WineLife365

Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category

With Thanksgiving only days away, you might be wondering what wine to serve with your traditional turkey and side dishes.  Here’s a hint – Something American!

Thanksgiving is an American holiday that, in my opinion, deserves an American-made wine.  There are many types of wines to choose from, whether white or red, or sweet or dry, but my personal favorite with this holiday meal is a good old-fashion American Cabernet Sauvignon.  It’s big and bold flavors are brawny enough to stand up to just about any traditional side dish that you throw at it as well as any herbs and spices that you decide to use on your Thanksgiving turkey.

Here are a few very reliable American Cabernet Sauvignon names that you may want to consider shopping for:

·         Beringer Vineyards – Whether it’s their inexpensive Cab or higher priced Reserve Cabs, Beringer Vineyards Cabs are pretty darn reliable and tasty year in and year out.

·         Columbia Crest Winery – Like Beringer Vineyards, Columbia Crest fires on all cylinders at any price point in their line-up of Cabernet Sauvignon offerings.

·         Rodney Strong Vineyards – Good, solid, and reliable – for under $15 bucks, this Cab really tunes in the dial with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.

·         Chalk Hill – For some reason, these guys are under the radar of a lot of California Cab lovers.  Take the discount and this hidden Sonoma County gem to the bank and buy yourself and your guests 2 bottles for the price of 1 big Napa Valley Cab with the same headiness.

·         St. Supery – If you’ve got $30 or more in your wallet, this California Cab will certainly blow you and your guests away.

·        If the sky’s the limit in your budget, you may want to try one of these ginormous tasting American Cabernet Sauvignons:  Fife Vineyards Reserve or Cornerstone Cellars.

Happy Thanksgiving!  

I went over to see my Mom the other day and she shared with me a wine tip regarding wine preservation that showed up in an issue of “Woman’s World” that she was reading.  The brief write-up was titled, “No More Wasted Wine”.  Here it is in it’s entirety:

“Next time you have left-over wine, forgo recorking the bottle and try this preservation trick, courtesy of vintner Darren Hesington of Cape May Winery in New Jersey: Pour the remaining vino into a small container like a water bottle, and seal tightly.  Being exposed to less air keeps it fresher longer”.

I agree with Mr. Hesington’s tip except for the suggestion to utilize a water bottle as a suitable vessel to prolong a wine’s life.  I disagree with the use of any plastic container for a couple reasons.  First, I have tried several “bag in box” wines this year which have made me question whether the plastic bags used to store the wine have an effect on how the wine tastes.  These wines have barely had any taste and no discernible aromas.  I’m not sure yet if it’s the wine, the vessel, or a little of both, but it all just makes me question whether the plastic bag is “numbing” the wine.  The second reason plastic is not a good idea is that it can retain smells from other foods or liquids that has been stored in it.

If you do decide to put this wine tip to the test, I would recommend using a stainless steel thermos that is free of coffee and chicken noodle soup “flavor-savers” over the use of a plastic container.

Good luck with which ever one you try!

Admit it, we’ve all done it at least one time – your brain tells you that there’s an ice-cold bottle of white wine sitting in the fridge, but when you peek inside you only find juice boxes, pudding packs and moldy cheese with no sign of any wine.  What do you do in this situation?  Simple, you just throw a bottle or two in the freezer to make up for lost chilling time, right?  Isn’t that what we all do?  The key, however, in doing this is to actually remember that you put the bottle in the freezer just for a short bit and not totally forget about it until the next morning when you’re grabbing for the Eggo waffles.

I’ve freezer burned more bottles of white wine than I’d care to admit to in this post.  But, rather than beat myself up over a few bottles of frozen wine daiquiris,  I thought that it would better to think about the positive and wonderful things about frozen wine in a “Top 5 Late Night with Dave” sort of way.

So without further adieu, here’s my Top 5 “Best Things to Love about Frozen White Wine”:

Reason #5: A frozen bottle of white wine makes for a delightful adult water-ice on a hot summer day.  Who needs Rita’s Water-Ice when you’ve got this tasty frozen treat sitting in your freezer?  Just crack open bottle (literally) and enjoy!

Reason #4: A bottle of frozen white wine is the ultimate king-size “boo-boo buddy”.  Just imagine how helpful a frozen bottle of white wine would have been to Marcia Brady when she got beaned in the nose with a football! … Ouch! That looked so painful!! The thought of it still makes me cringe.  A frozen bottle of white wine would have been very handy in that situation.

Reason #3: A frozen bottle of white wine is a lot safer than keeping a loaded gun in the house.  How so you ask? A frozen bottle of white wine can be an effective weapon to El Kabong any would-be intruder that tries to break into your house, and will give that creep a hangover that he’ll never forget.

Reason #2:  The freezer is the easiest way to open bottles.  Who needs fancy corkscrew openers when you have a freezer in the house?  Why waste time with annoying corks when you can just throw a bottle into the freezer overnight and let the freezer open it up for you.  All you have to do is place wine in the freezer and forget about it until the next day.  The following morning when you grab for the Eggos you will see that Mr.Freezer has conveniently opened up your bottle of wine for you – how thoughtful!  

And the #1 Best Thing to Love about Frozen White Wine is that it’s a really good sign that your mind is becoming one big bowl of mush that can’t seem to remember something as simple as putting a bottle of wine in the freezer, that an hour ago seemed extremely important.

Alas, if you’ve got a case of the Forgetful Jones, and you freez’em occasionally like I do – just take them out and thaw them on the kitchen counter next to the frozen chicken legs, and they’ll be as good as new in no time flat.  Trust me – I speak from experience!      

I love all kinds of wine, but for the life of me I’ve never been able to understand the insatiable thirst that Americans have for Italian Pinot Grigio.  Sure, there are a few that I enjoy drinking, but as a whole I find most Pinot Grigios to be no more interesting than an ice cold glass of lemon water on a hot summer day.  Clearly though, there are a lot of Americans out there that have a totally different opinion about this white wine, since Italian Pinot Grigio is the number one imported white wine in the United States.   

With a gazillion Italian Pinot Grigios washing up on US retail shelves and restaurant lists, you might be interested to know that this “Italian recognized” grape is really not an Italian grape at all.  Pinot Grigio is actually the Pinot Gris grape whose origin can be traced back to Burgundy, France.  The Pinot Gris grape is said to be a mutant clone of the Pinot Noir red grape.  The color of the Pinot Gris grape is grayish-blue which is how it got its nickname “Gray” Pinot.  Additionally, in the vineyard since the leaves and the shape of the grapes look identical on both the Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir plants, workers have to wait for the color of the grapes to change in order to tell them apart.  So where am I going with all of this Pinot Gris textbook information?  I have one word for you-Oregon.  Why Oregon you ask?  Because Oregon is home to some of the tastiest Pinot Gris in the world my friend! 

So what makes Pinot Gris from Oregon much more special than Pinot Gris (Grigio) from Italy?  I’ll tell you why – Oregon Pinot Gris is a relatively unknown delicious treasure that many Americans are overlooking.  There are a lot of interesting styles of Pinot Gris that are produced in the Willamette Valley in Oregon that mix old school and new school winemaking processes.  Oregon Pinot Gris is generously packed and I mean packed with big flowery aromas and citrus flavors that deliver a truly exciting taste that will absolutely knock your socks off!  In way of the food department, an Oregon Pinot Gris can really cozy up well with grilled seafood, chicken, or pork.  In my opinion, Oregon Pinot Gris is just a flat out more serious style of wine that pushes your taste buds to limits that most Italian Pinot Grigio wines cannot achieve.

If you’ve never tried a Pinot Gris from Oregon before, a fourth of July BBQ is a great time to try one.  A few great Oregon winery names to look for would be WillaKenzie Estate, King Estate, and Adelsheim.  If you still can’t stand to part with your beloved Italian version, try an Italian thirst quencher from the Alto Adige or the Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions.

Enjoy and have a great holiday weekend!