Flexible wines: Lighter reds taste great with a world of foods
When I ponder pairing wine and food, looking for the right match of liquid and larder, I picture myself standing in an elevator lobby of a very large, rather tall...
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Hidden pockets of Burgundy that yield great wine values
Back when I was a lad, selling wine as a merchant, the most popular white Burgundy was the unpronounceable Pouilly-Fuisse. I most often heard requests for "Polly Foosay." Why a...
What is tannin? And what’s it doing in your wine?
Michael Twelftree, the proprietor and managing director of Two Hands Wines in Australia's Barossa Valley, describes the experience of tasting a red wine this way: "The fruit is the engine...
Nero d’Avola is king in Sicily, but another red grape turning heads
If Sicily were a free-standing nation (which, on occasion, it seems to believe that it is), it would rank seventh in worldwide wine production, at around 160 million gallons a...
Red wines to match the fortifying foods of winter
Wine is a food and, as such, our moods for it change with the seasons just as they do for the solid stuff we eat. A lot more rose and...
Exploring Portugal’s world of wine beyond port
It is a good thing, when people think of Portugal's wine, that they think of port, one of the world's truly great beverages. But it is not a good thing...
Offbeat grapes making their way in American vineyards
A rallying cry some years back was a simple "ABC!" It stood for "Anything But Chardonnay" and was the response of many wine aficionados to the ubiquity of oaky, buttery...
A rich pasta dish calls for wines with good acidity
This is a sort of United Nations dish: Polish sausage, Italian pasta and greens and peppers in the mode of the Southern U.S. We can pair food and wine by...
Pinot primer: A look at varieties reveals surprising family history
Like many people, I had long thought that the various varieties of pinot grapes (and their wines), such as pinot grigio or pinot blanc, were mutations of a parent grape,...
3 softly textured wines to enjoy with poached salmon
You won't believe how tender these salmon fillets turn out; they're like fish pudding. It's also a good reminder that sometimes the best wine simply pairs up with the texture...