Jamie Oliver's Wine Guy Says He Recommended Wines He Never Tasted

Matt Skinner, Jamie Oliver's head of wine, has admitted that he did not taste a number of the wines that he recommended in his latest book, The Juice 2010.

Sale of Copia Expected

A bankruptcy judge has approved the liquidation of Copia, the failed Napa Valley food and wine center. The 17-acre complex is believed to be worth approximately $35 million.

How To: Open a Bottle of Wine Using Your Shoe

Drunk Frenchmen demonstrate how to open a bottle wine with your shoe (and a wall).

Terroir Shmerroir

Geologists say the idea of terroir as an influence on the flavor of wine is bunk: "[W]hatever 'minerality' in wine is, it is not the taste of vineyard minerals."

White Wine Blues

According to new research, not only is white wine bad for your teeth, it also reduces the chances of a successful pregnancy for women undergoing IVF.

Twitter Launches Wine Brand

In collaboration with San Francisco-based Crushpad, Twitter is launching its own brand of wine. But, wait, don't be cynical. It's for a good cause.

The wines (pinot noir and chardonnay) will carry the the label "Fledgling Wines," and a portion of proceeds from sales will go to support Room to Read, a literacy organization.

There's a website with more details and how to purchase the wine, and, naturally, a twitter account too (@fledgling).

"Because if you can't read you can't Tweet!" say founders Biz Stone & Evan Williams in promoting their philanthropic initiative. On the other hand, one does have to wonder what tweeting is doing to our ability to read and write.

Maybe the move is Stone and Williams' way of apologizing for Twitter's insidious destruction of the written word. LOL. U can RT this if u want 2.

Wine School, Wrestling Organization in Tussle

WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) is challenging the Wine School of Philadelphia's effort to register the name "Sommelier Smackdowns," claiming that it infringes on its trademark of the word "smackdown."

Everything Old is New Again: Schlitz

Brewers go back to the well for the re-birth of Schlitz: "From the ’60s to now, the flavor had been lightened to death by a thousand tiny cuts,” explained Brad Hittle, the company’s chief marketing officer. “We thought it would be more fun rebuilding a ‘57 Chevy than to put another coat of wax on a Lexus.”

How to Speak Oktoberfest

Did you just challenge me to an oabischwoam? You, sir, have quite the wampn. Please, please don't tell me you just ordered a quartl. Ugh, that is some nasty gschwoabats.

Among other things -- a useful place to download sudsy apps for your iPhone or shop for lederhosen and dirndls -- Oktoberfest.de, the official website of Oktoberfest, provides a useful dictionary of Bavarian words, terms, and phrases to help you successfully navigate the sloshy fall festival.

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Puro Chile: A Taste (and a Sip) of Chile

Puro Chile, a new shop billing itself as a Chilean "wine, food, design, and travel emporium," officially opens next week at the corner of Grand and Centre Streets in Manhattan (it will open this Thursday for "tastings," but no sales).

The shop takes its name -- which means "Pure Chile" -- from the first words of Chile's national anthem: Puro, Chile, es tu cielo azulado ("Pure, Chile, is your blue sky").

The private enterprise -- unaffiliated with the Chilean government -- retails exclusively Chilean products.

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