Wine Holidays to Celebrate all Year Long!

How to pick cheeses for a pairing and tasting

There are about 8 billion websites with helpful tips and tricks and lists for pairing cheeses with wines. And there are also about 300 different types of cheese at your average grocery store.

It doesn't matter if you're starting with the wines or starting with the cheeses, but pick a starting point. Let's start with cheeses in this example.

You love brie, goat cheese, gruyere, sharp cheddar, and bleu cheese. Great! Start Googling! (Hellovino.com is a great site to find quick pairing recommendations.)

Brie is a great mild, soft cheese that pairs beautifully with whites like Chardonnay. It's also quite heavenly with a sparkling wine, so start your tasting out with a nice semi-secco sparkling.

Goat cheese (one of my favorite cheeses in the world!) is another good pairing with a Chardonnay and a sparkling. Set it out with the Brie and start your tasting with those.

Put the gruyere nearby and pair it with the Chardonnay. Later, it will also go perfectly with a Pinot Noir.

Sharp Cheddar is fabulous with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc, but since you've clearly got cheeses that go best with a Chardonnay, you might hold the cheddar back to pair with a bold Cabernet Sauvignon.

Bleu cheese is a very powerful cheese. Never start with it first, or you'll ruin your tastebuds for the night! Also never pair it with whites. I have a little poem I like to use to remember that - Bleu and white, Not Right! Bleu and red, Well fed! Save that bleu cheese for your Cabernet Sauvignon.

So now you know that you want to get a nice sparkling semi-secco, a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir, and a Cabernet Sauvignon for your tasting when you started with cheese. Does the process make sense?

If we do our shopping in the reverse order and we know what wines we want, then just find the most common denominator cheese to pair. Think soft creamy cheeses with the whites, and big, bold cheeses with the bolder reds. 

Happy sipping.... Stems up!

Visit my Traveling Vineyard site at http://www.travelingvineyard.com/guide/morethanatasting to browse our great selection of offerings, start an exciting new career, or contact me to book a tasting in your home and try before you buy!

4 Traveling Vineyard Tips for the Maid of Honor

1)      Host a wine tasting bridal shower

Start the bride-to-be and her partner off on the road of life together fully stocked! By hosting a FREE Traveling Vineyard tasting, you not only have a fantastic bridal shower theme, but you simply the gift-giving. One case of wine is 12 bottles. If each shower guest pitches in for a bottle, you can send the happy couple on their way with a case to fill their wine rack!

2)    Wine accessories

In addition to the wines, pick up some helpful accessories to round out the bride and groom's collection. Items like an accessory package including a bottle opener, decanter, and foil cutter is a great gift!

3)      Purchase some bubbly for the wedding party

Celebrate the day with sparkling wine to serve at the reception!

4)      Give the gift of wine club!

Make every other month a celebration with a subscription to our Wine Club. 4 bottle or 6 bottles (you choose all reds, all whites, or a mix of both), the happy couple can enjoy new boutique global wines every month. Wine club is month-to-month with no contracts or cancellation penalties. Buy it for 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, or any time frame in between!

Visit my Traveling Vineyard site at http://www.travelingvineyard.com/guide/morethanatasting to browse our great selection of holiday offerings, or contact me to book a tasting in your home and try before you buy!

Sangiovese: The Blood of Jove

If you're asked to name bold Italian red wines, you probably think of the ones you've heard of like Chianti, Sangiovese, and you might even say Tignanello. But did you know that a Chianti and a Tignanello are actually blends? And both count on the Sangiovese grape to bring the flavor.

The Sangiovese grape is believed to have first been fermented into wine by the Romans. The name comes from the Latin phrase "the blood of Jove," a reference to the Roman god Jupiter.

In the 18th century, the Sangiovese grape (along with Malvasia and Trebbiano) were the most planted grapes in the region.

In the 1970s, winemakers added complexity and innovation by blending with non-Italian grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and created a new breed of wines called a Super-Tuscan.

Sangiovese grows in warm climates (but not too warm), and takes longer to ripen than some other grapes. Harvest generally takes place after September 27th, and most of the time does not take place until October.

Sangiovese is difficult to make into drinkable wine on its own. It takes a talented winemaker to treat the grapes to the proper amount of oak and spices to round out the tannins and add body. Sangiovese can be a good "sponge" when treated with the right flavors and can develop a beautiful wine with notes of strawberry, vanilla, and spice.

Pairings with food:  classic Italian dishes like tomato-based pasta dishes and pizzas.
Pairing with cheese: try it with Asiago, Parmesan, Mozzerrella, and Fontina

Visit my Traveling Vineyard site at http://www.travelingvineyard.com/guide/morethanatasting to browse our great selection of offerings, start an exciting new career, or contact me to book a tasting in your home and try before you buy!

My favorite wine of all: Sauvignon Blanc

Just right for summer, spring, and okay I'll admit it, I drink it in the fall and winter, too... Sauvignon blanc is a crisp, dry, and refreshing white wine.

You can find great Sauvignon blancs from France, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Washington, and California, and depending on the climate where the grapes are grown, the flavor can be grassy or more tropical.

Wine hunting tip: California Sauvignon blancs may be labeled Fume Blanc instead!

Pairings with food: fish, sushi, shellfish, poultry dishes
Pairings with cheese: Chevre, Monterrey Jack, Havarti

Rarely would you age a Sauvignon blanc - they are best enjoyed young, so grab it, throw it in the fridge for about 2 hours, and enjoy it at about 50 degrees.

Visit my Traveling Vineyard site at http://www.travelingvineyard.com/guide/morethanatasting to browse our great selection of offerings, start an exciting new career, or contact me to book a tasting in your home and try before you buy!

Room temperature is not what you think!

We Americans have been fooled for too long! We're told to serve our red wines "at room temperature," but we live in homes with heaters and air conditioners, meaning that most of us keeping our homes around 70-77 degrees. Did you know that the proper "room temperature" for most red wines is actually 65 degrees F?

So when you hear "room temperature," think of a drafty old castle cellar at 65 degrees. Because THAT'S what they mean!

Some other proper temperature guidelines:

65 Degrees for "big" reds (45 minutes in the fridge):

• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Zinfandel
• Shiraz/Syrah
• Burgandy
• Barolo

60 Degrees for lighter, fruitier reds (1.5 hours in the fridge):

• Pinot Noir
• Dolcetto
• Chianti
• Valpolicella
• Rioja

55-60 Degrees for bold whites (1.5-2 hours in the fridge):

• White Burgundy
• Chardonnay
• Rieslings

50 Degrees for light, crisp whites (2 hours in the fridge):

• Pinot Gris
• Sauvignon Blanc
• Vintage Champagnes and sparkling wines
• Ice wines

45 Degrees for very few wines (2.5 hours in the fridge):

• Vinho Verde
• Non-vintage sparkling wines
• All lower quality sweet wines and rosés

Visit my Traveling Vineyard site at http://www.travelingvineyard.com/guide/morethanatasting to browse our great selection of offerings, start an exciting new career, or contact me to book a tasting in your home and try before you buy!

Que Syrah, Syrah!

It was a Rosemount Granache Shiraz that was my first wine love. Before that, I'd never really looked for a bottle of wine each time I went grocery shopping. Then, one day, my grocery store stopped

carrying it! The nerve!! So I had to branch out. To find new wines to love. To try new flavors. So I suppose it was a blessing in disguise!

But Shiraz (or Syrah) is still one of my all-time favorite wines. Syrah is not as popular as other wines, only being the 7th most-grown grape in the world. DNA testing in 1998 revealed Syrah to be descended from France. A migration of the plant to Australia and South Africa gave birth to the name Shiraz (there's a much longer story there, but it's not that interesting).

What you do need to know is that Syrah and Shiraz are pretty much the same grape, but they are NOT the same grape as a Petit Sirah.

Like any grape, the terroir will change the flavors you experience. However, most Shiraz/Syrahs are going to be very deep red, have higher alcohol content than Pinot Noirs (as most are grown in warmer climates, leading to higher sugar content, which in turn produces higher alcohol content). Typical notes/aromas are blackberries, pepper, chocolate, and espresso. (French Syrahs are more on the black pepper scale, while Australian Shiraz may be more blackberry-esque). Depending on the terrior, you might get some flavors like leather, truffle, or even violets.

Want to pair your Syrah with cheese? Try an awesome cheddar, an edam, or some gouda.

Want to pair your Syrah with food? Go for strong flavors with your pairing - try a nice lamb chop, some lobster paella, or even a smoky-spiced t-bone steak.

Visit my Traveling Vineyard site at http://www.travelingvineyard.com/guide/morethanatasting to browse our great selection of offerings, start an exciting new career, or contact me to book a tasting in your home and try before you buy!