Michigan Wine

Happy Michigan Wine Month! With 13,700 acres under vine, Michigan is currently the 4th largest grape-growing state in the US with the #6 spot for production, just a hair behind Oregon.  Most of the acreage is devoted to Niagara and Concord grapes for table use, which make up…

Algerian treasure Arc de Trajan

Off The Beaten Path: Algeria

Algerian wine today is dying, almost dead completely in fact. There is an initiative to try and revitalize the Algerian wine industry, but to date, it hasn’t affected any revitalization or change, yet with time, that might change. This isn’t to say wine is not made in Algeria…

Hawaiian white wine bottle and glasses with palm trees and sunset

Off The Beaten Path: Hawai’i

Well, if they make wine in Tahiti, they can surely make wine in Hawai’i – and they do. Not just fruit wines, but grape wine too. Volcanic soils are dominant and ridges in the high altitudes of the volcanic mountains are used to plant grapes above 1500 feet. …

Malbec wine vines in a row with a sign reading "Malbec"

It’s World Malbec Day!

To celebrate World Malbec Day, we thought we’d share some fun facts about Malbec! While we Americans have recently had Malbec become a part of the collective wine connoisseur consciousness, it has actually been popular in Argentina for over a century Malbec was originally used only for blending…

Tahiti tropical lake

Off The Beaten Path: Tahiti

Suffice to say, if the French are there, so is wine. One of the strangest places to find grape wine, where it actually is made from that location, is Tahiti. The French Polynesian island produces a very, very, very small amount of wine, but it produces it nonetheless. …

Moldova winery Milestii Mici

Off The Beaten Path: Moldova

So now our theme emerges in the Off The Beaten Path series.  Coat tailing.  Picking up from our previous article on Tunisia and people we reached out to not knowing where it was on the map, our next wine producing country is much the same. Somewhat sandwiched, but…

Ancient ruins of Carthage and seaside landscape. Tunis, Tunisia, Africa

Off The Beaten Path: Tunisia

In our previous Off The Beaten Path post, we spoke about Corsican wines and the multitude of influences that created the modern day scene there.  If you noticed, there was one or two strange places to have brought winemaking influence to Corsica.  One of which was Tunisia. Sadly,…

Corsica Wine region landscape panorama

Off The Beaten Path: Corsica

Coat tailing off of our Understanding AOC series and introducing the Off the Beaten Path series this April, we are taking a look at one of the lesser-known regions of France, the Island of Corsica. The simplest way we can generalize Corsica for those unfamiliar with the island…

The Rose Wine Glass and Orange View

What is Cheese Wine?

The wine world is always experimenting and pushing boundaries.  From the Passion Fruit wines of Hawai’i to the Honey Wines (Mead) of Europe, if it can be fermented, it will inevitably become wine at some point in history.  And why not?  Remember, it was not all that long…

Understanding AOC: Languedoc-Roussillon

The Languedoc-Roussillon region of France is a strange crossroads of wine blends, ancient politics, and relatively inexpensive wine for the high quality shopper on a budget.  It is even said that the sparkling wines of this region actually predate Champagne (not to mention they are a fraction of…