Wine for Hearty Winter Fare

It’s that time again.  No, I’m not referring to the holiday season; I’m referring to the season of soups and stews.  I was reminded of this a couple weeks ago when my mother called me.  She had just poured a glass of wine to go with her turkey noodle soup when my father told her that wine didn’t go with soup.  My Mom is really determined, and she really wanted that glass of wine.  So, of course, she decided to call me in to referee.

Sorry, Dad, but Mom wins this one.

In fact, soups and stews generally pair beautifully with wine.  Well, they pair nicely if you’ve chosen the “right” wine. 

Prosecco: Something Festive for the Holidays!

It’s light, easy-to-drink, refreshing, usually slightly sweet, affordable and food-friendly.  Its bubbles make it festive.  It’s even fun to say!  (Pro-SAY-ko).  

It’s what’s for Thanksgiving!

I’ve written here before about the futility of spending a lot of money on fancy wine for Thanksgiving.  The holiday is NOT about the wine.  It’s about family and traditions and lots and lots of food.  No one is going to be paying a lot of attention to the wine, so why spend a lot of time and money worrying about it?

However, if you’re at all like me, you DO want to make sure that the wine isn’t noticed because it’s really terrible!  So you must give it SOME thought.  Fortunately, I’m here with some advice.  And this year’s recommendation is to pick up a bottle or two (depending upon the size of your table and anticipated number of guests) of Prosecco.

Prosecco is a sparkling wine from the northeastern part of Italy. 

Oregon Chardonnay: Still Expensive, But Now Great

photo:  traveloregon.com

Not long ago, a friend gave me a bottle of chardonnay from a big-name Oregon producer as a “thank you” gift.  Recently, my husband and I opened it with a nice dinner.  He asked me what I thought of it, and gaveme a surprised look when I answered:  “Still expensive, but now it’s pretty good.”

He was puzzled, as perhaps you are, too.

You see, while Oregon has built up a great reputation over the last 40 years making world-class pinot noir, its chardonnay has generally been second-rate.  Oh sure, there are exceptions, but in general, Oregon chardonnays were relatively high-priced and not very good. 

This was a big surprise to me when I moved here nearly 14 years ago because chardonnay and pinot noir often thrive side by side.  In fact, it was one region – Burgundy in France – that made both wines famous.  Thus, I wondered, how could Oregon make such fantastic pinot noir and such mediocre chardonnay?

It turns out that I wasn’t the only one surprised by this fact.  The people who were growing the chardonnay in Oregon were baffled, as were the scientists who advised them.  They seemed to be doing everything right, but the wines didn’t improve.  Why?

In recent years, they’ve discovered the secrets.

True Confessions: There Was a First Love Before Wine!

This column needs to start with a rather embarrassing confession. 

I didn’t start my love affair with wine by drinking the good stuff; I discovered wine by drinking wine coolers. 

Why is that a confession?  I’m not exactly sure, but it somehow seems like the sort of thing that wouldn’t enhance a wine connoisseur’s prestige, and I certainly wouldn’t ask for a wine cooler—even a yummy one—in a high end restaurant.

But the fact is that the only reason I appreciate a nice wine today is because I started drinking wine coolers in college—when they were all the rage. As time went by, I graduated from coolers to white wine and then to red wine and pretty soon I began studying and enjoying all kinds of fine wine.  I never would have gotten there if it hadn’t been for wine coolers.

It’s been a few decades since I was interested in wine coolers,

Summer Sippin': Thinkin' Pink!

About now, I’m usually stocking up on white wine and putting my red wine down in the basement until fall.  I find that white wine usually accompanies the summer better than red.  For one thing, white wine is usually chilled, so it’s refreshing when the temperatures soar.  For another, it tends to go better than red with lighter fare (such as salads, chicken and fish) that graces the summer table.

This summer, however, I’m adding another element.  Inspired by affordable rosé wines from France that I’ve been reading about, I’m rediscovering pink wine.

Rosé was the first wine I ever loved. Like many young adults who thought wine was for old or snobby people, I delighted in my first sip of white zinfandel.  With its slightly sweet, unmistakably fruity flavors, it seemed like a more sophisticated version of that staple of childhood, Kool-Aid. 

But like many before – and since – I soon moved on, looking for something more interesting.

Exploring Oregon's Dundee Hills

 

If you are a regular reader of this column, you know my views on expensive wine: some deserve the big price tags they command. However, I’ve also pointed out more than once that when you’re living on a budget – as most of us are – it makes no sense to pay those prices as long as there are so many options available on the lower-end of the price scale. In other words, you could pay $100 for a bottle of great wine, but you can pay $10-$15 and still get a very good bottle.

That leaves me with a bit of a problem. As someone interested in wine, who writes about wine and who teaches classes about wine, I’m supposed to know about wines at both ends of the price range. But if I’m only willing to pay for the affordable ones, how do I evaluate the ones at the upper end of the scale? This is a particular problem in Oregon. I live here, so I should be familiar with the wines. However, Oregon is known its pinot noir – a notoriously expensive wine.

Recently, my husband surprised me for my birthday with the perfect solution: A full Saturday of wine tasting in the world-renowned Dundee Hills region, south of Portland and just three hours away from Central Oregon.

Restaurant Wine Etiquette 101

When I eat out at a restaurant with family or friends, I nearly always find myself choosing – and ordering – the wine for the table.

Sometimes, I order because my dinner companions know how much I enjoy this ritual.  But mostly my friends and family jump to hand me the task because they are relieved not to have to do it themselves. The fact is that many people find a restaurant’s wine list to be intimidating.  It shouldn’t be.  Wine should enhance the enjoyment of a special meal in a restaurant; it should not be a source of stress.  So how does one move from intimidation to confidence?

It’s not as hard as you might think. With just six pointers, I can help you take the mystique out of mastering the wine and get on back on the road to enjoying your entire restaurant experience.  Let’s begin: 

Is Wine Ever Worth $100?

“Is a wine ever worth $100?”  “Why is there so much difference in price among wines?”  “What is the difference between a $10 bottle of wine and a $100 bottle of wine?”

Recently I was asked all three of these questions in a span of about 36 hours, and I realized that they were all variations on the same question:  Is there really a correlation between price and quality in wine?

The fact is that there IS a wide variation in the pricing of various wines –- even sometimes among wines made from the same type grape from the same region.  You can buy a Napa cabernet for $20, and you can buy a Napa cabernet for $300.  Why are they priced so differently?  Is the $300 cabernet really 15 times better than the $20 cab?

Wine Decanter: Useful Tool or Silly Pretension?

If I ever made a list of the wine questions I’m asked most frequently, the question of decanting wine would definitely be near the top.

Decanting, for those who don’t know the word, means pouring wine from its original bottle into a container.

You’ve probably seen the ritual – even if only on television.  The wine steward at a fancy restaurant gracefully and with much fanfare pours some really expensive wine with a fancy label into a beautiful crystal vessel (the decanter). 

Like most of us, you’ve probably wondered whether decanting actually improves the wine or whether the wine steward just thinks he looks really cool because he can pour the entire bottle into a narrow-necked jar without spilling any.

Like many things wine-related, the answer is not clear-cut.