By Bill Nesto, MW

Against the background of the Rioja village of Elciego, the violet-blue-silver tumble of the Frank Gehry-designed hotel-restaurant at Marqués de Riscal declares, "Rioja is transformed." Three miles away, at the feet of the Sierra Cantabria, the Santiago Calatrava-designed Ysios winery spreads out in an undulating yellow wave. It sings, "Rioja is this land." Rioja wines have been synonymous with unchanging tradition. These striking architectural symbols proclaim that style—and change—have arrived in Rioja. Bordeaux Begets a New Rioja Winemaking techniques adapted from Bordeaux's producers helped establish Rioja's wine traditions. In the late eighteenth century, Manuel Quintano y Quintano visited Bordeaux, learned techniques used there, and brought back to Rioja superior barrels that required neither pitch nor resin as a sealant.

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By Piero Selvaggio

Wine rituals in restaurants can be mystifying. When hosts order a bottle, they are always offered a taste to approve the wine before it is poured for their guests. Many people are confused about what they should look for when asked to judge the wine and are afraid to ask. Some are too shy to reject a bottle, worrying that to do so is rude. Others misunderstand the purpose of the sample taste, sending bottles back for little or no reason. Neither of these extremes is correct. Wine should be rejected only if it is truly bad or if it was recommended in error. Since wine is a natural product, each and every bottle is unique. Like grapes, a few wines are imperfect. Wine can be damaged by many factors, most often faulty corks, poor storage, and accidents of winemaking. Although modern winemaking has greatly reduced the number of disappointing bottles, many reasons can cause a wine to be unfit to serve your guests.

From the book "Wine Secrets" by Marnie Old, published by Quirk Books.

By Madeline Triffon, MS

The lineup is the preshift meeting of a professional restaurant staff during which new menu items, daily features, and beverage education are shared with the service staff. As beverage hospitality pros, our mission is to review these new products, learn a little about them, and practice describing them in a manner that will be irresistible to our clientele.

Eyes Wide Shut

Blind tasting, which teaches us how to taste properly and keeps us focused on the wine itself and how it fits into the range of what our guests have enjoyed, is an essential training tool to use at lineup. But whoever is leading the tasting should steer the conversation away from "What is this?" and toward "Is this good wine?"

By Evan Goldstein, MS

Every now and then a book comes out that gets me going. From the world of epicurean stars, they can be positively brilliant (Danny Meyer's Setting the Table), over the top (Ferran Adria's A Day at El Bulli), "new classics" (Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential), and soon-to-be classics. I suspect that Eric Ripert's On the Line may well be in that last category.

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By Jim Clarke

The Rhone Valley's mistral--the cool, drying wind (sometimes cold and powerful enough to knock over trees) that sweeps over the valley's vineyards, slowing grape ripening and preventing disease--has long been cited as a contributor to the quality of the region's wines. The same could be said about the Cape Doctor, a strong coastal southeasterly that blows through much of South Africa's Winelands and into Cape Town. But the wind is just the beginning of the similarities between France's Rhone Valley and some of the Cape's winegrowing regions. It should come as no surprise that South Africa is discovering a natural affinity for the Rhone's grape varieties and wine styles.

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Isantemagazine.com – The Court of Master Sommeliers, American Chapter held its first National Conference at The Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, California, last month bringing together the largest group of Master Sommeliers in the history of the organization. The title Master Sommelier marks the highest recognition of wine and spirits knowledge, beverage service abilities, and professionalism in the hospitality trade. Each attendee had the opportunity to bring and share a favorite bottle of wine, creating an extraordinary collection. At a presentation, dinner and tasting hosted by Wine Australia, conference attendees also had the rare opportunity to taste Seppeltsfield Tawnies from 1908, 1953, and 1977, as well as a 1935 Seppeltsfield brandy. The 1953 and 1977 vintages were specifically drawn from their casks for the event to commemorate the years the Guild of Sommeliers and the Court of Master Sommeliers were each founded. They will not be available to the public until 2053 and 2077, respectively.

NYTimes.com – It's a new year, and a new New York State budget proposal, but it's the same old deficit. So once again, Gov. David A. Paterson has proposed allowing New York groceries to sell wine as a means of raising revenue through license fees. The governor's proposal last year, you may recall, was defeated, largely because of heavy lobbying by an alliance of distributors and wine and liquor store owners, who feared losing business to groceries. But this year's proposal includes an important change. Under the new proposal, wine and liquor stores would be permitted to sell breads, cheeses and other items that would go naturally with wine. Right now, they cannot sell food at all. The proposal would also permit wine and liquor stores to install A.T.M.'s, to own multiple licenses rather than the one they are permitted currently, and to sell directly to restaurants, bars and convenience stores (wholesale distributors are sure to embrace that proposal!). Original Source>>

Knoxnews.com – A Massachusetts law that sharply restricts out-of-state winemakers from shipping their products directly to consumers in the state is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled. Thursday's decision by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a lower court ruling could open the door for connoisseurs in Massachusetts to purchase more of their favorite wines online or by mail order from domestic producers. The law, approved by the Legislature in 2006 over the veto of then-Gov. Mitt Romney, created a multi-tiered system in which wineries that produce more than 30,000 gallons a year must decide whether to sell retail in Massachusetts through an in-state wholesaler or apply for a license to ship wines directly to consumers. They cannot, however, do both. Original Source>>

Wineindustryinsight.com – Ask most people if they've heard of California's Littorai wines and they're likely to say no, but that doesn't bother owner and winemaker Ted Lemon. The state of California produces a third more wine than Australia, accounting for the vast majority of American wine production and is home to more than 1,200 wineries that range from big name corporates such as E J Gallo Winery and Robert Mondavi to smaller, boutique outfits. Family-owned Littorai is one of those small winemakers, but perhaps what sets it apart is Lemon's determination to stay small and produce wines that he and his family like to drink, even though they are very different from the California norm. "We produce around 4,000 cases and we have no intention to grow beyond that. We can't manage it as a family otherwise," he told reporters during a recent trip to Singapore to promote the artisanal wine in Asia. Original Source>>