Holiday Fun and Games for Wine Lovers

Got an oenophile on your list that already has four sets of stemware, a gross and a half of logo glasses and a drawer full of every corkscrew and foil cutter invented since the 1600's?

First off, you could give them this Taylor temp and humidity sensor (wirelessly monitors wine cellar temperature and humidity from up to 100 feet away) ... or give the gift of a perfectly controlled wine storage locker environment with Safe Haven Wine Storage Gift Certificates! They come complete with access to our VIP Wine Salon.

On the other hand, why not instigate some lively holiday gaming? Let the kids take over the 42" plasma with their new wii stuff while the adults gather around the table to play and learn with their favorite subject; wine.

All items featured can be found at www.beveragefactory.com (800-710.9939)

The Winerd® game is the perfect way to turn your passion for wine into laugher with friends! Creator Tamara Leigh Murphy paired fun wine trivia questions with an innovative spin on blind tasting to create a board game that is a HUGE hit. The Winerd® game includes: * Winerd® game board * Nearly 300 fun and interesting Q&A cards relating to just about every aspect of wine * 12 Bonus/Challenge cards * 4 custom synthetic cork playing pieces * A Blind Test notepad Wine and friends not included. Sale Price: $34.95

Designed by wine experts, VitiVini is the only game of its kind to offer an entire course on wine, wine tasting and food pairing. With VitiVini, wine is de-mystified and made both approachable and entertaining. Sale Price: $21.25


A world of fun as well as a source of information and inspiration. A game on the world of wines and spirits for novices and experts alike... Bouquet® is a unique fun parlor game with questions on wines and spirits – and an instant hit in Sweden, with more than 10,000 games sold already. List Price: $62.44 Sale Price: $42.46 Shipping: This item SHIPS FREE!

Not games, but other great gift ideas for wine lovers.
Label Remover & Savers Never forget a great bottle of wine you had
at your favorite restaurant or wine event with a pack of these. Great for ardent scrappers, too! 12- Pack of Label Savers: Sale Price: $9.31



Everything needed to conduct a blind wine tasting is included (except the wine) in this kit: six individually numbered cloth bags that cover a bottle each and a pad of scoring notes. The Wine Tasting Kit makes a wonderful gift for any wine connoisseur. List Price: $24.94 Sale Price: $16.96

This World Wine Wheel and Food Matching Guide is a quick and easy way to learn about the world's wine varieties and the world's foods that perfectly compliment all different types of wine. On one side of the wheel you will find 14 different red and white wine grape varieties displayed along with abundant information about the taste of each variety and their significant growing regions around the world. On the other side of the wheel, learn all about suitable matches for various food styles with the world's wines. List Price: $6.88 Sale Price: $4.67

Put a Cork In It!

The debate between “cork vs. screwcap” still continues in the wine industry. And there’s lots of subtle issues underlying the humble closure we appreciative wine consumers take for granted.

Did you know that wine makers have to actually make the wine differently if the closure is going to be a screwcap?

Do you know the claimed carbon footprint difference between sustainable cork crops and the manufacture of screwcaps? These questions are just the tip of the iceberg lettuce.
For those who are interested here’s the basic information about cork and a link (at end of article) to a great site that promotes the sustainable farming of cork.
----------
In the 1600s a Benedictine monk called Dom Perignon observed that wooden stoppers wrapped in oil-soaked rags used to seal his bottles of sparkling wine often popped out, and so he replaced them with the conical pieces of cork to seal his bottles of sparkling wine.

Cork soon become essential for wine bottling. The world's first cork stopper factory opened in around 1750, in Anguine (Spain). The best cork comes from Portugal, and the country is the world's leading cork producer. The bark of mature cork trees is harvested just once every nine years.

Cork trees are not regarded mature enough for bark harvesting until they are at least 25 years old, and the bark itself is not suitable for wine corks until the third harvest. A cork tree will yield 13 to 18 useful harvests in its lifetime. The processing of cork oak bark includes repeated sorting, boiling, punching, slicing, polishing, washing, drying, finishing and wax coating, and takes about a year.

The cork’s cell-like structure (there are around 800 million cells in a single wine cork) makes it best sealing material for wine bottles. Cork’s biggest disadvantage is the trichloroanisole contamination that is being aggressively addressed by the cork industry.

Fun facts: Recently cork has also been used in rocket technology due to its fire resistance.
And a recycled screwcap chair is bound to be uncomfortable.

And this is a great cork promotion website: www.savemiguel.com

Discover Your Inner Wine Maker!

Or, "Making Wine Without Turning Your Feet Purple."

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to make your own wine? Maybe, but where do you start? Or yes, but don’t have the resources or desire to purchase the necessary equipment. Would love to, but don’t really have the time to devote to the process.

These questions and concerns are typical and can be easily solved by numerous “custom crushes” popping up in cities and towns near you. For myself and my husband Daniel, we found Crush Pad, in San Francisco, which provides grapes from the West Coast’s top vineyards, an industry-acclaimed wine making team and a state-of-the-art winery 100% focused on making wine in small lots.

We were fairly involved in the entire process but many of their clients simply want them to “make the best barrel of cab you can and call me when it’s ready.” Here on the Central Coast a new custom crush facility has opened; Zoller Wine Styling, the first winery located in downtown Paso Robles.

They offer a unique opportunity to anyone interested in creating a custom wine, from growers to businesses and retailers who wish to produce their own label and individual wine enthusiasts. You can even make a barrel of wine with your friends! They can also accommodate those individuals who wish to create a business by producing wines that can be sold at retail.

Even if you don't live in the town in which the crush facility is located facilities like Crush Pad and Zoller have clients from all over the U.S. and the world who are able to participate in the wine making process via interactive, computerized tracking and monitoring systems.

And of course, once your wine is bottled, you can store and ship your wine through Safe Haven Wine Services and use the tasting lounge for all of your special events!
So get busy coming up with a name and designing your label.