How much red wine is good for you? An Italian tells all…

Here at Ideal Wine Company we’ve seen the recent news that scientists are claiming that the health benefits of wine may be overstated. The so-called miracle ingredient resveratrol has been found to have no direct provable health benefits.

If this is the case, why then do people who drink wine regularly seem to live longer? We found an interesting article in The Telegraph where the journalist travelled to Italy to speak to healthy locals in a wine producing region.

Having a healthier life with wine

The writer of the article found various tips from the Italians he met and spoke to, here’s a quick round up healthy tips for wine drinkers…

Drink a little often…

Most of the Italian people the journalist spoke to recommended drinking every day.  Not half a bottle, but a couple of glasses with a meal. One person even pointed out that drinking a little wine with food goes back to the Bible!

Drinking with food increases the flavour of good meat, fish and cheese, the wine also helps cleanse the pallet. It’s important not to drink on an empty stomach.

Drink good quality wines

The average British Supermarket wine probably doesn’t contain the same health giving benefits of better wine. The higher quality the wine, the better the taste and the better the wine compliments good food.

Mass produced wines are fine in some instances, but picking a boutique and locally sourced wine improves the chances of finding a healthy bottle.

Enjoy life

It seems many of the Italians in the article drank to help them be sociable, enjoy food and enjoy the outdoor life. They have a more sedate lifestyle than the typical British 9-5 worker (who has a tendency to go out at the weekend with the express intention of getting very drunk).

The lack of stress in the Italian’s lifestyle is helped by the way they enjoy wine and food together. It’s a different and more European attitude. They’re enjoying life anyway, they don’t need to get drunk to have a good time.

The Chianti region

The journalist in the article visited the Chianti region of Italy where the locals live longer and remain healthy. If you’re interested in learning about Chianti contact the Ideal Wine Company for some advice. We happy to discuss Chianti anytime.

The overriding theme that comes from speaking to wine and diet experts is to drink less wine, but more regularly and to buy a better quality wine for a healthier life.

Buy better wine

Of course, the perfect place to buy better wine is the Ideal Wine Company. You don’t need to be a wine expert either. You can rely on us to talk you through good wines that will suit your palate. If you’re organising an event we’re happy to give advice on what wine would complement the food you’re serving.

The Ideal Wine Company is staffed by experts and you can email us for more advice. We’ll give you details on how to store wine too, especially if you’re purchasing in bulk.

Ideal Wine Company’s Top Four Italian Wines

Considering the fact that we seek to bring you the highest quality luxury wines from around the world, it should be no surprise that we feature several Italian vintages on our list, and this week we wanted to bring you the top four Italian bottles available from the Ideal Wine Company.

Viticulture is by nature diverse. The fact that grapes are so versatile, and can grow in many areas across the globe, means you end up with a complex product that comes in many different forms and flavours.

This is why we offer wines from each corner of the globe – every luxury bottle has something unique to offer you and can bring a fantastic experience all of its own to your palette. Considering the quality we seek to deliver, we could never have left Italy off the list.

The Cradle of Western Wine Making

Italy is the cradle of modern western civilisation and more importantly, modern western viticulture. The Romans inherited their viticulture practises from the Greeks and spread wine-making throughout the empire, bringing it notably to France and Spain, monoliths of the modern industry.

Italy itself is certainly no small player in the modern industry. With centuries of history behind them, Italian wines have a reputation for being flavourful, full-bodied and luxurious – a real sensation for the palette that you simply can’t miss.

Ideal Wine Company’s Top Four

This means that the region has produced hundreds of quality luxury wines for you to sample, however we have narrowed it down to our top four, all available on the Ideal Wine product list. These are:

1)      Dal Forno Romano Amarone della Valpolicella 2003: This bottle may be the newest on the list – and the only one from this century, but it certainly isn’t to be underestimated. A heavy red that comes in at £315 a bottle, it features a mix of classic flavours that are sure to dazzle and delight in equal measure.

2)      1990 Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella: The joint oldest vintage on this list, the 1990 Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella is a classic red in the Italian style that is sure to burst on the tongue and slide down a treat. It comes to you for the cost effective price tag of £618.

3)      1990 Antinori Tignanello Toscana IGT: The other 1990 vintage of the list, it’s every bit as delicious as its counterpart. A luxury red from the finest of Italian vineyard, it’s a heavy affair that is sure to prove the perfect remedy for a cold winter’s night. You can clinch a bottle for £331.

4)      Vega Sicilla 1999: Often billed as a shockingly deep red, the Vega Sicilla 1999 is deep, rich, fruity, full-bodied and very flavourful – a treat not to be missed and available to you for £234.

A Gendered Affair: Men Love Wine Just As Much as Women

A new survey reported on by the Daily Mail suggests that despite popular perceptions, men love wine, especially decadent luxury vintages, every bit as much as their female counterparts, but are far more reluctant to express their appreciation. Why is this and does this teach us about the wine culture we live with every single day?

At the Ideal Wine Company this isn’t news – just as many men peruse of luxury products list as women - so we’ve always known that the myth that wine is exclusively the province of women, is just that, a myth. However this new survey sheds more light on the matter and shows us that cultural stereotypes that have governed the genders for years still hold far more power than we might give them credit for.

Wine at Home, Beer in the Pub

The broadsheet conducted a colossal poll of 1,500 men and women into their alcohol habits. The poll had surprising results for those people out there who aren’t as acquainted with the drinking habits of men as the Ideal Wine Company.

The poll concluded that whilst men prefer a pint when they’re down the local pub, they’re much more willing to indulge in a glass of wine when they’re in the privacy of their own home.

Specifically, a significant 91% of men claimed that they prefer to drink wine at home, whilst 76% said that they prefer to imbibe drinks they see as ‘more manly’ when at the pub, in front of other people.  Parties seem to be the middle ground amongst male drinkers, as the Broadsheet reported that 42% said they would be willing to indulge in a glass in the middle of a crowded party.

The Mail turned to Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, to shed some light on these findings. Wiseman commented that: “My guess is that it is culturally acceptable for guys to order a pint in a pub.” He elaborated by saying that “If they are then drinking wine at home, it suggests that is their drink of choice.  In the pub they are being affected by context – they think it is not manly to order a glass of wine.” 

Defying Gender Stereotypes

Like we’ve alluded to earlier in this article, men enjoy a glass of their favourite luxury vintage and these statistics only reinforce a conclusion we long came to ourselves. At the Ideal Wine Company we would suggest that men defy gender stereotypes and embrace their love of wine for what it is – a part of their life that brings great joy. 

Ideal Wine Company’s Top Four Dom Perignon’s

We are proud of the stellar Dom Perignon Champagnes that we prominently display on the Ideal Wine Company product list, which is why this week we thought we’d bring you our top four!

Champagne is the ultimate luxury vintage – a status symbol we equate with Kings and Queens, politicians and celebrities, entrepreneurs and heirs etc. Champagne is the symbol of wealth and success.

Which is why it’s not surprising that Champagnes are some of our highest selling luxury wines – they’re simply too sumptuous to resist. The sparkling reputation of the Dom Perignon brand, underlined by consistently high quality, means that when you buy one of these luxury champagnes from us, you know you are purchasing a vintage that is worth its weight in gold.

A Dom Perignon for All Tastes

1)      Dom Perignon 2000: Despite it being the newest bottle on this list, the Dom Perignon 2000, a classic white champagne in the traditional style of this well-known brand, is more than the equal of every single competitor of this list. A sparkling wine with a satisfying bite that will leave your thirst well slaked, you can score this luxury bottle for a cool £140.

2)      Dom Perignon Brut 1993: This classic example of the Dom Perignon brand has aged spectacularly, and has a fine reputation as a drink of choice among the well-to-do set. When you take a sip of this classic 750 millilitre bottle that comes to you for the value saving price of only £180, the complex mix of flavours clash and collide together, as the heady texture of the bubbles sees your sip slide down your throat and warm your whole body.

3)      Dom Perignon Rose 1996: As you might have guessed, the Dom Perignon Rose 1996 differs from every other champagne on this list because it is a rose, not a white, which is standard for Champagne. This doesn’t mean it should be underestimated. The fruiter nature of this £276 quality bottle lends it a lighter air that makes it a staple for the hot summer months.

4)      Dom Perignon Brut 1985: The oldest champagne on this list, it really does add gravitas to that myth that wine gets better as it ages. Whilst it is also the most expensive bottle, coming in at a hefty £288, it is worth every single penny. Its pure class and sophistication in a glass!

A Wine by Any Other Name….

Wine isn’t as narrow a category as most people seem to think. It can in fact be made from almost any type of fruit and the market out there is so much more varied than you might think. That’s why this week the Ideal Wine Company blog explores how fruit wine has helped shape the entire market.

The modern market is dominated by wines that are primarily made from grapes; it’s so embedded into our perception of the world’s most common drink, that most people don’t realise that it’s far  more complex than that.

Ideal Wine Company’s Introduction to Fruit Vintages

At its most basic, wine is just fermented fruit. This is because it is the sugar in fruit that turns into alcohol, and that’s why grapes work in the first place. The production of wine actually goes back thousands of years and across a breadth of cultures. Back in the age of antiquity, our forebears didn’t restrict themselves to grape wine.

From this we can see that it really is possible to get any type of wine; tea, elderberry, raspberry, pineapple, orange, apple etc. It’s a very broad category. You can even get them on the open market in countries like Japan, Korea, the US; even here in the UK to some extent. The US actually has somewhat of a penchant for plum wine, for example.

The thing is though, that our market is practically saturated with grape varieties of wine, so could fruit wine actually have any effect on the luxury bottles of the type that Ideal Wine Company feature. Yes it can, and it’s all to do with blending flavours.

The Influence of Fruit

In the modern market, the idea of a blended vintage is hardly something new. It’s actually pretty common to blend two complementary grape varieties together to craft something more superior to the sum of its parts. That, for example, is how the reputation of Chardonnay has been rescued by Vintners in recent years.

However what is less commonly known is that the wine market has taken to blending different fruit varieties to market their vintages to a new audience. In the slightly more risqué bottle of modern dry white, for instance, you might find anything from elderflower to pineapple as a compliment to the standard grape flavouring.

For the Ideal Wine Company this quick exploration of the impact fruit wines have had on the modern market has emphasised the need of the industry to open itself up to new ideas. Innovation leads to change and change is the reason luxury wine still fascinates buyers the world over in 2014. 

Would Wine Work in a Coffee Shop?

Industry experts have heard this week that coffee chains such as Starbucks are planning to feature wines on their evening menus. Considering the typical atmosphere of the traditional coffee shop, is this something that could ever work?

At the Ideal Wine Company we know that financially, this would be a very viable move for the wine industry. Take Starbucks as our example. They’re everywhere. They’re in every town centre and on every high street. If they began offering wine then growers bank balances would probably double overnight.

In fact this is the case as Starbucks have already started offering, in some cases, wine or beer on their evening meals. They plan to introduce more of this into more of their chains. Other coffee shops in the US state of Arizona such as Urban Beans, 32 Shea, Sip Coffee & Beer House, Lux and Cartel Coffee Lab have already caught onto this trend, according to local news sources.

It’s a growing thing over in the states and logic dictates that it would only be a matter of time until coffee chains here in the UK follow. But would UK consumers really be interested? Almost any idea can work in a culture as vast as the US, and it’s one that’s been common in the EU for a while, but that doesn’t mean it’ll translate over here. 

Despite what most people think, Britain is in fact the birthplace of the modern coffee house. They were first established in the capital in the early days of Empire and the nations coffee houses actually acted as the country’s first stock exchanges. It’s a strong and robust tradition and the modern coffee house experience is one that could be conductive to wine and beer sales.

However we also have pub culture. Pub culture is a very uniquely British thing and it’s the reason why alcohol sales in coffee houses have never really been a thing before. Whilst over in the states alcohol is only sold in rowdy bars, in Britain, consumers already have a choice between high energy bars and more sedate pubs.

Basically; the nature of the local pub and of the local coffee house have some crossover in the British psyche and this is a reason why any such move might not work in a British market. However the nature of luxury wines, that aren’t often sold in pubs, means that they could be sold in coffee houses more effectively.

At the Ideal Wine Company we recognise that this industry is one that is fuelled on creativity and innovation. Whether this idea works or not, it is certainly an intriguing one that we’ll be keeping tabs on it as it blossoms. 

New York Wines: An underestimated quantity?

Finger Lakes International Wine Competition founder Peter Parts has revealed that a number of New York wines have scored major medals in the world renowned expo this year. Have New York wines been an unknown quantity all this time?

When we talk about quality luxury wines, we usually talk about Europe; France, Italy, Spain etc. If we do have to turn our attention to America, we tend to talk about California, the nation’s most popular wine growing region. New York is often left out in the cold.

Cold is the exact reason we don’t tend to consider it a major wine growing region in the U.S. As a state nestled into the lower North-East of the Union, New York tends to experience deeply cold winters that’d stifle a grape on the vine before it ever even got the chance to grow to fruition.

However this may be a short sighted assessment of New York viticulture, as Peter Parts would attest to. According to the competition’s founder, New York wines scored big this year.

Wines from Anthony Road Wine Co led the pack scoring two double gold and gold medals collectively. Swedish Hill Winery followed up in second place, with one double gold and three gold medals. Hazlitt 1852 Vineyard followed up in third place, earning one double gold and two gold medals. In total New York Wines won over 80 medals at the event.

You may think that since the event actually takes place in Finger Lakes, a region of the state of New York, that this is somewhat biased.  However even factoring that in, you have to admit that there must be something to New York wines that the rest of the world has missed.

New York State actually has a robust wine growing culture and has four major viticulture regions; Lake Erie, Finger Lakes itself, the Hudson River region and the eastern end of Long Island. New York is actually the country’s third largest wine growing region, behind California and Washington State.

It’s a centuries old tradition that was first introduced to the state by French Huguenot immigrants and Dutch settlers. The result is that the New York wine scene tends to be dominated by French hybrids.

So are New York wines an unknown quantity? Perhaps. They’re not likely to be featured on the Ideal Wine Company product list anytime soon, but it is clear that perhaps they’ve been unfairly eclipsed in the past by their Californian rivals.