by Bill Belkin, wine and spirits category manager
Friday, May 11, 2012
Wine is all about a sensory experience. We look first. We observe the color and clarity of a given wine. Then we use the old proboscis and smell the wines, taking all the different aromas into our olfactory memories. Next, we taste. We sip and swirl the elixir in and around our palates and then make the determination about what we are gulping. Do we like it or not? Well sound aside, the last sense we can use and should use is touch. No, don’t stick your fingers into the glass. Think more about a textural sense. What does the wine “feel like” on your tongue – your palate?
by Bill Belkin, wine and spirits category manager
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Many, many years ago when we went on “field trips” we had to ask our parents for permission slips. Well no more. We recently packed up all the wine managers and jetted them out to wine country for an intensive 4 days of tasting, studying and generally saturating them with enthusiasm for all things wine. It was a remarkable trip and I think one that will…ahem…bear fruit for years to come.
We flew into San Francisco and began our journey northward. Our first stop was to our close friends at Whitehall Lane in St. Helena. Tom Leondardini III, family member and longtime friend, made us all feel welcome as we toured and tasted from barrel. The 2010 Sauvignon Blanc (with just a hint of Semillon) was superb, as was the Cabernet and Merlot from this very, very excellent winery.
Jennifer Harding, manager of Lunds and Byerly's Catering
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
We get a lot of questions when we’re out catering at a home about how to stock a bar or what to stock it with. Here are our rules when it comes to the perfect at home bar:
Rule #1: When stocking a home bar, make sure the spirits you choose are those that you enjoy! Otherwise, you will end up spending a fortune on items that just sit in your bar unused.
by Bill Belkin, wine and spirits category manager
Friday, February 10, 2012
This may be an unlikely place to read about the alleged aphrodisiac qualities of certain foods and I’m not going to regale you with tales of sordid food and wine pairings. What I will say is that there are unmistakable amorous properties within the confines of culinary courtships - ones you and your significant other should explore as Valentine’s Day fast approaches.
My personal recommendation is to cook this main meal together and to accent the evening with lovely wines before, during and after the joint endeavor. This is not so much a recipe as my words are gentle prodding’s toward exploring some of the “foods of love.”
Valentine’s Day occurs in the dead of winter and as such your palate should be craving a rich, deeply flavored red wine. This just may be the time to dredge up that long lost Australian Shiraz that used to be to “over the top for you” or that full throttled Zinfandel from Dry Creek Valley that has a wee too much alcohol for easy food pairing.
by Bill Belkin, wine and spirits category manager
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Sitting by a roaring fire, clutching my stem of red wine, I am reminded of that old adage: “everything old is new again.”
All the new-fangled, techie equipment is advertised using songs from the 60’s and 70’s. Fashionistas are designing clothing with a distinctive “retro” look and we all talk about how so and so is a “throwback” to the golden age. So is it surprising that some of the “forgotten wines” are once again the most popular? Not really.
One of my favorite “throwbacks” is a Napa Syrah! Syrah was once going to supplant Merlot as the next “go to” grape for the casual drinker. But just like New Coke, that never happened. The trouble is folks became fixated on 7 words: “Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape.” True? Sure, but for the discerning palate, over-sugared Shiraz wines fall short on complexity and long on an oaky sweetness compared to small batch, hand-harvested Syrah wines.