I think one of the most versatile — and underappreciated wines — is Zinfandel. This wonderful varietal produces very aromatic wines of medium acidity, medium to high tannins and medium to dry sweetness. If Zinfandel were in politics, it would be a good middle-of-the-roader. Applying this wine to food, Zinfandel can go with a wide […]

I put the sausage and lean hamburgers on the grill. The heat was near 550 degrees. The Wine Goddess had already pre-boiled the sausage, turning it tender and sweet. As an accompaniment, she was frying red and green garden peppers and onions on the stove. These were going to be better than the SP&O bombs […]

What white wine can you pair with both fish or bacon? It might amaze you — as it did me — that the Portuguese have a clean, crisp wine that you can drink with a breakfast meal — bacon and eggs — then pack it away for the evening hours and serve it with a […]

California wineries make good red blends from Cabernet Sauvignon. I am not going to dispute that statement. But it bothers me when I hear wine drinkers discount the rest of the world’s producers. I swear if I took the label off the bottle of the Casillero del Diablo Reserva Winemaker’s Red Blend from Chile you’d […]

Where are you going to find a wine costing $9.99 a bottle and is rated 90 points by Robert Parker? The Wine Novice presents the 2011 La Carraia Sangiovese Umbria, an Italian red that is Bargain No. 4 in my quest to build a 12-bottle case of quality wine for under $100. La Carraia is […]

Mike Pigeon, the Wine Butler, put grilled lamb cutlets on the menu for a Saturday night cookout and we huddled briefly on the wine. A rich-tasting Pinot Noir was the first and only choice for the tender lamb, which would be complemented with macaroni salad, caprese salad (plump red tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh garden-grown basil), […]

On a recent Friday night, when the Wine Goddess was taking a break from playing Kitchen Goddess, we ordered fish and chips with cole slaw from a favorite take-out place that knows how to “cook.” Because of the batter on the fish, I searched for a white wine that would cut through the fried taste […]

There’s nothing better than a good bargain, especially if it’s a red liquid in a bottle. Recently, I took off with the Wine Butler, Mike Pigeon, on a search-and-taste mission to find middle-of-the-summer wines that would go well with barbeque or as a patio sipper. He dared me to find 12 quality bottles of wine […]