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How to Buy Wine for your Atlanta home
Wine Buying Tips, Atlanta Buying Wine for Home
You are having some Atlanta area friends over for dinner and you know they like wine. You want to make a good impression on your Atlanta friends but you have no clue how to buy wine or where in Atlanta you should shop for the right wine. Which bottle do you pick? What will they like? Does it matter what I serve? What do names like Chardonnay, Chianti, and Zinfandel mean? This is called a wine emergency. Fear not!
The Atlanta area is not well known for having lots of wine experts like maybe Chicago, New York, or even Miami. Most Atlanta wine stores fail miserably in supporting their clients with a well-trained knowledgeable staff. Even if they do, the staff will only want to discuss high-end wines. Sherlock’s believes that every wine purchaser should have access to the staff and the knowledge they need in selecting the proper wine. We have written this guide to simplify the world of wine and help Atlanta wine buyers get a head-start and find just the right bottle!
Wines from the Old World (Europe) and the New World (everywhere else) have a system for naming and classifying wines. Old World wines are usually named for their place of origin (like Chianti and Chablis). These areas have been producing wine for hundreds of years, and they know exactly which grapes and styles work best in those regions. In the New World, wines are named for the predominant grape used in the winemaking process (like Merlot and Chardonnay). Certainly there are exceptions to these rules, but understanding the basic nature of wine names will help make all the selections easier to grasp.
American and especially Atlanta wine drinkers do love Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and Merlot, but those are not the only options if you want to please your guests. You can look like an Atlanta wine expert with your selections (without actually being a wine expert). Here are some “under-the-radar” wines that are sure to delight:
1. Cotes du Rhone Red. Hailing from southeast France, this red wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre grapes. It’s soft and dry with aromas of cherry and spice. Generally available for $ 10-$ 20 in most wine stores, Cotes du Rhone is easy to like and great with foods like lamb, roast chicken, or pork. 2. Pinot Gris from Oregon. Pinot Gris is the same grape as Pinot Grigio, but grown in Oregon, the grape offers more exciting tastes. Though it’s a dry white, you will find fruit-basket smells like honeydew melon and citrus with a hint of flowers. If you are serving a full-flavored fish like salmon, this style of wine will sing. Usually sold for $ 12-$ 20. 3. Valpolicella Ripasso. A sumptuous red wine produced near Verona in Italy, it is created using a somewhat complicated process. Don’t worry about the “how”; all you need to know is the resulting wine is delicious, and even your most “wine geek” friends/family will ooh and ah upon tasting. Silky textured and chock full of tangy cherry, berry, and plum flavors, try this wine if you’re serving Italian sausage pasta or veal parmesan. Sells from $ 15-$ 30.
How to find the right wine for a meal is probably the most challenging aspect of selecting wine for most Atlanta area people. You may have heard the adage “red wine with meat, white wine with fish,” and there is definitely some validity to this statement. But finding the right complement for a meal requires more insight. There is an art to pairing wines with foods (hence why sommeliers in restaurants undergo years of training), but it doesn’t have to be that difficult. Here are some handy tips:
1. Power to Power. If your meal is a hearty meat like grilled ribeye or pot roast, select a powerful red to accompany. Good examples would be Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, or Shiraz/Syrah (they’re the same grape, just called differently depending where it’s from). If you are serving, for example, veal cutlets or another more delicate meat dish, try a less-powerful but no-less-flavorful red like Pinot Noir, Grenache, or Barbera. 2. Spice needs Spice. For heavily-herbed foods like rosemary baked chicken or eggplant parmesan, choose a wine with its own spice, like Zinfandel, Chianti, or Gewurtztraminer (white wine that is hard to say but easy to love). If your dish leans toward the “heat” side of spice, like curry chicken or jambalaya, a good idea is a fruitier, softer, possibly sweeter wine like Riesling, Beaujolais, and Chenin Blanc. 3. Match the Texture. Texture is an important component in wine pairing. You will want a wine that has a similar feel to the dish. For example, cream-sauce pasta like Alfredo screams for a buttery Chardonnay. By the same token, grilled shrimp over mixed greens requires a lighter touch like Sauvignon Blanc, Albarino from Spain, or Pinot Grigio.
The world of wine is extremely varied and admittedly complex, but it does offer a lifetime’s worth of discovery and pleasure if you try it. Don’t fret over an “Atlanta wine emergency” because there is no hard and fast rule about what your Atlanta friends and family will love and what wine will pair perfectly with a meal. Use the tips above to make a more educated decision, but the real fun is in experimenting. Also, don’t hesitate to ask your local wine merchant. Chances are your Atlanta area guests will love what you pick.
Visit http://www.Sherlocks.com for more valuable information on wine selections and purchasing tips for Atlanta.
The Local Wine Merchant Could Improve Your Home Dining Experience
We’ve all been told that a good wine can enhance the flavour of a meal, yet a lot of us don’t know which type of wine goes well with which meal. Your local wine merchant can help you select different wines for different meals, but for now this is a quick and easy guide that lets you distinguish between when you need a white Chardonnay and when a red Merlot is required.
Different types of wine will have different levels of tannins; this is a compound that, in wine, usually comes from the skin or the seed of the grapes. It’s particularly potent in red wines as the skins and seeds are soaked and sometimes fermented along with the flesh of the grape in order to give the wine its colour. These tannins play a part in deciding which wines go best with which food as they can clash with other flavours in the meal.
If you remember nothing else in this article, remember this; the general rule of thumb is that white wine goes with white meats and red wines go best with red meats. Although, certain ways that food is prepared can alter the wine you should have. If you’re eating Chinese food, a slightly sweet or off-dry pink wine, but you should remember to not overdo the plum and hoi sin sauces as too much of these can kill the flavour of the wine and make it tasteless.
In the summer time, it seems that it’s almost law for everybody to have at least one barbeque; whether you just stick with the traditional burgers and sausages or go a bit more extravagant with grilled king prawns, it’s recommended that you have wines that are fruity and rich, so something like a white Zinfandel would work well, or possibly a Sauvignon Blanc if you’ll be having seafood.
Indian foods and curries require wines with more body to really allow you to pick up on all the different spices and flavours; a red Merlot will work particularly well here. Other Middle Eastern dishes such as Vietnamese should be eaten with very cold and fruity pink wines such as Gewurtztraminer. Although, the suitable wine may alter depending on how spicy your meal is.
South western food, such as Mexican dishes, should typically be eaten with a fruity wine like a Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc or possibly a slightly spicy Zinfandel. If it’s south western sea food then sparkling wines work well. Bear in mind though that eating a lot of chillies will clash with a high tannin wine so you should avoid Merlots and Cabernets.
This is not a definitive list of the type of wine you should drink with your meals, and your local wine merchant will be able to let you try the wines to see which one you would prefer to go with your meal. Remember, that while wine is a pleasant drink to have with a meal, it is also alcoholic and you should always drink responsibly.
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