A Fabulous Greek Wine

Greek wine is very hard to find in Denver. To find any good ones, your best bet is to go to an authentic Greek restaurant. This past weekend I went to Yanni's in South Denver. Yanni himself is a Sommelier, so I knew he was going to have great wines.

Gaia, Agiorgitiko, Red Wine, 2010 $20 (Retail): Fruit forward, medium bodied wine. Even though this wine is only a couple of years old, it was more than ready to drink! This wine went well with everyone's meal; (Lamb, Moussaka, etc).(http://www.gaia-wines.gr/en/products/agiorgitiko-gaia).

If you don't live in Denver, see if your local specialty wine shop has this wine. Or, go to your favorite Greek Restaurant and ask for it!

Did You Know?

Did you know that you have been taking advice from an Executive Sommelier? Well, you are now! Yes, that's right; I've passed my level 2 Certification Exams! 12 weeks of classes and intensive studying have finally paid off!

To celebrate, I have been relaxing this afternoon with sparkling wine. (Of Course!)

Stay tuned for some great future posts. Summer has just begun, and we have plenty of wines and party ideas to discuss!

My New Published Article!

Hello Everyone,

Please check out the article I wrote for Colorado Living:

http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/living/everyday/with-wine-remember-your-serving-order-and-glassware/article_3035cf56-b969-11e1-ae7d-0019bb2963f4.html 

Serving Temperatures

http://chemistry.about.com/

In a previous post, I mentioned the importance of using a digital thermometer to test the temperature of your wine. Serving temperature is very important. If you serve a wine too hot or too cold, it will alter the bouquet and flavors. With this post, I thought I'd take the opportunity to list appropriate temperature ranges for wines. Unless you have a temperature controlled cellar, many of you might be surprised to find that the red wine you are drinking is too hot, and the white wine you are drinking is too cold.

White Wines
Light Body: 48-53°F (i.e Pinot Grigio and Gerwertaminer)
Medium Body: 53-58°F (i.e. Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc)
Medium Full Body: 55-60°F (i.e. Viognier and Oaked Chardonnay)
Sparkling: 45°F

Red Wines
Light Body: 50-55°F (i.e Pinot Noir and Chianti)
Medium Body: 55-60°F (i.e. Merlot and Sangiovese)
Full Body: 60-65°F (i.e. Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel)

Vegan Wine?

This is a topic I love to tell people about as they generally have no idea what it is in their wine. Listen up all of you vegetarians and vegan wine drinkers! The wine you are drinking was made with animal by-products!

A little background for you.... 

http://adventure.howstuffworks.com

During the wine making process, winemakers have to "fine" the wine to get all of the visible products out. (Such as sediment, yeast, grape skins, etc). Since they don't want to alter the flavor or color of the wine, they use animal by-products. For white wines, salmon stomachs are commonly used, For red wines, egg yolks are used to remove particles. Egg yolks and salmon stomachs have no effect on the taste of the wine, (which is why they are used!). Instead, they only act as a vacuum to get all of the unwanted products out of the wine. The sediment will cling to these by-products, and will then be removed all together from the wine.

Have you changed your mind about drinking wine now? WELL DON'T. If you must.... drink "vegan" friendly wine. The difference is instead of "fining", they do a "filtering" process. Filtering is the same thing as fining, except chemicals, (not animal by-products), are used to remove sediment. However, unlike fining, these filtering techniques can alter the flavor and color of the wine. But, if you want to stick to your guns, ask your local wine shop about their "vegan friendly" wines, and they will be happy to point you in the right direction.

https://www.binnys.com/wine/Our_Daily_Red_41356.html

I haven't had too many vegan wines, (that I know of), but try this one to start...

Our Daily Red, Organic Red Wine: $12. For those of you who want to stay vegan friendly, this wine is for you. It is a nice, basic table wine. Fruit forward, and not too dry.

Keep a Wine Journal

While apps for phones and tablets are great for on the go wine lovers, I also like to have a physical wine journal to document great wines I have tried. The photos to the left are that of my own wine journal. I bought it many years ago and still use it today. For those of you starting out on your journey of wine, I highly recommend getting a journal like this. You can document wines you've tasted, and paste the label below.

It's a great tool to find out which wines are your favorites, which wines you want to explore more, and which ones to avoid.

For the wine experts, a journal is also useful for you in regards to building your cellar. You will know which wines you have liked, and which ones you should buy for the future.

An Orange Colored Sparkling Wine

http://domaine-ste-michelle.com/

I'm still on my sparkling wine kick if you haven't noticed. There's just something about drinking sparkling wine in a champagne flute...it makes you feel like royalty!

Domaine St. Michelle - Sparkling Wine - $12: This wine comes from Washington.  What I found interesting was that the winemaker only makes sparkling wines. This wine is a Blanc De Noir, meaning, this is a white sparkling wine but made with red grapes, (Pinot Noir mainly). It has an orange color because they made it a rose sparkling wine. How did they do that? Well, they basically made a red sparking wine, but did not macerate (or blend), the red grape skins all the way during the fermentation stage. Thus, instead of a red color, we get an orange color. CLEVER!

I found this wine to be very dry and light, with berry and tropical fruit notes.

Grilling Calls for Certain Wines - My 3rd Published Article!

Hello Fellow Readers:

Please check out my article below. I will be writing for Our Colorado News every month now!

Grilling Calls for Certain Wines - Our Colorado News: Everyday:: Spring is in full bloom, and summer is just around the corner. It's the perfect time for us to host an outdoor party and fire up the grill.