Wine Round Up

I’m still on vacation, but now with a twist.  I’ve left the farm all by myself, leaving the children and Mrs. Fussy behind, to go on some crazy eating bender, that I can’t quite believe myself.  I may share some of the details later.

But I mention this because
a) Mrs. Fussy isn’t here to copyedit my post
b) I’ve been so full I can’t even think about food when I’m not eating
c) If I don’t get this post up quickly I’ll never get my reliably good cappuccino

Given that, and the fact that it’s Sunday, what follows is a bit of a roundup of a handful of wine posts that for whatever reason never got the attention I thought they deserved.  To make them a bit juicier, I’ll also try to put them in context.  So get ready to click on some links.

I think wine can be an intimidating subject for some people.  And I know all about this, since I myself used to be absolutely petrified about even walking into a wine store.  Whenever I went in to the store by my apartment I quite literally would break out in a cold sweat. In Sweating Over Wine I discuss how I overcame this anxiety and show how important finding a good wine merchant can be.

Still when going to a wine store, one may get overwhelmed by seeing all of the different vintages and wonder what the difference really is between a cheap bottle of wine and an expensive one.  So to try and help sort these things out, and separate these issues from the usual wine snobbery I wrote Dollars and Scents and A Very Good Year.

Today I drink wine predominantly as an accompaniment to food.  People get all worked up over creating perfect wine pairings.  So I thought I would do a few things to help out those just embarking on their own wine journeys.  In The First Rule of Wine Pairing I wanted to lay out one guiding principle when it comes to matching wine with food.  Then I thought that it might be beneficial to actually show people how I approach pairing wine with food, so I wrote the The Anatomy of a Wine Pairing and The Anatomy of a Wine Pairing, Part Two.

Of course the other way a lot of people consume wine, is when a recipe calls for it.  In the unfortunately titled The Wine That You Eat I discuss what to look for in bottles that are destined for the pot or the pan, rather than the glass.  And there are a few tips that aren’t quite obvious on the surface, that will dramatically improve the quality of your dish.

Now I have to go try and work up an appetite for another day of eating.  Wish me luck.