This is the big week football lovers, commercial fans and foodies have been waiting for! Whether or not football is the real reason for watching the Super Bowl, it usually instigates a celebration of good party food and drink. Due to the ever-popular Clydesdales, singing frogs, and lovable dogs, the featured drink always seems to center around beer, even though the NFL is now promoting Barefoot Wine as the “Wine of the NFL.” Let us be honest, there could have been a better choice … and while that might be your choice to have at parties where the audience is unknown, now is the chance to sway your audience toward “other” wine, and show them that yes, it is possible to have wine AND football food!
The holidays are over. No more parties, social gatherings, office socials or happy hours involving alcohol. In comes “Dry January,” with the intention of a cleanse and reboot for your body. During the holidays and all the events that go along with them, we tend to focus more on the event and social part, than what is in our glasses. We end up mindless drinking, which, in turn, leads to a little bit of careless drinking. One goal of “Dry January” is not just about a cleanse for the body, but also your relationship with alcohol, more specifically in this case, wine.
It is pretty typical to say that what grows together tends to be together. The phrase seems not to be confined to just food, but it also seems to extend to food-and-wine pairings. One step further, in the world of making wine, what grows together tends to get blended together. Old World traditions have been formulated to produce the same style of wine with very little interpretation year-to-year, other than how the microclimate had differed.
In the vast tapestry of human history, certain figures and events have left an indelible mark on our traditions and celebrations. One such figure is Julius Caesar, whose influence extends beyond conquests to the very fabric of timekeeping. Before Caesar's calendar reforms, the pagans celebrated the vernal equinox, marking the transition from winter to spring with joyous festivities and spirited libations. The addition of January, named after the two-faced god Janus, by Caesar, brought about a synchronization of winter solstice celebrations, alcoholic revelry, and the commencement of a new year.
With the holidays just around the corner, literally, are you ready with dinner party wines? Do you still need a unique gift for that wine lover, and want something with some character? Do you struggle with the imminent small talk that accompanies holiday gatherings? To help, here are some wines to consider, and a little conversation to go with them. There are wines that not only inspire sonnets on what is going on in the glass, and then there are those that encourage more in-depth conversations on the history and the story of the how, and who, of that wine.
