Wine
Posted by Theo Heselmans on July 1st, 2011
A couple of weeks ago an idea started spreading across the Belgian wine-twitter scene: let's get together and enjoy what we like best: Wine! Filip, Jelle and Peter were the culprits. They took the in
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 30th, 2010
Our last virtual trip around Italy covered the south: Puglia, Campania, Basilicata, and 2 islands: Sardegnia and Sicilia. After his theoretical intro, Wim came up with 8 wines from these regions. Beca
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 23rd, 2010
Tuscany (Toscana) was the main (and only) topic of the evening. It's a big region (bigger than e.g. Bordeaux), with lots of appellations (DOCG, DOC and IGT). Many 'famous' Italian wines originate here
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 16th, 2010
What was expected to be the 'least' interesting part of Italy, ended up having a few surprises. Emilia-Romagna, Umbria, Lazio, Marche, Abruzzo and Molise where on the agenda. Toscana (Tuscany), even i
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 13th, 2010
I know I'm blogging a lot about wine lately, and until the Italian wine course is finished (end of October), you'll have to bear with me. Today however, I'm not going to talk about Italian wines. Ye
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 9th, 2010
Yesterday on the agenda: North-East Italy: Alto Adige - Trentino, Friuli and Veneto. Same story: many local grape varieties, lots of (often small) DOC(G)s. In the last 10 years so many DOCs have been
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 2nd, 2010
The previous 'Italian Wine' lesson introduced Italy in general. This time we covered the North-West of Italy: Valle d'Aosta, Liguria, Lombardia and the famous Piemonte, where Nebbiolo is king. Again,
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on September 17th, 2010
I don't blog enough (about wine). So let's do something about that. 12 years ago, in 1998, I started enjoying and learning more about wine. I'm still not a big fan of 'old world wines', but I have to
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on May 5th, 2010
After returning from Egypt for a relaxing holiday, which was extended by 4 days thanks to an angry volcano on Iceland, I was invited for a weekend in the Provence (south of France). The TGV (high spee
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on January 13th, 2010
No, nothing to do with Lotus(phere) this time, but after a long hiatus a small wine-blog-entry. Yesterday, at my wine club 'Het Negende Vat' (the 9th Barrel) we had a great (and expensive) tasting. T
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on May 16th, 2009
As I told you last month, we had our tasting of Australian Shiraz. I expected it to be good, but was nevertheless pleased by the raving reactions from the people in the wineclub. They've never been so generous (and agreeing !) with their scores.
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on April 13th, 2009
Shiraz (or Syrah) keeps surprising me. For a tasting coming up 4 weeks from now, I assembled an interesting selection of 9 Australian Shiraz wines. As it's rather hectic in my dayjob (the reason for
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on January 7th, 2009
A couple of days after Christmas, I got a call -out of the blue- from a journalist (I do not know) of a national newspaper 'Het Laatste Nieuws' (=The Latest News). We chatted for 15 minutes about the
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on December 31st, 2008
Last night, Wim Sas surprised us with a peculiar tasting exercise. We got 4 wines: a light-bodied white an oaky white Chardonnay a light red Pinot Noir a sturdy oaky Cabernet Sauvignon Then he a
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on December 9th, 2008
Every year I prepare a wine-tasting. As I'm a member of 2 wine-clubs, I only need to make sure I get 2 bottles of each wine, and I can do the same presentation twice. It's though sometimes to find an
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on November 22nd, 2008
How often do you get invited to a tasting of 10 year old Spanish Rioja's ? When Michiel (visit Vinotopia) told me he had 24 Rioja's to evaluate, I was thrilled to be part of it. Some wines tend to (
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 29th, 2008
Yesterday evening I was invited to an exceptional German Riesling tasting event, organized by 'Knack Kookclub', guided by one of Belgians most famous (and controversial) wine-gurus: Herwig Van Hove.
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 26th, 2008
Once again I was invited by my friend Wim of Wijnkennis to participate in a tasting. This time he managed to gather 40 different Grand Cru Rieslings 2005 from the Alsace in France. On top of that, the
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on March 2nd, 2008
Shiraz (or Syrah as the French call it) is by far my favorite grape. The wines are usually of such intensity. The nose is spicy and fruity at the same time. Everywhere in the world great stuff is bein
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on February 17th, 2008
I used to be a Beer-drinker. Never Seldom in large quantities, but preferring quality, enjoying the incredibly big selection of Belgian Beers. I was a member of 'The Objective Beertasters' for many ye
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on February 7th, 2008
What happens when you are presented 5 white wines and 5 red ones (all covered up) and you need to make an educated guess about country of origin, grape varietal, year, alcohol and price ? A serious l
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on January 9th, 2008
Bert Gilles, a friend of mine, and a gifted wine taster and writer, wrote a great article about the pleasure of tasting versus the arrogance of so-called professionals. I liked it so much, I translate
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on December 26th, 2007
If you haven't listened to a podcast of the 'Grape Radio', you should start now. Jay Selman and his gang regularly create a podcast with some great content. I must admit I don't have the time to liste
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 31st, 2007
Every year the 'Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux' organizes a major tasting, dedicated to 1 vintage year. About a 100 different 'Châteaux' are present. Not the absolute top, but most below. Very imp
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 14th, 2007
Around this time of the year I get slapped with invitations for wine tastings. I went to 2 of them yesterday. Vinogil replaced half of their selection, and presented a couple of nice new Australian w
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 10th, 2007
Yes indeed, there are wines 'Made in Belgium'. The production quantity is very low ( But it's the quality that counts, isn't it ? I'm a member of 2 wine clubs, and each month we get together for a t
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on September 30th, 2007
The harvest at Château Goubau was a great experience for a wine buff like me. It's hard work (we've been at it until 22.30h 2 days in a row), but very satisfying. With a team of 13 people we harvested
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on September 14th, 2007
This Thursday, my friend Wim Sas (see: wijnkennis.be) held another wine-tasting evening, with wines sent to/fetched by him from the winemakers themselves, or from local importers. The subject this ti
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on August 3rd, 2007
A friend of mine has an interesting site about wines: wijnkennis.be (sorry, only in Dutch). He regularly holds wine-tasting evenings, with wines sent to him from the winemakers themselves, or from loc
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on July 30th, 2007
I recently ordered a small wine cooler (28 bottles max.), at a very interesting price (149 EUR). It got delivered today. As it only has 1 temperature setting (which I knew up-front), I intend to use
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on June 19th, 2007
Last year in September, I was invited to help with the 'vendange' (grape harvest) at Château Goubau. This winery is situated in de 'Côtes de Castillon', only 10 km. from the famous (and beautiful)
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Posted by Theo Heselmans on June 18th, 2007
I'm a big fan of red Spanish wine. Penedes, Navarra and Ribera del Duero are my preferred DOCs. One of my all time favorite is from another 'appelation': Toro. The bodega is called 'Finca Sobreño'.
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