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When it's time to think about wine for a festive occasion - or a quiet evening by the fireside on a chilly night - many of us like to turn to something a little more celebratory than the wines we usually serve, and perhaps a bit more warming.
But for many wine enthusiasts who've grown accustomed to the dry table wines served with dinner, sparkling wine ("bubblies") and sweet fortified wine ("stickies") can seem awfully daunting simply because these wines are different. How do you open them? How do you serve them? Do they go with food? Can they be aged? If you'd like a little guidance in discovering these pleasures, you've come to the right place. In Wine Tasting 101, the popular monthly wine-education feature in our WineLovers' Community online forum, we'll be spending the month of December tasting both "bubblies" and "stickies" and comparing notes on good Champagnes (and other sparkling wines) as well as Ports, Madeiras and other powerful and warming dessert wines in the fortified style. Lots of experts will be there to answer questions, and I will too; I'm also pleased to announce that international Port expert Roy Hersh, the publisher of the excellent For The Love of Port Website, has agree to serve all month as guest expert, answering questions and offering comments on Port, Madeira and other fortified wines ... and bubblies, too. Roy, a member of the Sommelier Society of Washington, D.C., and the Enological Society of Seattle, is one of only a handful of Americans selected by the Port Wine Institute (I.V.D.P. Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto) as a member of its "Confraria" or Port wine brotherhood. It's a pleasure to have him working with us this month, and I hope you'll take advantage of his generosity by dropping in on our online forum with your Port and fortified-wine questions.
TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE: If you prefer to comment privately, feel free to send me E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit.
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Réserve Grand Veneur 2003 Côtes du Rhône ($10.49)
This is a very dark-garnet wine with a reddish-purple edge. Red fruit, ripe and full, raspberries and red cherries and fragrant red pepper on the nose and palate. Ripe and luscious cherry-berry flavors, good acidity and smooth but perceptible tannins build structure, although the fruit is forward in the "California-like" style of the 2003 vintage in the Southern Rhone. Excellent wine, approaches Châteauneuf-du-Pape for a fraction of the price. It's a typical regional blend of 80 percent Grenache and 20 percent Syrah. U.S. Iimporter: Kysela Père et Fils, Winchester, Va. (Nov. 23, 2005) FOOD MATCH: Good with any red meat or poultry; it made a very fine match indeed with Marcella Hazan's roast duck featured in the 30 Second Wine Advisor's FoodLetter on Nov. 24, 2005 VALUE: Exceptionally good value for this price. WHEN TO DRINK: Although Cotes-du-Rhone Villages is by and large a wine for drinking while its bigger siblings like Chateauneuf-du-Pape age in the cellar, I wouldn't bet against this "baby Chateauneuf" improving for five years or so under good storage conditions.
WEB LINK:
Here's a link to the U.S. importer's Website:
FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:  Vinfolio: Top 25 California wines of 2005! Order our top 25 California wines of 2005 before they sell out! We bet you haven’t heard of many of these wineries as they are often "under the radar" of the major reviewers. During the course of 2005, our California expert, Doug Wilder, tasted over 1,000 wines from all regions of California, with the best being written up in his free weekly Wilder Side of California wineletter. Don’t wait to order as these wines will sell out. You do not need to be a Vinfolio member to order.
View (and order) our Top 25 California wines of 2005: Learn more about Vinfolio and sign up for the free weekly Wilder Side of California wineletter:http://www.vinfolio.com This week on WineLoversPage.com Some highlights of recent articles on WineLoversPage.com that I hope you'll enjoy:
• QPRWines: Vintage and Non-Vintage Champagnes
• Hot topics in our WineLovers' Community FedEx won't ship wine?
Decanting question Last Week's Wine Advisor Index Because of my travel schedule, The 30 Second Wine Advisor was published only on Monday last week (and subscribers received a Thursday FoodLetter). Here's the index to last week's columns:
• Wine magnets and snake oil (Nov. 28, 2005)
• Complete 30 Second Wine Advisor archive:
• Wine Advisor FoodLetter: Ultimate turkey sandwich (Dec. 1, 2005)
• Wine Advisor Foodletter archive:
SUBSCRIBE: Administrivia To subscribe or unsubscribe from The 30 Second Wine Advisor, change your E-mail address, or for any other administrative matters, please use the individualized hotlink found at the end of your E-mail edition. If this is not practical, contact me by E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com, including the exact E-mail address that you used when you subscribed, so I can find your record. We do not use our E-mail list for any other purpose and will never give or sell your name or E-mail address to anyone. I welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. To contact me, please send E-mail to wine@wineloverspage.com All the wine-tasting reports posted here are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores and accept no samples, gifts or other gratuities from the wine industry.
Monday, Dec. 5, 2005
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