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To make your meal more enjoyable. A good glass of wine can make a
boring night at home a great one. But, you don't want to be testing
that out too much. You will end up a lonely drunk if you do.
Let's talk for a minute about what to look for in a wine.
Aroma:
This can tell you the type of grape and the fermentation
process.
Taste:
This will tell you more complex things about the wine. (Of
course!) It will tell you how the wine was aged. Was it aged in oak?
Well, your taste buds will let you know.
Bouquet:
This is the fullness of the aroma. Sometimes you will smell
certain things about a wine that will jump out at you. Maybe it has a
hint of flower smell or smells like a fruit other than a grape.
Acidity:
This is an important one. At least to me it is. This is
when you see how tart a wine is. This is how you come to the
conclusion of what you should serve with this wine. Maybe a sweeter
wine might go with a more fatty dish.
Balance:
This is used to describe the balance of the flavors in the
wine.
Dry: This tells you the absence of the sweetness in the wine.
Tannin: Componets of the wine that dry the mouth after drinking.
Sometimes it will be a sour or bitter taste after the wine is drunk.
Here are some suggested wines:
Champagne
or sparkling wine.
Dry Fino sherry. Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling.
Crisp white ones like Fume Blanc or
California.
It is important that you pick the right wine for the right dish.
If you don't, you will end up with a wine that over powers your meal.
This isn't good because you want the wine to accent the meal. You want
to be able to taste the rest of the food. Fish for example, I would
suggest to you a light crisp wine. Something like a white wine. You
don't want an over powering wine. You have to keep in mind, with most
fish you aren't trying to cut any fat. Also, most fish dishes aren't
too spicy. If anything, they will have a hint of citrus in them. So
keep that in mind.
For strong foods, meats and cheeses, a red wine should be
selected. You should drink this to balance out the flavors. A red wine
will go well with these foods. These foods tend to be powerful foods
on the pallet, so you need something that can cut through them. When
it comes to steak and ribs, I take a very strange route. Most will
think I am nuts or disagree, but that is life. I think with these
foods you shouldn't drink wine. I prefer a strong German beer with
these foods. Generally ribs will be barbecued and be sweet. The rich
strong taste of a good German beer will cut through that. When I go to
a steak house I don't want wine, I want a good beer. I want something
that is chilled, but not too cold. If the beer is too cold, then you
really can't taste it. That is the problem with drinking beer in
America.
All the places serve it way too cold.
I'm going to throw you another curve for this next one too. When
it comes to desert, I don't like wine either. I like a bold rich
stout. I like the deep almost bitter flavor. I like how the almost
bitter taste goes against something sweet. Who said opposites don't
attract? Though, you will probably have a hard time convincing the old
lady that she should drink stout with her slice of pie. To be honest,
it will take you some time to get used to stout. I'm sure the very
first time you taste it, you won't like it. Give it some time, you
will come to love it.
But, since women tend not to like stout, you need to be able to
pick a wine that you can drink with desert. I would suggest that you
drink anything that is fruity. A
Muscat or
a Reisling will go good with desert. Pick a wine that is fruity, that
always goes with sweets. Even after reading this, you are probably
still scratching your head about wine. It is a hard topic to fill in
just one article. What I would suggest that you do is, you should find
a good wine shop that the people who run it know what they are talking
about. Don't go to a place where you see guys drinking bottles covered
by paper bags.
As soon as you find a good wine shop, do all your business there.
They will come to respect your business and they will be more than
happy to help you choose the right wine. Make sure to tell them what
you are going to eat with the wine and what type of flavor of wine you
are looking for. A good wine shop won't have just expensive bottles of
wine. They will have a wide variety of wine. They will have something
for everyone's budget. To be honest, I don't like wine that is
expensive. I tend to think that you aren't really getting a better
wine for the money. Chances are what you are getting is, a bill from
the wine company for advertising. That is why some wines cost more.
They spend more money on advertising and have to pass it along to the
consumer.
Even people on a small budget can
afford a good bottle of wine. Take some time to get to know the wine
shops in your area. You will save time and money if you do so.
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