I tend to drink more bubbly in the warmer weather.  Everyone seems to drink their sparkling wine out of flutes (the long slender glasses).  This is fine for the cheapo bubbly, but not for the good stuff.  Top Champagne producers will tell you to drink high quality sparkling wine out of a regular wine stem.  This allows more aromas to be released. The design of the champagne flute is meant to hold more of the carbonation in, while...

Sake is quickly becoming a staple in the world of wine.  As sushi grew in popularity over the past decade, so did Sake.  There’s many varieties of Sake, just like wine.  And much like it’s grape-based counterpart, there’s the right way to drink Sake, and there’s the wrong way. Sake Types There are many types of Sake, ranging from dry to sweet, and filtered to unfiltered.  Some are pure rice wine, and some have...

There’s much discussion whether the shape of a wine glass affects the flavors and aromas of the wine.  It sure does.  I’ve done a test with many of my employees, in which I have them taste the same wine out of two different glasses.  One glass is always a cheapo, the type that are made of thick glass.  The other is a nice crystal stem, meant for a specific grape varietal.  90% of the employees would prefer the wine in the...

Why decant? I frequently get asked whether a wine should be decanted or not.  First, there are two main reasons to decant a wine:  to aerate the wine which releases flavors and aromas, and to remove the wine from its sediment.  So we typically decant young wines to help them “open up,” and older wines to remove the sediment. Typically most bargain priced wines will not benefit from decanting, because they lack the structure...