Glass and Dough | Wine Tastings

Wine Tip: When doing a tasting, you want to follow a specific order of operations. Sniff, swirl, sniff, stop (smell your shirt), deep sniff, wine goes into your mouth, pull air in over your tongue (allowing the wine to aerate), swallow, and breathe out through your nose. Full olfactory system fun!

Myth: You can't age rosé
Truth: Largely dependent on where the rosé originates from and what it's made out of, but rosé can age beautifully. One of my favorite regions to age rosé from is Tavel, mostly because its component varietals (Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, and Mourvedre) age so beautifully!

You know what makes me happiest? Spending time with my girlfriend. You know what only adds to it? Finding a wine she loves! She recently went to Saudé Creek Vineyards in Virginia and fell in love with their Tavern White, a 50/50 blend of Chardonnay and Viognier. Medium sweet and oh, so beautiful!

This is awesome! Love Calvados! I love getting to use Calvados in tastings and really surprising people with the flavors!

Want to try a great pairing for summer? Albariño and Gambas al Ajillo. The garlic and heat of the shrimp is beautifully offset by the bright, flavorful, smoothness of the Albariño. Want to add another layer of flavor to your shrimp? Use a splash of Albariño in the recipe and this pairing just sings!

What do we bring to every tasting? We bring tasting mats (filled with information about the upcoming tasting), we bring maps (to show the lay of the land), we bring a surprise wine from our cellar (always something that goes with the theme), and we bring 15+ years of experience to every tasting

Wine Tip: When you're tasting, rather than rinse your wine glass with water, use the next wine in the series instead. If you're going from lightest to heaviest or driest to sweetest, the next wine will overwrite the previous on your palate anyway and it won't matter what was in your glass before!

Myth: More expensive wine is better wine
Truth: Well, this one is a little more complicated. More expensive wine can definitely have the *flavors* of "better" wine, but the truth is that most people, when tasted blind, can't tell expensive wine from less expensive wine. Go with what you like :)

Inspired by that @wineenthusiast.bsky.social piece on Aussie Italian grapes, here are 3 varietals I love pouring at tastings — and why they work:
Aglianico - Fruit-forward, juicy, herbaceous
Garganega - Mineral-driven and rich
Glera - Bright as anything and gets a conversation going (ask me how!)

I love this. I work for a winery on Long Island with an Aussie winemaker, Russell Hearn, and he LOVES working with Italian varietals like Teroldego, Lagrein, and Pinot Grigio. I'm so happy to see an article that highlights the reasons why. Way to go @wineenthusiast.bsky.social !

What I'm Sipping Today: Today is a lazy, warm Sunday. I'm dogsitting and watching White Collar on Netflix. Sitting in the AC, all I really want is something mid-cold, so I've chilled a bottle of Gamay and I'll be sipping it come lunchtime. It'll go great with my Subway Italian sandwich!

A small group. BBQ. Backyard vibes in Nassau County. Classic 4th of July, plus: they hired me to give them a world class wine tasting out of their cellar. Getting to pair 1997 Chassagne-Montrachet with grilled salmon? A treat. Getting to pair 1952 Latour with Wagyu burgers? Once in a lifetime!

Friday Flight: For the best selection of winemakers on Long Island, I suggest the following flight - 1. McCall's Nicola's Cuvee Sauv Blanc; 2. Chronicle's Chardonnay; 3. Suhru's Rosé; 4. Lieb's Cabernet Franc; and 5. Wolffer's Fatalis Fatum. Talk about a flight that really shows off LI's skill!

Want to try a great pairing? One of my favorites will always be New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with goat cheese, lavender, and honey. Mop it all up with a crispy baguette to really get it all, and keep that Sauv Blanc really chilly to get the most out of this pairing.

Prepping for an upcoming wedding gig today. $1000 budget to pick any 36 wines I want to pour, so long as they're wild, weird, tasty, and mostly from the NY wine regions. Absolutely psyched about this gig and can't wait to show off the wines I've picked!

Wine Tip: Hold your glass by the stem rather than the bowl. Why? Temperature control! Keep your cool wines cooler for longer without needing to resort to using ice cubes! Using a stemless glass? Try holding the glass above where the wine sits to avoid transferring your body heat!

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Myth: Red wine always pairs with chocolate
Truth: It depends. When a red wine is sweeter than the chocolate it pairs with, it works. Otherwise, not so much! That's why you pair red wine with dark chocolate, not white or milk. White wine, however, can often be paired with all kinds of chocolate!