Entries tagged with 'wine'
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On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she explores Chardonnays. Chardonnay is one of the world's most popular grapes. If you love Chardonnay, you love it a lot. But many people are tired of drinking white wine that tastes like a) buttered popcorn b) toothpicks c) licking a piece of firewood. They're the ones who have joined the "ABC" Club (Anything But Chardonnay), and refuse to touch the stuff. I think that's a bit extreme. But I understand why the variety of winemaking styles, the overproduction, and the bewildering range of options might make you wary. Because of its popularity there is a lot—and I mean a lot—of Chardonnay in the...
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On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she explores Halloween wines. Two weeks from tonight, all the young ghosties and ghoulies will be out in full force, donning costumes and collecting candy. If you're over the age of twenty—one, you might have a different plan for the evening—one that maybe involves costumes, but certainly involves wine. When it comes to Halloween wine, of course it's as important as ever that the wine is good value and tastes great. That's the treats part of trick-or-treat. But how about the wine's costume? For me, the trick to Halloween wine is to find one that is not only affordable and tasty—it has to have...
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telegraph.co.uk At desert's edge in southern Namibia, Allan Walkden-Davis produces "rustic" wines: He works on the edge of the Namib Desert where it only rains between February and April, and the average fall can be less than an inch. Yet he produces annually 3,000 to 3,500 bottles of shiraz, as well as a shiraz-merlot blend.... Walkden-Davis seems to have a sense of humor about the affair: "One fellow could not understand why I couldn't go bankrupt farming sheep or cattle the same as everyone else."...
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On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she discusses the scenario of drinking wine alone while traveling for business—minus the hotel room's plastic tumblers. The McCormick & Shmick's bar at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. Photograph from Paul Keleher on Flickr If you are a business traveler like me, dining alone on the road can be more than a bit depressing. This is especially true if, like me, you drink a glass of wine with dinner each night. Room service might be able to produce competent hamburgers and fries, but I can't face an industrial-strength "wine glass" full of warm red wine with a piece of plastic wrap on top and...
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On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she rethinks how we should make, package, and ship wine. Photograph from brewrat on Flickr Picture yourself walking into your favorite market. You've got your reusable grocery bags and a few wine bottles with screw caps. You do your shopping, you head to the wine section before checking out, and a nice person in the wine section takes your wine bottles. He or she either fills them with wine or cleans them and gives you replacements, filling the new bottles with wine and screwing on the cap. In a time when everyone is thinking about alternative packaging and the environment, why isn't anyone talking...
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Don't like overpaying for wine when you eat out? Wine critic Robert Parker has an idea: boycott the restaurants. "The consumer should rebel and avoid exorbitant wine prices, no matter how sublime the cuisine. This is nothing more or less than a legitimized mugging."...
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The Kitchn demystifies German wine labels by explaining the terms used to describe the wine's sugar content, quality, and vineyard origins....
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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...
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Republican vice presidential pick
Sarah Palin might not be fond of San Francisco, but one San Francisco wine bar is fond of Palin Syrah. Or rather, it was.
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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...
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