See the companion post at Rich Ireland’s ‘Beers To You’ blog on adding the right kinds of beer to a Thanksgiving feast.

For many of us, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are fowl affairs because the turkey will once again be the centerpiece of these traditional holiday feasts. Thanksgiving is also the beginning of the 40-day holiday season, which includes Chanukah and Christmas, culminating with the New Year’s celebration.

It is also a time of year when you will spend about 70 percent of your yearly wine budget, purchasing bottles for parties, gifts and holiday dinners. For me, it’s the most exciting time of the year. I’m like a kid in a candy store! The shelves of local wine shops are overflowing with bottles of every type and pedigree.

Turkey will once again be the featured main course for Thanksgiving and Christmas in my house. In year’s past, I have written about the culinary versatility of turkey which can be successfully paired with red or white (as well as light or full-bodied) wines. The reason is that the bird is blessed with meat that has a variety of flavors, colors and textures, which present opportunities for us to try a lot of different wines. (more…)

I must take issue with my friends Tara and Rob who, in a recent “Main Ingredient” column for the Sunday Gazette-Mail, suggested there is a double standard at play when it comes to wines for drinking and wines for cooking:

“If we’re going to pay a lot for a bottle of bliss that’s been coaxed to perfection by some grape guru, the last thing we want to do is watch as medium-high heat scrambles its molecules,” they state in the November 4,” Main Ingredient .”
In other words, they seem to be saying, it’s not worth wasting good wine to flavor a dish. And, you don’t have to like a wine to cook with it.
Believe me when I say I applaud anyone who can find good, bargain-priced wine for any use. As a matter of fact, my wine mission in life is to locate wines that meet those criteria. But why would you want to cook with a wine (cheap or expensive) that you wouldn’t want to drink?

And I really must take exception to this statement: “Any dry white of your choosing will keep for at least a month in the fridge, giving you the flexibility to deglaze at a moment’s notice.” (more…)

ED. NOTE: We’ve got a blogfecta (blog + trifecata) of posts on the dining/drinking experience. After reading this one, check out Rich Ireland’s “Beers To You” post on how restaurants routinely ruin good beers. And food blogger Brooke Brown weighs in with a plaintive cry about servers manhandling the glassware.

Over the years, I’ve sipped wine from a variety of vessels, some of which, I must admit, were not exactly made of fine crystal. In fact, in my younger days, I occasionally drank the stuff from coffee cups, beer mugs, plastic containers, water glasses, wine skins, canteens and even (I’m reluctant to admit) from the jug…er bottle.

Like many males of my generation, I also spent a considerable amount of time back then in a ‘ 57 Chevy, a fraternity house and a foxhole. Consequently, many of the finer elements of wine appreciation, such as selecting the appropriate stemware, were subordinated to more mundane, yet practical considerations such as finding a couple of dollars to buy a jug of Lake Country Red.

Even today, I’ll take a sip from a paper cup if I forget to bring my glassware to the picnic or tailgate. But there really is no substitute for using clear glass stemware (preferably crystal) to showcase and enjoy your wine
Why? Well, first of all, there is the aesthetically pleasing quality of using fine stemware. One of the elements of wine appreciation which is often overlooked is the visual aspect. Remember that the first “S” of wine appreciation is sight? Being able to assess the true color of wine, its shades and hues, can only be critically observed and enjoyed when the liquid is displayed in clear glassware. (more…)

Going to the WVU-Louisville game next week? Go a day early and join the fine folks at the “Slight Indulgence” wine shop in Morgantown for a special tasting and dinner at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7.  Joe Elchik from Francis Ford Coppola Vineyards will lead the tasting and guest chef Jason Blosser will prepare special dishes to match each of six wines from Coppola. Cost for the event is $65 per person. Seating is limited, so call (304) 599-3402 for reservations. Slight Indulgence is located at 3200 Collins Ferry Road in Morgantown.

Join host John Brown as WineBoy, Episode 13, visits Wilson Ward’s Fisher Ridge Winery in Putnam County to explore the art of making wine in West Virginia. You’ll get the inside scoop on how wine is created — from the vineyard to the fermenting vats to the press and into the barrel. And you won’t want to miss WineBoy’s unique brand of trick-or-treating in version 13 of the batty, weekly Webcast on wine appreciation.

With Halloween just a week away, I thought it would be good to share some ghoulishly delicious information with you on things related to blood and wine. Over the years, I have reported on the French Paradox — a research study that demonstrated a link between wine consumption (particularly red wine) and a reduced risk of coronary artery disease. The subjects of the study (French men and women who consumed large amounts of fatty foods such as butter and cheese), had a low incidence of cardiac disease which was attributed to their daily consumption of red wine.

Another study of red wine consumption back then added an interesting culinary twist to the equation. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison released findings of a study demonstrating that red wine, in conjunction with the consumption of garlic, is even more effective in helping reduce the risk of heart disease.

Now we’ve all read reports of garlic’s healing powers. (more…)