Wine Varietals - Chardonnay

Chardonnay is one of the most popular white wines in North America, as well as the white grape in the Burgundy region of France. It has a rich smell and flavor, making it one of the easier wines to recognize when tasting.

In general, Chardonnay has aromas of apples, peaches, tropical fruit, and creamy vegetables. It's very easy to enjoy with round, rich flavors of apple, butter, mineral, and oak. You can find it un-oaked (aged in stainless-steel barrels) which allows the true flavor of the grape to shine, or aged in either French oak or American oak barrels, which is more popular and gives the wine its toasty flavor. French oak gives a milder flavor than American oak.

Food Pairing - Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving is a time for great family, great food, and of course, great wine. With the big night only four days away now, you may be wondering what wine goes best with Thanksgiving dinner. If you have been assigned the task of buying wine for the night then luckily for you, one of the wines that pairs the best is pretty inexpensive ($9.99), and for the price is a really good bottle of wine.
You may have heard of it already; Beaujolais Nouveau, released every year on the third Thursday of November.
Why does Beaujolais go so well with the dinner? Because simply, it is the closest to white wine that a red wine can get. Because of the way it is made, the bitter tannins from the grape skins that are normally in red wine aren't there, leaving a very easy to drink, fruity wine. It also tastes best when slightly chilled, which all combines to pair well with all the foods that make up Thanksgiving dinner.
If you can't find a Beaujolais or just want to mix it up, your other best bet is a Pinot Noir. A pinot is the the lightest of the red wines, meaning it will pair well with the most foods on the table. Some of my favorite pinots in the $10-15 range for Thanksgiving are:
A to Z, Oregon
Louis Latour, France
Poppy, California

On a side note: a lot of people would recommend a riesling or pinot gris (white wines) to pair as well. My opinion is that red wine just goes better with the dinner as a whole. White really only pairs with the light meat on the turkey, while a light red really adds to the flavors of all the different foods.

Food Pairing - Pizza

I've had friends eating a lot of pizza for some reason recently, so I thought a food pairing on pizza was in order. As with pasta, the type of wine you pair with your pizza depends on the sauce and toppings on your pie.

Starting off easy, if you are trying to go non-traditional with your pizza and decide to go for the "white pizza" (or any kind really without a tomato sauce base), pick a chardonnay or a pinot noir. The chardonnay works well with the garlic in the cream sauce and if you prefer red, the pinot will pair with the spices without overpowering the pie.

For a vegetarian pizza, pick a chianti, cab franc, or sauvignon blanc. In a chianti, the fruit and acid taste great with sweet, acidic tomatoes. A cab franc has less tannins than chianti (so a little less bitter) and usually has a bit of a vegital taste that will meld nicely with the veggies on the pizza. If white is more your taste, a sauvignon blanc also features herbal flavors to match.

If you're ordering a meat/pepperoni or cheese pizza, pull out a chianti or medium to full-bodied zinfandel. Either of these are a perfect match for the spices and tomatoes.

Review: Rosenblum Zinfandel

2006 Appellation Series, Contra Costa County $12-15

Big reds (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel) from Contra Costa County are defined as being earthy and leathery, with bold, ripe fruit flavor. This zin by Rosenblum definitely lives up to these characteristics. It has a great earthy-spice element that first hits your palate, while mid-mouth it is full of rich red cherry and plum flavors without being overly "jammy" as some of the zins from this region can be. The fruit flavors linger in your mouth as the wine finishes soft and sweet. For a California zin, I was surprised by how smooth this wine is. If zinfandels tend to be too dry and heavy for you, this bottle will be right up your alley.

Bottom Line: Not enough of a kick to pair well with a big steak dinner: the soft fruit will be overpowered by the rich flavors in the steak. But still a great tasting bottle.

Wine Know-How: Storing Wine

So you've gone to the store and picked up a few bottles of wine over the last few weeks, but you haven't gotten around to drinking them yet. Now they are just sitting there on your kitchen counter, or in a box in the garage, or in the trunk of your car, while you wait for the opportune time to open one up. You would love to put them away, somewhere that they can be stored properly, but you're just not sure what "properly" is. Well, never fear, storing wine the right way is not as hard as it seems.

First off, before you go through any great lengths to proper wine storage, decide how long you are likely to keep your bottles before drinking them. If you know there isn't a chance that they will last longer than a month, then letting them sit on top of your counter is just fine. However, if you are starting to collect a few bottles and are planning on keeping them for a "special occasion"or just sometime down the road, there are a few simple rules you should follow to ensure optimal preservation.

• Store unopened wine in a cool, dark place. The optimal temperature for storing most wines is between 45-65 degrees F. The other key factor is to keep the temperature as even as possible. If you don't have a wine cooler, the next best place in your apartment is a closet. Closets tend to stay cooler than the rest of your home, and maintain a fairly stable temp.
  
• Store the bottle horizontally. This allows the cork to say moist. A cork that drys out can crack while opening, or can crack on its own causing the wine to oxygenate and essentially ruin the bottle before you even notice. You can buy simple wine racks and put them at the bottom of the closet next to your shoes, or if you have a wine store nearby ask them if you can have and old case box still with the cardboard dividers in it, and keep that in your closet on its side.
  
• Most wines you pick up at the grocery store are produced to be consumed shortly after purchased. Unless you are really familiar with the winery and how well their wines age, don't plan on storing a bottle longer than 2-3 years from the vintage.

Review: Woop Woop Cabernet Sauvignon

South Eastern Australia, 2006 $8-10

Are you one of those people that buys wine because of the name or the label? Wine snobs can't stand those people, while I say, first impressions are everything, right? Well, I have to admit, I try not to buy wine because it has a great name, as the name is usually better than the wine, but Woop Woop was a pleasant surprise. It is a great fruit filled wine, extremely smooth, yet with enough acidity to pair well with your Saturday night BBQ. The fruit flavors are a smoky-blackberry and black currant, it's very round mid-mouth, and finishes with a nice smoke and spice taste. Reminds me of a California Cab.

Bottom Line: Buy it for the name and the label! And you'll get a great wine, too.

Wine Terminology: Finish

Definition: A wine's "finish" refers to the taste that is left in your mouth after you swallow. Better bottles will have a finish that lasts longer and shows multiple (complex) flavors. Some finishes can go on for minutes so concentrate when you try a wine. The finish is also called the aftertaste.
Use it in a sentence: "What a great wine! It has a long, smooth finish with layered fruit."

Review: Yellow Tail Shiraz

Southeast Australia, 2007 $5.50-7

For the price, all of the yellow tail wines are reasonably good. The Shiraz is probably my favorite as it is one of their dryer wines; some of the other reds get a little more sweet than I find ideal. Strong dark fruit when it first hits your palate, almost too "jammy" tasting, but then it has quite a kick mid-mouth. Finishes again fruity and sweet, but well balanced with smooth tannins. Definate bbq wine.

Bottom line: For the price, this wine is fantastic. Even Wine Spectator rated the '05 with 90 points!

Wine Gifting: Signature Chocolates' Wine Pairing Collection

Signature Chocolates by RENA

With the Holiday season fast approaching, 3 things come to our minds when we think about the next two months: food, gift shopping, and holiday parties. The go-to-gift when invited to your friend's or neighbor's or co-worker's party(or really to a dinner at any point during the year) is a bottle of wine, because we all know you can't show up empty handed. But this year, instead of bringing along the typical Pinot Noir or Chardonnay to sit on the table with all the others, make yourself stand out. Signature Chocolate offers two different wine pairing collections so at the end of the night, your host can have something to pair with all those nice wine s/he just received! The boxes even have suggestions as to what kind of wine should be paired with each type of chocolate. I came across these while at Cost Plus last week, and at $9.99 per box, snagged a few myself.

IF, however, you're just looking for a great gift and there is no party involved, throw a box of these into a basket with two different bottles of wine, tie some ribbon around the basket, and voila!

Ridge Vineyards

Zinfandel Blend, Three Valleys, Sonoma County 2006 $18
I have always wanted to try a Ridge Vineyard wine, so at $18 I decided to splurge for this one. I am really happy I did. It's a great bottle; a wonderful smell, heavy earthy flavors but still friendly to people who may find zins a little strong. The wine has a bit of a kick to it; deep flavors of black cherry and spice that really stand out. Yet it is very smooth going down and finishes with a soft fruit taste. It paired well with basic spagetti and meat sauce but it would also nicely accompany a heavy meat dish or even a hamburger. Allow the bottle to sit open for at least 30 min for the flavors to really open up.

Bottom Line: Very good zin. Worth the splurge especially if you are bringing it to a dinner and trying to impress your host!

Wine Terminology: Fruit Forward

Definition: A description people can give to a wine when they are describing its flavor. It refers to a wine that has an immediate strong fruit flavor upon taking a sip, often followed by a different aftertaste. All reds can be described as being "fruit forward" although wines from the US, Australia, and New Zealand tend to be more so than European wines.
Use it in a sentence: After taking your first sip, "Wow, this wine is very fruit forward."

Root: 1

Sauvignon Blanc, Casablanca Valley, Chile. $8
Chilean white wines are normally some of my favorites, so I was excited to try this one. The aromas are fantastic; a classic sauvignon blanc smell of grapefruit, passion fruit, oak, cream and lemon grass. The taste, however, leaves a lot to be desired. In a good sauvignon blanc, the dominant flavors are similar to the smell: fruit, grass, oak, and cream. This wine has no real fruit or floral taste, instead it is very creamy, with a dominate lime and asparagus taste. Interesting. It is also a little dryer than I like. It reminds me of a restaurant's typical "house white."
On a good note, it is crisp with a clean finish, and would still pair well with apricots, cheese, and honey. (Have you ever tried those 3 together? Excellent.)

Bottom Line: Not the best from Chile, would not buy for a special occasion.