All Wines Need Not Be Great – Some Wines Just Need to Be Good

Posted on May 4, 2013 by mg

“All wines need not be great. Some wines just need to be good.”

Read this mantra and sip. Then read again and sip.

It may be unexpected, coming from a guy who’s made his career – his life, really – out of the experience of wine, but it is one of the adages I live my life by. And here’s why: I think too many people think that for a wine to be worth tasting, worth drinking, it has to be a mind-blowing experience in its own right.

I understand that 12% of Americans drink 90% of the wine in this country, meaning most people reserve wine for special occasions, and on those occasions, they’re looking for a wine to match. And trust me, as someone who tastes through hundreds of wines each month, when a wine that’s truly awesome presents itself, it’s certainly a moment to savor and remember.

But honestly, do we really need our every experience with wine to be mind-blowing? Don’t we sometimes just need to relax, get comfortable, and sip something that doesn’t necessarily put our sensations into high gear?

The joy of wine is in its diversity, in the fact that you can find a wine to pair with any experience. Just as you try to avoid pairing your meal with a wine that will overpower the taste of the food you’re eating, perhaps we need to give more weight to how wines pair with our moods, our needs in a particular moment.

We all have guilty pleasures, whether its awful reality tv, cheap Chinese food or whatever else allows us to rest our overworked brains and bodies. We need that! If more among us were open to thinking of wine in the same way, perhaps more of us would be drinking wine a bit more regularly, feeling a little less anxiety when choosing a wine, and experiencing the little pleasures an “everyday” wine has to offer.

Sometimes you want high art, sometimes you want a Guy Fieri marathon, and sometimes a good wine is good enough.

Wine and Food at the Movies

Posted on February 21, 2013 by mg

I think we can all agree that, as a nation, we’ve gone a bit overboard with taking pictures of what we eat and drink. I mean, I love that people are so moved by their plates as to record what’s in front of them for posterity, but when I’m stuck at home eating leftovers, do I really have to open up my Facebook and be subjected to taunting Instagrams to remind of what I’m not eating right now? And watching diners pull out their iPhones at a nice restaurant to document every bite tends to, well, leave a bad taste in my mouth…

But I also think there’s a good reason for our obsession with putting food and drink behind the lens. The best wine and food imagery, particulary when set to the right story in film, can be downright inspiring. So, while I’m quite sure fuzzy, poorly lit pictures of peoples’ epicurean feasts will not cease to appear on social media anytime soon, perhaps we can at least learn a little something from the pros…

As someone in the business of enjoying wine, I often get asked if Sideways is my favorite wine film. The 2004 picture, based on a book by Rex Pickett, created quite a shockwave, not only among the ‘wine elite’ but in the purchasing habits of the entire nation – to answer the obvious question, yes I still drink Merlot! It’s a fantastic film, and does a remarkable job of balancing wine-geek humor with a compelling story that has great appeal for any viewer.

But honors for my favorite film related to wine and food have to go to 1987’s Babette’s Feast. This Danish film not only won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but, like Sideways, affected the wine and foodscapes of the nation and indeed the world. Almost immediately after its release, and throughout its life as something of a cult classic, chefs and home cooks, inspired by Babbette’s banquet, began trying to replicate one of the greatest meals ever created on film. Be on the lookout: more than 25 years after its release, theaters and restaurants still offer Babette’s Feast dinner-and-a-movie events from time to time – it’s well worth the experience!

There are plenty of great food and wine movies to go around. To narrow things down a bit, let’s focus on wine, which seems to take a starring role less often than food, but to no less inspiring effect. So get your wine and popcorn properly paired, and get ready for some of my all-time favorites:

Fiction:

Bottle Shock

The Earth Is Mine

Casblanca

French Kiss

Dr. No

Documentaries:

Mondovino

Corked (a mockumentary, but full of truth none the less!)

From Ground to Glass

Somm (this fantastic doc about four men working to pass the exam to earn the title of Master Sommelier is still playing at festivals and should show up on movie screens later this year)

Shakespeare Wine Quotes

Posted on February 21, 2013 by mg

It’s unlikely that any one person has had so much effect on the way we speak as William Shakespeare. Even those who might read The Bard’s iambic tongue and say ‘it’s Greek to me!’ are using one of his own invented phrases. Even if your ‘salad days’ had you running like ‘the Dickens’ from his work, you see, you can never hide from his words.

Alas, poor reader, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with wine. Well, Shakespeare had quite an affinity for the stuff, and his work is filled with wine references, some of which I’ve collected for you here. So, you see, ‘there’s method in my madness!’…

A man cannot make him laugh – but
that’s no marvel; he drinks no wine
- Henry IV Part 2

Give me a bowl of wine:
I have not that alacrity of spirit,
nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have
- The Tragedy of King Richard the Third

O thou invisible
spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by,
let us call thee devil!
– Othello, the Moor of Venice

Give me a bowl of wine.
In this I bury all unkindness
- Julius Caesar

Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature
if it be well used; exclaim no more against it
– Othello, the Moor of Venice

I am falser than vows made in wine
- As You Like It

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of
- Macbeth

Good wine needs no bush
– As You Like It

Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus with pink eye
– Antony and Cleopatra

The wine-cup is the little silver well,
Where truth, if truth there be, doth dwell

Give me some wine, fill full.
I drink to the whole table
- Macbeth

Here’s to You! How to Make a Perfect Toast

Posted on December 9, 2012 by mg

Depending on its performance, a toast can be either the inspiring instant of the evening, or a cringe-inducing disaster. To help you avoid the latter, I’ve put together some tips to make your stand-up moment a stand-out moment – in a good way!

How to Make a Toast

1. Rehearse.
2. Wait until everyone has a drink.
3. Stand up.
4. Shut the music off.
5. Speak loudly.
6. Look at the person/people you are toasting to.
7. Hold the glass and raise it at the last sentence. (More drama!)
8. Then take a sip and hopefully everyone else will do the same!
9. Shakespeare wrote: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Keep it brief, funny or touching depending on the occasion.
10. Always look someone in the eye when clinking your glass – otherwise there can be consequences…

House Warming Party
vs. Bar-stocking Bash

Posted on September 22, 2012 by dtavares

Are we not talking about bar-stocking parties anymore? Is it a thing of the past, or never was? Lately I’ve decided that bar-stocking parties should completely take over house warming parties as de rigeur. I mean, who really needs another chafing dish or kitchen mitt?

But, a fresh bottle of Rhubarb-flavored vodka or a hard-to-find bottle of craft single malt scotch… Those are the kind of things that say “I want you to enjoy your new house. No really, I want you to ENJOY your new house.”
Trust me, you’ll have an open invitation.

Or if you’re not sure which wine or spirit to choose (but you know they love wine), forego the bottle and offer up a decanter to your hosts. They’ll treasure each bottle they decant and think of you.

My Best Meal This Summer? Taco Truck!

Posted on September 22, 2012 by dtavares

This summer I spent about 10 days in California for a wonderful mini-vacation between stops on the Buick Discovery Tour. Our first California stop was at the Monarch Beach Resort and Spa in Orange County outside San Diego, and our second was a week later at the SLS in Beverly Hills.

Between the events, I took a detour to Sonoma to visit some old friends and do some tasting… and of course eating!

Now, let it be known that I’m an experience-seeker. I like to try new things and feel alive. Sometimes that means skipping the typical and riding off the rails. My first morning in Healdsberg, I was doing my usual odds and ends shopping. I travel light and pick up what I need along the way… you meet interesting locals and discover more!

And that’s exactly how it happened. While grabbing shaving cream at the local Rite Aid, I spotted a little Mexican bodega down the street and decided to take a walk. What a wonderful surprise. Walking into the store felt like walking into a Mexican border town mercado. Fresh tropical fruits and veggies, spices everywhere, bananas hanging. And a cute little deli counter behind which was all these wonderful Mexican delights… homemade salsa and chips, tamales, tacos, carne asada, menudo. Of course I stopped for a bite!

Later, while on my way to Hanna Winery I drove past a food truck. It didn’t take me half a mile to decide to turn around and not let this experience pass me by. So glad I did. The menu was a joy to behold. Chalupas, a variety of tacos, frijoles and arroz, tamales, carnitas, barbacoa. Jackpot!

I ended up sipping and nibbling at plenty of great restaurants in Sonoma… all the way up to Auberge du Soleil at sunset. (One of my favorite sunset spots in the world!) But I gotta tell you… that taco truck was the yummiest experience of the whole trip.

New rule: Don’t pass up the taco truck!