Learn How to Pair Wine and Cheese

Wine and cheese are great together. That's all there is to it. Fine, you say, but why? That answer is simple. Because good wine is meant to complement food. The aging of good wine and the aging of good cheese are just natural complements to each other.

Now to know which goes with which. The best way to determine that is by your own tastings. Really. Set up a time for yourself or have a wine and cheese tasting party. Try them out. Every single person has a slightly different palate. So different wines and different cheeses taste slightly different. You need to know for yourself what works best.

Having said all that, there are some great places to start. Getting to know the wine varieties is the best place to start. But there are also some basic guidelines for what most people like to put together.

Traditionally, heavier cheeses go better with darker wines. Soft cheeses go best with white wines. The rule of thumb is to match the darkness of the cheese with the darkness of the wine.

But, every rule of thumb was meant to be broken. I personally enjoy a good cheddar (dark cheese) with a good Chardonnay (the driest white wine.) I also love a good Merlot (medium dry red wine) with Brie cheese (soft cheese). You can see that your own taste buds will be the best deciding factor.

Of course, that's what makes it so much fun to have a wine and cheese party. You can have plenty of different choices. And then you and your guests can determine for themselves what wines and cheeses pairs best.

The Delicious Pairings of Wine and Chocolate

Are you ready for a great taste treat? Try wine with chocolate. I'm serious! This is a flavor combination that is amazing.

The basic idea behind wine is to enhance the flavor of food. Certain wines really do taste better with certain foods. And therefore, different foods taste better with different wines. The same is true for chocolate.

Actually, the drier the wines, the darker the chocolate, is a rule of thumb. If you enjoy wines like Merlot and Zinfandel, try a bite of dark chocolate with a sip of your red wine. Really!

I enjoy white wines as well. The driest white wine is typically the Chardonnays. And they go delightfully with dark chocolate as well. Sweet wines are usually recommended with desserts. But, the enhance the flavor of dark chocolates, too.

Plus that, now you can buy wine chocolates. I'm serious about that, too. The chocolate makers understand this flavor combination and make use of it. Which is great in my book. What an easy and delicious gift idea that is. In fact, my Christmas gift to Dad this year was a large box of wine chocolates. He was thrilled.

Don't make the mistake of bite and swallow. Instead, hold both the chocolate and the wine in your mouth for a moment or two. Let them both float over all your taste buds. You will discover some extra amazing flavors. This is definitely worth trying if you love either chocolate or wine, or both. You may just have a new love in your life!

Wines for Thanksgiving: Serving and Gifting

Wines are a tradition with many meals and Thanksgiving dinner is no exception. Many people like to serve wines for these special occasions but which of the thousands are appropriate. How about taking a bottle of wine if you are a guest at Thanksgiving dinner? Luckily we have some suggestions for you.

Although there are traditions for serving different wines with different types of foods, these are not hard and fast rules. Choosing wines is more about choosing what you enjoy. First, let's look at those traditions as a guideline.

Wine enhances food and vice versa. So some wines go very well with some types of food. With a Thanksgiving dinner wine, you will look at what foods you are serving. If turkey is your main course, the tradition would dictate a lighter red wine or a drier white wine. But, if you like to serve a roast or other red meat, then a drier red will complement your meat better.

Red meats, red wine, lighter foods, lighter wine and sweet foods, sweet wines. That's the tradition. But, if you like the driest red wines and you are serving turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, enjoy your red wine with it.

These same guidelines go for bringing a bottle of wine to your hostess. If you don't know what kind of food will be served, then pick a wine you like. You may just introduce the other Thanksgiving dinner guests and your hostess to a new variety. And that's a great idea for any wine drinkers.

Wine Tasting Party Planning

Looking for a good excuse to have a party? Why not host a wine tasting party? It's a fun and not to difficult theme for a get together. It takes a little planning and some decisions, but an interesting and informative way to have a party.

You have some decisions to make first. What kind of wine tasting party do you want to have? A full sit-down dinner not only involves a complete menu, but also a complement of the wines that will go with the food.

Maybe just an appetizer party is better for you. Then you can choose which types of wines to specialize in for the tasting. Whites only, reds only, or a collection from a particular vineyard.

A wine and cheese party is a different event altogether. The kinds of cheeses that you want to pair with your wines will make a difference in how each tastes. Wine compliments the tastes of various cheeses, and vice versa. So you want to do your homework and know which wines work with which cheese.

How about a dessert party? Then you want to serve lighter and sweeter wines with sweet foods. If you are so inclined, champagne makes a great choice to serve with desserts.

Hosting a wine tasting party can be educational for both you and your guests. Discovering that wine really does make food taste better is a treat for everyone. Plus, you each get to decide which wines you do like.

Identifying Your Wine Glasses

How many times have you had guests over, served wine and gotten glasses mixed up? For me, it was all the time. That was until I got my first set of wine glass charms.

My first set was a gift from a friend who had been to one of my parties and seen me dealing with many mixed-up glasses. She helped me wash up the orphan glasses so that my guests could have a glass they were sure was healthy for them.

It sure didn't take me long to get more sets of these charming wine glass charms. Some sets come with 6 charms while others have 8 or 12. Some are definitely reusable and ones that you want to keep, while others are disposable. You only want to use them one time and toss them.

Personally, I prefer the ones that I can keep. None of the sets is expensive, which makes it easy to get different themes. They come in plenty of different themes, everything from different colors and styles of mustaches to beautiful pewter charms in several wine bottle looks. But there are wine glass charms for baby showers, bridal showers, fashionistas and even weddings.

These easy and fun ways to identify wine glasses make great hostess gifts as well, but don't stop there. Think of stocking stuffers, Secret Santas and add-on gifts when you are giving a bottle of wine.

There is no doubt that wine glass charms are great for any occasion when you need to identify different glasses. Believe me, it will save you money and hassle as well.

Understanding Wine Dry/Sweet Scale

Would like to know more about wines and which ones are dry versus sweet? Then take a look at Wine Varieties. This will help you understand which wine varieties are what levels of dry or sweet.

First, you need to know that dry for a wine does not mean the opposite of sweet, which is bitter. Dryness in wines is not bitter. It really doesn't mean sour either. It means more lack of sweet.

Lack of sweet tends to bring out more flavors in the wine itself. That kind of explains why so many red varieties of wine are on the dry scale instead of the sweet scale. These are the wines that have the riches flavors. These are also the wines that usually can be aged, which brings out more flavors.

Personally, I am a huge fan of Chardonnay white wine. It's the driest of the whites and has some very rich flavors. Besides understanding the different varieties of wine and their dry to sweet levels, you may also want to learn a bit more about how wine is actually made. This creates its flavors and aromas.

Understanding wines and how to choose wines is important to many of us. Whether it's for your own consumption or you want to take a bottle to a dinner party, you want to choose ones that you will enjoy and your host will appreciate.

Take some time to learn about the wine basics. Then discover which wine varieties you may want to choose.

Wine Accessories Make Great Gifts for Wine Lovers

Hostess gifts for parties, birthday gifts, anniversary gifts, even house-warming gifts can be as simple as wine accessories if you recipient enjoys drinking wine. A wine bottle corkscrew or special wine bottle pour spout make great gifts. And they don't have to break the bank.

Some wine accessories are inexpensive, while others can be more elaborate with a price tag that matches. You can choose the price range that matches your own budget and pick a great wine-lover gift without having to make a choice for a bottle of wine.

Choosing wine as a gift can be very difficult if you don't know the particular tastes of your recipient. So a wine accessory makes a good way to pick a gift without insulting their taste.

Besides corkscrews and pour spouts, wine aerators and wine bottle stoppers are also good choices. You might even want to combine several wine accessories together to get a larger or more expensive gift.

So don't be afraid to give a great gift to your wine-loving friends and family. You won't show any ignorance about different types of wine. Instead, you'll show your expertise at choosing great gifts.

Hosting a Wine Tasting Party

During the winter months, wine tasting parties can be a fun way to gather with friends. With the big holidays over and the dreary days of winter upon us, a nice theme for a get-together is wine tasting.

You'll want to think about the type of party to have. It can be a specific variety of wines, like only reds, or only whites, or maybe a dessert party for sweeter wines. Will you include a dinner with the wine tasting or just serve appetizers?

If you want to focus on just certain types of wines, you'll want to match your menu to those wines. Wine enhances the flavor of food and vice versa. Typically, white wines work best with lighter fare, such as fish or chicken dishes and salads. Red wines are stronger in flavor so they go better with red meats and heartier foods. Pairing wine and food is simple when you follow some basics.

Then you'll want to brush up on your wine tasting terms. Learning the right terms for what you will be doing with wine tasting will also help you and your guests enjoy the party more.

If you know someone who is especially good at wine tasting, ask them to be the group leader and help teach all the guests how to properly taste wine. If not, learn how wine tasting functions yourself so you can be the group leader.

More than anything, enjoy yourself. The whole idea behind wine is enjoyment, so go ahead and plan a wine tasting party for the shear enjoyment.

Wine Coolers for Cool Summer Entertaining

In these hot August days, you may be thinking about a party or just inviting a few friends for some summer fun. If you want to add wine for the enjoyment, you also need to be thinking about how to keep your wines cool.

White wines, of course, work best when they are nicely chilled, but did you know red wines are also at their best and most flavorful when served slightly cooled? You want your red wines to be served at about 60 degrees. In other words, you need some kind of coolers for your wines.

Using a bucket of ice to chill your white wines works great. But, for red wines, try a bottle chiller or wine bottle cooler. Bottle chillers work best to keep wines at the same temperature they were put in at, but coolers actually cool down your bottles of wine.

For red wines, put them in the frig for about half an hour, then place in your bottle chiller. This will keep them cool enough to be refreshing for you and your guests. White wines work best if put in the frig a day before serving. You want them to get fully to the frig temperature.

So have your friends over, enjoy your summer entertaining and enjoy refreshing cooled and chilled wines.

Refreshing Wine Cocktail for Summer Parties

If you are planning a summer wine party, you need to find great recipes for wine cocktails. I have found you a very delicious and refreshing one. It's called an Ice Wine Martini. And comes to us from Food and Wine.com.

First, you probably want to know what ice wine is. It's simply a very sweet dessert wine. It's made by freezing the grapes while still on the vine. Then the frozen grapes are crushed to make the liquid that will then be fermented. By freezing the grapes first, the sweetness is highly concentrated. Ice wine is definitely an extremely sweet wine which can hold up against other liquors.

To make an ice wine martini, you need green grapes - about 10 per serving - 2 ounces of both ice wine and vodka. Puree the green grapes in a blender, then add in the wine and vodka. Strain this mixture through a tea strainer.

Next you want to shake the strained mixture with ice, then pour into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with either whole or half grapes on a cocktail toothpick. You have a delicious and refreshing wine cocktail to serve your guests.

By the way, this can be made in larger batches for your summer party. You can also make the grape puree without the wine or vodka ahead of time. Strain it first, before storing in the fridge.

Enjoying Summer Wines

It's hot outside, but you would like to enjoy a cool glass of wine. Makes great sense to me. Summer wines are refreshing. There's no doubt about that. So you think you can only have the chilled white wines. There you are wrong.

Light-bodied reds are also delicious and should actually be chilled to taste the flavor best. Not chilled as cold as whites, true. But, still chilled to about 60 degrees. That is a cool and refreshing drink.

You can also create wine coolers and cocktails that are served over ice. These can be a simple as my top 5 favorite wine coolers. Or you can get more elaborate and try out some very interesting combinations of flavors.

Try adding wine to your favorite fruit drink. Garnish with a piece of matching fruit and you have a refreshing wine cooler. Low on alcohol and low on calories.

By adding in a touch of your favorite liqueur, you can have a more cocktail-style wine drink. Remember though, wines are much lighter than liqueurs, so don't overdo the touch of liqueur or all you'll have is that flavor, without the flavor of the wine.

Enjoy your hot summer day or evening with a refreshing glass of wine or wine cooler. And add them to your next summer wine party.

Keeping Wines Cool

As the hot days of summer begin approaching, it's time to talk about keeping wines chilled. Yes, even red wines need to be chilled somewhat. Reds are best served at around 60 degrees. Whites and roses should be served even cooler, around 45 degrees.So you need to be thinking how to keep those wines chilled properly while enjoying your outdoor time.

Of course, you indoor refrigerator works just great if you don't mind running back inside every time you want to refill a glass. Ice buckets are also a good option, especially for the whites and roses. But you probably don't want to set red wine bottles into an ice bucket.

There are other wonderful and easy options. If you have the space and electricity in your outdoor living area, you can add a small wine cooler. They come in many different sizes allowing you to keep your wine chilled when outdoors. There are also versions that have two zones. One that is set for chilling whites and roses and the other for chilling red wines.

If you don't have the space or electricity bottle chillers are ideal. They hold single bottles ready to keep them cooled at the right temperature. Bottle chillers are pretty inexpensive, so you can get several to keep more than one wine bottle ready for your drinking enjoyment. The beautiful marble bottle chiller pictured here is available at All About Wine.

So don't be afraid of enjoying wine this summer. Just be sure to keep them cool enough while serving at outdoor parties or just enjoying with your evening meal outside.

Basic Styles for Wine Glasses

You can definitely enjoy your wine with just about any type of glass. But, there are some very good reasons to choose the right basic style. The style we are talking about here is the bowl shape. The capacity of the bowl is up to you.

First, we want to make sure that we are choosing stemmed glasses. That's important for several reasons. When you look at the clarity and color of the wine in your glass, it's easiest done by holding the glass by the stem. You also want keep your hands from warming the wine in the bowl. Every wine is best served at a temperature much lower than body temperature. Since wines need to be served chilled, more so for whites and roses, but also some for reds, during the summer months condensation can happen. Who wants to be holding a wet glass? So choose stemmed glasses.

Second, we want to look at the basic bowl shapes. There are three for wines. Red wines do best in a wide bowl. Whites and roses can be enjoyed using a medium style bowl. And you want to have a thin, tall bowl which is called a flute, to serve sparkling wines like Champagne.

When you learn how to taste wines properly to get the most from the flavors, you will see even more reasons to choose the right type of bowl for your wine glasses. Understanding that the shape of the glass came about to be able to enjoy your wine more, you can then understand why you want to have the three basic styles on your shelf.

So make sure you take the time to choose the right wine glasses for the right wines. It really does make a difference.

Have a Dessert Wine Tasting Party

Getting ready for summer you can chose a warm evening to have a dessert wine-tasting party. These will be held from after-dinner into the evening, as long as you and your guests want. The party could start at 8 o'clock and continue until midnight, or something similar.

Dessert wines are typically sweet and served chilled. A bottle will usually serve about 6 people for wine tasting. When you pour wine for tasting you only pour about 2-4 ounces, which is less than a standard wine serving. Make sure you familiarize yourself with proper wine tasting techniques and wine tasting terms. This way you can help to educate your guests who aren't as knowledgeable as you will be.

Four to six different varieties of dessert wine is usually enough for a wine tasting party. More than that and you will over whelm your guests. You also have the option of choosing different varieties, or just choose one variety and pick bottles from different vineyards and wine-makers.

Your dessert options can be as elaborate as you want. Several dessert choices are best. But, cut them or divide them into smaller than normal portions. That way your guests can also be dessert-tasting as well as wine tasting. Make sure you provide plenty of water for your guests in between tasting different wines. They need to cleanse their pallets.

Alternately, you may want to keep the sweets simple. Great chocolates make a wonderful way to serve sweets with dessert wine tasting. Provide a variety of sweetness levels in the chocolate as well. Some very dark less sweet chocolates, some milk chocolates, even some white chocolates can make a beautiful dessert presentation with very little work on your part.

The most important part of your dessert wine-tasting party is for you to enjoy yourself. Drinking wine is all about enjoyment after all, so make sure you include yourself in the fun.

How to Have a Summer Wine Tasting Party

Summer is a great time to have a wine tasting party. You and your guests can be outside to enjoy the wonderful warm evening air. There are two times and ways that you can have a wine tasting party. First, you may want to do a pre-dinner event. The second way would be an evening that includes dinner. If you wanted to you could also have a dessert wine tasting party. We'll cover that in a future post since that's an entirely different presentation.

With a pre-dinner event, you can hold it late afternoon into early evening. Make sure your guests know this will not include dinner. But you will provide plenty of appetisers. Of course, a dinner event will start in early evening and continue until after dinner is served.

One bottle of wine will typically serve 6 people in wine tasting. Each glass for tasting will not be filled with as much as wine as you would normally. You will put about 2-4 ounces of wine in each glass. Enough for only 2-3 drinks of wines. Pick 4-6 different varieties of wine for your tasting party. You don't want to confuse your guests with too many varieties.

The wines you chose for tasting can be both red and white varieties. You may also wish to limit the party to just reds or whites. Alternately, you can focus in one just one variety, like Merlots, and pick 4-6 different bottles of Merlot in different price ranges and from different vineyards or wine makers. Be sure to let your guests know in advance what your theme will be.

You will need to have extra bottles of each of your wine choices so that guests can have more of their favorites when the tasting time is over. In between different wines, provide plenty of water for your guests to cleanse their pallets. Provide food to taste with the wines as well.

Make sure you are familiar with winetasting and the terms used so that you can educate your guests who are unaware of proper wine tasting. Then relax and enjoy your party. A wine tasting party should be fun for you as the host or hostess as well.

Educate College Grads About Wine Drinking

As our kids are becoming college graduates, we can use their graduation parties to help them understand about wine drinking and how to properly consume wine. Graduation parties are popular to celebrate the fabulous accomplishment of completing their college degree. So you can this time to present them with good wines and help them understand the art of wine drinking.

Most college graduates are over 21, the legal age for alcoholic beverage drinking in the United States. At their graduation party, instead of allowing them the typical beer options, try offering a few wines and showing them the proper way to taste and enjoy wine.

Providing plenty of food is not unusual. Our friend Mandee, a professional event planner, has come up with some great ideas for foods to serve at a graduation party. The food is light and ready for summer. So the wines should be lighter in body. White wines definitely qualify, but so do roses and some reds.

Merlot and Pinot Noirs are usually the lightest of the reds. Look for young wines that are meant to be consumed with no further aging. Even though boxed wines are not normally considered great wines, they do make good options for serving wine to new wine drinkers. There are many boxed wine options that can be quite good. They are also easy ways to serve wine for parties.

The lighter-bodied wines also work well chilled. Mandee has great ideas for keeping drinks cool at graduation parties. You can use her ideas to chill your wines as well. Match up wine choices with food options for great presentations.

Be sure to brush up on your wine-tasting skills and terms so that you are ready to educate your college grads and their friends in the art of wine tasting. And while you're at, be sure to choose some great wines for yourself to enjoy at the graduation party.

The Value of Using Wine Glass Charms

The next time you have guests over and serve them wine, it's a good idea to use wine glass charms to help identify each guest's glass. Think about the times that you have been at a party, enjoying your wine, but put your glass down somewhere, then can't figure out which is yours anymore? Think about the times, as a hostess, you have been the one to wash wine glasses in the middle of the party because people didn't which one was theirs anymore either?

I got stuck with those problems too often, before I discovered wine glass charms. Of course, I have enough wine glasses for my guests, but not that many extra. So the wine glass charms proved to be a great answer. Each guest had their own charm to identify which glass was theirs. It no longer mattered if they couldn't quite remember where they set their glass down, we could always find it again.

Wine glass charms come in many different styles so you can match them to your party theme, if you want. As an animal lover, I have many sets of charms with different animals on them. Every time I use them for a party, they become something of a party game. We enjoy referring to each other by the animal of their wine glass charm. "I'm the giraffe," or "I'm the Persian Cat," can often be heard at my parties.

When you next need a gift for a wine lover or a hostess gift, wine glass charms make excellent choices. They aren't expensive so you can get several sets that match the personality of the person you are giving the gift to.

So use wine glass charms for your next party and save yourself some hassle. You can find out lots about wine at All About Wine to help you choose, serve and enjoy wine.

All About Wine

Ever wonder what some of the terms associated with wine mean? We have you covered. Ever wonder what are the different types of wines? We have you covered there, too. In fact, we are talking all about wine.

At All About Wine, we are discussing how wine is made in Wine Basics. We are defining the terms used in wine tasting. But, there's much more and much more to come.

You don't have to be a wine snob to enjoy wine. But it does help to understand why people do the things they do with wine. And it's all in plain talk. Helping you understand more about wine will also help you enjoy wine more.

Next up on our list is how to taste wine and why you want to do some of those things that wine snobs do when they drink wine. You'll want to keep an eye out for that!

Get a little background on cork, what it is and why it's used – and not used – for wine bottles. Then what should you do with all of those wine corks? We have you covered there.

Take a tour around All About Wine. See for yourself how you can enjoy wine. Find the right wine glasses, too. And find out why you want the right wine glasses. We do have you covered.