Food may be the way to a man's heart, but keep in mind that the food goes through his nose before it reaches his stomach.
In other words, a huge part of enjoying food involves smelling it.
Don't believe it? Then try this trick: Place pieces of four different
types of food with similar textures on a plate, then close your eyes
and have a friend hand you a forkful of one of the items - but before
you bring the fork to your mouth, squeeze your nose so you can't smell
the food. Once the food is in your mouth, try to identify it. Trust us,
it's not as easy as it sounds.
Because the aroma of food is so closely associated with its
flavor, it should come as no surprise that some of the best wine judges
in the...
In Chicago, the most prominent of all sommeliers is a young woman
named Alpana Singh. She manages the wine lists for the city's leading
operator of high-end restaurants, and also hosts a restaurant review
program called "Check, Please!" on the local PBS station.
Singh wrote a less-than-memorable book a few years ago, but her
blog is must-reading for anyone who enjoys pairing wine with food. You
can tap into her vast knowledge of the subject at:
WhatWouldAlpanaDrink.blogspot.com.
Although quite successful in her career, Singh maintains a
down-to-earth attitude and readily admits to enjoying "comfort food"
every bit as much as the fancy dishes...
There are two ways to look at the annual winegrape harvest in
California: in tons crushed, and from a purely business perspective. As
much as we like to romanticize the world of wine, there can be no
romance without a successful business model.
Each year, Turrentine Brokerage issues a report on the California
harvest, skewed to the business side of the ledger. Here are excerpts
from the company's report on the 2009 harvest...
* Chardonnay, the most widely planted white wine variety, was up a
substantial 28% statewide in 2009 compared to 2008, which is an...
Getting together with people to talk about dust sounds almost as exciting as watching paint dry.
But in this case, we're not talking about just any dust. This is special dust.
This is Rutherford dust, the special soil in a certain sector of
the Napa Valley that helps vintners produce some of the most
distinctive wines to be found anywhere.
So special is this dust that it has its own society. And last
month, more than 50 members of the Rutherford Dust Society gathered at
the elegant Auberge du Soleil resort for...
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...
Wine dinners provide wonderful opportunities to learn more about pairing wine with food.
In most cases, a restaurant's chef will work directly with the
featured winery's owner or a winery rep in developing the menu and
selecting the pairings.
The matchmaking can work in either direction. Sometimes the winery
will want to showcase specific bottlings, and then it's up to the chef
to...
New research by The Nielsen Company into consumer wine consumption
patterns and attitudes reveals surprising facts about a wine both loved
and maligned in the United States: Merlot.
Commissioned by Blackstone Winery and utilizing multiple Nielsen
data sources, the research finds that Merlot has the single largest
consumer base of any varietal wine in the U.S. and, of the major wine
varietals, is the one most closely associated with high quality at an
affordable price.
Complete results of the research are detailed in a report
entitled, "Merlot Today: The State of the U.S. Merlot Market, Consumer
Attitudes and...
