Posts Tagged ‘wine reference’

Hey, is that Kool-Aid that you’re drinking?  Nope, its Rosé wine.

So what the heck is Rosé wine anyway?  Well, it can be a simple mix of white and red wine.  But, in most cases, a Rosé wine is just the by-product of a red-skinned grape.  Rosé wines are usually made by removing the skins just before the juice is a deep ruby red color.  This contact period with the juice is usually about 2-3 days to achieve its “pretty in pink” color.

Rosé wine is usually on the lighter side and exhibits some strawberry-like flavors.  Here in the US a lot of consumers enjoy White Zinfandel.  However, this popular pink concoction is not considered a true rosé, but rather a “blush”.

Rosé wine is a great hot weather wine that matches up well with BBQ sauce slathered chicken, ribs, fried fare, and believe it or not – Easter ham.

If you’re in the market for the real deal in Rosé, I highly recommend trying one from Spain, Portugal, or France.  Chill well before drinking.  

If you like Chardonnay, I mean really good Chardonnay, and you’ve got at least $40 to spare, then you might want to consider getting to know the awesome Chardonnay made in Burgundy, France.  Burgundy, France is home to some of the finest Chardonnay Chateaus in the world.  However, this dive into the great unknown of French Chardonnay can be awfully intimidating.  Unfamiliar French words like Montrachet or Macon, Grand Cru and Premier Cru are enough to scare you right back to that familiar aisle marked, “California Chardonnay”.

Stop!  Put down that Cali Chardonnay and march back over to the White Burgundy aisle.  You need not despair if you write down or remember these three White Burgundy names:

1.)    Puligny-Montrachet - the Mecca for many of the worlds finest Chardonnays.  It’s low on the oak and heavy on flavor.  However, the “best-of-the best” can be priced as high as a used 1995 Chevy Malibu.

2.)    Chassagne-Montrachet - Chardonnay with great complexity, sometimes even bigger or fuller in taste than the Puligny-Montrachet, but often times priced less expensive. Think dinner for two at Applebee’s prices.

3.)    Meursault – A lot more oaky and buttery in most cases than the other two, but the price tag can still give you a nose bleed.

There you have it – the only 3 names that you need to memorize the next time that you’re in the market for a “special occasion” Chardonnay.  They also have the added cachet of being French.  Don’t forget to bring some extra cash with you though!

Cheers!

Torrontes is the most popular and widely grown white grape in Argentina. This native Argentinean white grape is grown mainly in the provinces of Catamarca, La Rioja, Mendoza, Salta, San Juan and Rio Negro.  The Torrontes grape produces wine with a very strong floral scent to it – and I’m not joking when I say a strong floral scent!  It hits you like you’ve just walked into a flower shop.  The Torrontes wine shares many similar attributes to a Viognier wine:  Torrontes wines exhibit a floral scent and generally have a powerful punch of peach and citrus flavors, similar to Viogniers.

Torrontes is a great sipping or “stand-alone” wine.  It’s terrific with salads, cheeses and grilled/smoked meats.  It’s really awesome with spicy dishes as well!

Let me start off by saying that I’m a big fan of Ms. Robinson’s work.  I personally think that she has a great wine tasting palate and an incredible knack of explaining wine basics in a non-pretentious manner that is easy to understand.  In my opinion her book, “Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier” is a masterpiece.

However, in her annual “Wine Buying Guide for Everyone” pocket book, Ms. Robinson tends to be on her best behavior and watches all of her P’s and Q’s when commenting about each particular wine that she rates.  I only wish that I could be as polite as Ms. Robinson when trying to describe a really bad tasting wine!

What makes this annual buying guide great is that it focuses only on commonly found wines, unlike other wine buying publications that showcase so many obscure or hard to find wines that people like you and me will never have the opportunity to taste.

Ms. Robinson’s “Wine Buying Guide for Everyone” is a perfect title for this annual paperback book.  It’s a very user-friendly wine guide to wines that are found on almost every wine retailer’s shelves.  This pocket-sized guide lists and rates over 400 accessible wines commonly found on wine lists and at retail stores throughout the United States.  This paperback is packed with quick-reference tools including different “Best Of” lists and her personal “Top Picks” to name just a couple.  Ms. Robinson also does a fine job of assembling a wine and food pairing suggestions section as well.

Ultimately, what makes this guide, and much of Ms. Robinson’s work, so darn good is that she is in tune with what ordinary consumers want to know about wine.  She spends most of her time telling you what a particular wine tastes like rather than putting you to sleep with the stuff that the Average Joe could care less about.

The “Wine Buying Guide for Everyone” pocket book is a great practical, everyday wine tool that focuses on wines that you can actually find 9 times out of 10 just about anywhere in the United States.  My only beef with it is that Ms. Robinson tries way too hard to be a nice girl and exercises extreme caution not to say that a particular wine tastes so bad that she would be embarrassed to serve it to her dog.  An injection of some real grit and rawness would really make this annual buying guide exceptional!