Wine is an obvious partner when it comes to food... and celebrations.  And since Thanksgiving is both a time to celebrate and a day to eat, including wine is a no-brainer.  Unfortunately, that is where it stops being easy.  Which wine or wines to serve with the meal creates a quandary that can be overwhelming for even the most confident wine lover.

The good news is that you will be serving wine to a group of loved ones - friends and family -- who have come together to celebrate each other and the Holiday.  This helps create an atmosphere of joy and togetherness that makes nearly any wine choice taste better.  (… Or, it creates a strained, stressful day that drives us to drink... in which case, skip...

“I do not like wine,” you say!   I hear this phrase occasionally when I am in retail stores sampling wines from our portfolio.   “What do you have that is sweet?” I hear even more often.   “I do not like Champagne,” is another one.   REALLY?  You REALLY dislike Champagne?!?   I have some theories on these statements above.   My theories come from my own journey into the world of wine.

Those who have determined that they do not like wine are like the child who refuses to eat cauliflower:  flatly refusing to try something based on an assumption of dislike or a faded memory of not liking the item...

I will say right now that I have a love/hate relationship with trends. On the one hand, a trend in the wine business can fuel growth in certain categories that were previously very hard to sell. For example, each time I sell a bottle of Pinot Noir, maybe I should thank the movie “Sideways”. Every time I sell a bottle of Merlot, maybe I should thank the doctors who declared the health benefits of drinking wine… or just thank the French for giving it a name that Americans can pronounce (see Gewurztraminer). But that being said, trends can also bother me sometimes, because I feel they occasionally guide people in a direction of wine buying that goes against what wine professionals agree is a good,...

From the beginning of my wine career, wine descriptions have fascinated and entertained me, and even run counter to rational human behavior on occasion.  Where else but in our industry can someone take a sip of a beverage, and say “Mmmm, it has aromas of barnyard, and flavors of earth, and shoe leather”…. And not spit the liquid out in disgust?  Let’s be honest …. If you saw “livestock, poo, dirt, and shoes” on a restaurant menu, would you consider ordering it? 

But in our industry, the sheer act of figuring out what one is smelling and tasting when sipping wine is half the fun.  I know that I feel a personal sense of accomplishment when...