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africa icon</category><category>LCBO Hobbs hobbswines Margaret Ontario canada</category><category>africa</category><category>edward blog harvest bottle south africa wine vilafonte ambassador bernard pulp fiction team photo vineyard winery freese long zema ratcliffe wine luxury foundation charity winemakers technology</category><category>zelma long randal grahm culinary institute of America Golan heights vilafonte warwick Mike Ratcliffe Bonny Doon</category><category>leading women in wine zelma long bottle note blog south africa vilafonte phil freese ratcliffe</category><category>wine luxury vilafonte jan rook zelma ratcliffe holland</category><category>zelma long wine maker of the year wine enthusiast mike ratcliffe vilafonte south africa</category><category>south africa china beijing serina wang ratcliffe warwick vilafonte</category><category>rOBERT pARKER wINE aDVOCATE 93 POINTS nEAL mARTIN</category><category>ultimate wine dinner world cup cape town vilafonte ratcliffe mike zelma long wine cellar</category><category>south africa wine vilafonte ambassador bernard pulp fiction team photo vineyard winery freese long zema ratcliffe embassy wine luxury</category><category>www.drinxwine.com ratcliffe matt beard bartholomew broadbent mike ratcliffe mississippi beau rivage</category><category>blog harvest bottle south africa wine vilafonte ambassador bernard pulp fiction team photo vineyard winery freese long zema ratcliffe wine luxury the star johannesburg georgina haupt</category><category>Vilafonte Series C</category><category>obama wine vilafonte zelma mike ratcliffe freese series M C south africa</category><category>mike ratcliffe warwick vilafonte harvest report 2010 south africa</category><category>vilafonte vineyards south africa mike ratcliffe zelma long phil freese bartholomew broadbent fells domaine wine select estates</category><category>viticulture digital freese zelma long ratcliffe vilafonte harlan warwick jason tesauro</category><category>YPO South Africa Johannesburg Gauteng Marion on Nichol Loggie Mike Ratcliffe Vilafonte</category><category>phil freese 2010 harvest update vilafonte</category><category>vilafonte photo kim dickson greef wine society south africa zelma long phil freese ratcliffe</category><category>martin smith vilafonte winemakers classic stilbaai rip curl</category><category>zelma asev Mike Silacci Opus One Viticulture Enology</category><title>the vilafonte wine blog</title><description>Welcome to the Vilafonte wineblog. Vilafonte is the only South African/American winemaking joint-venture. We make great wine in a great country - South Africa Follow us on Twitter @mikeratcliffe</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>288</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/VilafonteLuxuryWine" /><feedburner:info xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" uri="vilafonteluxurywine" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-2551044607007679166</guid><pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:28:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-01-23T20:28:49.809+02:00</atom:updated><title>Hooray! We are in the Top 100 wines in the world - again.</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ThwfYsAA9Aw/Tx2mhdiO3rI/AAAAAAAABno/kQWJXBQ6odI/s1600/Vilafonte+TOP+100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ThwfYsAA9Aw/Tx2mhdiO3rI/AAAAAAAABno/kQWJXBQ6odI/s400/Vilafonte+TOP+100.jpg" width="281" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-2551044607007679166?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2012/01/hooray-we-are-in-top-100-wines-in-world.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ThwfYsAA9Aw/Tx2mhdiO3rI/AAAAAAAABno/kQWJXBQ6odI/s72-c/Vilafonte+TOP+100.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-3716361191421434386</guid><pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:25:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-01-23T20:25:17.300+02:00</atom:updated><title /><description>&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PAZIvwrz1z0/Tx2lqhrse9I/AAAAAAAABng/92RPotoZPZg/s1600/IMG00077-20111224-2024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PAZIvwrz1z0/Tx2lqhrse9I/AAAAAAAABng/92RPotoZPZg/s400/IMG00077-20111224-2024.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"&gt;Vilafonte rainbow in Signature restaurant JHB&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-3716361191421434386?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2012/01/vilafonte-rainbow-in-signature.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PAZIvwrz1z0/Tx2lqhrse9I/AAAAAAAABng/92RPotoZPZg/s72-c/IMG00077-20111224-2024.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-5547901394516659448</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:46:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-10-19T12:46:49.294+02:00</atom:updated><title>Mini tornado blows through Vilafonte vineyards</title><description>&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
Dear team&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
We have experience the same thing very similar of which
happen in the East Rand (SA) on Sunday evening.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
Yesterday afternoon at about 3pm. While working with the
tractor busy mulching in block A, while working in the direction of the store.
Strong winds stand up behind the tractor and move side-ways past the tractor.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
I kept an eye on it as it getting stronger and higher as
it moves in the direction of the upper store (where we store the chemicals).&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TdUVg-NYR7A/Tp6qSANAXUI/AAAAAAAABm4/LZfVIZUIaYU/s1600/04102011227.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="223" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TdUVg-NYR7A/Tp6qSANAXUI/AAAAAAAABm4/LZfVIZUIaYU/s400/04102011227.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;I suddenly realize but this wind looks different than some
winds that I have ever seen. I also realize that Piet and Gerhardus are busy
inside the bottom store busy cleaning the fingers of the water filters.&amp;nbsp;It strike my mind that I should scream to tell them to
get out of the store as danger is coming.&amp;nbsp;This all happen so fast that by the time that I want to
do what I decided to do to alert them, it was all over.&amp;nbsp;This all happens in 4 seconds.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
My assumption is that it seems that; it looks like the
wind starts at the vineyards just at the trees of the fence between us and
Rainbow chickens.&amp;nbsp;It seems like it was busy building momentum and picking
up speed.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
The bottom store was too big and hollow and therefore it
split the head from the tale and it did not continue to grow further after the
store.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pPuiFypr5Ok/Tp6qT6BP0VI/AAAAAAAABnA/FlJ-gqwhIwE/s1600/04102011228.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="223" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pPuiFypr5Ok/Tp6qT6BP0VI/AAAAAAAABnA/FlJ-gqwhIwE/s400/04102011228.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
Piet and Gerhardus were fine as it could not do any harm
to the bottom store.&amp;nbsp;Piet and Gerhardus could not hear the sound which came
from the fall of the top store hall as they have experience a different sound
as the wind hit the bottom store.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
It was scary&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
I alert the authorities via rescue services of what we
have experience.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
I hope you believe me&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
Edward&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-5547901394516659448?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/10/mini-tornado-blows-through-vilafonte.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TdUVg-NYR7A/Tp6qSANAXUI/AAAAAAAABm4/LZfVIZUIaYU/s72-c/04102011227.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-2482769834244532054</guid><pubDate>Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:33:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-09-26T15:35:14.526+02:00</atom:updated><title>The Vilafonté 'Series X' cigar goes beautifully with the Vilafonté 'Series M' 2004</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-viXG2FhS1ms/ToB-FUXMIXI/AAAAAAAABmw/8sY741I_rKY/s1600/vilafonte+cigar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-viXG2FhS1ms/ToB-FUXMIXI/AAAAAAAABmw/8sY741I_rKY/s640/vilafonte+cigar.jpg" width="480" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-2482769834244532054?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/09/vilafonte-series-x-cigar-goes.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-viXG2FhS1ms/ToB-FUXMIXI/AAAAAAAABmw/8sY741I_rKY/s72-c/vilafonte+cigar.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-6949630454336809384</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:14:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-09-15T10:14:53.430+02:00</atom:updated><title>Series 'C' 2008 scores 93 Points</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MUsOuteYGfc/TnGzi-JxaaI/AAAAAAAABmc/HivOoVO5ei8/s1600/neilmartinreport.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MUsOuteYGfc/TnGzi-JxaaI/AAAAAAAABmc/HivOoVO5ei8/s400/neilmartinreport.jpg" width="281" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-6949630454336809384?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/09/series-c-2008-scores-93-points.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MUsOuteYGfc/TnGzi-JxaaI/AAAAAAAABmc/HivOoVO5ei8/s72-c/neilmartinreport.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-8535273678203875459</guid><pubDate>Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:17:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-09-08T12:17:26.817+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">rOBERT pARKER wINE aDVOCATE 93 POINTS nEAL mARTIN</category><title>Robert Parker's Wine Advocate scores 93 points Vilafonte Series C 2008. Here it is officially.</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lN7PIFdNq-c/TmiVRUUh5fI/AAAAAAAABmY/XPsb0xDBROc/s1600/Parker-2008-Vilafonte-Serie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="318" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lN7PIFdNq-c/TmiVRUUh5fI/AAAAAAAABmY/XPsb0xDBROc/s400/Parker-2008-Vilafonte-Serie.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-8535273678203875459?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/09/robert-parkers-wine-advocate-scores-93.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lN7PIFdNq-c/TmiVRUUh5fI/AAAAAAAABmY/XPsb0xDBROc/s72-c/Parker-2008-Vilafonte-Serie.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><georss:featurename>Stellenbosch Central, Stellenbosch, South Africa</georss:featurename><georss:point>-33.940680638671765 18.84694896391295</georss:point><georss:box>-33.950991638671766 18.83046246391295 -33.93036963867176 18.86343546391295</georss:box></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-1221027715758719281</guid><pubDate>Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:13:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-08-25T17:13:48.306+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">wine vilafonte enthusiast south africa points 93 award score icon</category><title>Vilafonte 'Series C' 2008 nails it with 93 points - again!</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ajnDGmX2r90/TlZmXknU5fI/AAAAAAAABl0/Qv4LaZNesXQ/s1600/WE+Nov11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ajnDGmX2r90/TlZmXknU5fI/AAAAAAAABl0/Qv4LaZNesXQ/s640/WE+Nov11.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-1221027715758719281?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/08/vilafonte-series-c-2008-nails-it-with.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ajnDGmX2r90/TlZmXknU5fI/AAAAAAAABl0/Qv4LaZNesXQ/s72-c/WE+Nov11.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-4668762225622571989</guid><pubDate>Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:45:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-08-18T16:45:41.147+02:00</atom:updated><title>A fun event this weekend</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qr5_XOEdZ7o/Tk0lTZJAQhI/AAAAAAAABlw/aqFZ-USRIe0/s1600/FFTK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qr5_XOEdZ7o/Tk0lTZJAQhI/AAAAAAAABlw/aqFZ-USRIe0/s320/FFTK.jpg" width="249" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-4668762225622571989?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/08/fun-event-this-weekend.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qr5_XOEdZ7o/Tk0lTZJAQhI/AAAAAAAABlw/aqFZ-USRIe0/s72-c/FFTK.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-922907398522616358</guid><pubDate>Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:47:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-08-16T17:47:24.991+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">martin smith vilafonte winemakers classic stilbaai rip curl</category><title>Vilafonte winemaker Martin Smith stuns the crowd at the Winemakers surf classic</title><description>&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fAq1gF4_jZg/TkqQRxtEqUI/AAAAAAAABlk/fU07BkoboXE/s1600/Duncan+Savage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fAq1gF4_jZg/TkqQRxtEqUI/AAAAAAAABlk/fU07BkoboXE/s320/Duncan+Savage.jpg" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;Perfect winter conditions greeted wine industry surfers who gathered near Stilbaai in the Boland for the annual Rip Curl Vitner's Surf Classic.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;Duncan Savage from Cape Point vineyards won the Junior division (under 35 yrs) of the event, which is supported by Rip Curl and Reynolds Rocha. Annual standout Gunter Schultz, from Tamboerskloof, won the Seniors (36 to 43) while Gary van Wyk from Takana Vineyards won the Masters (44 years and older).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;Solid 4' surf greeted the riders at the small reef and sand spit they call Kakgat at 8am - early start to get through a mammoth 28 heats in the three age divisions, plus ladies, who boasted all of one contestant. Conditions were at times testing with a solid overhead shorebreak and outgoing tidal rip keeping contestants sharp as they tried to paddle out.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;"In the very first heat of the day, one guy took almost 10 minutes to get out to the back. He only got one scorable ride," said organiser Miles Mossop, who hails from Tokara wines.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;But once the tide turned and began to push, the surf filled in with solid 3- 5 footers on the outside.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JA30dD1Gn20/TkqQSwn_JTI/AAAAAAAABlo/FP6VQ11o-2k/s1600/Gunter+Schultz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JA30dD1Gn20/TkqQSwn_JTI/AAAAAAAABlo/FP6VQ11o-2k/s320/Gunter+Schultz.jpg" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;As &lt;st1:city w:st="on"&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st="on"&gt;Cape Town&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:city&gt; was blasted by westerly near-gales, driving rain and wild seas, the Boland was sunny and mild with clean surf. A brief buster and a rain shower passed through at midday, then backed away to enable the second half, and the finals, of the event to proceed in pushing glassy waves in the afternoon. "There were whitecaps out to sea, but hardly any wind on the coast," said Mossop.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;The riders who made the finals revelled in the clean surf, although there were some heavy wipeouts on the ledge. Beginner Albert Ahrens was to later win the Shark Bait Award after he was swept hundreds of metres out to sea in a strong rip. He was rescued by Francois Hanekom, who later won The Hof (David Hasselhof) Award to much hilarity at the prize giving held at the Stable in the evening.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;In another first, &lt;b&gt;Martin Smith of &lt;a href="http://www.vilafonte.com/"&gt;Vilafonte&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; stunned the crowd with his Standup Paddle Board riding, the first time one of these craft have been entered the competition, in which any type of surfboard goes, from longboards to fish and to short boards.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yc3sX00gx4E/TkqQT0UPeHI/AAAAAAAABls/m4ikHOtjpBI/s1600/Johan+Reyneke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yc3sX00gx4E/TkqQT0UPeHI/AAAAAAAABls/m4ikHOtjpBI/s320/Johan+Reyneke.jpg" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;Smith tried to impress the crowd with a set wave from the outside reef, and was racing the section across the reef with great aplomb until he got hammered by the curling inside bowl, much to the delight of onlookers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;"It was another wonderful event, with fantastic catering, cool drinks and kegs of beer to keep everyone nourished, followed by a festive prize giving dinner and much spontaneous mirth at the Stables Restaurant in Stilbaai afterwards, said Mossop.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;Mossop noted with pleasure that winemakers really came to the party this year in terms of bringing 'heaps' of their own wine to the function.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt;"&gt;The traditional bottle of Big Red was dished out to contestants, "slightly more of an easy drinking wine this year that should be consumed quite soon". The Big Red is a 1.5 litre bottle of blended wine comprising contributions from the entering wine estates who donate the wine before the event.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-922907398522616358?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/08/vilafonte-winemaker-martin-smith-stuns.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fAq1gF4_jZg/TkqQRxtEqUI/AAAAAAAABlk/fU07BkoboXE/s72-c/Duncan+Savage.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-4254704319689086491</guid><pubDate>Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:45:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-08-16T16:45:22.612+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">wine vilafonte south africa</category><title>I love it - a refreshing new take on wine bottle photography!</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dOPAbq10gCI/TkqB4vGawHI/AAAAAAAABlM/DjsW_TTAawo/s1600/vilafonte+sideways.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="155" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dOPAbq10gCI/TkqB4vGawHI/AAAAAAAABlM/DjsW_TTAawo/s400/vilafonte+sideways.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-4254704319689086491?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/08/i-love-it-refreshing-new-take-on-wine.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dOPAbq10gCI/TkqB4vGawHI/AAAAAAAABlM/DjsW_TTAawo/s72-c/vilafonte+sideways.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-7064804050387305838</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:10:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-06-16T13:10:40.383+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">vilafonte vineyards south africa mike ratcliffe zelma long phil freese bartholomew broadbent fells domaine wine select estates</category><title>Vilafonté invited to represent South Africa at the New York Wine Experience in October this year - nice!</title><description>&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oBny2W4l3oM/Tfnii-6CEpI/AAAAAAAABlA/tYGvlV8qYTY/s1600/wineexperience.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="60" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oBny2W4l3oM/Tfnii-6CEpI/AAAAAAAABlA/tYGvlV8qYTY/s400/wineexperience.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wSlbZ1Wgz7Y/TfnilSQdKQI/AAAAAAAABlE/OsL_HNFvrhU/s1600/nywe2011_logo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wSlbZ1Wgz7Y/TfnilSQdKQI/AAAAAAAABlE/OsL_HNFvrhU/s1600/nywe2011_logo.gif" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;The New York Wine Experience is a joyous three-day celebration of great wine. Only at a Wine Experience can you sit down and taste the world’s best wines guided by the estates’ owners and winemakers. You’ll enjoy outstanding vintages, rare wines from the producers’ cellars and top-scoring wines from around the world.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Our focus this year is on stars of the wine world. To highlight this we have planned a weekend program that will engage all of your senses while adding to your wine knowledge. Our goal is always to offer a program that will be educational for both novice and expert. Daytime seminars filled with unique wines from around the world, food and wine pairings from star chefs, a black-tie gala and more promise to make this event a favorite.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--7qqtzzDAHk/TfnjYNBJpaI/AAAAAAAABlI/qPckx68n6Bg/s1600/nywe2011_h-intropict.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--7qqtzzDAHk/TfnjYNBJpaI/AAAAAAAABlI/qPckx68n6Bg/s1600/nywe2011_h-intropict.gif" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;The Grand Tasting&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-7064804050387305838?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/06/vilafonte-invited-to-represent-south.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oBny2W4l3oM/Tfnii-6CEpI/AAAAAAAABlA/tYGvlV8qYTY/s72-c/wineexperience.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-2060870444860496430</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:23:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-04-19T09:27:08.487+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">vilafonte wine spectator phil freese zelma long ratcliffe south africa icon luxury wine james molesworth 93 points</category><title>Vilafonte excels in Wine Spectator - again. Click on the image to enlarge</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sm5H_mtjBB4/Ta04LPBrE6I/AAAAAAAABks/NQ1vLiEGW1w/s1600/WS_SA_topscores-sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sm5H_mtjBB4/Ta04LPBrE6I/AAAAAAAABks/NQ1vLiEGW1w/s640/WS_SA_topscores-sm.jpg" width="459" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-2060870444860496430?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/04/vilafonte-excels-in-wine-spectator.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sm5H_mtjBB4/Ta04LPBrE6I/AAAAAAAABks/NQ1vLiEGW1w/s72-c/WS_SA_topscores-sm.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-7334726927468457661</guid><pubDate>Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:20:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-03-26T12:30:16.468+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">LCBO Hobbs hobbswines Margaret Ontario canada</category><title>Vilafonté Series M 2006 is being released in LCBO Vintages on April 2nd:</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://sustainableoceanproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Canada-Flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="149" src="http://sustainableoceanproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Canada-Flag.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;Vilafonté Series M 2006, Wo Paarl&amp;nbsp;is being released in Vintages on April 2nd:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"&gt;Blend,&amp;nbsp;South Africa,&amp;nbsp;$39.95 (7757)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="apple-style-span"&gt;&lt;span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; cursor: auto; float: none; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; word-spacing: normal;"&gt;&lt;span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; padding: 0cm;"&gt;Reviewed by&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="apple-style-span"&gt;&lt;b style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-origin: initial; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; cursor: auto; float: none; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; word-spacing: normal;"&gt;&lt;span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; padding: 0cm;"&gt;John Szabo,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="apple-style-span"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #222222; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;Canada's first and currently only Master Sommelier, earning the title from the Court of Master Sommeliers in London, England in 2004.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ikOnhLwb8RM/TY28JF6UDKI/AAAAAAAABkk/ZPDpYCXfaSA/s1600/Series-M-2006-bottle-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ikOnhLwb8RM/TY28JF6UDKI/AAAAAAAABkk/ZPDpYCXfaSA/s320/Series-M-2006-bottle-small.jpg" width="87" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Bordeaux blend. Classy, elegant, gen&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;erously ripe&amp;nbsp;and oak influenced, but the balance is maintained; flavours wander nicely through the dried red berry to ripe black and blueberry spectrum, with plenty of spice and roast coffee notes along the way. Long finish. Nice wine. Tasted February 2011. Value Rating: **&amp;nbsp;(90)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;The regal Series M blend starts with aromas of dark juicy plum and black currant, coffee and chocolate, rolling into an array of bright, spicy black fruit, tobacco and cedar. Rich and savory on the palate but enlivened by good minerality, it’s a classic South African red with world-class balance. Score: 90 (Steven Kolpan,&lt;span class="apple-converted-space"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;b&gt;Wine Enthusiast,&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span class="apple-converted-space"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Aug. 2010)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;Release Date: Apr 02, 2011&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;Agent: HOBBS&lt;span class="apple-converted-space"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;amp; CO. WINE MERCHANTS&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;www.hobbswines.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Calibri&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-7334726927468457661?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/03/vilafonte-series-m-2006-is-being.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ikOnhLwb8RM/TY28JF6UDKI/AAAAAAAABkk/ZPDpYCXfaSA/s72-c/Series-M-2006-bottle-small.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-1414647037559137481</guid><pubDate>Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:17:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-03-25T15:18:49.081+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">south africa sustainability vilafonte wosa</category><title>A new seal for South African wines, a world first</title><description>&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7aFaEDK-LsQ?fs=1" width="480"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-1414647037559137481?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/03/new-seal-for-south-african-wines-world.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://img.youtube.com/vi/7aFaEDK-LsQ/default.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-751582557227914432</guid><pubDate>Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:24:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-03-24T11:24:28.490+02:00</atom:updated><title>Vilafonté cleans up again in the USA with Stephen Tanzer</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7tr473LKI8M/TYsNj5Tx6XI/AAAAAAAABkg/RXaBNxB3RIU/s1600/Series+C+and+Series+M+2007+sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="260" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7tr473LKI8M/TYsNj5Tx6XI/AAAAAAAABkg/RXaBNxB3RIU/s400/Series+C+and+Series+M+2007+sm.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"&gt;2007 Series C Paarl&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: &amp;quot;Verdana&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt; (74% cabernet sauvignon, 11% merlot, 9% cabernet franc and 6% malbec; aged for 25 months in 94% new French oak):&amp;nbsp; Full bright ruby.&amp;nbsp; Crushed cassis, licorice and violet on the nose, complicated by minerals, mint and graphite.&amp;nbsp; Juicy, intense and weighy, with a downright 3-D texture to its black fruit, bitter chocolate, mineral and mint flavors.&amp;nbsp; This powerful and extremely unevolved wines needs time to harmonize its firm, slightly spiky tannins.&amp;nbsp; Should be a knockout in five or six years. &lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;91(+?)&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15pt; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: &amp;quot;Verdana&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15pt; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: &amp;quot;Verdana&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;2006 Series C Paarl&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: &amp;quot;Verdana&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt; (54% cabernet sauvignon, 40% merlot and 6% cabernet franc):&amp;nbsp; Full ruby-red.&amp;nbsp; Sexy, sweet aromas of dark berries and chocolatey oak.&amp;nbsp; Dense, plush, sweet and fine-grained, suavely combining its chocolatey merlot and cassis-and-herb cabernet sauvignon elements.&amp;nbsp; Offers a bit less violety lift (cabernet franc?) than the 2007 but this is bigger and more generous today, not to mention more harmonious.&amp;nbsp; Finishes suave, broad and long. &lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;92&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15pt; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: &amp;quot;Verdana&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15pt; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: &amp;quot;Verdana&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt;2006 Series M Paarl&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: &amp;quot;Verdana&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;sans-serif&amp;quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"&gt; (43% cabernet sauvignon, 39% merlot, 15% malbec and 3% cabernet franc):&amp;nbsp; Bright ruby-red.&amp;nbsp; Merlot-dominated aromas of plum, chocolate, mocha and lead pencil.&amp;nbsp; Fat, broad and sweet, with a slightly medicinal quality to the plum and herb flavors.&amp;nbsp; Finishes with rather serious tannins that call for at least a couple more years of bottle aging. &lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;90&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-751582557227914432?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/03/vilafonte-cleans-up-again-in-usa-with.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7tr473LKI8M/TYsNj5Tx6XI/AAAAAAAABkg/RXaBNxB3RIU/s72-c/Series+C+and+Series+M+2007+sm.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-8588200305031056668</guid><pubDate>Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:35:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-03-23T13:35:00.958+02:00</atom:updated><title>believe it or not! This is really how we make wine at Vilafonte</title><description>&lt;iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/elF1OlaVF8Q?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-8588200305031056668?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/03/believe-it-or-not-this-is-really-how-we.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://img.youtube.com/vi/elF1OlaVF8Q/default.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-180364261717954669</guid><pubDate>Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:19:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-03-22T15:22:56.951+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">zelma long winemaker vilafonte harvest report south africa ratcliffe mike phil freese broadbent selections</category><title>Vilafonté 2011 Harvest Report by Zelma Long</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: 'Californian FB', serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rQ20zaNNKWw/TYigDAJSiQI/AAAAAAAABkc/M0P2YzUjMlk/s1600/X.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="298" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rQ20zaNNKWw/TYigDAJSiQI/AAAAAAAABkc/M0P2YzUjMlk/s400/X.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-weight: bold;"&gt;The key characteristic of the Vilafonté 2011 harvest was that it was early, short and fast. Due to our location, we have an early bud break and bloom normally, and so we harvest in February and early March, usually over a month period of time.&amp;nbsp; In 2011 we started a week earlier than normal and finished before the end of February, the earliest finish ever, and the shortest; our harvest was 19 days long.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"&gt;Harvest of our 17 blocks of wine grapes – Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec – proceeded in an orderly and very consistent manner; once harvest of one variety started; the others ripened in sequence and we harvested day after day. There was a short pause between the end of Malbec and the beginning of the Cabernets, and once we started harvesting them on Feb. 17, we brought in grapes daily until the end of harvest.&amp;nbsp; Valentine’s Day was graced with the double harvest of our Cabernet Franc and the last of our Malbec.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"&gt;The weather was cooperative and its particular characteristics for our site and our harvest period were:&amp;nbsp; consistent, warm temperatures - lack of the cycling from cool to warm that we normally see. Night temperatures were consistent with a 5 year average, and in February warm temperatures over 30C. were 40% higher than the 5 year average.&amp;nbsp; We had (1) slightly more breezes or wind than normal; (2) no rain; (3) no severe heat spells.&amp;nbsp; However the 2 day heat spell in early January, around veraison, caused some crop loss in Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"&gt;Grape characteristics were quite positive with regards to evenness of ripening; we measure quantitatively the variation in ripeness within each block…we call this “berry variability” and a scientist would call it “standard deviation”. This year our ripeness on a grape to grape basis was within a very narrow band; predicting excellent concentration in the wines.&amp;nbsp; Indeed, in the winery their colour is deep; and tannins, though significant in the grapes, were properly modulated in the extraction fermentation process.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"&gt;Overall, the baby Vilafonté wines exhibit the usual characters of their respective locations in the vineyard, and in general have lovely concentration, deep black/red colours, and their distinctive black and red fruit flavours.&amp;nbsp; In March they are either finishing fermentation or starting malo-lactic fermentation, having been drained from the fermenters directly into their own specific barrels for aging.&amp;nbsp; Like two year old children, this is not the “prettiest” time for the wines, but in a few months they will begin to blossom and the 2011 vintage will most clearly reveal its nature and character.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"&gt;Zelma Long,&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"&gt;Winemaking Partner&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-180364261717954669?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/03/vilafonte-2011-harvest-report-by-zelma.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rQ20zaNNKWw/TYigDAJSiQI/AAAAAAAABkc/M0P2YzUjMlk/s72-c/X.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-4796925176188502574</guid><pubDate>Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:10:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-03-10T11:10:57.423+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">leading women in wine zelma long bottle note blog south africa vilafonte phil freese ratcliffe</category><title>Zelma Long #2 on the list of 'The worlds leading women of wine'.</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://bottlenotes.cachefly.net/dailysip/wine_women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://bottlenotes.cachefly.net/dailysip/wine_women.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"&gt;Les Grandes Dames&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;Today is the 100th International Women's Day--the perfect opportunity, we felt, to highlight the achievements of some of the wine world's most important women.From winery owners to winemakers to critics to journalists, a significant portion of the wine industry's leaders are, in fact, women. So to figure out who stands above the rest, we assembled a panel of winemakers, journalists, sommeliers and other successful wine professionals, and asked each of them to name the five most important women in wine of all time (See the panel below). Dozens of women were named, but three in particular received the greatest number of votes from our panel for their contributions to the wine world:•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Jancis Robinson&lt;/strong&gt;: The runaway winner, she's a Master of Wine, author of several books and writer of a weekly&amp;nbsp;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Financial Times&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;column that's considered to be the pinnacle of wine journalism. She's one of the most respected, level-headed wine critics in the world--and a genuinely nice person, to boot. Check out her site,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.jancisrobinson.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Zelma Long&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;: She's perhaps the greatest consultant winemaker you've never heard of--a winemaker's winemaker who got more votes from our panel than Helen Turley, Heidi Barrett or Philippine de Rothschild. Long was Robert Mondavi's head enologist through the '70s, then turned around the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.simiwinery.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Simi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;winery and became its CEO. She's consulted for wineries in Washington, Oregon, Israel, France, Argentina and Italy, and she's also the winemaking partner of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.vilafonte.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Vilafonté&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;in South Africa--as well as owner and winemaker of her own company, Long Vineyards, in Napa.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, aka, Le Veuve ("widow") Clicquot: Widowed at age 27 in 1805, Ponsardin took the reins of her husband's Champagne business--and changed the entire industry. Under her leadership the technique of riddling was instituted and perfected, which transformed Champagne from a sweet drink to the fine, dry, fizzy wine we know and love today. Next time you open a great bubbly, know there was an even greater woman who inspired it. And that was just for starters in her long, brilliant career.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Among our nine panelists, more than 25 different women were named at least once for their contributions to the wine world--which goes to show just how many important and influential women there are in this industry. There are winery owners, winemakers, writers, Master Sommeliers, Masters of Wine, you name it--each of whom has moved the wine industry forward in one way or another.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Read on to learn a little more about each of these women, and get a sense of how much they've influenced what wines the world sips each and every day.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.farawaywines.com/2011/03/les-grandes-dames.html" name="list" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #666666; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.farawaywines.com/2011/03/les-grandes-dames.html" name="list" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #666666; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.farawaywines.com/2011/03/les-grandes-dames.html" name="list" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #800040; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Leading Women in Wine&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #666666; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;We asked each of our panelists to name the five most important women in the wine world, of all time. The following women all received at least one mention from our panel. Some received two or three mentions, but no one earned as many votes as Jancis Robinson, Zelma Long and Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin (Le Veuve Clicquot), above.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Alessia Antinori&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a 26th-generation winemaker in the famed&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.antinori.it/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Antinori&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;family of Italy, though she spends much of her time--at the moment--marketing the family's ranges of wine in new and established markets around the world for months at a time. Still in her early 30s, it's this young, fresh face that's bringing new attention to one of Italy's most established families and traditions.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Fiona Beckett&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is one of the leading food and wine writers in the U.K. She's written more than 20 books, with pairing food and wine as her main focus; she's a regular columnist for&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;The Guardian&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;. Check out her site&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.matchingfoodandwine.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Heidi Peterson Barrett&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is one of America's--if not the world's--most respected winemakers. She's known for making some of California's most successful cult wines, Screaming Eagle chief among them. Today she consults for several different producers, and also has her own label,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.lasirenawine.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;La Sirena&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Lalou Bize-Leroy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is the owner of Domaine d'Auvenay and&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.domaine-leroy.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Domaine Leroy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;in Burgundy, and for nearly two decades she helped run Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, the Burgundy producer that makes some of the most sought-after and expensive wines in the world (she left in '92). Leroy, in particular, produces several grand cru, premier cru and village-level wines, and all the wines are made according to&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.bottlenotes.com/the-daily-sip/wine-tips/green-wine#biodynamic" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;biodynamic principles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Lilly Bollinger&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;has a story that somewhat mirrors that of the Veuve Clicquot. Lilly's husband died in 1941, and she ran the Champagne estate for the next three decades. She expanded and improved production, and traveled the world to sell the Bollinger Champagnes. She's perhaps best remembered for what she once said of Champagne: "I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it--unless I'm thirsty."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Laura Catena&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a true renaissance woman. She's a physician, a mother of three, the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLink " id="apture_prvw1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLinkIcon" style="background-image: url(http://cdn.apture.com/media/imgs/link_icons.gif?v12) !important; background-position: 100% -1348px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 11px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a class="aptureLink snap_noshots" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811873307?tag=apture-20" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;author of a wine book&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;and the president of her family's winery,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.catenawines.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Bodega Catena Zapata&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, in Argentina. Follow her on Twitter,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLink " id="apture_prvw2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLinkIcon" style="background-image: url(http://cdn.apture.com/media/imgs/link_icons.gif?v12) !important; background-position: 100% -1148px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 11px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a class="aptureLink snap_noshots" href="http://twitter.com/MalbecLife" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Sylvie Cazes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is perhaps the most powerful person in Bordeaux. She's credited with the successful running of Chateau Lynch Bages (and several other holdings in the family business over the past 20 years), and she was elected president of the Union des Grand Cru Classes de Bordeaux in 2008. She's also served on the Bordeaux City Council, and just last month she was named managing director of Chateau Pichon Comtesse de Lalande. Only in her mid-50s, expect Cazes to be a guiding force in Bordeaux wine for a long time to come.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Jeannie Cho Lee&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is the first person from Asia to become a Master of Wine. Born in Seoul and educated at Smith College and at Harvard, Cho Lee currently lives in Hong Kong. She's a widely published wine journalist and critic, and also works as a consultant for Singapore Airlines. She has her own site,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.asianpalate.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Asian Palate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Diana Cullen&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;and her husband Kevin are considered pioneers of the Western Australia wine industry. They planted their vineyard in 1971, and gained quick acclaim for their high-quality wines. In 2000, Diana was inducted as a Member of the Order of Australia for her service and contribution to the development of the wine industry. She died a few years later, but her daughter&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Vanya Cullen&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, also named to our list, is carrying her mother's legacy forward. She's been head winemaker at Cullen since 1989, and she's earned many accolades and awards; she was named Woman of the Year by U.K. magazine&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;The Drinks Business&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;in 2008. She was the first Australian to receive the honor.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Veronique Drouhin Boss&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a pioneer in Oregon Pinot Noir. She and her father, Robert Drouhin, were among the first to see Oregon as a serious spot for Pinot on par with their home of Burgundy. She's made the highly acclaimed Domaine Drouhin wines since 1988. Read our interview with her&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.bottlenotes.com/dailysip/featured-winemakers/veronique-drouhin-boss-masion-joseph-drouhin-domaine-drouhin-oregon-burgundy-pinot-noir" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Merry Edwards&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;has been a fixture of the Sonoma wine industry since the 1970s, working as a consultant for several different high-profile producers. But her relentless pursuit of perfection with her own wines, Pinot Noir in particular, is what's drawn the most admiration from her peers near and far. Find her wines&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/merry+edwards/1/usa" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;May-Eliane de Lencquesaing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;ran and made the wines at Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande for three decades. She's also widely known and respected for her work promoting and marketing Bordeaux wines around the world.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Mary Ewing-Mulligan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is the first American woman to become a Master of Wine, and she's co-author of the books&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Wine for Dummies&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Wine Style&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, along with her husband Ed McCarthy. Learn more about her wine classes at the International Wine Center&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.internationalwinecenter.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, and follow her on Twitter&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLink " id="apture_prvw3" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLinkIcon" style="background-image: url(http://cdn.apture.com/media/imgs/link_icons.gif?v12) !important; background-position: 100% -1148px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 11px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a class="aptureLink snap_noshots" href="http://twitter.com/MEMMW" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Laura Maniec&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is one of the youngest American women ever to be inducted into the Court of Master Sommeliers. She was wine director at the BR Guest Restaurant Group for 10 years, and is soon to open her own wine bar, Corkbuzz, in New York. She plans for Corkbuzz to offer wine tastings and classes.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Corinne Mentzelopoulos&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is the owner of legendary Chateau Margaux. She's credited with completing and advancing the work of her father, who took over the estate and began restoring it in the '70s after it had fallen on hard times. Much like de Lencquesaing, above, Mentzelopoulos is lauded for her work marketing the wines of Bordeaux around the world, but she's also known for her keen business sense that led her to the right time to buy the estate outright in 2003.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Hazel Murphy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is largely responsible for the exploding popularity of Australian wine through the '90s and 2000s. She spent approximately 20 years as head of the Australian Wine Bureau in England, and on her watch Australia's wine exports rose from the thousands of cases per year to the tens of millions. Most importantly, she did what so few had been able to accomplish to that point: She exposed people to wine who'd never before thought about buying it. The rest is history.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Ann Noble&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a professor emeritus at the University of California Davis, best known for inventing the wine&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://fieldstonewine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/aroma_wheel11.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Aroma Wheel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;. It's considered to be one of the best tools for helping those new to wine -- as well as seasoned wine professionals -- better understand how to taste and assess wine. She has a PhD in food science from the University of Massachusetts, and she was the first female faculty member of U.C. Davis' viticulture department.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Mary Penfold&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;was the wife of Christopher Rawson Penfold; they emigrated to Australia from England in the mid-1800s. Together they established what is today Australia's -- and one of the world's -- most famous and successful wine companies. Mary ran the winery and vineyard for about 40 years, her viticultural and winemaking expertise unmatched in Australia during that time. Her ability to experiment in the vineyard and winery, too, led to many grape-growing and winemaking techniques adopted and developed by others after her death in 1896.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Norma Ratcliffe&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is one of the most important trailblazers in the South African wine industry. She and her husband began growing grapes and vegetables in the 1970s, and Ratcliffe became so enraptured with winemaking that she went to train in Bordeaux in the mid '80s. Many of South Africa's successful winemakers, in turn, trained under Ratcliffe. She's still the director of Warwick Estate in Stellenbosch.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Andrea Robinson&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a Master Sommelier, the author of several wine books and has hosted wine-related shows on Food Network and Fine Living. Visit her site,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.andreawine.com/index" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Louisa Rose&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is chief winemaker at Australian producer Yalumba, where she's worked for nearly 20 years. In particular, she's known for thinking outside the Shiraz, and has made some of Australia's most prized Viogniers. She's also the first female winemaker to be the head judge of the Perth Royal Wine Show.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Baroness Philippine de Rothschild&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is the owner of legendary Chateau Mouton Rothschild, and has led the family business from strength to strength since she took over in 1988. Back then, a bottle of Mouton released for somewhere between $50 and $100; the 2008 was released at more than $1,100 per bottle.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Martine Saunier&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is the first woman to establish a wine-importing company in the United States, and is currently president of Martine's Wines. Throughout her career she's taken regular trips to France to find new and interesting wines which, early on, she sold through a mailing list. More than a salesperson, she's credited with being an ambassador for French wines in America.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Serena Sutcliffe&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a Master of Wine--the second woman to earn the distinction, and one of the very few people to pass the exam on the first attempt--and the head of Sotheby's wine department. She's earned several awards for her service to wine education and written several wine books; she also shares much of the credit for popularizing wine auctions beyond a few, small circles of private collectors.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is only the fifth American woman to become a Master of Wine, and she helps train wine- and spirits-industry professionals. She's a regular fixture on American television and radio, offering straight, easy-to-understand wine guidance. Visit her site,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.jennifersimonetti.com/about/bio/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Madeline Triffon&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;is only the second woman to pass the Master Sommelier exam, and has been exposing Detroit-area diners to the great wines of the world since the late '70s. Today she heads the wine department for the Matt Prentice Restaurant Group in Michigan.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Helen Turley&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;stands alongside--and perhaps above, some would argue--the greatest California winemakers ever. She trained some of California's other cult winemakers, such as Heidi Peterson Barrett (above) and Mark Aubert, and has consulted for wineries such as Pahlmeyer, Bryant Family and Colgin. Her own, small-production wines, Marcassin Vineyard, are some of the most sought-after in the world; the mailing list is a years-long wait.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="color: #666666; text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.farawaywines.com/2011/03/les-grandes-dames.html" name="panel" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #666666; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.farawaywines.com/2011/03/les-grandes-dames.html" name="panel" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; 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line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLink " id="apture_prvw4" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLinkIcon" style="background-image: url(http://cdn.apture.com/media/imgs/link_icons.gif?v12) !important; background-position: 100% -1348px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 11px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a class="aptureLink snap_noshots" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061914185?tag=apture-20" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Gary Vaynerchuk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, host of Wine Library TV&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.internationalwinecenter.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Mary Ewing-Mulligan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, Master of Wine, educator and co-author of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Wine for Dummies&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLink " id="apture_prvw5" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLinkIcon" style="background-image: url(http://cdn.apture.com/media/imgs/link_icons.gif?v12) !important; background-position: 100% -1148px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 11px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a class="aptureLink snap_noshots" href="http://twitter.com/randallgrahm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Randall Grahm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, winemaker&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://elinmccoy.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Elin McCoy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, Bloomberg wine writer and author of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;The Emperor of Wine&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.stephenbrook.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Stephen Brook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, writer for&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Decanter&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;magazine&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.nataliemaclean.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Natalie MacLean&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, author of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Red, White and Drunk All Over&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, and a new book coming this fall&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://michaelolivier.co.za/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Michael Olivier&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, South African wine critic and author&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://whatwouldalpanadrink.blogspot.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Alpana Singh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, Master Sommelier and director of wine and spirits for Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.thewineguide.com.au/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="0"&gt;Ben Edwards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, Australian wine critic and author&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; line-height: 24px;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;•&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLink " id="apture_prvw6" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-left-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px 4px; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;&lt;span class="aptureLinkIcon" style="background-image: url(http://cdn.apture.com/media/imgs/link_icons.gif?v12) !important; background-position: 100% -1148px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 11px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a class="aptureLink snap_noshots" href="http://twitter.com/yobetts" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial !important; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #486095; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none !important; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"&gt;Richard Betts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"&gt;, Master Sommelier&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-4796925176188502574?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/03/zelma-long-2-on-list-of-worlds-leading.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-6097359077750599639</guid><pubDate>Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:37:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-03-09T17:38:47.552+02:00</atom:updated><title>sunset on the top of the mountain</title><description>&lt;div class=WordSection1&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p class=MsoNormal&gt;&lt;img width=640 height=480 id=efe0dc29-70fc-4ad3-965c-2ec7af6b5c52 src="cid:4ACA0D8E-7F03-4B89-85BC-246467AEEAD1"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p class=MsoNormal&gt;&lt;span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;img width=640 height=480 id="_x0034_40aa980-fbf4-4b8e-a713-80ed237d6095" src="cid:55B3F176-D7BA-409B-8257-4EDC4AC6121F"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-6097359077750599639?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/03/sunset-on-top-of-mountain.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-7453958701490991951</guid><pubDate>Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:58:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-03-03T15:58:45.026+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">vilafonte advert ratcliffe south africa</category><title>our new advertising campaign</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SUoX0gd6x9g/TW-egFd6kQI/AAAAAAAABhs/JBuEJl_FISw/s1600/Vilafonte-FP-lrgg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SUoX0gd6x9g/TW-egFd6kQI/AAAAAAAABhs/JBuEJl_FISw/s320/Vilafonte-FP-lrgg.jpg" width="250" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-7453958701490991951?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/03/our-new-advertising-campaign.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SUoX0gd6x9g/TW-egFd6kQI/AAAAAAAABhs/JBuEJl_FISw/s72-c/Vilafonte-FP-lrgg.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-3092747028135049686</guid><pubDate>Thu, 24 Feb 2011 07:57:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-02-24T09:57:48.880+02:00</atom:updated><title>Caviar? Blueberries? No - perfect Cabernet Sauvignon Grapes</title><description>&lt;iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/05FbwVwyM1g?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-3092747028135049686?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/02/caviar-blueberries-no-perfect-cabernet.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://img.youtube.com/vi/05FbwVwyM1g/default.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-1111477102633055040</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:32:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-01-11T17:32:56.534+02:00</atom:updated><title>Vilafonte was the top rated South African wine in Wine Spectator in 2010</title><description>&lt;div class=WordSection1&gt;&lt;p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.vilafonte.com/admin/upload/PhotoGallery/Wine%20Spectator%20copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;span style='text-decoration:none'&gt;&lt;img border=0 width=280 height=400 id="_x0000_i1025" src="http://www.vilafonte.com/admin/upload/PhotoGallery/Wine%20Spectator%20copy.jpg"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-1111477102633055040?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/01/vilafonte-was-top-rated-south-african.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-823545873406086772</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:52:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-01-11T16:53:07.152+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">wine spectator vilafonte south africa vilafonte zelma long phil freese 93 broadbent selections</category><title>Vilafonte was the joint highest scoring South African Bordeaux blend of 2010</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.vilafonte.com/admin/upload/PhotoGallery/Wine%20Spectator%20copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="400" src="http://www.vilafonte.com/admin/upload/PhotoGallery/Wine%20Spectator%20copy.jpg" width="280" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-823545873406086772?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/01/vilafonte-was-joint-highest-scoring.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-4020815096236626500</guid><pubDate>Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:46:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-01-06T22:46:46.247+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">viticulture digital freese zelma long ratcliffe vilafonte harlan warwick jason tesauro</category><title>the latest issue of Sommeliers Journal in the US - viticulture goes digital</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OVOHjQns1iY/TSYo_mq1tJI/AAAAAAAABgI/zhXZWMDxVYQ/s1600/Vino-Tech_low-%25282%2529-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OVOHjQns1iY/TSYo_mq1tJI/AAAAAAAABgI/zhXZWMDxVYQ/s400/Vino-Tech_low-%25282%2529-1.jpg" width="300" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OVOHjQns1iY/TSYo9wD-SbI/AAAAAAAABgE/1BVGQ64W2sE/s1600/Vino-Tech_low-%25282%2529-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OVOHjQns1iY/TSYo9wD-SbI/AAAAAAAABgE/1BVGQ64W2sE/s400/Vino-Tech_low-%25282%2529-2.jpg" width="321" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-4020815096236626500?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2011/01/latest-issue-of-sommeliers-journal-in.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OVOHjQns1iY/TSYo_mq1tJI/AAAAAAAABgI/zhXZWMDxVYQ/s72-c/Vino-Tech_low-%25282%2529-1.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736606.post-4123143165888018545</guid><pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:38:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-12-22T16:43:33.195+02:00</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">vilafonte wine enthusiast spectator zelma long south africa icon</category><title>Wine Enthusiast March 2011 - Vilafonte does 93 points again!</title><description>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OVOHjQns1iY/TRIM-0yQTRI/AAAAAAAABe4/jjZIFRfzi7I/s1600/Wine+Enthusiast+sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OVOHjQns1iY/TRIM-0yQTRI/AAAAAAAABe4/jjZIFRfzi7I/s640/Wine+Enthusiast+sm.jpg" width="440" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14736606-4123143165888018545?l=blog.vilafonte.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://blog.vilafonte.com/2010/12/wine-enthusiast-march-2011-vilafonte.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Mike Ratcliffe's Wine Blog)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OVOHjQns1iY/TRIM-0yQTRI/AAAAAAAABe4/jjZIFRfzi7I/s72-c/Wine+Enthusiast+sm.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total></item></channel></rss>

