A Featured California Wines Article

No Wine in the Box on the Equinox

September 22nd is the Autumn Equinox and with it comes the cool breezes of fall. So, put away your boxes and your Sauvignon Blancs and get ready for a change in season. Autumn, with its flavorful stews and roasted turkey, has a taste all its own and for you, the wine lover, you get your own flavors too. Here are just a few suggestions for fall food and wine pairing.

Start the season the way that most meals start; with the appetizers. A perfect wine match for appetizers is sparkling wine. Try Castellblanch Cava Brut Zero Reserva, Penedes, Spain , a nice, refreshing sparkler from Spain. Floral aromas and almond flavors combine with waxy texture to get the digestive juices flowing. Castellblanch blends the grapes carefully to harmonize flavor, crispness, and body. The Brut Zero pops out with a refreshing blend of apple, pear, and citrus aromas that carry through from the nose to the finish. The underlying sweetness of the wine cools the effects of hot, spicy, or salty foods. The acidity in the wine makes it a refreshing food and wine pairing for an appetizer table, which tends to include an array of intense flavors.

When you serve turkey, make the harvest celebration complete by serving Castellblanch Monticello Pinot Noir . A nice balance between savory (vegetable and mushroom) and succulent berry fruit make this an interesting and very tasty Pinot Noir. It has a fruity nose, with notes of spicy raspberry and strawberry as well as touches of vanilla and cola. A bit more spice comes through on the palate without disturbing the fruitiness. The wine is full-bodied, but the tannins are light, making it especially suitable at the table.

Prime rib, roast beef or other beef dishes pair perfectly with a big fruity red zinfandel. Watts Old Vine Iris Vineyards Zinfandel will enhance these main courses. Fresh, lively, blackberry aromas and loads of juicy ripe fruit make for a very tasty Zin. The wine offers a great mix of dark fruit aromas with a touch of chocolate, Zinfandel's full-bodied frame, and light tannins. It is the perfect food and wine pairing when beef is on the menu.

Autumn desserts, like pumpkin pie or apple pie, have sweet, spicy, and earthy elements. The perfect pairing for these flavors is Sauternes, a naturally sweet white wine from Bordeaux. Sauternes have the subtle sweetness to stand up to the flavors of fall desserts, and will enhance the sweet, spicy, earthy flavors in the desserts.

So, whatever the course or what is on the menu, there is a perfect wine for you this fall. For this and other food and wine pairings, go to www.kitchentokitchennews.com/Pairing_Food_with_Wine .

About the Author

Susan Ewing is the creator of www.kitchentokitchennews.com which provides food and wine pairing and buying tips and cooking tips for the home chef.

Thoughts about California Wines

No Wine in the Box on the Equinox


September 22nd is the Autumn Equinox and with it comes the cool breezes of fall. So, put away your boxes and your Sauvignon Blancs and get ready for a...


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Tasting Wine The Next Time You Go Out

Tasting techniques and the relationship between smell and taste.

Why swish? While it was originally thought that certain regions on the tongue detected specific flavors, we now know this is not true.

The front and back of the tongue contain the taste buds and rather than specializing in a particular taste sensation, all taste buds are capable of detecting sweet, sour, bitter and salty flavors, although there may be some slight differences in sensitivity. So that you get the most out of your taste buds, when wine tasting, swish the wine around your mouth, which will allow all of your taste buds (and your sense of smell) to participate in the detection of the finer flavors of the wine.

Smell and Taste

Have you ever tried desperately to detect flavor from a food or beverage when you had a terrible cold? You probably tasted very little, if anything at all. Research indicates that 70 to 75% of what we taste is actually due to our sense of smell. Specialized "aroma" nerves in the nose are necessary to identify tastes more subtle than sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Smell and taste go hand-in-hand when wine tasting . . . without your sense of smell you would be unable to detect the delicate flavors of chocolate, herbs or smoke in your wine.

Wine Tasting Techniques

Wine tasting is not just like art, it is an art. While wine tasting can be subjective in nature, wine connoisseurs follow some general "guidelines" when judging a wine. It's very easy to learn the techniques of wine tasting, and if you already enjoy wine, learning the nuances will simultaneously increase the pleasure you derive from tasting.

The three steps in wine tasting are: Look, Smell, and Taste.

Look

You can tell much about a wine simply by studying its appearance. The wine should be poured into a clear glass and held in front of a white background (a tablecloth or piece of paper will serve nicely) so that you can examine the color.

The color of wine varies tremendously, even within the same type of wine. For example, white wines are not actually white; they range from green to yellow to brown. More color in a white wine usually indicates more flavor and age, although a brown wine may have gone bad. Where as time improves many red wines, it ruins most white wines. Red wines are not just red; they range from a pale red to a deep brown red, usually becoming lighter in color as they age.

Rim color

You can guess the age of a red wine by observing its "rim." Tilt the glass slightly and look at the edge of the wine. A purple tint may indicate youth while orange to brown indicates maturity.

Swirling

Swirling the wine serves many purposes, but visually it allows you to observe the body of the wine. "Good legs" may indicate a thicker body and a higher alcohol content and/or sweetness level.

Smell

Swirl your wine. This releases molecules in the wine allowing you to smell the aroma, also called the bouquet or nose. The two main techniques that wine tasters use are:

1.) Take a quick whiff and formulate an initial impression, then take a second deeper whiff or

2.) Take only one deep whiff.

Either way, after you smell the wine, sit back and contemplate the aroma. Don't try to "taste" the wine yet, concentrate only on what you smell.

It may be difficult to describe in words when you're a novice, but after trying many wines you ill notice similarities and differences. Sometimes a certain smell will be very strong with underlying hints of other smells. Take your time. By labeling an aroma you will probably remember it better. You may even want to keep a notebook of your impressions of wines, and save the labels; next time you see the wine you won't have to purchase it to know if you like it . . . or you don't!

Taste

The most important quality of a wine is its balance between sweetness and acidity. To get the full taste of a wine follow the following three steps:

1. Initial taste (or first impression): This is where the wine awakens your senses (your taste buds respond to sensations).

2. Taste: Slosh the wine around and draw in some air (even if you do look funny in front of your dinner guests). Examine the body and texture of the wine. Is it light or rich? Smooth or harsh?

3. Aftertaste: The taste that remains in your mouth after you have swallowed the wine. How long did the taste last? Was it pleasant?

After tasting the wine, take a moment to value its overall flavor and balance. Is the taste appropriate for that type of wine? If the wine is very dry, is it supposed to be?

Some serious wine connoisseurs assign a point score to a wine to determine its quality. While this method can be useful, it is in no way necessary to determine a quality wine. The more different wines you try, and the more attention you pay to each wine, the better you will become at ascertaining and describing each wine's characteristics.

About the Author:

Gerald Crawford: born in South Africa, studied electronics, telecommunication, eco-travel and african travel concepts. He taught responsible tourism in South Africa and the United Kingdom. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me on. E-mail Address: gerald@12234455.co.za Website Address: http://www.12234455.co.za

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Tasting Wine The Next Time You Go Out


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