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Wine and Cheese For Beginners

By Brian on Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 | No Comments

By David Beart

There is a great deal to know about wine besides the difference between red and white. Wine can be a very enjoyable experience as long as you pick, store and serve it correctly. The ability to pair wine with food correctly is a great skill and can really make an impression on a date or at a dinner party. The two most popular types of wine, red and white, pair with very different foods and are distinct in flavor. White wines are made with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Full bodied red wines are made with Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir grapes; while lighter red wines are made with Merlot grapes.

Some of the types of red wines available are Bordeaux, Burgundy, Cabernet, Chianti and Merlot. Red wines are better when they are aged. Most red wine is not sold until it has been in the bottle for at least two years. These wines benefit from being allowed to breathe for at least a half an hour before being served and should be served just below room temperature. You should pour them into a decanter to allow more surface to air contact. If this is not possible then only filling your wine glass half full will allow the wine to breath. While pairing wine with food is all about personal taste, red wines traditionally go well with heavier foods. Try them with beef, lamb, pork and pastas.

Popular white wines include Chablis, Chardonnay and Riesling. White wine does not benefit from aging and also does not need to breathe. You can serve it right from the bottle and it is best served chilled. White wines go well with lighter food. Serve them with fish and poultry. They also accompany strong cheeses and deserts well.

When you are pairing wine and cheese, white wine is the place to start. Red wines are harder to match with cheese. Light red wines can be paired well with goat cheeses, but there are not many other good combinations. White wine can be paired with just about any type of cheese and it should be left up to your individual taste. Many people believe that light cheese and light wine should go together, but many others believe the opposite is true and that the opposites will balance each other out.

The pairing of wine and cheese is all about enjoyment. These two edibles are meant to be savored. What one person enjoys another may be completely turned off by. If you are having a party and you want to serve wine and cheese, there are some great foods that you can include to round out your party fare. Dark chocolate or deserts made with it are a natural addition to wine and cheese. If you want to make party trays, you can fill them with fruits, nuts and olives to compliment your cheeses. Olives and feta cheese are a wonderful pairing and will go well with a red wine. Throw in a tray of baklava and you have a Mediterranean feast to delight your guests with.

About the Author: David Beart is the owner of the Professors House. This site covers a wide selection of topics including relationships, family, wine and other household topics.

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Italian Wine Regions

By Brian on Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 | No Comments

By Louise Truswell

Wine is massively important for Italy. The country is said to be the second largest wine producer in the world and boasts a myriad of winemaking regions, each producing a diverse array of wines. With reports of 900,000 registered vineyards (enough for one vineyard for every seven people) and more native grapes than any other wine country, any newcomer to the wine-world would be forgiven for getting a little overwhelmed when choosing Italian wine. But don’t let that turn you off. In this article we examine the key Italian wine making regions, to help you get started.

Northern Italy

The North West of Italy is made up of four key regions, Piemonte, Valle d’Aosta, Lombardy and Liguria. Piemonte is arguably the most important region when it comes to Italian wine production. The best-known wines come from Barolo and Barbaresco. These are full-bodied, Italian red wines, both of which are made from the Nebbiolo grape. Barolo, in particular, is a wine that takes well to ageing. Still in Piemonte, you will come across cheaper red wines made from the Barbera and Dolcetto grapes. If you prefer white wine, look out for the Cortese grape from Gavi, or Asti, an off-dry sparkling Italian wine made from Muscat. From Valle d’Aosta you will come across a number of indigenous grapes, including Petit Rouge and Picotendro, a local version of the Nebbiolo grape.

In the North East, the key Italian wine making region is Veneto. Here you will come across Valpolicella, which is home to range of red wines that vary quite considerably in style from light, everyday drinking wines through to fuller bodied wines. These are made from a blend of grapes but principally Corvina. Also from Veneto comes Prosecco. This dry sparkling Italian wine is often goes down well with drinkers looking for an alternative to Champagne. Neighbouring Soave, also situated in the North East, produces a nice Italian white wine made from the Garganega and Trebbiano grapes.

Central Italy

The largest and most significant Italian wine producing area is central Italy is Tuscany. Chianti is the main export from this region and produces a medium bodied red blend, made predominantly from the Sangiovese grape. Outside of this area but still in Tuscany are Montalcino and Montepulciano, which also produce Italian red wines from the Sangiovese grape.

Staying in central Italy, you will come across the well-known Lambrusco from Emilia Romagna, Frascati from Latium and the Verdicchio grape, a medium bodied dry Italian white wine, from the region with the same name.

Southern Italy

The quantity, and arguably the quality, of Italian wines produced in the south have increased in recent years. Typically the region produces red wines which are deep, rich, intense and offer good value for money. Puglia, in particular, offers some wines of interest. Sicily also produces some high quality wines from international grape varieties, as well as the fortified wine Marsala.

This is just a brief introduction to the wines from this country.

About the Author: Louise Truswell works in the wine industry. She has been writing about wine for couple of years and likes writing about Italian wine. To find out more about Italian wine and to stock up, visit http://www.virginwines.com/wine-zone/italian-wine

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An Experience They’ll Love to Wine About

By Brian on Monday, February 13th, 2012 | No Comments

By John Smith

That big day is once more on its way round, and you are searching your brains for ideas for amazing anniversary gifts. It is not an easy task, particularly when you know the happy couple well and are well aware that they have to be the ones with everything, every gadget and gizmo on the market. So you cannot take the route of buying anniversary gifts that are useful. Still, that leaves you with plenty of scope. Maybe a little gimmicky gift will suit them fine. But it will not touch their hearts the way you intend an anniversary gift to do.

Here is some surprising news. The UK now imports more wine than any other country in Europe including the French. We have really become a nation of wine drinkers, but the news is that we do not really know our Chardonnay from our Champagne, our plonk from our vintage wine. In short, we need educating in the finer points of wine consumption. And with a recession looming, and cut backs being made by us all in an attempt to curb our spending, more and more of us are consuming wine at home. Yes, staying in is definitely the new going out. So, wouldn’t it be great to find anniversary gifts that your wine loving couple would really enjoy, whilst learning something new to boot?

With a well chosen experience day anniversary gift, they can both pick up some skills in ways of accessing the good from the bad and the ugly, while taking a wine tasting challenge. They will find out exactly how local wines are produced, and just how much skill and preparation, time and energy goes into making the bottle of wine that is so easily taken for granted. As well as enjoying a lovely buffet lunch together, the anniversary couple will take home a bottle of the local wine to enjoy at their leisure. This fabulous anniversary gift will help them to find the best value for money and not just the cheapest bottle of white or red on the supermarket shelf. So make sure you get yourself invited round to their place next time they have a dinner party or wine tasting session. There are bound to be some good wines for your enjoyment, and that way, you too can benefit from their anniversary gift.

A vineyard tour for two people is another lovely anniversary gift for your wine tipplers to enjoy together, offering them the chance to sample some wines, learn how local grapes are grown, harvesting methods used and the way that selection of the best grapes is made. This anniversary gift really is a talking point and something that they can impress all their friends with when they offer them a glass of wine at their celebrations, with the confidence of knowing that it is a good choice.

The anniversary couple may already be totally conversant in the ways of the modern vineyard, and extremely happy with their ability to choose the best wines. In that case, another thoughtful wine-related anniversary gift that is guaranteed to please is a personalised bottle of champagne, with special label bearing a beautiful and personal message from you to the happy couple. This way, they can cut to the chase and enjoy the end product with more immediate results. Everyone loves a bit of champers so this anniversary gift has to be a winner.

If the anniversary gifts that you are hunting for are to mark a particularly important wedding anniversary, a much loved anniversary gift of a bottle of wine especially for silver, gold or ruby anniversaries can carry your own special message just for them. If you are looking for an ideal anniversary gift for your spouse, an I Love You bottle of wine in a lovely wooden presentation case will carry your own personal message on the bottle of red, white or rose, giving you the chance to say it from the heart.

Now that the anniversary couple are real wine connoisseurs, they will need the right equipment, all that flash stuff that you see the wine buffs using on your favourite food and drink programmes to display their abilities and know how. A gorgeous engraved 5 piece leather wine bar set will do just the job, giving them the chance to use their new skills and show off for their guests. This snazzy anniversary gift includes all those important tools like corkscrew, foil cutter, shot pourer and bottle opener, so they can both play the part of the helpful wine waiter. So, give them an experience they’ll love to wine about. Give them anniversary gifts to whet their appetites.

About the Author: To explore our range of anniversary gifts further, please visit our website at http://www.gettingpersonal.co.uk.

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Grenache: A Wine of the World

By Brian on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 | No Comments

By Sarah Martin

Grenache is a very popular Spanish wine that is also called Gamacha in Catalan. It is planted everywhere in the world. It is a red wine grape that does bet in hot dry condition so it also does well in the South of France. It is thought to have originated in Spain, probably in the Aragon wine producing region.

It is not a boring wine. It is spicy and berry flavored and has a soft feel in the mouth. It can be more alkaline than most wines and it can be used to tone down more acidic wines such as Syrah, Cinsaut and Carignane. It is low in pigment and is used to temper the taste of harsher wines. It tastes of vanilla and blackberry.

In fact you find Grenache as a component in all kinds of wines. It is often found in the Southern Rhone wines and also in Australian Syrah and Mourvedre (http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Mourvedre/) types of wines. It is also used as for rose in Spain and France. As it is high in sugar it can also be used to make port.

There are also all kinds of monikers to describe various subsets of this type of wine including black, which makes a dark blue and hairy wine which is made from a mutant Grenache grape that is covered with down. There is also a white version of this wine called Grenache blanc. It is sold on its own but it is also blended with many white German wines.

This versatile grape was also grown in Californian vineyards during the prohibition era in the United States. It allowed consumers to make small amounts of the wine in their kitchens at home. It was sometimes crossed with another grape called Petit Bouschet for the purposes of making “bootleg wine.”

Nowadays it is a bulk wine in California. It is has been supplanted by vines for making Merlot (http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Merlot/) for the most part and is not really used for making premium wines from that state.

It is a vintage wine in Australia as it has been gown there in vineyards since 1832. Traditionally the grape was used to make Australian brands of port and other types as fortified wine. Nowadays Australia produces respected varietals with these grapes include Shiraz and Mataro blends.

In France it is found mainly in the Lagudoc Roussilon vineyards and in the Rhone valley where it is used to make many impressive dry red wines. It is the basis of specialty wines such as Gigondas where as many as twelve grapes are included in the blend. The French also use Grenache (http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Grenache/) to make ports that are also sometimes called vins doux naturels. These are the sweet fortified wines from French Catalonia.

This vine is also very hardy and wine growers like it because it does not need trellises. In fact it grows with such vigor that vines often have to be pulled. The berries are of a medium size and are blue-black color. The grapes are plentiful one year and the plant is less fruitful the next so sometimes the wine is expensive. When it does produce it makes as many as sixteen tons of grapes per acre.

It goes by many names including Abundante, Navarro, Red Grenache, Redondal, Alicante, Canonazo, Uvi di Spangan, Elegante, Gamaccho Negro, Gamacha Negra, Tinto, Tentillo, Tocai Rosso, Toldanam, Bois Jaune, Aelante Pggiarelli and Aleante.

The kind of Grenache made with the hairier grapes goes by the names of Gamatxa Pelud, Laddoner Pelud and Gamatica Peluda.

About the Author: Sarah Martin is a freelance marketing writer based out of San Diego, CA. She specializes in international cuisine and fine wines. For an amazing selection of wine varietals such as Grenache and Mourvedre, please visit http://www.wineaccess.com/.

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