Tamara Talking Tasting Toasting:
A note to help crush your grape fears
...one stomp at a time!

Always remember that wine is not a mysterious liquid to be feared. It has no powers of its own to intimidate those who want to consume it. It is a BEVERAGE for goodness sake! While wine does have many interesting and complex flavors that some people like to talk about, in the end it is only the fermented juice of grapes. Think of wine as a fun portion of grape juice's journey to becoming vinegar.

Wine can be enjoyed on many levels. If you like a particular kind of wine then as far as you should be concerned, it is a good wine. Your taste in wine may evolve over time as you start to be able to appreciate the subtleties and complexities wine can offer but that does not mean you have to stop enjoying your early favorites.

Let's use pasta as an analogy. As a toddler I loved macaroni and cheese. As a teen, I loved spaghetti and meatballs. As an adult, I now love angel hair pasta with asparagus tips, sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese. My taste in pasta has expanded to include more complex dishes but I still enjoy a big bowl of macaroni and cheese now and then.

Taste is totally subjective, so then wine appreciation is, of course, totally subjective. There are things to learn to help you evaluate a wine, but when it comes to your opinion of whether you like a wine, there is no right or wrong answer.

I like to drink Coke, while my husband prefers Pepsi. Who has the better taste in cola? The answer depends on your own preference.

As a final reassurance, in all of my experience I have yet to hear of any arrests made by the wine police. The only consequence of any wine choices you make will be more learning through experience, both good and bad.

Have Fun!

Everyday Tips for Wine Storage:

Treat Your Wine Right

Whether you have wines in your home that cost you $10 a bottle or $100, you certainly want to get your money's worth. Without proper storage, there is a variety of ways that good wine can quickly be turned into expensive vinegar. That does not mean you need to go out and buy an elaborate cellaring system for your wine. You just need to be aware of a few key points. Below are a few reminders of wine's natural enemies.

Beware of storing wine in direct sunlight. The midday sunlight may be attractive glinting off your bottles of Chardonnay but it could spoil your wine. If you have a decorative wine rack, just be sure to display it in a shady area of your home where it can still be admired without damaging the wines.

An overlooked danger to wine is vibration. Shaking things up occasionally may be good for people, but for wine it carries no benefit. Constant vibration can cause a wine to deteriorate prematurely. Imagine hitting old age before ever reaching the prime of your life.

A common place I have seen people store wine is on top of the refrigerator. This is a poor choice for wine storage because a refrigerator is constantly vibrating.

Another enemy of wine is heat, and especially sudden heat. Abrupt temperature changes can wreak havoc on your wine. Ideally you want to store wine between approximately 50-60 degrees. Slow temperature changes should be fine for most wines but a sudden change will most likely ruin your wine.

This is something to be aware of when storing wine in a basement. A basement that is damp, dark, and chilly can make a dream home for your wines. However, if there is a furnace nearby that throws off a lot of heat as it kicks on, you will quickly have the makings of a lot of salad dressing!

Oxidation is one last thing to watch out for when storing wines at home. This can be caused by the cork shrinking, which allows air to get into the wine, causing it to deteriorate. Wine that has oxidized can sometimes have a pronounced brown tinge to the color and taste of cheap sherry.

This can be commonly caused by a dry environment. This is a primary reason it is generally recommended to lay bottles on their sides to keep the cork moist.

An interesting side note is that bottles with synthetic or plastic corks, which we are seeing more often, do not need to be kept moist to avoid shrinking. So, these bottles usually can safely be stored upright. If you are not sure what kind of cork your wine has, then store it on its side to be safe.

So now that you know what your wine does and does not like, bear in mind that if you keep your wine happy at home it will return the favor and do the same for you.

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First Loves: How Did We “Wine-d” Up With Them?

With Valentine's Day approaching I find myself thinking about what makes us love so passionately. We hear about chemistry and personal taste preferences but what is it that plays into these? Wine aficionados can wax poetic (as you will see below) about their beverage of choice in comparable terms to how they describe what drew them to their partner of choice. “First wine love” can be memorable, powerful and sometimes enduring.

For some, love may have arrived in a big flavorful wine that showed all its attributes upfront. A wine meant for fun drinking that does not need evaluation to appreciate what it has to offer. It can be enjoyable in its obvious flavors and what you “see” is what you get personality.

Another style of wine that has been known to make people swoon is one that is almost subtle in its nuanced scent and flavor. It may have offered a bouquet that was unlike any other beverage you had smelled before. It can take time for these wines to open up and show their beauty.

Love can start based on a trendy wine. As you started drinking wine, whatever the “it” wine that was popular at the time may stay a major influence in your taste.

Maybe you lost your heart to wine when you realized how a good bottle can set off a great meal and make your favorite food taste better than you thought possible. Perhaps, your first wine love truly shined in its ability to bring out the best in its food partner.

Many have fallen head over heels for a wine they were drinking during a special moment in their lives and all it takes is a sip of that wine to bring them back there again and again.

People always ask me what my favorite wine is and I never know how to answer because I really do not have one favorite. So many things affect which wine I may feel like drinking at any given time. Where I am, what I am doing, what I am eating, how much time I have to spend, how much money I have, who I am with and just what I am in the mood for all play into why I may choose to drink one wine over another.

However, that being said, in my reflecting back on my own romance with wine I find myself thinking of my own first wine love. I was in my twenties and living with a roommate in NYC who worked for an Australian wine company. Many of the above scenarios played into my “love at first sight” attraction to Shiraz. (Click here to check out the Wine Pairings page for the new update on Shiraz.)

Shiraz was really just coming onto the radar for most Americans, so I felt like a trendsetter which made me feel very “ New York .” I had no cash but the bottles were plentiful--never a bad thing. The wine did not require any extensive analysis to appreciate just how tasty it was. A slice of pizza was often its simple but perfect food complement. To this day I am transported back to the exciting times I had in that apartment on the Upper West Side whenever I taste that particular bottle of Shiraz .

While I cannot say that Shiraz is my absolute favorite wine because I love many wines equally but differently (is it as annoying when I say it here as when your mom would tell you the same thing about your siblings??), I do believe Shiraz will always stand as my first wine love.

As a Valentine's Day gift to myself I think I will purchase that familiar bottle and drink a toast to my first love.

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