winning

French Champagne Loses To British Sparkling Wine in International Competition

Filed under: Wine

The Bollicine del Mondo is an international wine contest organized by Italy's leading wine magazine Euposia. Held at the famous restaurant Antico Bottega del Vino in Verona, Italy the contest revealed a surprise winner in the sparkling wine category. The winner this year was Nyetimber's Classic Cuvée 2003 produced in Sussex. It is probably the very first time a British wine maker has held the honors of producing the best bubbly in the world.

The contest winner was chosen in a blind taste test by a panel of winemakers, oenologists, sommeliers and journalists and beat out such established makers such as Bollinger and Louis Roederer. There were 52 entries in the category and Nyetimber was the only producer to have two wines make it into the top 17. The Nyetimber 2001 Blanc de Blancs, which was also entered, came in 12th ahead of seven of the champagnes.

Certainly there has been a growing appreciation recently of sparkling wines that are made outside the Champagne region of France. In fact, many people never have been exposed to the lovely sparkling wines that come from other countries such as Prosecco from Italy and Cava from Spain. Not only are these wines often just as good as Champagne but their price tag is significantly lower. The sparkling wines from England are no exception and retail for around £25 to £30.

Another point of interest is that the grapes used in the winning wine are grown on vines in the south of England whose soil composition is very similar to that of the Champagne region. In fact Luxist reported in 2007 that French champagne maker Roederer was investigating buying land in the very area that the winning vineyard is located. Stuart and Sandy Moss who own the vineyard specifically chose the 120 acre estate for this reason and started cultivating the three classic champagne varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

Tags: british, champagne, competition, england, France, sparkling wine, SparklingWine, wine, winning

Winningest Jockey in 2009 Pulls in $18,571,171 Million by a Nose!

by Deb West (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Sports

Garrett Gomez took the title for top earning jockey in 2009 with $18,571.171 in winnings beating out Julien Leparoux who finished up with a total of $18,560,565 in earnings. Gomez who won the national earnings title now for the fourth consecutive year in a row won "by a nose" so to speak.

The feat was accomplished in his last race of the year as Gomez had left the title hanging in his competitor's hands until the last day of 2009. Leparoux, who had returned to his native France to be with his family, started off the day $26,994 ahead of Gomez, who only had two mounts scheduled in the eight race program. Gomez finished the second race last earning only $400 and his win on Fund Raiser in the fourth race still left him trailing by $194 dollars with no more horses left to ride.

Fellow jockey Martin Pedroza "conveniently" felt ill and Gomez took over his mount for the eighth and final race of the day. As all starters in California are guaranteed $400 dollars just for running the race Gomez did not have to win to pull ahead of Leparoux and finish with the coveted national earnings title. That did not stop him from piloting Cenzio to a win and picking up the $10,800 purse giving him at total earnings of $18,571,171, which was $10,606 more than Leparoux.

The record for the most consecutive national earnings title is held by Bill Shoemaker who won it seven successive years from 1958 through 1964. For those who are curious how the Kentucky Derby winning Calvin Borel fared, he finished in 14th place on the final list with a total of 853 starts and $9,244,647 in earnings.

Tags: Garrett Gomez, GarrettGomez, horse racing, HorseRacing, jockey, winning