Dry White Wine

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Leave a comment

Dry White Wine,  we have all done it, ask someone what they would like to drink and when they say ‘dry white wine please’ we go to the bar and ask for exactly that hoping we’ll get no further questions from the person behind the bar.  “Is a something or other ok for you sir ?” … “umm yes that will be fine thank you” is the answer I used to give without really having any idea whether or not that’s right.

Most wines that seem to get drunk these days are dry, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio & Viognier all fit into the dry white wine category.

Sweeter wines are wines more like Muscat and Riesling.

Why is one wine dry whilst the other is sweeter, that’s purely based on how much sugar is left after the fermentation process,  obviously dry is a better word than sour.

My choice of dry white wine ?  A Sauvignon Blanc probably from New Zealand.

Twitter Email
Wine Choice

Good Red Wine

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Leave a comment

Good Red Wine, I think it’s a common question, can you recommend a good red wine to try ? never mind we all have different tastes, different ideas on how much we would pay on a bottle, favourite countries to buy from etc etc. Is there a bottle out there that suits most tastes. I watched the TV series a couple of years ago with Oz Clarke and James May, when they toured the US. I think one of their goals was to find a good red wine for less than ten pounds, $15 dollars, and that ended up as a bottle of Ravenswood although exactly which one I couldn’t tell you. I know people who swear by a Malbec from Argentina, others who look for a Rioja.

For me it always been something from Chile, I’ve long held the belief that I get more for my money with a Chilean wine than a French wine, and I think this is true, how much I’m not sure but I reckon if I’m spending £10 or $15 on a bottle then I’m going to get a very good bottle of Chilean wine but a fairly average French bottle. Of course I’m talking generally, there are always exceptions.

As to what grape or vineyard, I haven’t got that nailed down yet, but its good fun sampling.

Twitter Email
Wine Choice

Wine Pairing

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Leave a comment

Wine Pairing,  which wine goes with which food  ?   I must admit I had never really given this one much thought, I knew that typically is was recommended to drink Red Wine with Red Meat and White Wine with fish, but that’s about as far as I got.  In a restaurant I’ll decide what wine I’d like to drink almost entirely independently  of what food, and because of this I am probably missing out on some good combinations.  But on the other hand I am drinking exactly what wine I fancy.

Most restaurants will help us do some basic food and wine pairing as they will be aiming to stock wines that go with the food they serve. An Italian restaurant for example should serve Italian wines.  So that’s one possible pairing idea covered, and maybe the only one that I would ever consider.

Other ideas include matching big foods with big wines, a steak would go well with a Shiraz or a Zinfandel. And the opposite is true, Fish probably works well with a Sauvignon Blanc.

I guess the occasion also dictates, an expensive bottle of wine is nice to have with an expensive meal, but on the other hand there is something enjoyable about a bottle of Champagne with a takeaway.

I think for wine pairing, like everything else, its probably best to go with what you really fancy at the time.

Twitter Email
Wine And Food

Wine Calories

Posted on April 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

Wine Calories,  how many calories are in wine ?  Do we really care, should we care, surely a glass of wine is not about the calories.  I think we all would guess that there are not many calories in a glass, in fact there is around 115 calories in a standard glass of Red or Dry White Wine,  a sweeter wine might be nearer 160 calories.

A glass of Red Wine contains 115 calories.

This is obviously far less than a bar of chocolate, and to be honest I think a glass would probably fit into even the hardest calorie counting diet.  Why not have one as part of a treat after exercise,  I bet this is a pretty good way to encourage the exercise.

Its funny but I think that 115 calories per glass is not a lot, until I compare it to a pint of lager which might contain around 215 calories.  I would have imagined that a pint would contain more calories than two standard glasses of wine.  I guess its like everything else, fine in moderation,  but when you’ve had the best part of a bottle the wine calories really start to add up.

Twitter Email
Wine Health

Wine Bar

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Leave a comment

Wine bar …. “My bank has been turned into a trendy wine bar”.  I can remember that line or similar in a TV advert for something,  that was some years ago and obviously everyone thought that this was going to be normal practice.  Its funny but I do not see the sheer number of wine bars around that I think we believed would exist.

I’ve been in a few Wine Bars normally because I just fancy the look of them, or the menu,  but I do I particularly feel the need to drink wine when I’m in there ? no not really.  So in theory I guess they are just Bars.  A specialist Wine Bar offers something different, far more emphasis on the Wine, a chance to try different wines maybe even learn a bit about them.

Its that kind of Wine Bar feel that we wanted to bring to The Big Slurp, sure we can’t actually serve you any Wine but hopefully we can offer you something different to other sites.  Maybe you should pour yourself a glass, chill and see if there is any content here that you enjoy.

Twitter Email
Wine Bar