Wine & Words

It's hot out there! I just don't feel like drinking a warm glass of my favorite red wine. I want something chillin'. Well, here are my Wine Guy tips for Chillin' with Wine.
Cool Reds
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Every year at 4th of July I grow patriotic.  I re-read the heroic battles of our American Revolution (my favorite account is Rebels and Redcoats by George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin) and peruse my much-worn copy of the Federalist papers.  Here at Wine & Words/The Back Bay Cafe we fly both the Stars & Stripes and the Union Jack in tribute to Chef Yvonne's Englishness and in celebration of what we call "English-American Friendship Week."  Customers ask Yvonne if they (the Brits) are still mad at us.
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I had only been in the wine business for about a year, but I had tired of my very unsatisfactory dealings with the person who was repping Grape Expectations to our under served neighborhood.  I called the owner of Grape Expectations and asked her if I could deal with GE direct and come to Wilson to pick up the wine myself.  She said that would be fine and because she didn't have anyone else who was selling her list in my area, I could deal directly with her Sales Manager, Tim Turner.  Tim and I hit it off from our first meeting, and I soon scheduled my trips to Wilson to happ
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The international wine market is complex and competitive. No longer is it sufficient to have your wines come from some classically well-known, snooty wine region. US wine drinkers, who have access to thousands of wines from all over the world, are looking for well-made wines, with an interesting back story, at a fair price. Two of my favorites that I've been able to bring to our Wine & Words family's attention are the Goats Do Roam line of South African wines from Fairview's Charles Back and the delightful range of wines from the Bordelais brothers Lurton.
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It's common to read, in wine books and magazines, that there are certain types of wine that are meant to pair with "seafood." Huh? I think there's something fishy about that kind of generalization. Sort of like the old canard about "red wine with red meat, white wine with fish." Phooey! My wine and food pairing philosophy, which you may know from one of my little table-side lessons, is: "Choose a wine you like, then pair it with food you like. You'll like it!"
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We had a lot of people interested in our "Chards & Cabs" Featured wines last week, so we're extending it for another week. But we also had a lot of enthusiasts for our Talmard Macon-Montbellet 2005, and they took to heart our admonition that there won't be any more of this vintage. We've got three bottle left (as of this writing). So we're replacing the Talmard '05 with a lovely Domaine Alain Normand Macon La Roche Vineuse 2007.
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Mom, Dad, Jimmie & Karen - 1950I've been working on a family project that took me into the boxes of old pictures. This one stopped me in my tracks for a long, reflective view. It was taken in the summer of 1950 on the swing behind my grandparents' house in Niles, Ohio.
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Now for the most commonly requested red wine...Cabernet Sauvignon. Actually this grape, which developed its reputation as the backbone of the great red wines of Bordeaux, was the most widely planted grape in the world until the 1990's when it was surpassed by the other big red of Bordeaux...Merlot. Just as with Chardonnay, the Cabernet Sauvignon grape is hardy and adaptable, growing well in a wide range of conditions and producing different styles of wine depending on how it is grown and vinified.
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