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Columns to Savor
Michael De Loach
New Stuff for the New Year, and Shut Up and Drink
Champagne and Sparkling Wine, Starbucks—The REAL Reason Americans Have Switched to Wine, The Annual Holiday Wine Gift Hot List
Sweet Relief, Another Wine Myth Bites the Dust, and The Basic Types of wine Shoppers
Reading Wine Labels, The Real Meaning of "Sideways", Picnic Essentials for Harvest
The Truth about Sulfites and Headaches,
The Mystery of the Disappearing Sommelier,
and Wine Cocktails
Proliferation of Brands, Picking for a Party, Pink Prejudice, and Follow your Bliss
The Home Wine Tasting Myth, and Why Most Wine Rating Systems are Basically Worthless
Wine Tasting Season Survival, Standards, Darlings and Trendy Wines, and A Quick Planning Guide to Visiting the Wine Country
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Wine Expert
Michael De Loach
More Wine Myth Busting:
Forget “Pairing Wines and Foods”
You’ve heard this one a billion times, and chances are it’s the one that most often keeps you from serving a new wine, trying something unusual or even bothering with wine at all. (Pass the iced tea!) Here’s the myth: specific wines must be paired with specific foods; otherwise, well, it’s simply all wrong. Guess what? You are once again (almost) completely off the hook. Here’s your invitation to forget all about the mystery of pairing and its attendant anxiety. All you need to know is how to avoid blatant mismatches—and that’s pretty easy.
First, a little history. It all began with the old saw about red wine with meat and white wine with fish—a notion that recently (and correctly, may I add) has been taken to task by those in the industry for its rigidity. Back in the day, consumers were casting about for a simple rule about what to drink with what, and the “experts” were more than happy to spout the first thing off the top of their palate. |
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To Cork or Not To Cork: What’s the Difference?
More and more of today’s wines under $15 are topped with what you and I call a “screwtop” or “screwcap,” and what the wine industry refers to variously as a Stelvin (which is the proprietary name given to a specific kind of wine-friendly cap made by the Alcan company of France) or as a “Screw Closure.” Why this avoidance of common parlance? Because of the stigma attached to those metal “closures” from the fifties and sixties, when only rot-gut booze and cheap, sweet wines for beginners came packaged in this manner. But more importantly, why this move away from natural corks?
One of the most common misconceptions I hear repeated continually is that The World Is Running Out Of Cork. I can see where someone might think this, what with old-growth redwoods being endangered and rain forests being burned down and cork being the bark layer of the cork tree. But the truth is that cork literally grows on trees in the proverbial sense, meaning it is very abundant and renewable. Specifically, cork comes from the Mediterranean evergreen Cork Oak quercus suber —and only the bark is harvested every seven or so years, leaving the tree in place to grow another layer of cork-bark, all the while soaking up all kinds of nasty carbon out of the atmosphere. |
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Romantic Wines
for Valentines
Just as attentive “significant others” know that blood red roses for Valentine’s Day went the way of carnations some time ago, so too sparkling wine or Champagne marks you as a beginner in affairs of the heart. (Nothing against sparklers—enjoy ‘em all year long!—but for Valentine’s they’re as predictable as, well, red roses.) Here are a few solid alternatives for you to pick up, even at the last minute. (Do I know you, or what?)
First of all, I know some of you just have to have Champagne, despite my advice to the contrary. I refer you to my December '06 article on sparkling wines. Even though in that article I recommend branching out from the “name brand” Champagnes, Valentine’s is the one time when Moet & Chandon “Cuvée Dom Perignon,” Roederer “Crystal” Rosé or Salon (my top three recommendations) will seem bargains when they have their desired effect. For the rest of the year, do yourself a favor and spend less than $150 on your bubbly.
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