by Jennifer Jordan
At the end of last week, after finishing a wine article on Riesling, I felt a little guilty, bad that I had left red wine out of the limelight. For a while, I shook this feeling off - I mean, I can't possibly talk about all wine types at all times. But, as I soon felt a bottle of red wine powerfully tapping me on the shoulder and angrily uttering, "Ahem," I gave in and decided I would do for red what I did for white. Easy there Pahlmeyer Napa, you had me at merlot. One of the most well known wines around, merlot has a permanent reservation in restaurants and bars all over the world. A wine that translates to mean "young blackbird," this French name was given either because of the grape's dark color or to describe the blackbirds liking of it, a liking that may have been discovered when the...
by Marisa Dvari
Imagine yourself at one of the popular new wine bars in your town. You are sipping a glass of red wine perfumed with notes of violet and lavender – a departure from your typical request for a California Cabernet Sauvignon. You take another sip and wonder what combination of soil and sunlight could produce such a succulent wine? Your curiosity roused, you look at the label on the bottle and see it is from the Languedoc – a region in Southern France. Suddenly, you are bursting with questions about the region. What grape is the wine made from? What is the typical climate of the area? Who are the top winemakers in the region? And if you were going to serve it at a dinner party, what foods would pair best with it? Karen MacNeil, director of the wine program at the Culinary Institute of A...
by Marisa Dvari
Imagine yourself at a fine, upscale restaurant with a client or date you want to impress. As the host, you graciously accept the wine list … but then your gaze begins to blur as you skim across dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of unfamiliar wines. Whatever happened to the basic Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon? And also, what prices! How much better can a $600 dollar wine be than a $60 wine? Ordering a more expensive wine, you’ll learn in this remarkable book, will not necessarily make your meal more enjoyable. In fact, many expensive wines are not yet ready to drink, so you would be doing yourself and your guest a disservice by ordering them. In virtually every way possible, this 377-page book is a dynamic resource when it comes to understanding the characteristics of wine and how to ...
by Shiv Singh
Some say that the Bordeaux 2006 vintage could be as special as the famous 1982. Most critics however, argue that the 2006 are not even up to the 2005 let alone the 1982. While on the surface this might appear to be just wine critics bickering among themselves, huge amounts of money are involved. How the world perceives the vintage, determines how the wines appreciate in time. 2006 has been a particularly contentious vintage just as the 1982 were. Back then critics slammed the vintage except for one taster. Robert Parker believed that the wines he was tasting, would turn out to be some of the best ever produced. As the wines aged and then hit the market a few years later, his prophesy turned out to be true. The 1982 were a sellout and Robert Parker became the world's most famous wine criti...
by Laurie Forster
Imagine this—you are seated at an upscale restaurant with one of your best clients and then handed a wine list thicker than a college textbook. You want to pick out the “perfect” wine to impress your client but everything looks like it is written in a foreign language. After only a few minutes the server asks if you have made your selection, so you decide to order the most familiar thing on the menu. You are not sure your selection will coordinate with your meals, and it costs more than your boss will tolerate for a client dinner. By the time the bottle arrives, you have broken out in a cold sweat and are ready to take a big gulp! The good news is that understanding the three main ways wine lists are organized is the first step to preventing this from ever happening to you. ...
by Laurie Forster
I have found that most people want to enjoy wine, but that many of them just feel frustrated and confused by all the jargon and pomp and circumstance. I believe learning about wine should be simple, without attitude and above all else, lots of fun! So here are my 5 secrets to ordering a great bottle of wine every time: • Ask the sommelier or server for suggestions. Most are eager to help and have tasted most (if not all) of the wines on their list. Those of us who have chosen wine as a career enjoy drinking wine every night but don’t necessarily have large budgets. Sommeliers and servers will know the best bargains because that is what we are drinking at home! • If you are on a budget but don’t want the client to know that, point out a wine in your price range and then for a...
by Michael Pinkus
I’m going to tell you a story about glasses – not the kind you wear, but the kind you drink from – at the end of the story you’re going to call me a liar and a charletan … but before you cast my ideas completely aside I ask that you at least try what I recommend. If you are like my brother, who thinks I’m full of “it” with all this wine stuff – including glassware – you’ll walk away from the homework I have assigned no worse for wear … but if you are like countless others who have tried this experiment and have seen the light; then you could be out a couple hundred bucks (max.), but the rest of your wine tasting and drinking days will be very happy ones. What on earth is this guy babbling about? You are probably asking yourself right now, I’ll tell you: the pr...
by Michael Pinkus
Where things come from used to be a big deal … “American made”, “Canadian made”, “if it ain’t homemade it ain’t good”. But, now it seems like the whole world is “Made in Korea, China or India”. We get our canned goods with labels that say “Product of Thailand, Singapore or the Philippines”. Our fruits and veggies are trucked in from places “down south” like Florida and California, and as far away as Mexico and Chile. And nobody seems to bat an eyelash anymore. “I was vacationing in California one winter,” a former Canadian farmer recounted to me, “and they were selling locally-grown head lettuce for $1.69 packaged under the Dole name. When I returned home a week later, the same head of Dole California lettuce was selling for 69 cents at Loblaws.”...
by Joann Actis-grande
Greeks are said to be the first to produce wine, with traces found on the Island of Crete 4,000 years ago. In ancient times, it was a beverage that people drank every day. Wine was significant as a lucrative trading commodity. The Greeks introduced winemaking to Italy, with many Italian grapes having Greek roots such as Malvasia and Moscato, just to name a few. Later the Greeks brought wine making to France, Spain, and as far away as parts of Asia. Wine was such an intrinsic part of Greek culture it appears in Greek Mythology. The son of Zeus, Dionysus, known as the God of wine (Bacchus to the Romans), was believed to have introduced the grapevine and taught the secrets of its cultivation and fermentation. There were many festivals in celebration of Dionysos. The tradition of festiv...
by J Todd Greeno
Have you ever had a half-bottle of wine you wanted to save for another time, and wondered what would be the best way to hold the wine for several days? If you are not going to drink the left-over wine, there are a number of choices that will enable you to enjoy the wine on another day:... - Recork the bottle and keep it in a cool area - Pour the wine into a smaller container (such as a 375 ml bottle) to reduce the amount of air, AND keep it in a cool area - Use one of those pumps to vacuum the air out of the bottle, AND keep it in a cool area - Use one of the "Systems" that displaces the air with an inert gas, AND keep it in a cool area You may have noted one similar factor "keep the bottle left-over wine in a cool area"... ...and then there is the question, "How many d...
