Tag Archives: wine tips

What Wine Goes With McDonalds?

Posted on by

This question was posed, half-in-humor, while I was in Las Vegas a few weeks back. At the time I lightly brushed off the question, no, wait, light scoffed off the question, the answer is a bit puzzling. I should disclose that I’m a fairweather Pescatarian, so the simple thought of eating at McDonalds is not something that comes to mind very often. That being said, I still thought, “I’m up for tackling this perplexing question”. I now ask that you sit back, and relax as I ask the timeless question, “What Wine Goes With McDonalds”?

The goal of wine is meant to enhance the flavor of the meal. While great food can stand on it’s own, wine has the catalytic power to push the food to heights one can only dream of. And then there is McDonalds. The land of the two all beef paddies, lettuce, pickles with some more fixins piled in on a sesame seed bun. Is it possible to elevate the quality of food that costs the same as a few Washingtons? I say yes.

For most of the food, the grease is a big factor. Yes, it is yummy and produces a great spike the ‘ye ole blood sugar, but it also greatly interferes with the wine. So for most of the foods at McDonalds, a safe bet is to go with a dry Riesling. It will do a good job of cutting down on the grease monkey and help to hold up the meat / poultry / fish that you’re eating. Another quality of any Riesling is it’s alcohol content. Most range from around 9% to about 11 or 12% if you get your hands on a non-German. The prices are affordable for most of the varietal so that you won’t feel bad breaking the bank on the wine while skimping on the food budget.

With the burgers and the chicken, including the McChicken and Chicken McNuggets, look for a fruit-forward Merlot. There easy to spot. Simply take a stroll down your local Seven-Eleven wine aisle. The larger producing wineries are sourcing grapes from the central valley of California and, in turn, producing big big berries with a lot of juice in them. That results in a strong fruit-forward style of wine. Beringer, Mondavi, and other common ones will have a Merlot that is going to go great with the items mentioned above.

If you are just going with the fries, then a Chardonnay that has touched some neutral oak will be your friend. The salt of the fried spuds will mix well with a mellow oakiness that will most likely be present. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to hunt these down and probably spend fifteen times the cost of your fries on that bottle of wine.

All in all, be aware how much you’re spending in a place that advertises their food for a buck. Yet at the same time, it could make that buck-fifty sandwich taste like ten with the right wine.

If you have tried a certain wine with McDonalds, I’d love to hear your comments. Feel free to e-mail me at haydn@beyondnapavalley.com.

Enjoy,
Haydn

—————————-
Haydn Adams is the author of the book, Wineries Beyond Napa Valley: Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, an insider’s tasting guide to the hidden gems region. He also contributes to the Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog, writes for vinvillage.com, and can be found roaming the hills of Sonoma County looking for the next hidden gems. You can contact him at haydn@beyondnapavalley.com

Coffee and Wine don’t mix

Posted on by

trash-picture Coffee and Wine don’t mix
by Haydn Adams | Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog

I was standing outside of Cakebread cellar’s tasting room enjoying a delicious Sauvignon Blanc when my friend, Diana, told me to check out the trash can. I thought for a minute why I should see. She told me to just go look.

When I peered in, I was shocked! There, in between the water bottles and orange peels (click on the picture for a larger view) were about 6 Starbucks coffee cups! Wow. I was shocked and bewildered. Shannon (the third person in our tasting trio) was curious as well and went over to look. She looked puzzled, then got it. I was so happy they both picked up on this wine tasting no-no (they had read my book prior to going wine tasting). I walked over to the trash can and photographed its contents, letting my tasting  party know this is so going to be a blog post on the site. I was so excited.

The shock wasn’t the discarded coffee cups. It was the fact that waiting patrons to Cakebread had just recently slurped down the very liquid that will mute their taste buds, and they probably didn’t even realize it. And here we were at one of the best wineries in Napa and their guests can’t fully appreciate their wines.

Don’t drink coffee close to tasting wine

If you want your taste buds running at full strength, do not drink coffee. I admit that I can’t go a day without a cup ‘o joe, but the days I’m going tasting I try to drink it as early as possible. The acidity in the coffee mutes your taste buds and will mask any ability to taste wine. If your first taste of the day tastes a bit like coffee, you’ll know why.

Especially when going to a high-end winery such as Cakebread, you want your taste buds as strong as possible.

I was happy that some of my wine tasting tips has been recognized by Shannon and Diana and that they also picked up on what was in the trash can. It was also fun to promote my book in the very valley I’m trying to get patrons away from.

Shannon and Diana, you guys are awesome!

Cheers,
Haydn

—————————-
Haydn Adams is the author of the book, Wineries Beyond Napa Valley: Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, an insider’s tasting guide to the hidden gems region. He also contributes to the Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog, writes for vinvillage.com, and can be found roaming the hills of Sonoma County looking for the next hidden gems. You can contact him at haydn@beyondnapavalley.com.

What decanter should I buy?

Posted on by

wine-decanterI’ve had quite a few people ask me this question. Before I quickly jump into the answer, a quick look at the reasons why you should use a decanter probably should be addressed.

Above anything else, the greatest gift you can give wine is time. Much like the enjoyment of wine should not be rush, nor should the rush for the best taste. There is a reason why wine critics (such as myself) suggest a certain range of years for the wine to mature. It is so the wine can settle down, lose some tannins, deepen in flavor, and turn into what it was meant for—to be the nectar of the Gods (Ok, maybe not Beringer, but maybe Nalle or Quivira). There is no magic formula that will turn young wine old or make bad wine great.

The purpose of a decanter is to allow air to infiltrate the wine. By having the wine flow into the neck and spread out into the bottom, you’re infusing air into the wine. A little air does wonders. Too much, and you’ve got a turned wine. Decanting also helps get that initial menthol or alcohol smell off the top of the wine when it is initially opened.

As Tom Petty says, “The waiting is the hardest part”. It’s true about wine. The reason why decanters exist is to speed up the “opening” of wine. Remember, even if you have a decanter, give your wine some time to “chill out”.

Lastly, not everyone bottle has to be decanted. Roughly 90% of the wines purchased are meant to drink now. Certain wines are not going to improve lingering in the decanter. You are not going to make a 2-buck chuck (readers, please don’t even try) turn into a Chateau Lafite Rothschild (it sells for about $1,500 give or take a few Euros). So be aware that not everything will imrpove when thrown into a decanter.

Decanters Can Improve the wine

That being said, decanters can really do a number on the wine. By allowing that air in, and for a large surface area to be exposed, you’re expediting the airing of the wine. You’re 2000 Sonoma Cab isn’t taking breaths, it’s gulping buckets of air.

It is always a good idea to taste the wine before pouring the wine into the decanter. Do not assume the wine is good. At one point, roughly 12% of the wines were corked.

Once it is poured in, give it just a few minutes to settle down. Then pour it in your class and give it another taste. If wine was a color, the decanter would take the wine from dirty brown to vibrant red in taste. Decanters will brighten well-made wine.

Note: Most wines at large supermarkets are ready to drink now and do not need the aide of a decanter.

What decanter should I buy?

To re-cap one more time, the purpose of a decanter is to maximize the amount of air that touches the wine. Plain and simple. So, when deciding on a decanter, look for a wide bottom and a fair-sized tapered neck.

decanter2One of my favorites is the Crate and Barrel Gallery Carafe. It sells on their website for $19.95. Apparently it’s hand blown, too. It’s simple and does the job.

I also advocate against any decanter that sells for $60 or more. The reason? How many wine glasses have you broken? If you thought glasses were hard to clean, wait until you get your hands dirty with a decanter.

Another decanter I recommend for not much more is Wine Enthusiast’s Vivid Wine Decanter. It retails on the site for a sale price of $27.99. This is one of the widest bottoms I’ve seen in a decanter.

Riedel makes decanters, and I imagine that they probably can turn water into wine if you poured it in. However, with price tags commanding $150 and up, I’ll stick to buying quality wines and using a run-of-the-mill decanter. Chances are good to great that I’d be too nervous in breaking it when washing a device that costs more than the wine I’m putting in it (should be the other way around) and I’d leave it on a shelf as decoration.

Overall, find a decently shaped decanter, but don’t break the bank on them. The wine world is filled with overpriced items, and decanters have an air of greatness to them (yes, pun intended). In reality, they’re simple devices that help air mix with wine.

———————–

Haydn is the author of the book, Wineries Beyond Napa Valley: Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, an insider’s tasting guide to the regions. He also writes for vinvillage.com. When he is not teaching, or working in his office, you can find Haydn somewhere in Sonoma spitting out wines (that’s a good thing for the record).

3 steps to improve the taste of the wine

Posted on by

3 Tips to improving the taste of the wine

by Haydn S. Adams
Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog

Tonight’s the night that you decided to pull out that ’02 La Joie from Vérité that you have been treasuring in your wine cellar. Maybe you are celebrating an anniversay, maybe you just aced your MCAT’s. And you want to do nothing more than to show off how awesome this wine is.

After all, Robert Parker gave it a 98. So you pull out your wine glasses, the ones that you feel look the most beautiful, irregarding of the shape of the glass, and in one fell swoop, you uncork it and pour that purple gold all the way to the top of the wine glasses around the table.

And you my friend just treated that $150 bottle the same way I might treat my 99 cent diet coke I bought from the 7-11, with maybe the exception of holding the ice. So if you are about to uncork that special bottle, here are 3 tips you can use that bring out the magic in a great bottle of wine.

Tip #1 – Decant the wine & give it some air

Before I go too much further, take a moment and read why I am not the biggest fan of the Vinturi Wine Aerator. If you have invested a good deal of money into a wine collection, the single greatest device you can have at your dispersal to show off your wine is a decanter.

They range from $30 for the basics to the hundreds that feature waterford or Wedgwood crystal. My advice? By the $30 dollar one, unless you want to painstakingly clean a franglie $400 item over and over and over and… you can see where that is leading.

The power of a decanter is it allows oxygen into the wine. For most wines, I’d recommend that you decant it and allow it to sit for about 30-60 minutes, letting the wine calm down for a second after pouring it quickly into the decanter. If you are pressed for time, do a double decant, and pour the wine back into the bottle (here is where a funnel really helps out). Also, by allowing air in you are loosening up a few of the tannins and slightly reducing the sulfates in the wine (a little bit of a plus for all of you out there who get headaches from drinking too much red wine).

Tip #2: Invest in some good stemware

bordeaux-glassIf I had a dollar for every time a restaurant has poured wine into the wrong glass, I’d probably be able to afford the wine mentioned above. The stemware is the make or break point.

For the 2002 La Jolie, I’d go with a Bordeaux style wine glass (featured here to my left). I tend to use this style of wine glass for most of my red wine tasting, as it fulfills most of the basic parameters to showcase your red wine

  • Tapered top, allowing the glass to capture the bouqet of the wine and not let it escape
  • Ample room to stick my nose into the glass
  • Room on the stem to hold it if I didn’t want my fingers to affect the temperature of the wine
  • Tall enough so I can lean the glass to one side and examine the color (and rim)

Tip #3: Only fill that wine glass 1/3 the way full

This is one of the most commom mistakes, even restaurants, make. The reason why you use a large wine glass is so you can fill it only a 1/3 of the way full. That way, the bouquet (the aromatics) can easily dance inside of the glass. By filling the glass all the way up, you’ve left no room for the wine to display itself. You’ve essentially killed any chance in smelling that one.

Remember, the whole reason why a wine bottle is the size that it is today was for two people to have two glasses of wine and not get intoxicated. So think about breaking up that wine bottle into 4 – 5 glasses at your table, instead of into 2 right off of the bat.

To recap. If you really want to show off that bottle you’ve been saving. Take these steps.  1) Decant it. Simple. Uncork wine, pour into decanter. I recommend, for big wines, that you let it sit for about 30 minutes or longer. 2) Pull out some appropriate stemware. Crate and Barrel and Bed Bath & Beyond both stock excellent glasses for very reasonable prices. Usually the more decrative and fu-fu the look, the less good it will really do you (aside from being a great conversation starter). And 3) only fill that good-sized glass about 1/3 of the way full (with the exception being Champagne flutes and dessert apartifs). Trust me, you can always pour yourself some more later.

By following these simple steps, you’ll literally make that wine sparkle and shine.

Haydn S. Adams | Beyond Napa Valley Blog

©2009, Beyond Napa Valley. Reproduction permitted with