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 Anticipation of a great wine dinner Wine and food. Food and wine. Trying to pair both types of sustenance (one for the body, the other for the soul) is a large part of what I investigate and report. Although I’m constantly attending industry events where such pairings are featured, a lot of the time I find only one or at most a couple of great matches at each meal. So what follows are my notes that highlight the best wine and accompanying dishes of which I’ve partaken in the past few months. Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #87 - More Wine and Food in Context
 Ben speaking at a recent American Wine Society event in Denver I’ve often written about the wine lifestyle, where aficionados of the vine integrate wine into all aspects of life. Nowhere is this more important than at meals, when food and wine fortify body and spirit together. While this often means quaffing inexpensive juice with pick-up meals, it also includes the enjoyment of great wines with family and friends. This is the sort of thing that really interests me to the point of wanting to write about it, and several recent such events illustrate my point. Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #86 - The Wine Lifestyle Redux
From: Verna
Subject: The Best Corkscrew
Yesterday, as I was trying to uncork a bottle with a very skimpy corkscrew, the cork broke in half widthwise and I couldn’t get the second half out. I finally tried pushing it down into the bottle and eventually succeeded, but back-pressure caused sprinkles of wine to shower down on me, the counter, the cabinets, everything. I was using the wine for cooking, so I strained out the cork. What a mess!
Would you kindly recommend a corkscrew that a woman - a not very strong woman - could use with ease? Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #85 - The Best Corkscrew: Consumer’s Corner #7
 A Wine Horizontal in Boise, Idaho Late last year I wrote about wine verticals, defined as multiple bottles of the same wine in different vintages. Today’s column is about wine horizontals, which usually consist of multiple bottles of similar wines in the same vintage.
While verticals usually explore a single terroir, horizontals often look at similar terroirs, those that are in some way connected by geography or winemaking philosophy. Terroir is a French word that roughly translates as “sense of place.” Terroir is all about location, climate, regional style and the vagaries of each individual growing season. Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #84 - Wine Horizontals
 Ben with some choice bottles at d'Arenberg in Australia Scribbling about the “best” bottles encourages an atmosphere of fetishizing wine, which is the exact opposite of my adored wine lifestyle. Fermented grape juice should be a part of everyday life, not some exalted alter upon which opinions are offered (often like lambs to the slaughter, I might add).
So while seeking out wine thrills may pay my bills, it’s actually much more interesting bringing wines to your attention that are not only delicious but also fun. But what is fun about wine other than a reasonable price per bottle and some vinous complexity and food-friendliness in the glass? While many top wines are also great at the table, one doesn’t need to spend an arm and a leg to procure meal-worthy juice. In fact, in order for the beverage to blend into the meal perhaps the opposite might be true. Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #83 - Fresh Wine for the New Year
 Ben with new friends at Vino 2009 in New York I’ve resisted penning a “2009 In Review” column until the very last moment, probably because I’ve come to realize that the past year has pretty much overwhelmed all of my expectations. Whether traveling to wine country, interviewing the fascinating personalities involved, or touring terroir and tasting barrels, I’ve truly enjoyed every minute. But even against such a sterling backdrop, a few moments stand out as particularly spectacular or meaningful in relation to my love for wine and the wine lifestyle. So what follows are my best wine moments of the year that was. Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #82 - Best Wine Moments of the Year
 A picky eater? From: Trish
Subject: I’m Cooking Just About Everything For Christmas Dinner, What Wines Should I Buy?
My son and his young family are coming home for Christmas, but his wife is vegetarian and my husband only eats meat and potatoes. My solution is to make both steak and vegetarian main courses.
Everyone in our family loves red wine, and I don’t want to go broke buying different bottles for each entree. What should I do? Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #81 - Zinful Holiday Dinner Wines: Consumer’s Corner #6
 The Beauty of North Cali Wine Country A few columns back (see Pinot Envy on the CA Coast) I promised the rest of the story of my recent trip to North California, specifically the portion that occurred after my media tour had ended. I realize that most of the bottles recommended here are expensive, but they’re all great examples of why I will always love wine from the north coast of California.
Tasting is always more fun with friends, and so for this two-day trek across Napa and Sonoma I had coordinated with Asbjoern, a young Danish sommelier I met in Austria (see Tales from the Austrian Wine Summit) and Amos, brother of the much-mentioned Jerry, who lives in nearby Santa Rosa. The overall idea was to give Asbjoern, who was visiting U.S. wine country for the first time, an overall view of North Cali wine. I had therefore organized three winery tours in Napa on Day One; Day Two included the same number of visits but in Sonoma. Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #80 - Wine Without the Media
 Hillside vineyard in Paso Robles, CA Last week I highlighted some of the juice that’s impressed me during the past year that hadn’t yet made it into any of my columns or articles (see Potpourri Part I). But there was only one problem - I didn’t have room for all of the bottles I wanted to mention. So, without further ado, here is more of my “List of Noteworthy Wines About Which I Haven’t Yet Written Much of Significance.”
Organic production has been one of the hot topics in wine over the past several years. To me this has been a bit of a red herring, because too often quality has been sacrificed for the sake of a certification or some hypothetical definition of political correctness. Bluntly, the wines have cost too much to be worth what’s in the bottle. Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #79 - Potpourri Part II
 Biodynamic vineyard at Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace, France Over the course of a full year I write about a lot of wine-related topics. Whether breaking down green farming practices, giving insights into wine industry characters and terroir, or even suggesting holiday libations, I’m all about making the wine lifestyle more accessible through vinous commentary and recommendations.
I also receive a lot of samples, and by far the majority of the hundreds of wines that I taste each month do not make it into my recommendations. Only the true stand-outs survive even a preliminary cut. But I still taste more good wine than I can easily write about, and some of the bottles I enjoy most do not fit into any logical column category, at least, not the ones that I come up with.
The result of all this is that by the end of the year there are always more than a dozen wines I’ve recommended in Tweets and Facebook posts (BentheWineBerg on both sites) that haven’t made it into any of my columns or magazine articles. And there are even more memorable wines in my palate memory from 2009 that I haven’t had a chance to mention at all. This is quite a shame, because they’re really good wines. Thus what follows is my “List of Noteworthy Wines About Which I Haven’t Yet Written Much of Significance.” Continue reading Weinberg’s Wine Notes #78 - Potpourri Part I
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