Taking the world one wine at a time.
#2 Wine drinking is about as social as it gets! Sure you can drink wine alone, but where’s the fun in that? A bottle of wine begs to be shared, invites discussion, and there is nothing more satisfying than sharing a glass of vino (or 3) with the ones you choose to be close to, often over a great meal! The juice in your glass undoubtedly has a story behind it, and to be completely…
Read MoreWine Spectator Top 100 2011
Read More
Selecting Wine Since there’s no possible way you can select one bottle of wine to satisfy everyone’s taste-buds,so I recommend we split it up! The one theme I do suggest you stick to is, whichever wine you choose, make sure it’s from the U.S. (Beaujolais being the exception). It’s an American holiday after all! White Wine Californian white blends are usually a big hit, especially ones with a hint of sweetness to satisfy the Riesling…
Read More
#3 Wine is good for you! It seems that every week a new study is released showing the health benefits of wine. Research shows that moderate consumption of wine can combat everything from premature aging, to Alzheimer’s, to risk of heart attacks, or cancer. I would however like to “throw a spanner in the works” to a certain degree, and give you something to think about in terms of all wine these studies. Let me…
Read More
#4 Terroir Terroir isn’t just a fancy-schmancy word thrown around by wine geeks, in order to confuse those who aren’t as “in the know”. Terroir is real! The term terroir comes from the French word “terre”, but more accurately it means "a sense of place". Terroir is applied to vineyards to collectively reference the weather, the soil, sunlight hours, the slope of the hill where vines are planted, the macro climate of the region as…
Read More
Georgia Allowed to Start Selling Alcohol on Sundays. Early poll results had voters in most of the 51 metro Atlanta jurisdictions giving a resounding yes to continuing the slow dissolution of a blue law dating to the late 1800s, one of the last restraints on Sunday consumption. But at least two cities have said no — Palmetto in south Fulton and Clayton County’s Forest Park. "That’s the Lord’s day, in my opinion," said Corine Deyton,…
Read More
#5 History. In wine you’re actually drinking history! Ok, maybe not with the bottle of Yellow Tail that you just purchased from the grocery store! But as a general rule, red wine needs at least a little time resting in a barrel, and then time in a bottle before it can be released. Very few drinks can boast the beneficial results that are achieved of a well cellared wine. Wines such as Port, Barolo, Amarone,…
Read More
#6 Collecting You don’t have to be a millionaire to collect wine, and you don’t even need to have a huge amount of space available in your home. I’m what you call a “wine geek” (not to be confused with a wine snob) and even I don’t have a formal wine cellar! I simply possess a small closet located in the coolest part of my house. I’ve taken the doors off, and bought a stainless…
Read More
#7 It Makes Food Taste Better I propose that wine is the ultimate “condiment” to further enhance the flavor of any meal. A spicy-rich Syrah finds a perfect home when paired with Lamb Chops. A Stilton with a decent Port can be compared to chocolate-covered popcorn (the saltiness of the Stilton matches perfectly with the sweet-flavor of the Port). In fact, the number of flavor enhancing wine pairing are endless! The old school rules state…
Read More
Grape 100% Malbec Facts The name of “Malbec” supposedly comes from the surname of a Hungarian peasant who is attributed with being the first person to spread the variety throughout all of France. If you were to ever check-out the big nerdy wine book that is The Oxford Companion to Wine, you’ll find that there are over 400 different names for the Malbec grape! This proving that the grapes’ popularity isn’t just a recent…
Read More
#8 Wine is about as culturally rich and diverse as a “product” can get Wines tend to have very strong ties to the regions from which they hail. Arguably in Europe more than anywhere else, winemakers are greatly influenced by the local culture and cuisine, and tend to put special emphasis on the ability for their wines to pair with local foods. For these reasons, alongside terroir, wines tend to mirror very strongly where they…
Read More