It won't be long until wedding and reunion season arrives. And
that means you may be called upon to raise a glass and propose a toast.
If the thought of bombing in front of a bunch of friends (or
perfect strangers) takes the fun out of the occasion, you need to
follow the Boy Scouts' motto: Be prepared.
Here are a few tips to help you formulate a toast that everyone in attendance will remember...
* Said Clifton Fadiman: "To take wine into our mouths is to savor a droplet of the river of human history."
Says our editor: So why didn't they serve wine in history class?
* Said Maurice Healy: "I took one sip; I closed my eyes, and every beautiful thing that I had...
Over the years, the wine clubs of Vinesse have featured numerous
wines from
Bonny Doon, the winery founded by Randall Grahm.
The eccentric Grahm has always been two or three steps ahead of
the curve, embracing international grape varieties before just about
anyone else, and crafting wonderful blends when 100% varietal wines
were all the rage.
He also was among the first vintners to embrace the use of screw
caps on wine bottles, and even came up with a Letterman-style list of...
And you thought wine was just something to drink with a meal... or to sip while reading a good book.
It is both of those things. But it also is much more... as the
words of Frances Tabeek, D.H. Lawrence and a Medieval German proverb so
vividly demonstrate...
* Frances Tabeek: "A good wine is like a gentle kiss - its effect throughout the meal is...
If you like to read about wine as well as drink it, here are three books you may want to check out...
* "The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine."
Just as there are counterfeit paintings, currency and I.D.s, there is counterfeit wine. Particularly when prices are...
So, you want to sound like a wine expert, eh?
Short of memorizing each and every word of The Grapevine (official publication of the wine clubs of Vinesse), what's an oenophile-in-training to do?
We'd suggest picking up a copy of "The Wine Snob's Dictionary," a breezy 111-page book written by David Kamp and David Lynch.
The book's sub-title gives you...
John Cunin, owner of the Cypress Club in San Francisco, decided to have some fun, and put together a list of the "Top 10 Descriptors a Winemaker Hates to Hear."
Here is his list, presented Letterman countdown-style:...
*** One of the great columnists of the 20th century, Art Buchwald, on wine writing:
"When it came to writing about wine, I did what almost everybody does -faked it."
*** Chef and author Jasper White, on matching food and wine:
Gold Rush immigrants first planted winegrapes in Mendocino County's inland valleys in the 1850s.
Today, the county still has predominantly family-owned wineries, 60 percent of which are small estates producing fewer than 5,000 cases annually.
Mendocino wineries and vineyards are thriving, and are well regarded for producing wines of high quality. The principal...
This observation is credited to the Bishop of Seville, circa
the 7th century:
"I have enjoyed
great health at a great age because everyday since I can remember, I have
consumed a bottle of wine, except. . .
