by Marisa Dvari
Imagine yourself at a fine, upscale restaurant with a client or date you want to impress. As the host, you graciously accept the wine list … but then your gaze begins to blur as you skim across dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of unfamiliar wines. Whatever happened to the basic Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon? And also, what prices! How much better can a $600 dollar wine be than a $60 wine? Ordering a more expensive wine, you’ll learn in this remarkable book, will not necessarily make your meal more enjoyable. In fact, many expensive wines are not yet ready to drink, so you would be doing yourself and your guest a disservice by ordering them. In virtually every way possible, this 377-page book is a dynamic resource when it comes to understanding the characteristics of wine and how to ...
by Shiv Singh
Some say that the Bordeaux 2006 vintage could be as special as the famous 1982. Most critics however, argue that the 2006 are not even up to the 2005 let alone the 1982. While on the surface this might appear to be just wine critics bickering among themselves, huge amounts of money are involved. How the world perceives the vintage, determines how the wines appreciate in time. 2006 has been a particularly contentious vintage just as the 1982 were. Back then critics slammed the vintage except for one taster. Robert Parker believed that the wines he was tasting, would turn out to be some of the best ever produced. As the wines aged and then hit the market a few years later, his prophesy turned out to be true. The 1982 were a sellout and Robert Parker became the world's most famous wine criti...
by Laurie Forster
Imagine this—you are seated at an upscale restaurant with one of your best clients and then handed a wine list thicker than a college textbook. You want to pick out the “perfect” wine to impress your client but everything looks like it is written in a foreign language. After only a few minutes the server asks if you have made your selection, so you decide to order the most familiar thing on the menu. You are not sure your selection will coordinate with your meals, and it costs more than your boss will tolerate for a client dinner. By the time the bottle arrives, you have broken out in a cold sweat and are ready to take a big gulp! The good news is that understanding the three main ways wine lists are organized is the first step to preventing this from ever happening to you. ...
by Laurie Forster
I have found that most people want to enjoy wine, but that many of them just feel frustrated and confused by all the jargon and pomp and circumstance. I believe learning about wine should be simple, without attitude and above all else, lots of fun! So here are my 5 secrets to ordering a great bottle of wine every time: • Ask the sommelier or server for suggestions. Most are eager to help and have tasted most (if not all) of the wines on their list. Those of us who have chosen wine as a career enjoy drinking wine every night but don’t necessarily have large budgets. Sommeliers and servers will know the best bargains because that is what we are drinking at home! • If you are on a budget but don’t want the client to know that, point out a wine in your price range and then for a...
by Michael Pinkus
I’m going to tell you a story about glasses – not the kind you wear, but the kind you drink from – at the end of the story you’re going to call me a liar and a charletan … but before you cast my ideas completely aside I ask that you at least try what I recommend. If you are like my brother, who thinks I’m full of “it” with all this wine stuff – including glassware – you’ll walk away from the homework I have assigned no worse for wear … but if you are like countless others who have tried this experiment and have seen the light; then you could be out a couple hundred bucks (max.), but the rest of your wine tasting and drinking days will be very happy ones. What on earth is this guy babbling about? You are probably asking yourself right now, I’ll tell you: the pr...
by Michael Pinkus
Where things come from used to be a big deal … “American made”, “Canadian made”, “if it ain’t homemade it ain’t good”. But, now it seems like the whole world is “Made in Korea, China or India”. We get our canned goods with labels that say “Product of Thailand, Singapore or the Philippines”. Our fruits and veggies are trucked in from places “down south” like Florida and California, and as far away as Mexico and Chile. And nobody seems to bat an eyelash anymore. “I was vacationing in California one winter,” a former Canadian farmer recounted to me, “and they were selling locally-grown head lettuce for $1.69 packaged under the Dole name. When I returned home a week later, the same head of Dole California lettuce was selling for 69 cents at Loblaws.”...
by Joann Actis-grande
Greeks are said to be the first to produce wine, with traces found on the Island of Crete 4,000 years ago. In ancient times, it was a beverage that people drank every day. Wine was significant as a lucrative trading commodity. The Greeks introduced winemaking to Italy, with many Italian grapes having Greek roots such as Malvasia and Moscato, just to name a few. Later the Greeks brought wine making to France, Spain, and as far away as parts of Asia. Wine was such an intrinsic part of Greek culture it appears in Greek Mythology. The son of Zeus, Dionysus, known as the God of wine (Bacchus to the Romans), was believed to have introduced the grapevine and taught the secrets of its cultivation and fermentation. There were many festivals in celebration of Dionysos. The tradition of festiv...
by J Todd Greeno
Have you ever had a half-bottle of wine you wanted to save for another time, and wondered what would be the best way to hold the wine for several days? If you are not going to drink the left-over wine, there are a number of choices that will enable you to enjoy the wine on another day:... - Recork the bottle and keep it in a cool area - Pour the wine into a smaller container (such as a 375 ml bottle) to reduce the amount of air, AND keep it in a cool area - Use one of those pumps to vacuum the air out of the bottle, AND keep it in a cool area - Use one of the "Systems" that displaces the air with an inert gas, AND keep it in a cool area You may have noted one similar factor "keep the bottle left-over wine in a cool area"... ...and then there is the question, "How many d...
by Richard Baxter
As a plastic surgeon, I see breast cancer patients every week, though I have the gratifying job of doing the breast reconstruction and helping women get their lives back to normal. But it’s hard not to wonder why breast cancer is still so prevalent, after so many years and so many dollars of research. And why is it so much more common in our society than in other parts of the world? It has been said (somewhat cynically) that the entire economy of the Western world is built on things that cause cancer, an acknowledgment that environmental and dietary factors must be involved to some degree. And foremost among these appears to be alcohol consumption. Statistics on consumption of alcohol and its correlation to breast cancer have been dissected and massaged for years, and the result is ...
by Subhash Arora
India scraps ACD only to make Fine Wines more Expensive Announcement last week by the government to remove additional customs duties (ACD) will result in a drop of 20-35% in the retail price of low end wines, beer and liquor, but will result in an increase in the cost of premium wines. This is a classic example of 'The Indian Paradox'. The anomaly has arisen because the government, while eliminating additional duty under pressure from EU and the US, hiked the basic duties from 100 % to 150% (maximum allowed by the WTO agreement). ACD on the low end wines ( CIF lower than $25 a case) was earlier 75%, while on the high end wines (CIF higher than $40 a case) it was 20%. This segment will be hit negatively as the impact due to elimination of ACD is not as much as the increase i...