On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. I've got so much tryptophan in my blood stream and chaos in my house that all I can manage this week is to scrape myself off the couch long enough to tell you where you can go to do some Friday-morning wine quarterbacking. If the site traffic here on Serious Eats and on my own blog was any indication, Americans were seriously concerned about what wine to serve with Thanksgiving. Despite my own best efforts to keep it low-key and relaxed, people worried. You all did great--at least that's what the data on CellarTracker!, my preferred online cellar management program, tells me.... More

Here's a handy primer on how to serve wine, including how to chill wine quickly, proper serving temperatures for a range of popular wines, and whether or not you should let red wine breathe. You can use this advice all year around—but it's especially nice during the holidays to cross one worry off your list. More

On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she stands up for cheapo wines. Photograph from filtran on Flickr In today's Wall Street Journal Tastings column, two of the country's most distinguished and level-headed wine journalists (Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher) announced their annual wine gift pick for the holidays. Usually, this wine is expensive, hard to find, or both. This year, it's a case of Gamay from the Beaujolais—one of the world's best wine bargains. Gaiter and Brecher explain why they made this unorthodox choice: "a single, very expensive bottle of wine seems as dated as bloated executive bonuses." Is America ready to put aside its love affair with $100-plus... More

On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, why you should buy Beaujolais. Photograph from jetalone on Flickr There's nothing like fall—and a falling stock market—to make me feel bullish about Beaujolais. I'm not talking about the "nouveau" stuff—although I have to confess that I drink that too. But that is released later in fall, just before Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the air is getting crisper, we've still got our grills out on the decks and balconies, and most of us are seriously worried about the economy. It's during transition times, and difficult times, that I always turn to Beaujolais. At times like this, highly affordable wines from Burgundy's Beaujolais region are at their... More

On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, how to preserve a bottle of bubbly. A glass of Segura Viudas Cava Brut Rosado. If you open my fridge and there isn't a half-empty bottle of wine in it, then it's a sure sign I'm out of the country. Most often, the half-empty bottle contains sparkling wine. When I come home after work, I love a chilled glass of bubbles while I'm making dinner. I open a bottle and then I drink one perfect glass a night over the next five nights. Since I'm the only one who drinks in my house, a normal-sized bottle of bubbly lasts quite a while. Though I... More