Wondering Through the World of Wine

  As I stared at all of the beautiful wines in my chiller that would go perfectly with my dinner, I grumpily snagged the one sporting a bottle stopper and sighed. Thanks to the winery’s need to encapsulate their wines with a synthetic cork, my Coravin system would not work on it. This meant I was resigned to this one particular quaff for the next four days, whether it was a perfect pairing or not. In this case, not. Sipping and scowling, my thoughts drifted to the notion of how a wine bottle is sealed, and all of the various options that go with it.               I know I have mentioned my Coravin system before, and will do so again, simply because I love it. Created to allow consumers the opportunity to savor and enjoy wine on their own terms, wine is pulled out of the bottle through the cork by using a large needle and Aragon gas, a noble gas already used in winemaking. The cork naturally reseals the tiny hole and...

  I love Halloween. The whole spooky season. Ghosts, goblins, ghouls, and goodies, I can’t get enough of it. Come mid-September every year, my husband and I pull out the Halloween decorations and start to plot out all the ways in which we will enjoy this most haunting time of year.               A few months back, in preparation for some incredibly long flights, I had combed through the archives of a podcast I listen to, downloading myself a nice entertainment library. While doing this, I discovered an episode from last October on Halloween candy and wine pairing. During my time at Blue Mountain Vineyards, one of my favorite events I developed was an evening of Halloween candy and wine pairing. It had always intrigued me what pairings we would end up finding using our wines and traditional trick-or-treat goodies, so I was excited to see what tasty treasures the podcaster discovered. I tucked the episode away and exc...

  We live in a world of misconceptions. Lies, mistruths, words taken out of context; we are bombarded every day with these falsities. Many of us have the common sense to research and get the whole story before taking something at face value. This is something I personally strive for, but every once in a while, I misstep. A recent excursion humbled me and reminded me to not form a bias without all the facts.               My husband and I enjoy taking a yearly trip. He was kind enough to agree to a shorter, closer to home adventure for this year’s travels, as the epic voyage my mom and I took to Scotland and Ireland this summer was my primary focus. When planning on a place to go, we look for somewhere that is not a large city, has some fun shopping, preferably with antique stores, boasts a weird or unique experience, and an extra bonus is a winery nearby. Strangely enough, these trip requirements led us to North Pla...

  Vintage has been on my mind a lot lately. The way certain factors align in any given year can make or break a wine. The same can be said for humans.               As in all things in life, there is a cycle. For winemaking, it all starts in the spring with those first buds on the vines, and ends in the winter with the wine fermenting and the vines pruned down for their long sleep. The achievements, joys, stresses, and heartaches of each season will determine the quality of the final product, the bottled wine. Again, the same can be said for humans.               I recently had to say goodbye to my 14-year-old Boxer-Pitbull mix, Corona. The shining light in my life, my heart shattered as she took her last breath, and it continues to do so every time I walk into a room and expect to see her there. This, along with a few other bumps and bruises that no...

  Knuckles clutched around the arms of my elliptical, I found my heart racing, and not just from the exercise. For the past two days of workouts, I had followed the journey of four guys preparing for the Master Sommelier exam in the 2012 documentary “SOMM.” Commonly referred to as the most difficult exam in the world, the Master Sommelier test is so involved and hard that only 279 people have earned the title since it started in 1969. I was about to find out who, if any, of these men, whom I felt like I now knew, had passed. I could not believe how nervous I was.               Wine education has been on my mind a lot these days. I recently completed Wine Folly’s Bordeaux 101 course and found myself torn on whether or not to frame my certificate and place it with my WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) Level 1 and 2 certificates. As I contemplated to frame or not to frame, I was inundated with the following quest...

  As I stood there, the hose of a gravity siphon in hand, dripping in wayward Pinot Grigio, I couldn’t help but swallow the little bit of wine that had ended up in my mouth. As the flavors of peach, tangerine, pineapple and pear rolled over my tongue, I was ecstatic to discover that though I was wearing a portion of the final product, my first attempt at winemaking had been a success.               The process of making wine has always been a fascination of mine. Honestly, how can one wine taste so incredibly different from a wine made just down the road with the same type of grapes? Over the years, I have poured over numerous books on the subject. I also had no shame in listening in on the conversations down in the production and barrel rooms at the winery, peaking in on what they were doing whenever I could. All of this gave me a great foundation for understanding the various intricacies of the winemaking stages, ...