ABOUT THIS SITE
Joost's Wine World is meant to provide you with links to sites, where you may find the
information on wine, you are searching for. My web site itself does not give much information
on wine. I am not going to write down what others already did.
This is simply what I did when I started surfing on the Internet. I compiled a long list with
bookmarks where to find information. This list forms the base for Joost's Wine World.
Please, send information on additional links and/or comments to Joost_Verbeek@hotmail.com
LAST UPDATE: December 20, 2000
(For links concerning specific countries go to
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GENERAL
General information on wine is given by numerous sites. I present some of the most intresting.
The most extensive wine site, I know, is the Internet Guide to Wine
of Brad and Dri Brown. They give an overview over many aspects of wine and wine production.
Château Haut-Brion
presents a web site with the work on a top château through the whole year. It is absolutely
worthwhile to visit those sites. Other extensive sites with general information are vineSwinger, World Wine, the wine site of the New York Times, Wine Today, and Wine On Line. The Wine Dictator directs attention to the non-snob and the site Wine Page is meant for those, who want to learn about the basics of wine in many aspects. Those, who want to know more about the history of wine making are referred to the site of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
In this site, I present links to sites where you may find the information, you are looking for. The site La Planète-vin presents information about appelations all over the world especially in France (the site is in French).
Some may think, that you need to know a long list of terms (as presented by Robin Garr on his
page Wine Tasting Dictionary) on
to discuss the quality of wine. I have some doubt about this, because it remains difficult to express
a smell or taste in words. It is better to enjoy the wine and, remember, everybody has its own taste.
I had long and lively discusions about wines and I often agree with the same persons. Still, I found
a list with terms
to describe a wine in the Internet Guide to Wine.
The site Wines on the Internet
contains an online searchable database with terms concerning wine. Grape-Nutz
of Eric Anderson contains is a very exploratory site, especially the more than 1600 tasting notes.
Also the site Yak Shaya's Wine Pages
contains hundreds of wine tasting notes from all over the world and the site Winesite - Evaluation of Wine presents a list of links to sites with tasting notes.
The quality of wine may vary from year to year depending mostly on the weather conditions. Charts concerning these changes in quality are given by Pim van Ravesteijn.
Wine lovers, who need suggestions, which wine is most suitable for them, or are looking for a
wine job (mostly in the USA) or news about wine should visit the Smart Wine.
A site with information about how wine is made, stored and other background information is
presenteded by M2 Communication Wine Education Center.
For those, who want to know more about grapes, there are the The Super Gigantic WWW Winegrape Glossary
of Anthony J. Hawkins and the site GrapePictures.
Web sites, that give you a extented list of links to all different kinds of information is
offered by the Dean Tudor
of the Wine Writers Circle of Canada and Vine2Wine.
The latter site give a brief description and it claims to control whether sides are dead or not.
The site of Dean Tudor is arranged in chapters on Wine Academia, journals and magazins, etc. including
a category of new sites each month. It is worthwile to visit this site at least each month for
the latest news. A similar side is created by Robert Costelac with his World Wine List.
Finally I wish to put your attention to the side of one of the most prominent writers about
wine, Robert Parker, whose site is part of the
website of Wine Technologies.
And for those, who have a very large cellar with numerous bottles from many different wineries,
there exists a data base system called WineBase to manage your cellar. It is not free to download, but you may download the demo. It is produced by Ken Tripp from Australia. Wine lovers, who want to know more and are prepared to pay for it, they may subscribe on the Wine Spectator.
Finally for those, who have not only a cellar, but also enough money to buy expensive, but rare wines, may
visit the site Collection Wine. My intention is to include only sites, that provide information,
but this site offers such particular wines, it is just fun to look around there.
INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES
[GENERAL] [INTRODUCTION]
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
As far as I know, there is wine production in Algeria. I could not find a link on the web.
The Argentinean sites Vinos Argentinos, The Argentinean Wine Page and Argentinewines offer a lot of information on the wines of Argentina. The latter is partly still under construction. The Spanish version is, at the moment I write this, further than the English one. But in both languages important information is available. In the Spanish version you will find under the heading "CEPAJES tablas de vendimia" the qualification of the wines of the last twenty years and the links to wineries. The English version provides more information on the different regions, but does not contain links to these regions. More information in English on Argentinian wines is given by Argentine Top Wines. A for me new site with much information on many aspects of Argentine wine production is the site Vinos de Argentina, but this site is in Spanish only.
The wine regions of Argentina.
Australian wine production is restricted to a number of regions in the southwest. Australian Wine Online, Australian Wine of Distinction, Australian Wine Growing Regions and Wine of Australia give you a lot of information about Australian wines. You will find there links to wineries, the grapes used in Australia , the latest news, publications, even a quiz ,etc.
The wine regions of Australia.
Map of the wine producing part of Austria.
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
I found one site regarding Belgian wine production. The site about Wijnkasteel Genoegs-Eldern contains information about the history of wine production in Belgium and the wine making at this winery, but unfortunately the language is only Dutch.
Brazilian wine production is concentrated in the southern part of the country with the exception of one region in the west. The climat in the other parts of Brasilia is probably not suitable for the production of grapes. I found most information on Brazilian wines on the the Guia do Vinho, which is part of the site of BHNET. Also via this site I found my way to the Casa do Vinho. Though the site Via del Vino is an e-commerce site and in Portuguese only, it gives an overview of wines made in Brasil. I did not find information on any detail about the wine making in the different regions.
The wine regions of Brasil
The Bulgarian Wine Guild and Bulgarian Wine Industry give information on Bulgarian wines in general. The first contains also links to some wineries. The site Bulgarian Wines gives an overview of the wines sold by Krasen Dekov, but no general information on Bulgarian wines. The wine regions of Bulgaria.
In general I want to refer to The Canadian Wine Home Page and Wines of Canada, which sites provide links to wine sites from Canada. The site Canadian Wine, Wineries, Vineyards and Canadian Wine Regions contain information about the winemaking in selected wineries spread over Canada. BCWINE gives an overview over the wine production in British Columbia e.g. regions, history and wineries.
In the interior of Canada, the state of Ontario produces wine. The site Wine Regions of Ontario is dedicated to the wines of this state. A route along the wineries is presented by WineRoute. The climat is suitable to make icewine, which I further only know Germany and Austria. At the east coast wine is made in Quebec. I could not find a site dedicated to the wines in Quebec in general, but only of the winery La Bauge to proove wine is produced in Quebec.
At the end of this chapter on Canadian wine I have to give one warning. I regularly noticed, that wine of other fruit than grapes, is also indicated as wine only. This may lead to confusion.
The wine regions of Canada.
In the far east The People's Republic of China produces wine. I could find one site with some information on Wine Production in China as part of a large website on Chinese drinks and there is a commercial site of the Lou Lan Winery.
A Guide to Chilean Wines gives some basic information on Chilean wines in English. It contains a list of wineries in Chili with links to a number of these wineries. More information is present in the Spanish site Guia del Vino Chileno. It pays attention to the history of winemaking in Chili, the different wines existing in the country, the map with the wine regions, etc. The site has no links to Chilean wineries.
The wine regions of Chili.
As far as I know, there is just one website concerning Croatian wine, but it gives a good overview about what is going on.
The wine regions of Croatia.
General information on the wine culture of Cyprus is given by Cyprus Wine of Patrick Skinner. Further information is given by some wineries as ETKO Wines and Pitsilia.
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
To my surprise I found one side concerning Danish wine, "Godsets Vin"-Økologische Kvalitetsvine. The site is in danish, thus not easy to understand for most of the readers.
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
France is probably is the most famous wine producing country in the world. At least the prices of the French wines may be an indication. It also the European country with the largest number of web sites. Frenchwines and Terroir de France form the start for quick surfing. Also France Vin provides general information on French wines. The famous wine regions have their own sides like Alsace, Beaujolais (also the site of Georges Duboeuf is worth to visit for information about the Baeujolais), Bordeaux (Vins-Bordeaux, A Taste of Bordeaux and the Dutch site of The Vinolieren), Burgundy, Champagne, Médoc, which forms part of the Bordeaux region, Côtes du Rhône, Languedoc and Loire. However I found also sides I could not reach starting with Frenchwines, or special ones, I want to draw your attention to. The site of Château Haut-Brion shows detailed what is going on through the year. The hart of the Burgundy, The Hospice de Beaune, has its own site including news about the famous yearly auction. Château Mouton Rothschild has every year another label designed by a famous artist. The sites of Anjou, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, the Côtes d'Azur, Gaillac, Gigondas, Southwestern France, Vacqueras and Provence (Provence Wine Region and Vins de Provence), I found surfing on the Internet. The Pays'Oc has its own site as part of the site of the Vinexpo, one of the largest wine and spirits exhibitions in the world.
The wine regions of France.
The site Georgia is a part of a more extensive site about Georgia's spirits. The site gives a lot information on the different wines, which are produced in Georgia. The grape variaties used are completely unknown to me. Hopefully the webmaster will be able to present a map and more details of the Georgian wines such as productione figures. I really wonder where I can obtain these wines.
Germany is one of the most famous wine producing countries of Europe. Especially the white wines can be perfect. I remember the taste of a "trockenbeeren-auslese", I drunk a couple of years ago as if , I had it today. Several sites are dedicated to German wines. Deutsche Weine, Deutsches Weininstitut , German Wine.de, Weinguide Deutschland 1999, The German Wine Page, A ShortGuide to German Wines, GermanWineEstates and Deutscher-Wein.Com provide a lot information about the history of German wines, the grapes, the German wine regions, etc. The Pfalz is a region with an own site. The site of the winery Jordan & Jordan pais attention to the Saar region.
The wine regions of Germany.
Though Greece belongs to the oldest wine producing countries in the world, the number of websites is restricted. An overview is given by Greek Wines, the Roads of Greek Wines, Thegreekwine.com and the new site Greekwinemakers, which sites contain information on the Greek wine regions, grapes, etc. I could not download the map with the Greek wine regions, but Greek Wines has one and Greekwinemakers even has an interactive map. Thus you has to do it yourself. The site Wines of Macedonia gives intresting information about the wines of Macedonia. [GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
- HUNGARY
The wine regions of Hungary. [GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
- INDIA
Château Indage is the only winery from India, I found on the web. This winery produces a wide range of wines with the help of French experts. The site gives an overview over the wineyards, the history of wine production, the grapes used (in fact common European species), etc.
The sites Wines of Israel, Israeli Wine and IsraWine give an overview over the history of wine growing in Israel, wineries, regions, grapes used, etc. You will find a lot of information on these sites, though there is no official site of an Israeli Wine Institute (if there is any). One of the wine growers is Carmel Mizrachi, a company, which produces not only wine more than 70% of the Israelian wines, but also brandies, liqueurs and olive oil. The site gives an example of the type of wines produced in Israel.
Italy is one of the biggest wine producers in the world. Information on research and an overview over the many DOC's is given by the Italian Department of Agricultar. More information on the DOC's and Italian vinters is found on the site Italian DOC Wines. The DOCG Wines and Vinomania contain probably most information on the DOG's sometimes including tasting notes, a classification of the last years for the most important DOC's, an introduction in the Italian wine law, etc. The Italian Internet Winery is a commercial site, which also provides intresting information. The site Italian Wine of Marco Controtti and The Italian Internet Winery also contain information on the DOC's and grapes and also tasting notes. Prosecco DOC located in the Treviso district in the Veneto area has its one site with information about a long list of wineries. The site Castello Monterinaldi contains a large amount of knowledge about the Chianti region. There, in that Tuscan region you will find the unique medieval village San Gimignano with its own wines and site Tenuta Torciano Farms. The wine regions of Italy. [GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
J
JAPAN
At last I found a site about Japanese wines. I did not know, that there exists Japanese wines.
The wine regions of Japan.
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
The wine production of Lebanon seems to be restricted to the Bekaa Valley. There does not seem to be a general site concerning wines from Lebanon. Therefore, I give the links to some wineries I found on the web e.g. Château Kefraya, Château Musar, and Ksara.
A small country with predominantly white wines. Moselle Luxembourgeoise and Great Wines of Luxembourg tell a lot about the wines of Luxembourg including a wine route and a browser to vinters, etc. The wine route of Luxembourg.
The sites Marsovin and Delicata give details about the wine production and the history of the wine culture of Malta.
In Mexico, wine is produced on the peninsula California Baja. I found one site, Mexicanwine, concerning three wineries.
Wine region of Mexico.
[GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
The site Moldowine provides information on Moldavian wines, but it is partly still under construction. It contains links to other sites on Moldavian wines.
Wines from New Zealand are rather rare in Europe. It is rahter young wine producing country and the total production is distincly smaller, than the production of big neighbour Australia.
I was informed, that there are at least two wineries in Namibia. I could not find a web site from that country.
There are a number of wineries in the Netherlands, of which the Apostelhoeve from Maastricht is probably the most succesful. At the Apostelhoeve, a Müller Thurgau and a Riesling are made. The sites Wijnbouw in Nederland and Wijngaarden in Nederland provide a lot of information on Dutch wine making. Unfortunately, the sites are written in Dutch.
I found one website about the wines of New Zealand. This site, New Zealand Wines OnLine, contains information about the regions , wineries, etc. It is the only one about the whole country, but you will find most of the information your looking for, I presume. The eastern most part of New Zealand, Gisborne, has its own site.
The wine regions of New Zealand.
- PORTUGAL
But there are many other Portugeses wines , which are absolutely worthwhile. General information, such as wine regions appellations, grapes, etc is found on the sites Portuguese Wine , the Portuguese Wine Institute, the Portuguese Wine Homepage and A pagina dos Vinhos Portugueses. The latter is in Portugese only. The site of the CVRVV is dedicated to the vinhos verdes and there is a site specialized in Madeira Wines.
The wine regions of Portugal.
- ROMANIA
Two sites are dedicated to Romanian wines. Both are more or less commercial but they give information on history of wine growing in Romania, the regions, the grapes, etc. Romanian Wines concentrates on wineries in the regions of Vrancea and the Valea Calugarease to the northeast of Bucharest. The Wines of Romania is more genral site of a company, which claims to control 80% of Romanian wine export.
The wine regions of Romania
The site The World of Russian Wine is the only site concerning Russian wines I encountered. It is merely a commercial site with some general information also about other former USSR states. [GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
- SLOVENIA
Wines of Slovenia contains the basic information on Slovenian wines. The site deals with chapters on wine growing, the wine regions, vinters and classification. - SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa is famous for its Cape wines. Three sites are dedicated to these wines: Cape Ventures, South African Wine Directory and RSA Wines. Both offer a comprehensive history on Cape Wines and other intresting information. When you want to know more about Cape Wines you have to visit these sites, though they are commercial. A third site is called Cape Wines . It is almost completely commercial, but it shows the best map of the region.
Wine Direct is a site that gives e.g. news about South African wines, information on events (although not completely up to date, the last time I visited the site) and some estates. One of the estates not mentioned in this site is KWV . KWV is now one of the estates of South Africa, though it still has a social mission too. Before 1996 KWV was also more or less in charge to control the business of the other estates, which was not appreciated by the others. On the other hand KWV safed the South African wine making in earlier years.
One of the best known grapes is the pinotage, of which even the Pinotage Club exists, which is UK of origin by the way, but the club aims to be truly international, as Peter May wrote me. The pinotage is not exclusively grown in South Africa, but also in Zimbabwe, New Zealand and California. The other grapes used in this country are known from all over the world like the Chardonnay. The site of the Pinotage Club gives a complete list of all wineries, that produce pinotage wine.
The wine regions of South Africa.
I found a couple of sites totally or partially devoted to Spanish wines . Winenet and the Interwines Guide to Spain and Guía Piños de los Vinos de Españana (the latter one is in Spanish only) offer information on most of the Spanish wine regions. It also provides you with the latest news about Spanish wines, etc. The American site of CIV tells you where to buy Spanish wine in the USA, but it contains also information on those wines. Recently, my attention was drawn to the site Reserva y Cata with descriptions of visits to bodegas and other information. Regions with their own web sites are Catalonia, Jerez (the sherry site), Jumilla, Ribera del Duero with the famous Vega Sicilia and Rioja. I want to mention one winery, because of impressive main building and it is the biggest winery of the Empordà Plain Castillo Perelada.
The wine regions of Spain (courtesy Reserva y Cata).
Probably banking is mch more important for Switzerland, than making wine. I did not count the number of websites of Swiss banks. I found just one site on Swiss wines called the Swiss Wine Page. This site presents information on a whole range of subjects. [GENERAL][INDEX OF WINE COUNTRIES]
- TAIWAN
Also Taiwan produces wine. Some information is given by the Taiwan Tobacco & Wine Board.
As far as I know, there is (or was) wine production in Tunisia, but I could not find a link on the web.
In the Asian part of Turkey wine is grown in some regions according to a newsspot
- UK
The UK is a wine producing European country. In Wales and England wine is made. Not enough to sell it all over the world, but they claim, that they came to rescue the French Wine industry. - URUGUAY
Uruguay does not have a general website about the wines of the country. At least I could not find it. Two wineries, Establecimiento Juanicó