cards or postcards, and others based on popular TV shows or celebrities. Wine memes are a quick, easy and fun way for wine lovers to share and communicate with one another. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular wine meme images to try to figure out what is the internet’s favourite wine meme?

Popular wine meme categories

FRIDAYS

TGIF, right? Friday marks the end of the working week for many people, so understandably it’s associated with fun, relaxation – and wine, too! It makes sense then that wine memes about Friday are so popular. Some of our favourites include:

• Do you know what rhymes with Friday? Wine.
• It’s Friday night… Time to be a hero and rescue some wine trapped in a bottle!
• Friday called – she’s on her way, and she’s bringing wine!
• It’s wine o’ clock

OVERSIZED WINE GLASSES

Who doesn’t love a nice wine meme featuring giant wine glasses? It’s OK to drink one glass of wine, right? Sure. And if that glass happens to be the size of a regular bottle or magnum of wine? All the better!

WINE AFTER A BAD DAY

For some people, a glass of wine after a hard day at work is a natural way to unwind. While we would never advocate excessive drinking, a glass of wine is undoubtedly one way to relax. You will see many wine memes on the subject, usually tongue-in-cheek examples taking the idea to the extreme!

TV AND MOVIES WINE MEMES

Lots of wine memes depict our favourite TV and movie characters, either drinking wine or supposedly talking about wine.

3 of the best wine meme images on the internet

1. Randy Marsh wine meme

Source: http://thethings.imgix.net/

South Park’s beloved Randy Marsh is the focus of this wine meme, where he is enjoying a wine tasting. This meme doesn’t take itself too seriously, and shows the funny side of tasting wine professionally. Randy’s argument is that drinking six glasses of wine is classy and proper, and not simply a matter of getting drunk.

2. “I cook with wine…” wine meme

Source: https://www.calaiswine.co.uk

This wine meme plays on the classic notion of cooking with wine – that is, the wine itself is an ingredient. Instead, the suggestion here is that to “cook with wine” is primarily to drink wine while cooking food. This is a funny wine meme because it subverts our expectations.

3. Oversized wine glass wine meme

Source: http://img.memecdn.com/

Who doesn’t love a nice wine meme featuring giant wine glasses? It’s OK to drink one glass of wine, right? Sure. And if that glass happens to be the size of a regular bottle or magnum of wine? All the better! Here, the wine glass appears to be even bigger than the lady in the meme!

Wine labels, the original wine meme?

You might get a kick out of some of these wine memes – or you might not. Internet memes can come in and out of fashion, and wine memes are the same. Something that will never go out of fashion, however, is the humble wine label. The wine label is surely the original wine meme: It transfers the idea and meaning of the wine from one person (usually the winemaker or wine estate) to another (the wine lover). Wine labels can come in all shapes and sizes, look for some of our favourites:

• Celeste Crianza 2010, from Miguel Torres, features a beautiful celestial skyscape, a really eye-catching design that you won’t soon forget. The wine, a 100% Tempranillo from the Ribera del Duero, is pretty memorable too! Try it for yourself here.

• L’Inconscient 2014, a Priorat from Les Cousins Marc & Adrià, features a vibrant and colourful illustration of the eponymous cousins. This is definitely the sort of bottle you’ll want to hang on to as a souvenir!

• Château Mouton Rothschild 2005. Mouton Rothschild, one of the famous “first growths” of Bordeaux, hires a famous artist to create an original label each year. They even have a wine label museum at the château in Pauillac! For its superb 2005 vintage, they commissioned Italian sculptor Giuseppe Penone.

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Wine Dictionary: this app contains a wine vocabulary, as well as information about wine regions. This dictionary contains the words to describe the taste of a wine, which grapes are used for what wine or what wine regions, and more! They will surely help you to expand your knowledge of wine.

Hello Vino: a mixture of a social network and a sommelier. This app will recommend the right wine for a dinner, special occasions, a gift, and it also helps you in choosing according to your personal taste preferences.

Kellermeister: Wine Cellar management done easy. This application helps keeping track of all the bottles in your wine cellar. Storages in one list, detail view for every wine including rating and larger image, favorites, history for all storages etc.

Cor.kz: Like a sommelier in your pocket! Database, Barcode Scanning, compare Wines, ratings, notes, and wishlists, consumption history, cellar management and more.

Do you know any other apps? Which do you prefer?

La entrada 4 Wine Applications se publicó primero en Blog INVINIC.

Another interesting feature is the possibility of taking notes, creating our own lists including our favourite variety of cheese and also sending the file of a cheese to a friend via email.

Although it is a bit expensive -2.39€- we know for sure you’ll like if you’re a good fan of these pleasures.

http://itunes.apple.com/es/app/fromage/id298883838?mt=8

La entrada Cheese, wine and technology se publicó primero en Blog INVINIC.

These are two-dimensional codes known as QR codes (Quick Response) and they are one of the latest technologies that have begun to be used in the labeling of some bottles of wine.

The QR’s are not a new technology, since they were created by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in Japan in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process, but until now they have not begun to be used in our industry. A QR Code is a two-dimensional code that is primarily used to store alphanumeric data, up to 4,000 letters, numbers and links to websites.

The fact that, after a short time ago, we have begun to use these codes is due to the large use of the smartphone that we can connect to the Internet in an easy and simple way. Thus, this technology allows us to know more about a wine, either in the shop -when it is necessary to make a decision-, at home or in a restaurant while we taste the wine.

In order to use this technology, we must have an application in our Smartphone that allows us to read QR codes. Once we  find a bottle with a code, we introduce it and automatically we have  access to the information that the winery has wished to offer us

La entrada Wines and QR codes se publicó primero en Blog INVINIC.

Here are our 5 favorite suggestions we hope you love:
1. Hello vino (free), your personal “sommelier” will help you choose the best wine for that special moment by just answering a few questions
2. Snooth Wine Pro (3.99€) to find any wine by just taking a picture of the bottle label
3. Cor. Kz (2.99€) is considered one of the best apps by the Fast Company. It counts with a data base of 935,000 different wines
4. Drync Wine Pro (3.99€) to find the most popular wines and different wine reviews
5. Wine notes (free) is the perfect tool to write down your own experiences after tasting a wine and organize your sensations

La entrada 5 iPhone apps for wine lovers se publicó primero en Blog INVINIC.