A Weekend of Wine

This weekend I went to a wedding. My fiance is Italian, and her family is HUGE, and loud, but the most loving caring people you will ever meet. As such there are weddings to attend all over the country at any given moment in time. At the most recent wedding we went to I enjoyed a myriad of home made wines and I understood about 1/2 of what was going on (lots of thick Italian accents). Now I know what you're thinking,..home made wine,...gross. The truth is, that this wine was actually quite good.

We started off on the Friday night after arriving in town with a cab/merlot blend (13.5% alcohol, clean on the nose and taste, medium tannin, low acidity) that one of the "uncles" had been letting age for about 13 months. After about my 7th glass and us talking back and forth about wine I think he a had sized me up he deemed me worthy to view his cellar down stairs in the basement. As we walked down his tiled staircase to the basement he explained to me the wine isn't just something that Italians drink, it's a part of their life, part of who they are and it is essential at every meal. We got into his production room, which also double as a canning room for delicious fruit preserves.

Now this wine isn't made from powder or concentrate. He actually ships the grapes in and makes the wine from scratch in his 35 gallon stainless steal cask and taps them off into huge glass amphorae to age.

The truth is, this guy grew up making wine in Italy, born from the vine if you will. His passion for wine could be seen in the decorative grape vines he had growing in his back yard and the delicious blends he was making down in the basement. In fact the entire family enjoyed every aspect of the vine. After a long night night of drinking and laughing and really just enjoying wine I got taught an important lesson about how Italians view their wine. "Wine isn't about what you're drinking, it's about who you're drinking it with." And it was clear then that family is the most important aspect of these peoples lives.

I went on an enjoyed the rest of the weekend, the ceremony and reception were beautiful and the bride and groom looked so happy. Those words stuck with me though and made me realize that wine is more than just a drink that we analyze and breakdown, to pair with food, or to be written about in blogs and magazine articles. Wine brings people together. People give their lives to this drink, they toil and stress and push to create something that will uncover memories, make people laugh, cry, and sing.

I hope that all of you can experience wine in a way that I experience wine, that you all enjoy it with great food and even better people.

Look out for my next post on Chardonnay,... I swear this time its coming.

The Basics of Wine and Food Pairing

Wine and food pairing can be daunting. And through a little education and some trial and error (and I mean like,"Holy shyte what the hell did you do to my mouth error"), I've put together a little guide to help you along your way.

I'm going to teach you some easy wine and food pairing tips that will totally turn around your perception of the "science/art" that is pairing. First though,...remember this; everything in wine (when it comes to guidelines) is based on generalities. There will always be exceptions to the rule, but that is what makes wine so fun. Follow these guidelines, and you'll only go wrong some of the time, but you'll be right most of the time.

Basics:

• Wine refreshes the palate between bites - and helps you to slow down and enjoy the meal.
• Elements in food and wine can complement or take away from each other.
• Practice, practice, practice - If you pair more of your food with wine, you're bound to find something that works.
• The weight of the wine needs to match the weight of the food - rich heavy wine with rich heavy food,...and visa versa.
• Wine flavour can contrast or complement the food you're eating (in terms of flavour) - it all depends on the desired effect.
• Match simple food with complex wine (and visa versa),...that way one doesn't steal the spotlight from the other.
• Do your research - Figure out where your wine comes from,...right down to the region, then figure out what the people in that area eat with their wines - works best with old world wines.

These basic guidelines should help you figure out what to do. Also, don't forget that the character of the food will change the flavour of the wine. Chefs know this best, but here's a quick way for you to cheat and win:

• Alcohol accentuates heat (spicy foods need to be paired carefully) - Rieslings are good with Thai - personal note of experience.
• Sweetness accentuates acidity
• Fat and proteins reduce the perception of tannins (why do you think the thick heavy red tastes better with a steak - because they do)
• Salt also reduces the perception of tannin, but watch out for this because too much will destroy your wine experience, and it just tastes gross if there is too much.

Boom,...you're ready to rock with your wine and food pairing skills, impress the gf/bf/significant other/friends etc etc etc with your new knowledge.

Look out for my next post,...I'm thinking Chardonnay,...what do you think?

Everybody is talking about it.

The economic crises in the States is reaching new levels of "Oh my God!" daily. And,...everybody is talking about it,...its everywhere, you would think we would be safe from the negativity of the economy in our wine,...and it turns out we are,...ahahahaha, take that Lehman Brothers.

With the financial markets in turmoil, investors are turning to the good stuff,...vino my friends. London's most famous wine merchant, Berry Bros. & Rudd (BBR), has had a killer week, one of its best in over 310 years. Turns out it has sold $112 million in wine since April,...ka ching! More investors are turning to investment wines. To all of you who haven't read it yet,...read: "Wine Investment for Portfolio Diversification". In that book, Mahesh Kumar (author), talks about how to invest in what he calls the "Fine Wine Index". Making money off what I love, sounds like recipe for awesome!

Prices of some of the best vintages have increased by up to 50% since the start of last year, unlike the market, which has decreased 15%.

So,...what's the moral of the story? Buy good wine, if you fall on your ass out of bankruptcy you can always sell it,...or if you make a ton of cash selling short on the market or buying real estate on the cheap, ...you can always drink it.

Click here for the article in Business Week.

Wine is awesome!

So I love wine,...I love everything about it, an this blog is going to be about me trying to share this love of wine with as many people as I can. I will have my most recent tastings, wine news, and hopefully a place where all of you can write about tastings of the wines that you've just had.

I will also shamelessly promote myself as a "go to guy" for your marketing needs if you are in the wine industry,...big fan of marketing,...big fan of internet marketing (the industry I work in).

I hope you enjoy this blog, and try some of the wines I write tasting notes on, feel free to agree/disagree/add to my tasting notes. Wine is different experience for everyone and I'm hoping that we get a bunch of people talking about a whole stack of different wines and learning from each other.

Look for my next post on the weekend where I'll cover 4-6 new wines.