The Grapevine

The Anti-Corkscrew, Germans Out-Wine Italy, and More Wine Stories Worth Sharing

June 9th, 2016

We all know you can open a bottle of wine with your shoe, but what happens when you’ve pushed the cork into the bottle? Could it really be true that beer-swilling Germany drinks more wine than Italy? And the story of a California classic. [level-members]

Get the Cork Out
Here’s a neat trick of limited value: how to use zip ties to remove a cork you’ve had to push into your bottle of wine. For the record, I’ve always found that decanting is the right move here, with a chopstick keeping the cork from blocking the pour.

Germans Top Italians in Wine Consumption
Even as Italy has pushed France from the top spot on the list of global wine producers, it has fallen on the list of wine comsumers. Germany, better known for downing prodigious amounts of beer, has taken their place in the third spot on the consumption list, behind France and the U.S. Interestingly, nearly half of Italians didn’t drink any wine at all in the last year. Read more about who’s up and who’s down in global wine consumption and production.

Fifty Years of a California Classic
Defying trends and staying the course is no easy task these days. Yet, Heitz Cellar’s Martha’s Vineyard Cabernet is still cooking along. Grape Collective offers a look at the history of the iconic wine. Read the full article here.

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