What wine for what food isn’t a question to worry to death; wine is supposed to add joy, not anxiety, to a meal. There also aren’t any rigid answers to the pairing question. Although wine lovers will often say that a certain wine will be “perfect” with some dish, it’s only a manner of speaking, a guess that says more about the style of wine than its exact tastes in combination with a dish.

But it’s worth learning a little about the basics of pairing food and wine because when you get the right wine with the right food together in the same place, the whole is greater than its parts. And that means more deliciousness, which is the whole point of all the wine study, right?

So, what’s the big deal about pairing wine? Why can’t you just put a good wine and good food together and expect that everything will work itself out? Well, you can, but the effect might not be the one you want. The food and wine might agree to get along but not really combine in any interesting way, or they might go at it in your mouth, the wine pummeling the food until you can’t taste it anymore, or the food knocking out the wine with a powerful punch of flavor. Not so pleasant, right?

Worse even, the wine could play a nasty trick and make the fish taste like metal, or the artichokes could take revenge on the Chardonnay and make it taste like dessert wine.

Dinner is no place for battles of any size, even small ones that play out in your mouth between wine and food, and a little learning can keep those battles to a minimum. In the best matches, wine enhances food, like a splash of lemon, a pinch of salt, or a tangy sauce that can bring out more and different flavors in a dish. Wine can be more exciting and interesting than any condiment, because wine brings its own delicious set of flavors and sensations to the table, and food can enhance these, too.

How do you keep the battles to a minimum and aim for perfection? Much of it is just common sense.

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter. Easter is that time of year where you know spring is finally here and summer is just around the corner. This time of year I like to bring out more crisp refreshing wine for when I’m sitting out on my patio (if it gets warm enough).

Question: What does everyone get a lot of at Easter that goes perfectly with wine?

Answer: Chocolate!

Whether the basic milk chocolate or a bitter dark chocolate there’s always a wine to pair. There’s a pretty good guide on pairing chocolate and wine on About.com. For milk chocolate they suggest a Pinot Noir or a lighter Merlot. For the dark chocolate they suggest Zins and Cabs. And for white chocolate they recommend something bubbly.

I think a great idea for a dinner party is to have a chocolate sampler and wine sampler after dinner so everyone can mix and match and discover their favorite pairings.

If you have a friend that loves Chocolate I’d suggest buying then a Wine Club that comes with chocolate already paired. One that I’ve tried is: The Chocoholic - Wine and Chocolate Club Membership. Every month they deliver gourmet chocolates with the perfectly paired wine.

Well it’s time for me to get on with my day…

Happy Easter Everyone!
Wine Club Insider

Hi Everyone,

I reluctantly have to announce that our little online community has been purchased by Constellation Wines. The change will be affective tomorrow. It’s been many years that we’ve been bringing you the latest and greatest wine clubs, but tomorrow it all comes to an end. It’s been a blast and I’ll miss you all!

Regards,

Wine Club Insider

P.S. April fools! Okay it’s one day early. But I always write on Wednesday’s so I had to do it one day early. We’re not going anywhere! See you next week.

What if you bring your own bottle? Well, first, call ahead and see if it’s even possible. Some places do not allow it; others discourage it with a hefty “corkage fee,” a charge (typically around $15, though it ranges wildly) for bringing your own instead of ordering off the restaurant’s wine list.

That corkage fee makes business sense. After all, a restaurant makes a hefty portion of its profit (not to mention covers glassware and service costs) on alcohol sales so that food costs can be kept in line. If diners bring their own wine, they are cheating that system.

A good wine list is also part of the whole dining experience, and the diner who brings his own bottle is missing out on that part of the experience. The restaurant (hopefully) is proud of its wine list, and wants to share its finds with you; bringing a bottle takes away that opportunity.

If you do have a special bottle or bottles you’d like to bring, let the restaurant know what they are; if the wines are special enough, they may give you a deal on the corkage fee. (For example, say you wanted to open up an array of Romanee-Conti Burgundies from 1945 and have some of the chefs fine food to accompany it. That might be justification for some leniency.) Either way, though, remember to tip as if you had purchased full bottles of wine. Your bill may not be as high, but the staff worked just as hard.

The range of sommeliers is so wide in talent and experience and the array of pay scales that restaurants use are so huge that there’s no clear answer to the question of whether to tip the sommelier. Generally, if the sommelier went out of his way to accommodate you (like found some special bottle of wine for someone’s birthday, or decanted old wines you brought in from home), then do offer a tip.

If you’ve brought wines, do add the cost of the bottles to the final bill and tip on that total; each one of those bottles did add work for dining room staff and dishwashers alike.

Otherwise, it’s up to you, but my advice is not to feel obliged to tip the sommelier separately from the staff unless he’s gone out of his way for you. A nice alternative gesture, when you’ve brought or ordered a special bottle, is to save a glass for the sommelier or the kitchen. It’s not like most restaurant workers can afford to open such bottles that often for themselves.

It seems like everyone does red wine clubs 99% of the time. Most of us wine lovers are all about the red wine. But what about a gift for someone that isn’t crazy about wine? Or what about getting your wine lover friend something a little different? I think in both of these cases a Sparkling Wine Club is a great alternative.  Who doesn’t like opening a bottle of bubbly and celebrating with friends? Even when you have nothing to celebrate, just by opening a bottle of champagne you everything suddenly feels a little merrier. There a couple sparkling wine clubs I’d recommend. First is the Cellars Sparkling Wine Club. They actually do a combination of true Champagne from France and some California + Australian sparking wine… which in my opinion can be just as enjoyable as actual ‘champagne’. If you’re looking for a California only sparkling wine club option I would recommend the Schramsbery Sparkling Wine Club. They are known for the sparkling wine and have been making it since around 1965. If anyone is looking for a 100% champagne wine club you may be out of luck. I have yet to find one. There must be one out there somewhere… so if you find one please let me know.

Cheers,
Wine Club Insider

I’ve always wondered if you can truly do organic wine. There’s been a lot of debate lately in the news about organics in general and whether or not they are any ‘better’. Well there’s one winery that has been pushing the limits trying to make the most organic wine possible. They are called PureVineWines. They actually prefer a term called Biodynamic wines. Basically they look at the winery as a closed system and don’t bring anything in or out of the winery. So they consider the vines, soil, insects, etc. Obviously they don’t use any pesticides. But in addition they use homeopathic mixtures on the vines and a several other techniques that have been passed down through the generations. And their finished wine contains no sulfates or chemicals. If you didn’t already guess… they are located in Portland, OR. The home of organics foods. So if you have any friends that are into sustainability and organic foods the PureVineWindes Wine Club would be a perfect gift. They’ll receive two great wines every month for around $45 to $55 a month (depending on the wine selection). The founders Andria, Tom, and Joe are definitely creating something unique at PureVineWines.

So let’s have a toast to organic wine,
Wine Club Insider

Wine in Texas? Absolutely! In fact Texas Hill is the second fastest growing wine country in the USA. It’s located near Austin. For those of you that haven’t ventured down to Texas Hill yet here is a map of the local Austin wineries. They have Wine Trail events on a regular basis where people can go on a self guided tour of the Hill wineries. It’s a fine time down there. You get a mix of southern charm and some fairly distinctive wines. One that I tried is the Texas Hills Vineyard. They focus on growing wine in an organic sustainable manor. And surprisingly the local area looks a lot like the Tuscan hills of Italy. All of their wines also have an Italian influence. They were the first to produce a Pinot Grigio in Texas and they are especially proud of their Cabernet Sauvignon called “Kick Butt Cab”. Oh, and they have a wine club! Another winery I tried was Rancho Ponte. This place was much more ‘Texas’ and was a fun twist on what you expect from a winery. The Ranch Ponte wine club does six shipments a year.  So if you’re looking to try some Texas wine for the first time I’d suggest looking up Texas Hills.

Some people like to decant almost all wines, except for sparkling (the bubbles would dissipate), the very old (they tend to disintegrate), and the very young and simple (extra air might make them fall apart, too). These people find that the extra oxygen helps bring out the aromas and flavors in the wine.

It’s hard to prove, but everyday experience gives the theory some strong support. Ever notice how some wines change in the glass? How they start out with almost no aroma and little taste, and then, 15 minutes or an hour later, startle with seductive scents and luscious flavor? Or how the leftovers in a bottle taste better the day after it was opened?

The opposite happens, too. A wine tastes great for the first 15 minutes, but as it sits in the glass, it begins to taste duller, more acetic, less pleasant, as if it’s falling apart by the minute. Or the leftovers taste awful the following day.

The change in a wine from bottle to decanter won’t be as drastic as from one day to the next, but it can be significant. The thing is, you can’t know for sure how a wine will react. If the wine is simple and juicy, aeration probably won’t improve it; if it’s tannic, acidic, and very dense with concentrated fruit, it well might. At home, you can experiment. At a restaurant, leave it up to the opinion of the wine steward, who should have an opinion about these things.

How to Decant

In the simplest situations—a young wine that you want to decant just for the benefit of some air or a pretty container—all that needs to be done is to dump the wine from bottle into decanter.

With an older wine, it’s more complicated. If the wine is a special one you ordered earlier in the day, the sommelier will have stood the bottle up in a quiet place for the sediment to fall to the bottom.

If you ordered it that night, he’ll just carefully take it from the cellar and move it into a decanting rack, if he has one, which keeps the bottle at an angle, or stand it up, endeavoring not to rile it up.

Then comes the entertaining part: Out comes a candle along with the decanter. Over the candle, he’ll slowly pour the wine into the decanter. The light the candle throws helps him see when the sediment begins to flow toward the neck, so he can stop pouring before it comes out.

Often this will leave an inch of wine in the bottle. It might seem like a waste, but it’s better than a mouthful of grit.

In some restaurants, the staff doesn’t want to take the risk of having a customer drink a corked or flawed wine, so they do the tasting themselves. In this situation, expect the wine waiter to show you the bottle before it’s opened, and then take it away after you okay it. Then, at a station specifically set up for tasting wines, where there’s a spittoon for the sommelier so he doesn’t get a buzz on over the course of an evening, the sommelier will open and taste your wine. If it’s bad, he’ll get another bottle. If it’s sound, he’ll bring it back and pour it around. Seldom do sommeliers of this caliber call a wine wrong, but if you happen to get a bottle that has a major flaw he missed (it happens to the best of us), do bring it up.

Decanting

Why do some people get to drink their wine out of beautiful glass decanters while the rest of us get it poured straight out of the bottle?

Most wine doesn’t need decanting; pouring it straight from the bottle is fine. Some wines, however, have a thick layer of gritty sediment at the bottom of the bottle that you’d rather not end up in your glass.

Some people, too, think that some wines benefit from extra air contact, and pouring them into a wide-bodied container will do just that. (So will shaking a glass up and down vigorously with your hand cupped over the top, but that’s a little messy and doesn’t look so good.)

Which Wines?

Wines that typically benefit from decanting are those that have been bound up in their glass bottles for the longest. These wines are likely to have “thrown some sediment”— that is, to have a layer of tannins, pigments, and other compounds that have fallen out of the solution to the bottom of the bottle. Decanting helps keep the sediment out of your glass.

Old wines can also develop “reduced,” vegetal aromas, or seem to have very little aroma at all, after they’ve been hidden away from oxygen for so many decades. Putting an old wine in a decanter lets it “breathe” a bit, or literally sit in the presence of oxygen, so that its aromas and flavors slowly unfold. In a wine with very mature flavors, though, the amount of oxygen it comes in contact with while going into the decanter can blur the line between old wine and vinegar.

A new romance is always so exciting.  So is a nice glass of wine.  So much to love!

The tradition has favored women throughout history, being the receivers of flowers and chocolate.  These days, it’s OK to impress your man, ladies.  We are quite easy!  A nice bottle of wine, or port for that matter, does the job.  I might be partial here, but walk with me for a second….

After a long February 14th at work, you both are exhausted.  The last thing you want to think about is your run-of-the mill flowers and chocolate, and only one person gets those. (The ladies get off so easy!  Guys - if you are getting flowers and chocolate, we need to have a chat.)  Though the flowers are gorgeous and the chocolates decadent….we both know they don’t last.

So let’s say you still go the flowers and chocolate route.  Now, throw in a nice bottle of 2007 Caro Amancaya Malbec from Argentina, some candles, served in Tiffany wine glasses…now you are on a whole new level!  It’s the perfect gift from guy to gal (and I tend to be a biased male wine-lover).   A memorable evening of wine that lasts.  And of course, wine has healthy antioxidants!  (So does dark chocolate, but let’s forget that for a moment.  But if you can’t, Scharffen Berger 82% Cacao is the perfect pairing with wine.)

A perfect Valentine’s evening awaits!  I wonder what my wife got me this year….

WCI out