Posted by Deb Harkness, July 17, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Editor's note: On Fridays Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 joins us to talk some Serious Grape. Take it away, Deb!
As an inveterate grape-hopper, I love finding new grape varieties to tempt my palate and keep me from falling into wine ruts. The stranger and more off-beat the grape, the happier I am. I love discovering grapes like the Eastern European Rkatsiteli or delving deeper into Albariño.
There is a price to pay for this eclecticism, however: you can forget to drink the six grapes that provide the backbone for wine production throughout the world. These six "noble grapes"—
Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Pinot Noir—have been cultivated all over the world and been made into distinguished, even legendary wines.
Here's a primer on the Noble Grapes and some recommendations for affordable bottles on the market now that will help you to reconnect with these traditional grape varieties.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, July 3, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Editor's note: On Fridays Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 joins us to talk some Serious Grape. Today, some advice for entertaining this weekend. Take it away, Deb!
"If you can't be bothered washing stemware or are worried about fragile stems breaking outside, get yourself some stemless wine glasses."
This weekend, at cookouts all over America, people will be drinking wine out of plastic cups.
Sometimes, you just have to. Between the breakage issues and the cleanup issues, we can all be forgiven for occasionally serving Chardonnay in plastic tumblers.
But the wine will suffer for it. It will have barely any taste, no discernible aromas, and seem tart and slightly vinegary. At a backyard cookout that may matter less than someone stepping on broken glass or facing a sink full of dishes. But before you pour your cult Cabernet into a plastic cup, here's what I found out about the importance of good stemware at a seminar led by Georg Riedel, the founder of the wineglass company Riedel.
I knew in a vague way that serving wine in proper glasses mattered. But I had no idea how much until Georg Riedel led more than a hundred of us through a tasting this spring at the Hospice du Rhône event in Paso Robles. We tasted some pretty superb wine in everything from plastic cups to handblown lead crystal. The results were convincing: what you put your wine into matters as much as the wine itself.
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