7:44 AM

03/11/09 - Wine Pairing-

Wine Pairing For Your Reading Pleasure

Express your message in style with wine country gift baskets

Wine country gift baskets give you the opportunity to express your message in style. By choosing wine baskets with a selection of premium epicure neighboring the wineries selected, you can rest assured the pairings of gourmet food and vino will please the most discerning tastes. Choose custom wine gift baskets for your next special thank you or corporate gift. Your wine basket will arrive with style and unparalleled luxury, showing your appreciation with distinction. The spectacular combinations from wineries such as B.R. Cohn, Merryvale Starmont Collection, Alexander Valley Lancaster Estate, Truchard Vinyards, Opus One, and Dom Perignon are just a few of the many options you will have before you when shopping online for gorgeous wine country gift baskets.

Wine baskets will treat your recipient to some unique and carefully chosen estate wines, grouped with delicacies like local Fiscalini Farmstead Cheddar, California pistachios, Fuji pears, desert apples, Suzi double baked biscotti, and Rocky Mountain Chocolates, just to name a few! The magnificent arrangements wine country baskets are intended to bring out the best qualities of the tasty beverages included, and to highlight some of the area's local delicacies. Custom wine baskets offer you the freedom and opportunity to create your own composition, and piece together something to your own tastes and desires.

Shopping online for wine baskets brings many exciting possibilities straight to your door. You'll benefit from a wider selection than your local shops may offer, and will also benefit from lower competitive pricing. Best of all, you'll be getting exactly what you want, and at a great value for your money. Some of these reputable internet retailers may even offer free or discounted shipping. They'll be able to send your custom wine baskets directly to you, or whomever you wish.

Wine baskets make great presents for just about anyone, for any occasion. Help yourself or a special someone to a special treat today!

About the Author

Michael Boyce is a regular contributor to www.wine-cellar-racks.com, a consumer's resource to wine-related products and services.

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Wine Pairing Products we recommend

STORViNO Nero Wine Storage Container

Be space-conscious and planet-conscious Our super-popular modular crate just got betterâit got green! Made from 100% recycled materials, the STORViNO Nero Wine Storage Container, now in black, has all the same space-saving benefits of the original, holding up to 6 wine bottles* compactly. Solid polyethylene construction with convenient hand slots make it easy to transport and safe to stack. Sold individually. Click on Product Manual to the left to see how this recycled product is made! Size: 10-1/4"H x 11-3/4"W x 8"D *This wine rack will accommodate bottles that have a diameter of 3-1/4" or less.
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EdgeStar 12 Bottle Slim-Fit Wine Cooler - Stainless Steel Trim Door

The EdgeStar 12 Bottle Slim-Fit Wine Cooler (model: TWR121SS) stores up to 12 bottles of your favorite wine. This compact wine refrigerator offers a reversible stainless steel trimmed thermopane glass door with stainless steel towel bar handle. Five removable slide-out scalloped chrome wine shelves offer side by side storage for two 750 mL bottles per shelf.

Manual controls allow an approximate temperature range between high 40s - mid 60s Farenheit, ideal for storing most wine varietals at optimal temperatures. This small wine cellar boasts eco-friendly compressor-less thermoelectric cooling, which provides quiet, vibration-free cooling without moving parts and Freon. Energy efficient thermoelectric Peltier cooling eliminates movement caused by compressor-based units, protecting your aging wine collection against agitation.

A soft white LED lighting element highlights your collection for easy label viewing and bottle location. With a slender 10 width, the freestanding EdgeStar 12 Bottle Slim-Fit Wine Cooler stores wine while saving space.
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Libbey Vina Stemless 16.5 Ounce Red Wine Glasses, Set of 4

It's like rocking to Opera music on your iPod. Cool and casual is the way to serve wine these days—in hip but elegant glasses sans the stems. This stylish set of 4 wine goblets provides a more relaxed and comfortable way to pour your favorite Bordeaux, Cabernet or Merlot. Gently curved glasses have flat bottoms so you can set them down. Glass. Made in USA. 4Hx4Wx4D".

Customer Review: get more for less

these look good for everyday...

and for those of you contemplating more, Amazon sells the red or white in boxes of 12 for $29:

Libbey 17-Ounce Stemless White Wine, Box of 12 and/or Libbey 16-1/2-Ounce Stemless Red Wine, Box of 12

Customer Review: Uninspired design, but sturdy

If you are rough with your glassware, these are great. I can't count how many thin glass wine glasses I have broken.

These should withstand many machine washings, and might even survive a fall if it's not on a hard surface like stone.

I knocked off points for the design though, since it's average at best, but priced accordingly of course.

Was a little disappointed to find these being sold at Target after I had ordered them.

They work fine for every day use, but they aren't going to wow anyone at a dinner party. Three stars.
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Wine Sauces
Tags: White Zinfandel

Labels: Wine Aficionado

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8:07 AM

Arriving to conclusions can be considered the most difficult part of any form of writing. We felt the same here with this article on Charles Shaw . Hope you enjoyed it.

Another Great Article on Charles Shaw

I Love French Wine and Food - Beaujolais Nouveau

This article treats one of the world?s most successful marketing campaigns ? the French red wine that arrives just in time for Thanksgiving, Beaujolais Nouveau. At one minute past midnight on the third Thursday in November, this wine is released for sale. Talk about market share, in the next 24 hours over one million cases will be sold. During the coming year, consumers all over the world will buy more than 65 million bottles. There will be about 4 million bottles exported to the United States, and 7 million to Japan and to Germany. About seven hundred thousand bottles will be exported to Italy, which makes a similar wine, Vino Novello, reviewed in our article I Love Italian Wine and Food ? Vino Novello (New Wine).

What is exactly is new wine, whether Beaujolais Nouveau, Vino Novello, or some other, similar product? New wine is the first of the harvest, released in early November. The exact date depends on the country. New wines are produced by a special method, carbonic maceration, in which whole grapes ferment in stainless steel tanks, often reaching a temperature of 25 to 30 degrees Centigrade (77 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit). This process lasts for about 5 to 20 days, and may be followed by crushing the grapes, which then undergo traditional fermentation for a few days. The exact procedure varies from one winemaker to another, but the ensuing wine is virtually tannin free. The lack of tannins implies a short shelf life. While you don?t have to drink the wine immediately, most people finish the season by Easter. Actually, in the best vintages Beaujolais Nouveau can last until the following year?s crop. In theory you could drink Beaujolais Nouveau all year long. Take my advice, don?t.

New wines are usually colored bright red or violet. They tend to be fruity, tasting of cherry, strawberry, raspberry, banana, and freshly squeezed grapes, depending on the grape variety used, the production method, and the area in which the grapes are grown. Detractors talk about bubble gum, lollipops, nail polish, and jello. Many feel that new wine tastes of grape juice with alcohol. One thing is certain, if you don?t like a given new wine, don?t store it away to try it again in two years. It won?t improve with time.

Let me present a few tidbits of information before reviewing one of the best Beaujolais Nouveau wines. This wine comes from Beaujolais region of southeastern France and is made from the Gamay grape, which was kicked out of the world-famous, neighboring Burgundy region in 1395. By law, all the grapes in the Beaujolais region must be picked by hand. Champagne is the only other region of France that forbids mechanical harvesting. While Beaujolais Nouveau was first regulated in 1938, it dates back to ancient times when a somewhat similar wine was produced for slaves. History does not record their reaction. Let?s take a look at mine.

Wine Reviewed Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages Nouveau 2006 12.5% about $13

I bought this bottle the day after the release of the 2006 Beaujolais Nouveau (November 16, 2006). It was the most expensive, and presumably the best, of all the new wines available.

Beaujolais Villages Nouveau comes from the Gamay grape variety grown in the Beaujolais region of southwestern France. Gamay grapes contain virtually no tannins, and so many white wine lovers feel at home with them. The wine is considered quite fruity and easy to drink. Unlike some of its inferior competitors, it did not smell of nail polish.

My first pairing of this wine involved chicken in a honey, garlic, and soy sauce. The wine was not very flavorful, but during the course of the meal its flavors increased somewhat. Unfortunately the dominant flavor was bubble gum, but there was a light taste of black fruit.

The next meal involved hamburgers accompanied by potatoes, Moroccan style carrots (spicy, the major spice was cumin), and a spicy tomato and red pepper salsa. The spicy food brought out the wine?s fruitiness. In particular, the wine?s acidity was a good match for the salsa?s acidity.

Then I tried this wine with kube, or kibbe, a Middle-Eastern specialty, balls of ground rice filled with ground meat. They were cooked overnight with potatoes in a somewhat spicy sauce. The wine still smelled of bubble gum after a few days. It didn?t add much to the meal, but did get a bit more expressive as it warmed up. (By the way, it was not overchilled.) It went rather well with fresh pineapple, but didn?t add anything to the other dessert of thin almond and pistachio biscuits.

I didn?t have any French cheeses to accompany the wine, so I had to settle for Italian cheeses. Asiago cheese is nutty-flavored, fairly strong cheese from northeastern Italy. In its presence the wine was moderately fruity. This Beaujolais Nouveau was pleasant but a bit thin in the face of a somewhat overripe Pecorino Toscano from the Tuscany region of Italy.

Final verdict. For many years I have not been a fan of new wines. I taste them every year, and am always willing to change my mind. This overpriced Beaujolais Nouveau gave me no reason to budge an inch. As we said every September (or earlier) when our baseball team was eliminated from the pennant race, wait ?til next year.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His wine website is http://www.theworldwidewine.com

Thoughts about Charles Shaw

I Love French Wine and Food - Beaujolais Nouveau

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Tags: Wine Advertisement | Wine Aficionado

Labels: Wine Advertisement, Wine Aficionado