by Kathleen Lisson
By Kathleen Lisson, CSW http://kathleenlisson.blogspot.com Step One: Train Yourself to Taste Wine Gary Vaynerchuk is making the rounds of late night TV with bowls full of dirt and tobacco, but you really don’t have to go that far to discover the aromas and flavors in the your favorite wine’s tasting notes. If you’re in the Albany, NY area, attend my wine palate training class at the Honest Weight Coop. Step Two: Learn to Taste Like a Pro Wine tasting can be a sample as enjoying a glass on the deck at sunset or as complicating as judging flights of wines in a wine competition. If you’d like to get more enjoyment out of every glass of wine, do what the professionals do: To full appreciate a wine’s flavor, inhale, take a sip, roll the liquid around in your mouth, coating your ...
by Kathleen Lisson
By Kathleen Lisson, CSW http://kathleenlisson.blogspot.com Do you have wines gathering dust on your wine rack? Here are ten great excuses to open your home, and that bottle of wine, to others this season. Invite your coworkers over to a simple but festive meal. Bake a lasagna, toss a salad and open a few bottles of Chianti. Have everyone agree to leave work problems at the front door and talk about hobbies, brag about family and share funny or happy memories. Celebrate a recent success with pizza and a bottle of Pinot Noir or Chianti. Meat Lover Supreme your idea of pizza? Pair your slice with a robust glass of Zinfandel! Invite your boss or your spouse's boss over to dinner. Try a nice roast paired with a bottle of Pinot Noir. Treat your next door neighbors to a casserole and a bottl...
by Kathleen Lisson
By Kathleen Lisson, CSW http://kathleenlisson.blogspot.com Last year I attended Whitecliff Vineyard and Winery's Hudson Valley Red Wine & Chocolate Pairing event. Capitalizing on the fact that wine lovers are always looking for the 'holy grail' – a wine and chocolate pairing that actually WORKS, Whitecliff offered a variety of chocolates for tasters to pair with a complete tasting of the winery's red wines. Chocolate Wine Pairings: I chose a piece of Cote d'OR Intense 70% Cacao, a piece of Green and Black's organic milk chocolate and two Chuao Chocolatier Choco Pods – the Modena, which is filled with strawberry and balsamic caramel, and the Picante, which is filled with spicy cabernet caramel. Dark Chocolate and Red Wine The winery's Beaujolais-style Gamay Noir wine was the best ...
by Kathleen Lisson
By Kathleen Lisson, CSW http://kathleenlisson.blogspot.com I recently came across a slew of great research on the Wine Spectator website indicating the positive effects of wine, especially red wine, on reducing health risks. The idea I want to share with you is an easy way to start a practice of drinking one glass of wine a day without wasting the rest of your bottle of wine. Its called the Buddy System. The way I get my one glass a day is to plan my meals ahead and use a meal 'buddy system.' Basically, I choose two or three meals that pair well with the same bottle in on my wine rack and serve them for dinner back to back! A great way to brainstorm ideas for meals is by using a wine and food pairing website, like the one at Canadian Sommelier Natalie MacLean's website, but there ar...
by Subhash Arora
Vino is Italian word for wine; vino is also used colloquially for basic and cheap wine but Wino is a word incorrectly and frequently used by some people for a wine lover. I am affectionately referred to or addressed at times, as a wino by friends and well wishers who feel they are putting me thus, on a pedestal as a wine lover, connoisseur or aficionado. I generally smile it off or tell them emphatically that I am not one, if they are well known to me. I was surprised to read an article in an Indian wine magazine once by a known Indian sommelier, incorrectly using word for wine lovers. I had the urge to comment but I let it pass. I was anguished when I visited a website www.localwino.com which is a wine informal portal with a lot of useful information and I do access it occasionally fo...
by Jennifer Jordan
When it comes to the holidays, there is a right and wrong way to get the presents you want. For instance, making a detailed list and giving it to family and friends is the right way, performing a lap dance for the local mall Santa is the wrong way, no matter how right it feels. For wine lovers, getting what you want can be even trickier: with so much wine paraphernalia in your possession, you want to make sure you don’t receive something you already have. You certainly don’t want a wine opener when you already have ten. In fact, nine was plenty. If you, like a lot of wine lovers, are hoping to be wined and dined this holiday season (in the form of gifts) then try asking for wine related items that you’ve only dreamed of having. Keep the following in mind, and on the top of y...
by Jennifer Jordan
Ah, bottle shock. Some people know it for its true definition; others imagine it’s what a bottle of red feels whenever a bottle of white is chosen instead. Whatever meaning you lean towards, one thing is certain: bottle shock isn’t a term with which many wines hope to be labeled. In the scientific sense of the word, bottle shock, also called bottle sickness, is when wine adopts strange, disordered flavors. These strange flavors make the wine taste less fruity, make the presence of the alcohol more noticeable, and cause bottles of Cabernet to repeatedly call in sick for work. Bottle shock is often a result of the wine bottle being – in James Bond fashion - shaken…not stirred. In a suitcase, through the mail, on an airplane, or in the trunk of the car, continuous vibration...
by Subhash Arora
One thing that strikes you as you reach the Langhe hills, driving from Torino in the month of October is the beautiful patchwork of green, orange, yellow and red all around you. How come, the painters, writers and poets love Veneto, Tuscan hills of Chianti Classico and Lake Como etc. but do not rave this region, you wonder? Perhaps, they did not visit the region in Fall, when the Dolcetto vines turn a combo of red, orange and yellow spreading a multi-colour sheet. The slightly- yellow turning patches of Nebbiolo vines lend a beautiful contrast. Occasional glimpse of snow capped Alps add as a magnificent backdrop that would be any nature lover’s delight- the pleasure would be amplified with a glass of Dolcetto di Dogliani in hand! ‘Drink Well- Drink Dolcetto di Dogliani’ is what th...
by Subhash Arora
We have just entered a new paradigm in The Indian Paradox, a term I coined a few years ago to express my anguish and amusement at the happenings in and around wine drinking in India. The government of Maharashtra, by virtue of the excise order which reduces the excise duty from the recently introduced controversial and unjustified 150% to 75% for scotch and increasing it from the same 150% to, hold your breath, 200% on Champagne has recommended its denizens to shift from Champagne and fine wines to Scotch. While the excise duty has been increased to 200% across the board on wines, there have been graded reductions from 200% (where assessable value is less than Rs. 1000 per case of 9 bulk liters) to 150%, 100% and 75% (where assessable value is more than Rs.5000 per case). By declaring th...
by Jennifer Jordan
Despite the dirty looks and obscene gestures I get whenever I drive by a field filled with cattle or stroll by the local chicken farm, I stand by the notion that red wine goes with red meat and white wine goes with white meat. Sorry Bessie, my apologies Chicken Little: it’s just a fact among humans. Please stop trying to get us back with Mad Cow and Bird Flu. Your revenge tactics are getting old. Still, it’s not like you have to be a carnivore to enjoy wine: pasta, breads, and cheeses all certainly enhance a good glass of wine as much as any piece of meat. In fact, it might seem that wine – especially after consuming too much of itself – will go home with anything. Fish? Chili? Desserts? Even Hamburger Helper? Wine appears to have no limits. It may appear that way, but ther...
