Wednesday, February 11, 2009

“tremendous clarity, great acidity”

Once when we were dating, my husband took me to Austin’s West Lynn Café. We ordered wine with our appetizer and enjoyed choosing our entrees from the exclusively vegetarian menu. As we were waiting for the vegan chocolate cake to arrive (I know, heaven, right?), I asked what all the fuss was about. He then told me that at midnight the “match” for medical school acceptances would be announced. Although I forget if we ended up with the Caribbean stir-fry or the Mediterranean pizza, I remember the wine – Gewurztraminer.

What’s your most memorable glass of wine? That’s the premise for a book called Wine for Every Day and Every Occasion. The authors, Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, write a wine column for the Wall Street Journal. Rather than explain how you can tell if a wine is stony or supple, the authors relate memorable wines that either they (or their readers) have enjoyed and recommend reliable varieties for all budgets. If you are looking for a wine to drink with the Thanksgiving pie, the Fourth’s barbecue, or your daughter’s wedding cake, look for this book. If you don’t have time to find the book before Saturday, read their recommendations for a romantic Valentine’s wine here. Although I thought the “wine for the Oscars” chapter was a little too delightful, I got quite excited about the idea of how to host a wine tasting party that doesn’t require taking out a loan or inviting mustachioed experts with bulbous noses.

I’m already plotting which bottle we’ll open when we send in that last student loan payment.

To hear an interview with the authors, look under Audio on the right side of this page.

3 comments:

Rimas Kurtinaitis said...

I'm pretty sure it was the pizza.

Ahnalog said...

This is a slight tangent from the given topic, but I liked this idea so much I thought I'd share. A friend-of-a-friend buys bottles of wine from the year that each of her children are born (when the bottles are nice and cheap), so she can give them the bottles as a wedding present (when the wine is nice and aged). Although, personally, I think a safer bet than assuming a wedding is a given, is to give the kids the wine when they turn 21, or maybe 30. :)

morningstar said...

I also read about this neat idea in this book. They even have recommendations about what wines might withstand the years. Leave it to me to give J a bottle of vinegar on her wedding day. Wish I had known about it three years ago. But I suspect finding 2005 wines wouldn't be that difficult.