© pedrosimoes7


Swirl, sniff, swish, swallow. These are wine words to live by in the tasting world. To me, they are words I learned early on and grew quickly to appreciate. My family loved and shared wine with me, but not everyone grows up with the same experiences.

I have many friends in my age group who never learned about wine. I don't think that clicked for me until recently, when two friends of mine both asked me to walk them through wine tasting. (Ego points for me, I'm impressed they trusted me enough to guide them.)

Both of these friends carefully went through the steps, taking all the little tidbits of advice I gave them. And surprisingly both of them told me, "I can't smell anything. It smells like wine." And the same with taste. They could tell a little difference, the same way you can tell the difference between diet and regular coke. But any hints of berries or textures were out of the question.

This worried me a little. Is taste all made up in our heads? I had a friend do an unscientific experiment once with scotch. He poured a cheap scotch into a flask and went to a convention. At the convention he told everyone what an expensive high-end scotch he had in the flask. And without fail, everyone who tried it went on to elaborate on how they could tell it was expensive.

After that and after thinking for a while, I came to a conclusion. Sure, we probably look for the flavors explained on the back of the bottle and make up some of our own, but in the end, learning to taste different things in wine is more about how much experience you've had. When you first start tasting wine the important thing is that you like it, and not much else. Just like once you've had enough McDonald's fries you can tell if they turned out "right" or not, the same thing will happen with wine. For now, just enjoy it and don't worry about what it smells right.

© naotakem


A number of sources (Decanter, Bloomberg, The LA Times) are reporting on some recently release sales numbers showing that the California wine industry had a bad year in 2009.

Wine consuption in the US was up in 2009, by 2.1%. But California wine shipments dropped for the first time in 16 years. In other words, Americans are drinking more wine and less California wine. Add to this picture the fact that British wine consumers cut consumption of California wines by more than a third in 2009.

The picture looks even more bleak when the discussion is phrased in terms of money instead of wine volume. Not only did consumers buy cheaper, imported wine instead of buying California wine; they also moved their preference for California wines down a notch to less expensive brands from the Golden State.

California's wine industry lost money even when it kept customers. This, at a time when California's economy is still struggle under the weight of the Recession. It will be interesting to see what steps California takes to regain market share and boost sales this year.

© AMagill


For Christmas I got my first full fondue set. To break it in, some girl friends and I threw a fondue party this past weekend. It was a learning experience in many ways but one of the best parts was testing out wines to go with the fondue.

We used three types of wine for our fondue night. The wine to make the cheese fondue and the wine we served with it. We also made chocolate fondue, so there was yet another type of wine to go with that. I've split the wines into three sections here.

1. The "Cheese" Wine: The wine that should be used in traditional Swiss fondue is a very dry wine. We used a cheap Sauvignon Blanc (and I do mean cheap, but it turned out great.) Chardonnay also works well in traditional fondue.

2. The Appetizer Wine: You can use a higher grade wine to cook in the cheese and also serve it if you like. But since we were experimenting with lots of different cheeses (some cheddar, some Swiss, some smelly ones too) we decided to go with a Cabernet Sauvignon. Any smoky red will set-off your wine nicely, especially if you are using different grainy breads in your cheese instead of just sliced baguettes.

3. The Dessert Wine: The kind of wine you pick for dessert depends heavily on what kind of chocolate you put in the fondue. "Original" chocolate fondue consists of bittersweet chocolate and cream. Try pairing this with a Shiraz or Rioja. Or if you're like me and a fan of sweet whites, a simple Riesling goes will with fruit you dip it too.

We had a great time trying different combinations of wine and cheese, wine and chocolate and just more wine. If you've tried fondue and different wines what are some of your favorite pairings?

© geerlingguy


Sarah Palin, the former US Vice-Presidential candidate, will speak at this year's Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) convention in Las Vegas. I had to find that in a couple of places (like here and here) before I was sure I believed it. I don't usually think of Sarah Palin and alcohol as things that go together. But evidently the WSWA does.

'Governor Palin is a great supporter of America's free enterprise system and understands that industries like the beverage alcohol industry play a key role in driving our national economy,' said Craig Wolf, WSWA president and CEO.

The content of Palin's speech at the Caesar's Palace venue is unknown.

And, well, I can see that...

It will be interesting to see what she says, and how much press it gets.

I'm not sure how people develop their tastes in wine. Part of it I'd guess is cultural. It's easy to like what you grow up around. But most wine-consuming societies still offer a pretty large variety of choices. I'm partial to several reds. But for some reason my favorite white has always been Chablis wine.

While most wines can be enjoyed by themselves, the real pleasure in a wine usually comes from pairing it with food. Chablis goes well with oysters (which I like a lot). But it also goes well with spicy foods. And since I'm a big fan of Thai cuisine, Chablis is a natural fit. Don't believe me? Try a glass some time with a bowl of tom yum kung (a hot and sour soup with mushrooms and shrimp) or one of Thailand's many green curry dishes.

I don't know that geography has much to do with it, but my favorite reds are generally burgundies - grown in the same region of Frances as the best Chablis. Perhaps that's coincidence.

In any case, I love a good Chablis...