Learning About Wine

For those of us who work for Joe Canal's, there are plenty of opportunities to expand our palates and learn more about our trade. Many of our distributor partners have large-scale portfolio tastings, and there are other events throughout the year where we can sample both current and new offerings. Those programs help us, and they allow us to better serve you, as we increase our knowledge of the products that we sell.

As a consumer, however, you have to be more proactive in learning about what you like in wine (this applies to beer and spirits as well, of course). We do our part to help by offering wine tastings nearly every Friday and Saturday, along with a range of additional tastings, like the Brunello Tuesday program in Woodbridge. These tastings are conveniently timed for most people, and are priced right (free!).

Occasionally there are bigger, public events that are both educational and fun. Courtesy of Oyster Bay Wines, your blogger recently attended just such an event in New York City, called the Wine Riot.

Here, you could taste wines from specific producers at their own booths. In addition, you could visit booths dedicated to specific varietals, and other booths that featured the wines of one country. The downside of an event in NYC is that not every wine tasted there is available back home in New Jersey, but that gives you every reason to sample as many wines as possible.

Over the course of a four hour event, you'll have the chance to taste nearly everything you'd care to. As you see in the photo above, the crowds can be a bit challenging, but the people at the booths were happy to talk about their wines. And to pour you a sample.

The Oyster Bay Wines booth was one of the more popular stations. Their Sauvignon Blanc is already one of our top sellers, and is zesty and aromatic with lots of lively, penetrating fruit characters. Their Pinot Noir is fragrant, soft and flavorful with aromas of ripe cherries, plums and gentle sweet fruit tannins that provide serious structure and length. Look for Oyster Bay wines is our New Zealand section.

Other producers on hand included the Wagner Family of Wines (Belle Glos Pinot Noir and Conundrum) and Cameron Hughes. It was mainly when you went to the variety- or country-specific booths that you found wines not available in New Jersey.

Having a favorite wine can be a comfort, especially when you're facing a lengthy wine list at a restaurant. Since there are so many excellent wines on our shelves, you really do miss out if you limit yourself to your one favorite red or white wine. Stop in for our tastings or find an event like this, and you'll have both an improved palate and new favorites!

Your blogger with two new favorite wines!

Wine 101: Barbecue

While this weekend may be a bust as Tropical Storm Andrea hits us with heavy rains, the summer weather is fast-approaching! Grills are being scraped for 2102 -- it's barbeque season! What's for dinner?

Barbeque is quick and easy. It's so simple to pull some meat out of the freezer and throw it on the grill. It's a fast and easy way to cook, it doesn't heat up the house, and the best thing about grilled food? It pairs beautifully with wine!

Burger: Burgers pair well with Zinfandel, an "All-American combo." The spiciness and fruitiness of the wine plays well off of a juicy grilled burger.

Chicken: Since most barbecue sauces are on the sweeter side, and a basic rule of pairings is that wines should be sweeter than the sauces on the foods you're eating them with, try an unctuous Vouvray.

Ribs: Ribs pair well with a nice Rioja, the smokiness and acidity of the tempranillo grape complements the smoky flavor of the ribs, as well as their fatty content.

Steak: When Cabernet Sauvignon is paired with steak, the tannins are neutralized, allowing the fruits of the wine to be more noticeable.

Kabobs or Vegetables: When you've got vegetarians in your family or are just in the mood for a light, refreshing meal, choose either a Barbera, or a dry Rose when grilling up veggies or kabobs!

Wine 101: Aroma

Wednesdays on the BottleBlog will feature an education session on wine, beer or spirits. Today Shannon Spare shares her experiences as a beginner in the World of Wine.

Welcome to part 2 of my Wine 101 Blog: Aroma. As I said in my first installment on color, my name is Shannon and I manage the website content and blog here at Joe Canal's. While I've drunk wine, and liked wine, for many years, I never really had the opportunity to get to know a whole lot about it. Now, I'm getting paid to learn, and I'm happy to share my experiences with you!

The first time I ever really noticed the aroma of a wine was a few years ago, long before my tenure with Joe Canal's began. I was six months pregnant, attending a business dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. To celebrate, my co-workers picked up a couple bottles of wine to share. Of course, due to my condition I couldn't partake of the wine, but the people to either side of me were both enjoying very large, very full, very fragrant glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon. The smell was so fine, and so strong, I found myself salivating. At the time, I just chalked it up to A.) being pregnant and having a hyper-sensitive sense of smell, and B.) not having had wine for over 6 months and just really wanting a glass. I got through the evening without a sip, but that smell stuck with me for months. I couldn't stop thinking about it! Even the first glass of wine I had after my daughter was born didn't live up to the memory of the exquisite aroma from that evening.

Fast forward 11 months, to my first week at here at Joe Canal's. Every Friday and Saturday we have free wine tastings, and on my way out the door, I stopped to taste the weekend wines. Being a newbie, I tried to emulate all of my more educated workmates, swirling the wine, watching for "legs," and sticking my nose deep into the glass. I didn't expect much, since most wines still smell the same to me. When I came to the last wine, however, I was blown away! It was the Rodney Strong Cabernet Sauvignon, and arguably the most expensive wine I'd ever tasted (or smelled). And there it was again - that smell, that awesome delicious smell! It was the first time I realized that I wasn't just having a super duper pregnant craving at the Italian restaurant, it was probably that the wine was super duper aromatic.

When tasting wine, it's especially important to pay attention to how the wine smells. In a lot of ways, the way the wine smells is more important than it tastes. Have you ever noticed that when you have a bad head cold, most foods taste a lot more bland than usual? That's because 80% of what we taste is attributable to our sense of smell.

Before I became a Wine-Enthusiast-in-Training, I would make jokes about "oaky undertones" to my friends and family when drinking wine. The truth of the matter is that, with wine, certain flavors can be brought out by how the wine is made. While it's true that wine is made from grapes, if it's aged in oak you might be able to taste clove or vanilla, or the actual oak itself. (My "oaky undertones" joke has become a lot less funny since I've actually been able to notice them.) "Malolactic fermentation" (a process in which bacteria is added to fermenting wine) might produce a butterscotch or popcorn smell.

I have had the opportunity to attend a couple wine festivals and tastings. I've gone to many wine festivals in the past, but it's a much different experience for me now that I have this new mindset. For the first time, I've actually been able to notice different scents. I still find that a lot of wines taste the same to me after a while (especially reds) but paying attention to the aroma has been really fun for me. At a tasting, I tasted a variety of seven dry red wines, the last two of which were "oaked". When we got to the sixth wine, I was amazed at how strong I could actually smell the oakiness. It totally smelled like wood! It's a slow going process, but I've also been able to pick out pineapple and chocolate in the wines that I have tasted (and smelled).

Reading tasting notes has been an interesting experience for me as well: Did you know that there are wines out there that actually smell like lead pencil shavings, slate or chalk? And, believe it or not, tobacco is an aroma that comes up fairly often.

Did you know that just about every Friday and Saturday, the Joe Canal's stores in Woodbridge and Lawrenceville have free wine tastings? I definitely urge you to stop in and taste for yourself, especially if you're a newbie like me! Just check the events page on jcanals.com to see what we're pouring, and stop in!

Next time I'll talk more in depth about the tastings I've gone to recently. Until then, I'd love to hear your stories and experiences of learning about wine, just leave me a comment!

Wine 101: Color

Wednesdays on the BottleBlog will feature an education session on wine, beer or spirits. Today Shannon Spare shares her experiences as a beginner in the World of Wine.

Welcome to Workshop Wednesdays! My name is Shannon, and I was brought on by Joe Canal's to manage our web content. When I was offered the job, I was told that I would "have to drink a lot more wine," which was, to be honest, just fine with me! While I've drunk wine, and liked wine, for many years now, I don't really know wine, and I've always wanted to. I still consider myself a novice. (I'm the "Average Joe" at Joe Canal's, if you will.) I thought it would be a cool idea to blog about my experience learning the ropes of the wine world, since so many of our customers are just like me in the sense that we love wine, but don't really know it.

I've been to a few wine festivals and tastings before, in my past life, and it was always a lot of fun bringing my little glass to all the tables to drink lots and lots of wine. I never really paid attention to what I was drinking, other than "Okay, this one tastes good," or "Ew, that's gross, give me more of that blackberry one to wash the taste away." I only remember one wine clearly, because it tasted like chocolate. No, seriously. The wine tasted LIKE CHOCOLATE. It was a Cabernet Sauvignon, I bought three bottles of it, and they were gone within a month. The next year we went back to the same festival and tasted the new vintage of the same wine, and it didn't taste as much like chocolate anymore - it tasted like wine. Disappointment aside, that was the first (and last) time that a wine really tasted like anything to me, and it was my first exposure to the subtle (and not so subtle) changes in different vintages of wines. It also made me realize that there's a lot more to this wine stuff than "this is delicious," and peaked my interest to learn more, so I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to do so now (and get paid for it)!

One of my first days here, there was a staff tasting spread out in our Liquid Learning Center to sample some new wines we would be bringing in to the store. She poured me a glass and I asked, "So... what do I do now?" And she performed this ritual that I, quite honestly, felt pretty stupid and uncoordinated duplicating, especially considering the red wine I had dripping down my chin.

Although I still couldn't pick much flavor out of the wines other than "This tastes good to me," or "This tastes bad to me," I did learn about some important wine qualities to consider when tasting, and they didn't really have to do with tasting at all.

The first thing I learned to look at is the color of the wine.

Red wines can range from a light brick red to a deep maroon-purple color, and everything in between. In general, the darker or brighter the color of the wine is, the younger it is. The subtle color changes can be noticed more on the edge of the wine in the glass, and darken in the middle. Very aged wines can even have a brownish tinge to them.

With whites, the opposite is true. Young wines start as what wine folks call "water-white," and move through a spectrum of pale yellows, straw, and finally settling into a warm golden color when they are fully mature.

Since my first "official" tasting, I've been noticing subtle color differences in the wines that I've been drinking. Interesting stuff!

Until next time, I'd love to hear your experiences with the wine color spectrum, and if you have any more information for me to soak up! Just leave a comment!

Wine 101: White Port

Today, Lawrenceville Wine Manager Brandon Bartfalvi discusses White Port.

I sat back today and drifted into a daydream of Portugal in August. I was there this past summer and l sorely miss those hot summer days and the breeze blowing off the Douro. As I sat there reminiscing I realized I couldn't quite be there but I could stir some warm memories. So, I went to the wine rack and bar area in my kitchen and put together my favorite summer drink (that I found on that wonderful Portugal trip). Today as I lounged around I sipped on White Port and Tonics. Yes, white Port!

Simply put, White Port is made from indigenous white grape varieties that tend to be higher in acidity. The grapes are crushed in concrete foudres (sometimes by foot, sometimes mechanically) then spend a short maceration (skin contact) time. During fermentation, the process is halted by the addition of grape spirits (brandy). The style of White Port can range from very sweet to bone dry according to the how much sugar the producer chooses to leave in the wine. The Port was traditionally aged in wood, giving the wine more complexity and a slightly nutty flavor. Some producers forgo the wood aging and mature the wine in steel tanks or concrete vats. This type of aging produces Ports that are lighter and more fruit forward.

White Ports can be enjoyed on their own and tend to be a great alternative to Lillet or other aperitifs. I love making cocktails with this type of Port and the variations are endless but here is my simple recipe and a couple of alternatives.

White Port and Tonic

-4 oz Tonic Water
-2 oz White Port (Osborne White Port works wonderfully)
-Lemon slice

Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in the tonic water and then,the White Port. Stir gently. Squeeze the lemon slice into the drink and drop lemon in. Enjoy!

Variation 1: Before adding the ice, muddle a few mint leaves in the bottom of the glass then follow the rest of the directions.
Variation 2: Instead of lemon try different fruits such as lime or ripe peach.

To keep with tradition, keep a bowl of salted almonds close by!! Enjoy and think of warm summer evenings!

Glass with Class

It is a fact that the proper glass enhances the sensory experience of wine, beer and spirits. Wine aficionados know that there are different glasses for reds and whites, as well as for various dessert wines. And if you're really into the experience, you know that there are glasses for many different varietals. Each varietal-specific glass is tuned to the characteristics of that grape, revealing nuances that would likely be lost in the wrong glass.

Up until about five minutes ago, there had not been a glass specific to Malbec. Argentina's signature red, the Malbec category has been growing steadily over the last few years. Bodegas Graffigna is the oldest winery in the San Juan province of Argentina. Graffigna worked with renowned glass-maker Riedel, and a slew of industry experts, to create an all-new Malbec glass.

The Graffigna Malbec is available at Joe Canal's in Lawrenceville and Woodbridge. Last week, staff members from both stores attended an industry event in Atlantic City, and had the opportunity to be among the first to enjoy Graffigna Malbec in the Riedel Malbec glass.

All of the rich berry notes fairly jumped out of the glass, with subtle black pepper and toasty highlights coming along for the ride. And that's from a wine that really over-delivers at a BottleClub price of under $11.

Serious wine enthusiasts should look for the Riedel Malbec glassware where they shop for their wine accessories. And everyone looking for a great value in a Malbec should seek out the Graffigna Malbec.

Red wine isn't just good for your heart - now experts say it may even prevent HEARING LOSS

This week's news comes from Anna Hodgekiss over at MailOnline. New studies show that wine has multiple health benefits.

It has long been touted as the tipple with a host of health benefits, said to protect against conditions such as heart disease and dementia. Now scientists say red wine may also protect against hearing loss, too. It's thought that the chemical resveratrol, found in red grapes and red wine, is the reason why.

This is the same compound that has been linked with other positive health benefits such as preventing cancer and heart disease. In a study conducted at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, healthy rats were less likely to suffer noise-induced hearing loss when given resveratrol before being exposed to loud noise for a long period of time.

Study leader Dr Michael Seidman said: 'Our latest study focuses on resveratrol and its effect on the body's response to injury - something that is believed to be the cause of many health problems including Alzheimer's disease, cancer, ageing and hearing loss.
Resveratrol appeared to reduce the damage to hearing from loud noises

Resveratrol is a very powerful chemical that seems to protect against the body's inflammatory process, as it relates to ageing, cognition [brain function] and hearing loss. Hearing loss affects half of people over the age of 60, but many begin to suffer problems in their 40s or 50s. It usually sets in with the death of tiny 'hair' cells in the inner ear as a result of ageing.

The study found that resveratrol reduced noise-induced hearing loss in rats exposed to potentially deafening sounds. Dr Seidman said: 'We've shown that by giving animals resveratrol, we can reduce the amount of hearing and cognitive decline.' The study is published in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Last month, scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reported that washing down red meat with a glass of red can actually prevent the build-up of cholesterol in the body. The researchers, from the study found that after eating red or dark meat, compounds called malondialdehyde accumulate in the blood stream. These can help to form the type of cholesterol that can raise the risk of heart disease.

Meanwhile drinking a large glass of red wine every day could help prevent bowel cancer, Leicester University researchers said recently.

Napa's 2012 Grape Crop Sets Records

This week's article, written by NapaValleyRegister.com's L. Pierce Carson, is all about California's 2012 record setting grape harvest.

The reason area growers have been all smiles since last fall came to light Friday with the release of state-gathered statistics for the 2012 grape crop.

Not only did the value of Napa County’s harvest increase by leaps and bounds to $648 million, tonnage jumped by 50 percent to a record of 181,183 tons.

Grape prices, on the whole, remained relatively constant, save for a 9 percent hike in the average paid for a ton of cabernet sauvignon grapes. So, the huge jump in the overall value of last fall’s crop can be attributed for the most part to record tonnage.

Released midday Friday by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the preliminary 2012 grape crush report shows Napa’s 2012 crop weighed 383 tons more than the previous record of 180,800 tons crushed in 2005.

“The tonnage is simply amazing,” noted Mike Fisher, partner with St. Helena’s Global Wine Partners. “I’d heard people talking about crop totals being up 20 percent. We have a vineyard in Rutherford that was up 50 percent ... all of this was borne out in (the report’s) total tonnage. It’s been a good year for everybody.”

“(Napa Valley’s) growers are wearing big smiles as they walk to the bank,” added industry analyst George Schofield. “The bankers should  be opening the doors for these guys.”

Schofield maintains 2012 was “a fantastic year” for the wine industry. He was surprised that prices increased at all, especially for cabernet sauvignon, due to the bumper crop. “But don’t expect the same thing next year,” he added. “There should be a bit of a slowdown in prices because of this (harvest) ... (but) I suspect there’ll be a shorter crop this year.”

He doesn’t expect there will be a lot of wine for the bulk market because this year’s bumper crop is making up for wine shortages in both 2010 and 2011.

Tonnage skyrockets

The record 2012 grape harvest weighed in at 181,183 tons, half again as much as last years total of 121,137 tons. Crop value grew by 57 percent, clocking in at $648 million compared to the $412 million grapes brought in last year.

Cabernet sauvignon remains the king of all Napa County grapes, with tonnage up by 40 percent to 70,935 tons cabernet sauvignon accounts for 39 percent of the entire Napa Valley grape crop.

At an average of $5,101 per ton, the price for Napa cabernet was up by slightly more than 9 percent last year, according to the state report. The price paid for Napa cabernet is more than twice what’s paid per ton of cabernet in Sonoma County, noted Sue Brewster, who works with Schofield in analyzing trends and issues in industry reports.

Chardonnay tonnage in the valley also was up 51 percent over last year to 31,791 tons. The average price per ton was $2,363, a hike of 4 percent.

Brewster said Napa growers receive, on average, 25 percent more revenue per ton of chardonnay than their counterparts in Sonoma do.

The valley’s other early maturing Burgundy variety, pinot noir, registered a record crop of 11,696 tons, nearly doubling in size last year, right on the heels of a significant decline of 20 percent in 2011. The price of a ton of pinot noir dropped by 1 percent to $2,485, the only price drop of the major valley grape varieties last year.

Growers harvested 75 percent more sauvignon blanc last year than they did in 2011, with total tonnage listed at 14,788. The price for sauvignon blanc rose by 2 percent, to an average of $1,881 per ton.

Merlot production was up by 51 percent, as 24,977 tons were crushed in valley wineries last year. The average price for a ton of merlot rose by 3 percent to $2,662.

Additional tonnages — that increased significantly for all — and average prices paid for other Napa Valley grape varieties in 2012 include:

• Muscat blanc, 404 tons, $1,833, indicating the growing popularity of this grape variety.

• Pinot blanc, 982 tons, $1,914.

• Semillon, 882 tons, $2,598.

• Riesling, 447 tons, $2,654.

• Viognier, 337 tons, $3,098.

• Cabernet franc, 4,000 tons, $5,053, an average price not far below that for cabernet sauvignon.

• Malbec, 2,384 tons, $4,021.

• Petit verdot, 2,862 tons, $4,774.

• Petite sirah, 3,483 tons, $3,286.

• Syrah, 2,955 tons, $3,039.

• Zinfandel, 5,358 tons, $3,024.

The highest price paid for a ton of grapes in Napa County was for the variety, refosco, widely grown in Friuli, in northeastern Italy. The grower who planted refosco was paid $5,500 per ton for the fruit, but only five acres of refosco are planted in Napa Valley.

“Internationally, I think we’re standing in good stead,” Schofield declared. “Other (wine-producing) countries didn’t have such great crops last year. But there’s still a lot of bulk wine flowing in, especially from Argentina, so it’s no time to be complacent.”

Sonoma and state statistics

The value of the grape crop in neighboring Sonoma County was up even more than in Napa, jumping by 68 percent to $581 million. Last year’s Sonoma crush was valued at $345 million. Last fall’s Sonoma harvest weighed in at 266,124 tons — an increase of 100,000 tons over 2011.

Sonoma’s chardonnay crop was 50 percent heavier in 2012, weighing in at 80,879 tons, while the total cabernet sauvignon crop was up by 40 percent, to 46,770 tons.

Grape prices for these two varieties remained relatively stable in Sonoma County last year — $1,894 per ton for chardonnay and $2,311 for a ton of cabernet sauvignon, the latter an increase of about $200 a ton.

Statewide, the 2012 grape crush also set records. Tonnage was up by 13 percent to 4,383,100 tons, which is 1 percent higher than the previous record high in 2005. Red wine grape varieties accounted for the largest share of all grapes crushed, at 2.3 million tons, up 19 percent. The 2012 white winegrape crush totaled  1.7 million tons, up 21 percent from 2011.

Last year, chardonnay accounted for the largest percentage of California’s harvest volume at 16.8 percent. Cabernet sauvignon was second at 11.3 percent of the total crush.

While prices in Napa and Sonoma counties were up minimally, that wasn’t the case statewide. The average price paid for a ton of California grapes last year was a record high of $734, up 24 percent from 2011. The average price paid for red wine grapes increased by 24 percent to $879, while the average price paid for white wine grapes was $624, a hike of 21 percent.

Grapes grown in Napa County received the highest average price statewide again last year — $3,579 per ton, up 5 percent from the previous year. Sonoma County growers received the second highest return of $2,182, up 5 percent from 2011.

“The 2012 crop delivered an economic boon for California,” noted John Aguirre, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers.

“Average record high winegrape prices combined with the largest ever winegrape crop, means the 2012 harvest was worth $950 million more than the prior year,” Aguirre said. “As a result, growers will shore up their finances and invest in their businesses, which means more income and economic activity in the many communities where winegrape production is strongest.”

The Three Biggest Health Myths in Wine

This article by Jennifer Fielder from Wine Spectator, originally posted here, debunks three of the most prevalent wine myths.

Of all the health-related questions that end up in the Wine Spectator electronic mailbag, some get asked with a you-can-set-your-watch-by-it type of regularity. We've answered them before, and we'll answer them again, but I thought I'd address these topics here with the help of Dr. Andrew Waterhouse, professor of enology at the University of California at Davis, to weigh in on the three most enduring topics.

Health Myth No. 1: Wine contains a lot of sugar

It's easy to see where this theory may have started. Grapes have sugar. Wine is made from grapes. Therefore, all wine has sugar? Not so. "If a wine is considered dry, the amount of sugar consumed is quite small," said Waterhouse. The fermentation process for dry wines eliminates almost all the sugar and converts it to alcohol.

Let's go to the data: The USDA Nutrition Database lists the amount of sugar in a 5-ounce serving of red table wine at just 0.91 grams. Not to pick on orange juice, but an average 8-ounce serving of the stuff contains 20.9 grams of sugar, so 5 ounces of orange juice contains nearly 14 times as much sugar as the same amount of dry red wine.

However, if you're a diabetic looking to understand how alcohol affects your blood sugar levels, that's an entirely different question complicated by the rest of your diet, activity levels and insulin therapy. Even medical practitioners have divided outlooks here: Waterhouse pointed out that in the United States, the convention has been to discourage diabetic patients from drinking, but not so in the United Kingdom. (Recent research suggests that moderate alcohol consumption, which can temporarily lower blood sugar levels, is associated with a lower risk of developing diabetes.) If you're concerned about how wine affects your blood sugar levels, you should talk to your doctor to find the best approach for you.

Health Myth No. 2: Sulfites in wine cause headaches

Headaches caused by wine consumption are a real problem for some folks. Sulfites—which can occur naturally in wine and are also often added as a preservative to wine and foods such as dried fruits—incorrectly often bear the brunt of the blame. "There is no medical evidence that sulfites cause headaches," said Waterhouse.

Only a very small percentage of the population has a true allergic reaction to sulfites, and that allergic reaction ranges from rashes to breathing problems—not headaches. Wine-triggered headache research has identified many possible culprits other than sulfites, including histamines, daily stress, any number of compounds in wine or the alcohol itself.

But as Waterhouse noted, "Everyone is very ready to draw conclusions [about sulfites and headaches] from their own experience." For the true believers in a link between the two, he concedes no study has been done to address this query. Don't hold your breath, he said: "As far as we know yet, no one has died yet from 'sulfite headaches,' so the NIH [National Institutes of Health] is not rushing to study this."

Health Myth No. 3: We know what component of wine promotes health

Studies on the correlation between the consumption of wine (or a substance in wine) and disease X or disease Y seem to come out every other week  (See this round-up for examples.) As such, we get many questions that ask, "Which wine is the healthiest for my particular condition?"

But Waterhouse said, "These studies can't prove that a particular substance in a wine is the causal factor." The reason is that "the best data is epidemiological data"—from studying large populations of individuals over time and determining patterns of disease. You can imagine the number of variables involved with this type of study: how much a person exercises, what they eat, what else they drink, and how all those factors interact. So pinpointing whether health benefits are due to alcoholic beverages in general or wine in particular, much less a particular substance in wine, is a challenge.

So it's something of a moot point to try to determine what type of wine is "healthier" because it's rich in substance A or B. The amount of any compound in an individual wine can vary not only by grape or region, but by growing-season conditions, viticultural techniques or winemaking practices. And different compounds could have different benefits.

One relationship that the data shows? "Most experts are willing to say that non-drinking is a risk factor for dying from cardiovascular disease," Waterhouse said. "The effect is quite substantial. … If you look at 10,000 people, a mix of [moderate] drinkers and non-drinkers, half as many people will die in the drinking group. That is really clear."

Wine Press: How does oak affect our passion for wine?

Today's news article, originally posted here, comes from Roy Williams over at Daily Press.  Roy tells us the ins and outs of how oak affects wine.

I have often wondered why winemakers put their wines, white or red, in oak barrels and age them for sometimes months at a time.

The University of California Davis recently conducted a seminar on oak management and wine sensory issues. It looked at the use of oak barrels and oak adjuvants such as oak staves and oak powder with regard to how the oak may affect the wine’s chemical composition, aroma and flavors.

To me, the aroma of a wine is the “smell” of the specific grape varietal. But this very sensitive element can be easily influenced by the winemaking techniques and the use of oak barrels.

One obvious question is: why were oak barrels chosen to store wine in the beginning? The barrel is a perfect container to age wine in and is easily moved around manually. The answer seems to be related to the fact that oak barrels do not leak if properly coopered.

One of the most intriguing questions that was discussed at this seminar was what would have been the impact on wine tastes and wine’s appeal if a different tree had been chosen for barrel production. Has the effects of the oak barrel basically defined our tastes for different styles of wine?

Most European oak barrels are made from the Quercus petrea or Quercus robur while Quercus alba or the white oak is the main species used in American oak barrels. Today a good French oak barrel sells for around $1,000 a barrel and many of these barrels can only be used for several years before they lose their ability to enhance the flavors of the wine.

Oak barrels are usually toasted using a fire placed inside the open barrel, and the time of exposure and intensity of the fire will determine the level of toast in the barrel. You can create a light toast, a medium toast and the heavy toast. The heavier the toast, the more impact the barrel will have of the flavor components of the wine.

These flavor impacts are more pronounced in white wines than in red wines mainly because red wines are more complex and heavier in body. White wines may be fermented in stainless steel or in the oak barrel but red wines are typically fermented and aged in oak barrels and thus may have a greater expression of the oak sensory components.

So, exactly what does the toasted oak barrel do to the wine? The alcohol content of the wine also has an important effect on the transfer of the flavor components from the barrel to the wine. The most important class of oak factors that influence the flavor profile of the wine are related to what is known as the volatile oak compounds in the toasted inner surface of the barrel.

One of these is eugenol, which provides a smokey, spicy and clove element to the wine. Then there is furfural, which introduces that toasty, toasted almond and butterscotch flavors to some wines. Of course there is vanillan, which adds a taste of vanilla and oak to the wine.Another class of volatile compounds includes the lactones that produce the woody and coconut flavors in some wines.

It has been shown that the impact or effects of the oak barrel diminishes after four uses of the barrel and some elements like vanillan seem to be lost after just 12 months of wine contact. When you go to a winery and walk through the wine cellar, look at the face of each barrel and you will see either an L for light toast, an M for medium toast or an H for heavy toast.

It would appear that after many years and considerable research and discussion, the oak barrel is now viewed by many winemakers as a flavor component in today’s winemaking. Much of the American wine culture has been somewhat addicted to the “oaky” style of many wines, and I have often met wine lovers who are turned off by wines that do not project some level of oak. Many wine lovers are looking for that toasty, oaky, buttery chardonnay and nothing will ever take its place.

Over the past several years, I think we have seen a change in attitude with regard to high levels of alcohol in wine and the increasing levels of oak of many wines, especially some of our California favorites. A number of wineries throughout the world are now producing un-oaked white wines that are created using stainless steel fermentation techniques and very little, if any, contact with oak barrels. The flavor profile of these wines is quite different — refreshing and easy on the palate. In my opinion these un-oaked white wines are more food-friendly since we know that the oak component in the wine is often very hard to manage in food and wine pairing.

Here is an experiment you can try. The next time you are in your wine shop, ask the owner for a bottle of un-oaked chardonnay and a bottle of a good oaky chardonnay from California. Try them side by side and let me know what you think.

I wonder, as did some of the attendees at this UC Davis seminar, if our taste preference would be different if oak had not been used in barrel production in the beginning. But I think our love affair with oak will be around for a long time.

Dessert Wine Pairings

Ahh, the holidays. A time when we're not afraid to loosen our belts a couple notches and allow ourselves to indulge a little more than we normally would the rest of the year. With all the tempting cookies, cakes and other sweet desserts filling our tables, how could we not? Here's a guide to what wines to serve with the desserts on your holiday table.

A couple basic rules on dessert pairings: You should never serve a dessert food that's sweeter than the wine you plan to serve it with. For example, don't serve a light Riesling with a rich, dark chocolate lava cake - much like a Chardonnay with a barbecued steak, the flavors will clash. Also, if you're serving a large, lavish dinner, and the meal with a lighter wine, as opposed to a heavy, super-sweet full-bodied wine.

A good rule of thumb according to some wine experts is that as the color of the desserts get darker, so do the wines.

Rieslings and Sparkling Wines: Work well with vanilla flavors, and custard-filled pastries. The wine will play off the buttery flavors in the pastry.

Sauternes: Tend to go well with light fruity desserts that include peaches or apples. Also, if you're serving a sauterne you may want to skip the sweets entirely and choose instead to lay out some cheese. Sauternes and Roquefort cheese are a match made in heaven. Try other blue-veined cheese like Stilton or Gorgonzola.

Moscato or Muscat: Wines are made to be drank with fruity desserts. Also pair them with a sweet Mascarpone Cheese.

Madeira: Is another wine that would be well-suited to a nice plate of cheese. Also working with the blue-veined cheeses, Gruyere's nutty characteristics will work wonderfully with Madeira. You may also try serving Madeira with a nut-based dessert.

Ports: A classic pair, a nice port compliments chocolate fantastically. Both sweet and rich, they'll dance in your mouth. Any dessert with nuts will also go great with port, which tends to have a has a nutty flavor on its own. Walnuts work especially well because they are tannic, and the sweetness of the port will counteract that.

Ice Wine: I've read Ice Wine referred to as "a dessert in itself," so pour a glass of this and enjoy it for the rich treat it is!

Wine 101: Decanting

It's the time of year when we're entertaining more frequently, and we're looking to make a nice presentation for our guests. What better time to dust off your decanter to display the rich hues of your pinots? However, a decanter's role at the table does not only have to do with presentation.

Simply, a decanter is a container, usually glass, that you pour a bottle of wine into to let it "breathe" before you drink it. Decanters are widely available in many different sizes and shapes, from economy-priced versions to ornately engraved crystal, I've even seen decanters shaped like tree branches.

Generally we decant wine for two main reasons: To release aromas, and control sediment.

When you have an older bottle of wine that is aged and ready to drink, there is very often a lot of sediment at the bottom of the bottle that is perfectly harmless and natural, but not very pleasant to see trickling up bottom of your glass when you take the last sip. When decanting an older bottle, make sure to stand the bottle up for a few hours to allow the sediment to settle to the bottom of the bottle. After you open the wine, slowly pour it into the decanter and let it sit for a little while. A great majority of the sediment will remain in the bottle itself, and what little hasn't will settle to the bottom of the decanter and stay there instead of being poured into the glasses, so you can enjoy your sediment-free wine.

You know how when you taste wine, you're supposed to pour only a little into the glass and swirl it around before you sniff it? Decanting is the same thing on a larger scale. Decanting, like swirling, allows the wine to come into contact with oxygen in the air, which releases the delicate aromas that have been trapped in the bottle. Since our sense of smell is so intricately connected with our sense of taste, this enhances flavor as well as aroma.

And, as mentioned, one last reason to decant is presentation. When entertaining, a decanter can enhance the look and feel of the table and allow you and your guests to see the color of the wine being served.

The Real Reason Wine Goes with Cheese Revealed

While most of us don't think twice while we sip wine and nibble on cheese, there actually is a real, chemical, biological reason as to why it tastes so good!

Wine goes with cheese. Meat sandwiches go with a pickle. Green tea goes with Asian food. Sushi goes with pickled ginger. Oil goes with vinegar. Soda goes with chips. Many of the world's most beloved food combinations pair an astringent food, which causes the mouth to pucker up, with a fatty food, which makes the mouth feel slippery.

But why? "The kernel of this idea of pairing astringents with fats is found in gastronomies all over the planet, but it's never been clear how or why these pairings work," said Paul Breslin, an experimental psychologist at Rutgers University and Monell Chemical Senses Center who studies taste perception.

In a new paper published online Oct. 8 in the journal Cell, Breslin and colleagues propose a theory of food pairings that explains for the first time how astringent and fatty foods oppose one another to create a balanced "mouthfeel."

Because fat is oily, eating it lubricates the mouth, making it feel slick or even slimy, Breslin said. Meanwhile, astringents, chemical compounds such as the tannins in wine and green tea, make the mouth feel dry and rough. They do this by chemically binding with lubricant proteins present in saliva, causing the proteins to clump together and solidify, and leaving the surface of the tongue and gums without their usual coating of lubrication.

We don't like slimy, but we don't like puckered up, either. "We want our mouth to be lubricated but not overly lubricated," Breslin told LiveScience. "In our study, we show that astringents reduce the lubricants in the mouth during a fatty meal and return balance."

Although this food-pairing idea had been proposed before, it was a mystery how that balance might actually be struck, because wine, green tea and the other widely consumed astringents are only mildly astringent. No one knew how they managed to cut the fat as well as they do.

The researchers discovered that astringents have a stronger effect each time the mouth is exposed to them. Every time study participants took a sip of green tea, for example, they perceived it to be more astringent than during the previous sip, indicating that the astringents were reacting more strongly with the lubricating proteins in their mouths upon each exposure. This growth in astringency is why, even though tea and wine have only a weak effect at first, sipping them throughout a fatty meal eventually enables the astringents to counterbalance the strong lubricating effect of the fat.

A second experiment supported this conclusion. When the study participants alternated their sips of tea with bites of salami, the perceived slipperiness of their mouths (caused by the fatty salami) gradually decreased as they took more sips. When they sipped water, by contrast, the slimy feeling in their mouths continued to build.

The importance of repeated exposure explains why we don't tend to gulp down an entire glass of wine then eat our entire steak. Nor do we polish off our whole pickle before setting into our sandwich. The new research justifies the widespread use of astringent foods as "palate cleansers" that people sample throughout a meal.

This general principle of yin and yang food pairings goes part of the way in explaining gastronomy, but what about the specifics? Why do we pair sushi with pickled ginger rather than with a soda, despite the fact that they're both astringents? And why does cheese seem to taste better with red wine than with green tea? As Breslin put it, "Is there something to the idea that a particular astringent and a particular fatty food go together?"

The famous pairings could simply be cultural accidents — a matter of which foods were available in which regions. But Breslin said it's also possible that cultures have unknowingly worked out the most balanced pairings based on the chemical properties of the foods.

"Different kinds of astringents give rise to different rates of growth of astringency. As you repeatedly sample them, one will have a steep rise and the other a shallow rise," he said. "It could be that there's a particular mixing of an astringent and a fatty food that determines how strong the astringent is going to be and how quickly it gets there. This is a mystery of gastronomy."

This article was originally written by Natalie Wolchover and published on livescience.com

A Toast for any Occasion

Wine Manager Debbie Miller Nelson is always getting questions on her recommendations for gift wines for various special events. She put together this blog for you to help guide you along your way! If you don't see anything here that suits your fancy, see Debbie, Brandon or one of our other knowledgeable managers to help you out with some more suggestions!

Women are doing some cool things with wine. Many of you may have never attended a bridal shower before, since this is largely a female-oriented party for new brides, but I want to share with you a popular gift given to the bride at her bridal shower, the wine poem.

A typical bridal shower poem can be Googled and there are several to choose from that highlight different milestones in a couple’s journey from first kiss to first house, first baby, etc. I wanted to blog about this, because it’s VERY popular and I’m often asked by various female customers to help them select the wines to go with the poem. I’m not a poet, so here is a sample excerpt I found on amazingbridalshowers.com:

Wedding Night
The night you have dreamed of is finally here
The future surrounds you with hope and yet fear
You’ve wanted so long to find your perfect mate
Sip this wine and toast this perfect date
The night is meant for you to share
Enjoy each other – a perfect pair!!

First Fight
When fights occur and tempers get hot
Pour a glass and be thankful for what you’ve got
If you always agreed it would certainly be a bore
And by asking for Krissy’s hand Bernie is surely
in for more!

First Anniversary
Been married a year, where did the time go?
No longer newlyweds, now you are pros
Hope the days found you in good health and good spirit
Keep saying I love you –
one always needs to hear it!
Now toast this first date, it’s certainly not the last
And as you build your future don’t ever forget the past!

You get the idea? Below are some wines I put together to help you with your next poem and to give you new ideas to help write your own, unique and personal poem.

First Kiss: Butterfly Kiss Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Pink Pinot Grigio (California)
Engagement: Little Black Dress Wines (California)
Wedding Day: Monogamy Cabernet Sauvignon (California)
First Fight: Fisticuffs Cabernet Sauvignon (California)
First Winter Holiday: Four Sisters Holiday Seasoned (NJ)
First Anniversary: Chocolate Box Dark Chocolate Shiraz (Australia)
First House: House Red and House White (Washington)
First Summer Vacation: The Beach House Red and White (South Africa) or The Shore Wines (California)
First “Honey-do” List: Tait “The Ballbuster” Red (Australia)
First Baby: Mommy’s Time Out and Dad’s Day Off (Italy)

Let the Joe Canal’s Wine Staff help you pick out some of these selections when planning your next Bridal Shower or other unique selections for the big day!

Winemaker Bruce Taylor Visits Joe Canal's Woodbridge

We had a very special visitor stop by our Woodbridge store yesterday! New Zealand Winemaker Bruce Taylor found time in his busy schedule to come and see us and speak with us about the award-winning Sauv Blanc from TOHU! Check out the video shelf talker with Wine Manager Debbie Miller Nelson, below!

Refresh yourself with bubbly cocktails!

Prosecco is a term applied to a crisp sparkling white wine as well as the grape that is used to make it. The Prosecco grape is primarily grown in a region of Italy known as Veneto. It is also grown in the Valdobbiadene and Conegliano wine regions, both north of Venice.

Generally much less expensive than its sparkling French counterpart, Prosecco lends itself wondefully as the main ingredient in a number of refreshing cocktails that are perfect for these sizzling mid-August days.

Check out howbooks.com list of the Top 5 Best Prosecco Cocktails, and let us know your favorite!

Blissini
This recipe is a variation of the popular Bellini cocktail. You will need:
1 ½ cups of chilled Prosecco, 1 ½ cups of chilled orange juice, 1 ½ cups of chilled pomegranate juice and mint leaves for garnish.
Prepare 4 champagne glasses by chilling them. In a pitcher, mix the above ingredients. Pour into each glass and garnish with a mint leaf.

Raspberry-Lemon Prosecco Cocktail
This summery treat mixes the tartness of lemonade, the sweetness of raspberries and the bubbly Prosecco for a drink that is perfect for a warm summer evening. You will need:
¼ cup of sugar, ¼ cup of fresh lemon juice, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon rind, 2 bottles of Prosecco, 1 cup of fresh raspberries.
First you will need to prepare the lemon syrup. Combine sugar and lemon juice in a small pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Stir in rind. Cover and refrigerate overnight then strain the rinds out before mixing.
You want to combine the lemon syrup with the bottles of Prosecco. A punch bowl or 2 large pitchers will be ideal for this. Add the raspberries to the mixture. Serve immediately.

Due Campari
This recipe not only uses Prosecco, but also uses bitters! You will need:
4 ounces of Prosecco, ¾ ounce of Campari bitters, and ¾ ounce of lemon juice.
Shake lemon juice and Campari bitters well over ice cubes in a shaker. Strain into a chilled champagne flute. Fill to the top with Prosecco. Serve and enjoy!

Bold Chieftain
If you are looking for a great celebratory cocktail with a kick, the Bold Chieftain will be the way to go! You will need:
½ ounce whiskey, ½ ounce orange liqueur (Contreau is an example), your favorite Prosecco and an orange twist for garnish.
In a champagne flute mix the whiskey and orange liqueur. Fill the rest of the glass with Prosecco. Zest an orange into the glass, add an orange twist and drink immediately.

Amore Frizzante
A superb cocktail when made of the finest ingredients, the Amore Frizzante is a fruity delight. You will need:
1 ounce of premium vodka, ½ ounce of high quality orange liqueur, ½ ounce peach nectar, Prosecco. For garnish – sliced peaches and raspberries.
Pour the vodka, orange liqueur, and peach nectar into a chilled shaker filled with ice. Strain into a champagne flute and fill to the top with Prosecco. Garnish with a sliced peach and 2 raspberries.

Bonus: Traditional Bellini Recipe
We couldn’t discuss Prosecco without telling you how to make a Bellini! They are simple and can be made in less than a minute! You need: Prosecco and fresh peach puree.
Mix the drink one part peach puree to 2 parts Prosecco. Serve in a chilled champagne flute.

Wine 101: Riesling

Every month or so, I get together for a childless night out with my Best Friend. We always go out for sushi and I always provide the wine. Tonight I think I'll go with an easy-drinking, semi-sweet Riesling. I love it with sushi! The more Riesling I drink, the more I become a fan of it in all its different styles.

Although Riesling is growing exponentially in popularity and is being made in other countries such as France, Australia, New Zealand, Austria and the US, for the purposes of this blog, I'm going to be focusing on German Rieslings.

Riesling is considered to be one of the world's great white wine grapes. It's a native of Germany, where it's believed to have been cultivated for 500, and possibly as long as 2,000, years. Three common characteristics of German Riesling are that they are rarely blended with other varieties, hardly ever exposed to commercial yeast and usually never exposed to oak flavor (although some wine regions have begun to experiment with oak aging).

Although many people have the misconception that Riesling is strictly a sweet wine, Rieslings are made in a variety of styles, ranging from dry to very sweet.

The driest style is called Kabinett. The grapes are picked when they are just fully ripe. They have a light and elegant character, and are generally semi-sweet by default but can also be dry or off-dry.

Spatlese style is made from grapes that have sat on the vine a little longer, and have gotten riper and have a higher amount of sugar. This results, naturally, in a sweeter wine, but still not one you'd break out to have with your chocolate cake.

Auslese is sweeter still, and is sometimes considered to be a dessert wine. Auslesen can be enjoyed as an aperitif, but are usually best accompanied with food, particularly those that exhibit the hearty characteristics of German cuisine.

Then we get to the actual dessert Rieslings: Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese. The grapes used to make these styles have been left on the vine for a much longer period of time, and generally infected with a certain type of fungus called Botrytis cinerea. This is known as noble rot. This produces a fine and intensely sweet, concentrated wine.

If you're looking for a great white wine, pick up a bottle of Riesling the next time you're in the store. It goes great with fish and pork, and can stand up to the bolder flavors of Thai or Chinese cuisine. The sharp acidity/sweetness in Rieslings can serve as a good balance to foods that have a high salt content. In Germany, cabbage is sometimes cooked with riesling to reduce the vegetable's smell. Serve Riesling as you would most other whites - chilled to about 50 degrees.

Temperature Matters

The temperature is soaring into the high 90s in New Jersey this week, and we're cranking up the A/C to make ourselves more comfortable.

What about those bottles that have been sitting on your counter? Well, temperature matters to those, too, and if you don't take care of your wines, you could be left with some not-so-fantastic tasting wine come October.

The ideal storage temperature of wine is 50 to 55 degrees fahrenheit, but a range of 45 to 70 degrees is considered completely acceptable. What's important is that the storage temperature remain constant or, if it changes, that the change not be drastic. The warmer temperatures of the summer cause wine to age faster, so if you're the type that doesn't care much for AC unless it's unbearable, now might be the time to relocate those special bottles you're saving to your cooler basement for a while. If you're like me and don't have a basement, very wine refrigerators are available for under $100. They hold, generally, around 16 bottles of wine and are compact enough to keep on your kitchen counter.

When we're serving pink and white wines during these warm summer months, the ideal temperature to serve them at is somewhere between 40 and 55 degrees, depending on the complexity of the wine's flavor. More intricately flavored wines should be served on the warmer side of this range in order to fully reveal their full scope of aromas and flavors.

Chilling or cooling wine can be accomplished by placing the bottle in the refrigerator for 1 or 2 hours, depending on the desired final temperature. OR wine can be chilled in about 20 minutes by submerging the bottle in an ice (or wine) bucket filled with half cold water and half ice. If the bucket isn't tall enough for the ice and water to cover the bottle's neck, invert the bottle for the last 5 minutes, as long as there isn't a lot of sediment in the bottle. If you're serving the wine on your deck or patio for dinner, bring the ice bucket outside to keep the wine cold. Conversely, wines that are too cold can be quickly but gently warmed by placing the bottle in a bucket of warm water for about 5 minutes.

Summertime, Sangria time!

This Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial kickoff of the summer season!  Why don't you whip up some nice, cold, refreshing Sangria for your friends and family to enjoy while they sit on the patio? White or red, this refreshing iced wine drink is a favorite at barbecues, and pitchers full of fun!

Sangria was born in Spain and is traditionally made with red wine, brandy and fruits. While Sangria was only introduced in the United States at the World's Fair in 1964, the drink has been around for centuries. A few weeks ago I posted about how beer was considered "safe" to drink because water was often contaminated - well, the same is true for Sangria. Many families would make their own wine from fruits and berries, and then they'd add other fruits and spices to change the drink up and add new, interesting flavors.

Although traditional Sangria is made with red wines, white Sangria, known as zurra in southern Spain, is becoming more popular.

Although pre-made Sangrias are available and popular, the best Sangrias are the ones you make yourself, with things you like! At Joe Canal's in summers past, we've whipped up batches of the following two recipes for tastings. This 4th of July weekend in our Woodbridge location, we'll be serving it again! Come visit us on Friday from 4 - 6 or Saturday from 1 - 3!

Protocolo Red Sangria
-2 bottles Protocolo Red Wine (750 mL)
-1/2 cup Cointreau
-1/2 cup Christian Brothers Brandy
-1/2 cup Iceberg Silver Rum
-Juice of 1 large lemon
-Juice of 1 medium lime
-2 tablespoons sugar
-1 1/2 tablespoons Tabasco Sauce (optional)
-Club soda or ginger ale to taste
-1 small orange, sliced thin
-1 small lemon, sliced thin
-1 small lime, sliced thin
-1 can of chunk pineapple

Mix the wine, Cointreau, brandy, rum, citrus juices and sugar in a large pitcher. Refrigerate overnight. Immediately before serving add in the Tabasco sauce (if you like), club soda, ginger ale, orange, lemon and lime slices and chunk pineapple. Serve over ice.

Zack's White Sangria Recipe

-2 bottles Gazela Vinho Verde
-2-3 cups Pinnacle Vodka (to taste)
-3 cups Stirrings Peach Bellini
-2 bunches basil, plus more for garnish
-1 pint blueberries
-4 large, ripe peaches, diced

Bruise one basil bunch with a muddler and combine it in a small saucepan with the Stirrings Peach Bellini. Let it slightly boil, then simmer until basil is infused. Pull out the basil leaves and let the mixture cool. In a large pitcher or punch bowl, mix in vodka, the peach/basil concoction and the Vinho Verde. Mix thoroughly; add the peaches, blueberries and the fresh bunch of basil.

Revisiting Sushi Wines

Our office manager, Karen, is indulging in a sushi dinner tonight at a local restaurant. She was asking around for suggestions, and of course the first thing to come to mind is the traditional sushi beverage, sake!

Sake is a traditional Japanese wine made from rice. Its roots are debated, but sake was first documented in the Kojiki, Japan's first written history, which was compiled in 712! Sake is made with a special kind of rice that's different from other rices that are made to be eaten. Sake rice has less protein and fat, and a special inner layer of starch. Sake rice is polished before it's brewed to remove the outer coating and leave only the starch, since it improves the taste of the starch dramatically. Different types of rice make different types of sake, and over 80 varieties of sake rice are grown in Japan!

Sake is unlike traditional wine, where the sugars present in fruit are converted to alcohol through fermentation. Sake, like beer, gets the sugars that are converted to alcohol from starch rather than fruit. Sake is traditionally higher in alcohol than other wines, averaging at around 15% - 16% alcohol.

I'd heard that sake was pretty much an acquired taste and that it was kinda harsh to drink. At first sip, I understood what everyone meant. However, like the acidic red I wrote about a few weeks ago paired with my spaghetti sauce, the sake transformed into something wonderful when I took a sip after I had a bite of sushi. What was very strong and tannic became almost sweet on my taste buds. It was delicious!

I also advised Karen that a wine I've enjoyed many times with sushi is the great, every day value Fado White. At only $4.99 a bottle in our Bottle Club, you can't go wrong choosing this easy-drinking Portuguese blend. It's crisp, dry, and full of refreshing citrus fruit that will pair beautifully with your Japanese feast.