wine.com: Articles

Nov

20

Wine Pairings for Thanksgiving Dinner

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It’s that time of year. Thanksgiving dinner shopping and choosing wines to serve with it. There’s lots of advice out there this week on-line so thought I’d share my pairing guidance.

Whether you chose red or white wine, I recommend serving both, the general advice is pair simple wines (lighter and less complex) with complex meals (meaning rich foods, heavy spices and herbs) and pair complex wines with simple meals. Thanksgiving dinner is a little of both so totally up to you! I’m going with simple wines for our big dinner at friend’s house…probably a bottle or more of each category below.

Bubbles

Any special meal should start and end with bubbles! You could go high-end Champagne or serve a bottle of Prosecco or other sparking wine.

Red Wines

Red wines with low tannins are suggested for Thanksgiving so a lighter bodied fruity wine to go with the richness of the meal.

  • Beaujolais: Beaujolais Nouveau, a red wine made in less than 10 weeks from the Gamay grape in Burgundy, France, is meant to be enjoyed immediately upon its release last week (always the 3rd Thursday of November). It’s a light bodied fruity, easy to drink wine. Georges Dubouef’s is the classic you’ll see everywhere ($11). Or you could go with a fuller bodied Beaujolais-Village from Dubouef or Louis Jadot (either $14).
  • Pinot Noir: Another great option is go American with Oregon’s red wine specialty, Pinot Noir, made of ripe red fruit for lots of berry and juicy flavor. Last weekend I discovered Lachini Vineyard‘s amazing Pinot Noir wines. Their 2008 Estate Pinot Noir was full of raspberry and white pepper with taste of sweet fruit, floral and dark chocolate ($40). King Estate is another great option…their namesake Signature Pinot Noir ($30) or their Acrobat ($19).

White Wines

White wines with bright flavors are perfect for Thanksgiving dinner.

Snooth and wine.com are great resources for your wine ordering online.

Cheers to Thanksgiving week with great wine and food!

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Jan

19

2010 Wine Tops & Trends

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With 2010 just behind us, I thought I’d share some of the experts’ tops in wine for the year.

Wine.com‘s 2010 best seller was Cabernet Sauvignon, “showing that we are still drawn to the big, bold grape variety and the range of wine it produces.” Their biggest growth varietal of 2010, at 200%, was Gamay, the bright and juicy grape of Beaujolais, France. Close behind Bordeaux Red Blends from France and Italian’s bold Sangiovese. Red wine remains their best seller but the biggest white wine increase was Viognier.

  • Their winery of the year…d’Arenberg winery in McLaren Vale, Australia. The family run winery is also the maker of Wine.com’s 2010 Wine of the Year, The Stump Jump Shiraz. Look for their distinct bold red stripe that runs diagonally across the label.

Wine Spectator noted the major trend in 2010 was an increase in expensive, limited-production wines at one end of the spectrum and in large-volume, value brands at the other. Looking for values, wine lovers sought out less-familiar regions and grape varieties.

Wine Enthusiast Top Wine Stories of 2010 included: customer’s sweet spot for wine purchase stuck at 2009′s $9-12 level; the $50-100 price point was dubbed ‘the dead zone’ by the industry which was great news for wine buyers providing more great wine at affordable prices than ever before; continued growth of Argentinian and Chilean wine exports; and climate change impacting the world’s growing regions including a dry France, hot Portugal and coldest year on record in California.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at what’s up in wine for in 2011!

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Dec

10

Grape Occasions Gift Guide: Wine

Wine  Written by / 3 comments

In the spirit of holiday giving and of Grape Occasions theme, this week we’re sharing great gift ideas for wine, spa, travel and you.  Today is WINE…

Wines of the World Wine Club

Discover new wines and regions with this gift from wine.com. I received one earlier this year as a gift and it was fantastic! The 3, 6 or 12-month subscription delivers two bottles of wine to your door each month in a box mimicking a wine crate including detailed tasting notes page with information on the region, winery and food pairings on each of the 2 wines. Wine.com’s wine experts make their selections from among hundreds of wines produced around the world from big name wineries to small boutiques. Members also get an exclusive subscription to the monthly newsletter (more details to come as I just signed up for mine) and discount on reorders.

Wine School

Treat the wine lover on your list to a true immersion in wine with classes at a local wine school. LocalWineEvents.com is a great resource to find schools in your area…click on your City then on Educators & Schools.

Wine Tasting Kit

For exploring wine at home, a wine tasting kit is perfect! Currently my favorite is L’Atelier du Vin Wine Tasting Kit. The Wine Discovery is an illustrated tasting method with 40 wine aromas and 50 tasting sheets that helps any wine lover discover the vintage, region of origin or the appellation of a wine. While focused on France its given me a fantastic education in smelling AND tasting wines!

Adopt a Vine

Any wine lover would love to own their own vine! Last year I received this neat gift… Adopt A Vine by gift republic. While your vine is in the UK, it still really cool! Check out my post for more details.

Wine Wars

This fun and educational gift is A Trivia Game for Wine Geeks and Wannabes. Its a great way to spend some time over the holidays with friends and family! :)

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Jul

07

Welcome to the Wine Club!

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I recently received a fantastic gift from my girlfriend … 3 month membership in wine.com‘s Wines Of The World wine club! My first month arrived with 2 wines to explore!

A great presentation on arrival, the box mimicked a wine crate.  I opened it to find 2 bottles I’ve never tried, a lovely wine.com folder containing a ‘Welcome to the club’ letter and a detailed tasting notes page with information on the region, winery and food pairings on each of the 2 wines.

The Welcome letter says ‘our wine clubs are a fun and educational way for beginners and wine enthusiasts to make new discoveries…  Our wine experts make their selections from among hundreds of wines produced around the world from big name wineries to small boutiques.’ Members also get an exclusive subscription to the monthly newsletter (more details to come as I just signed up for mine) and discount on reorders.

The first wine I tried from my membership is the Yalumba 2008 Eden Valley Viognier from Australia.  A true Viognier, which I like, this wine is apricot through and through nose and taste, smooth with a citrus finish.  Yalumba is Australia’s oldest family winery dating back to 1849.  92pts from Wine Spectator, it ‘pairs superbly with Asian cuisine and others with a little spice.’

Love this gift!  Great for any vino lover on your list! :)

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