While the most popular drink this weekend will be Irish Beer or whiskey, some of us will have other drinks in hand. Most of you reading this blog are lovers of wine and although you may slide away from your wine to enjoy a St Patrick’s Day Guinness or Jameson, you may like some ideas on what wines to pair with the food you are enjoying this weekend
There are grapes in the world that are planted in a wide range of environments. This is an absolute understatement. Of this vastness is a small number of varieties that have easily traveled from their homelands and have been planted around the world. Why? Because they are proven grapes that can produce high-quality wines and are not too fussy about where they are planted.
Do you hear "Merlot" and roll your eyes? Do you go to the wine store and automatically pass the Merlot by without even consideration? Consider re-wiring your mind, forget the negative connotations brought on by the movie “Sideways,” and some bad rumors about California, and give it another swirl. The movie “Sideways” did a number on Merlot sales in 2004, thanks to Miles Raymond, played by Paul Giamatti. He basically trashed Merlot with one line, when he belted out, “No, if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any f#$&!@* Merlot!”
The French have imposed upon their wine country a system of calling out quality wine regions. It is quite elaborate, defining levels of wonderfulness that impose progressively stricter rules at the higher levels of elegance. The French have even taken these practices and imposed them upon other wine growing countries that they have occupied or have had as colonies. But the real genius of this began on the 10th of September in 1756, in Portugal. Shocked?
So, the groundhog saw his shadow a while back, and you know what that meant: Six more weeks of winter! While we here in the ’Burg don’t get the hellacious nor’easters they get up north, we do get sick and tired of the cold and the snow. So, we hunker down at home and turn on the tube or fire up our computer. I don’t know about you, but for me, network TV is slim pickins for something to watch. I like a good move—whether it’s classic oldy, or a current hit. (Isn’t it great that we can stream new releases so soon after they’re in the theaters?) Give me a good flick, a comfy seat, and … a bottle of wine.