Category: Education

  • Leftover Wine Bottles on the Counter? Recycle; Reduce!

    Our counters were cluttered. We had accumulated a number of bottles half-filled with wine that we either didn’t drink because we didn’t care for them, or we had wine left over from an event where there were too many wines to consume in one evening. So, what do you do with all that wine? Make a wine reduction! It’s pretty simple but takes a bit of time and attention, but here’s how you do it.

  • Pop that Cork! Value-Priced Champagne Alternatives

    In the current economy, many people are looking for an alternative to traditional champagne to help ring in the New Year. Last year we told you about Cava from Spain, and we’ve found a few other sparklers to share with you this year as well.

  • Day Two: Window on New Orleans Past and Present

    We disembarked for a private tour of Antoine’s Restaurant. Opened in 1840, Antoine’s is the oldest in New Orleans and oldest family-run restaurant in the country. It has 15 different dining rooms, with a variety of old photos and artifacts from Mardi Gras royalty. It continued to serve wine and booze during Prohibition, we’re told, by using a bit of hallway which was part of the “ladies room” to allow the men to pass through a secret door.

  • The Holiday Party: Or How Not to Throw up on Your Boss

    The annual “Holiday” party can be a great way to enjoy some food and drink; socialize with your coworkers and dance late into the evening, all on the company dime. But these outings are also fraught with peril. Here are some tips to keep from making a fool of yourself — or worse!

  • Wine Tasting Clubs: Solving the Mystery One Glass at a Time

    I had heard my husband talk about Iris for weeks during his ISG studies but didn’t meet her until the class got together for a holiday party last December. Many of the students had obtained part-time pouring gigs at local Houston wine bars. But we found ourselves at Iris’ tastings most often—because she was pouring on weekends and her bubbly personality is just so hard to resist.

  • Mama’s got a Fusebox…

    We got down to the business of blending. Since I’d won a couple previous contests, I think Joe’s plan was to do all the blending himself. He doesn’t remember it this way, but I swear he created FIVE blends before I ever got a chance to put a pipette into any wine.

  • Restaurant Common Sense from the NYT

    Upon reading a New York Times post that advised restaurant servers, I wanted to stand up and cheer at what seemed to border on ridiculous. But the fact that the advice had to be posted doesn’t just sound ridiculous, it is ridiculous. Because the advice is something a server should have learned from his mother and father, not the person training him to work in a restaurant.

  • Burning our FUSEBOX at Both Ends

    Those grape-squeezing folks at Crushpad have selected 10 bloggers to participate in the first ever Crushpad Fusebox BlendOff. And what’s a Fusebox? Well for one, it’s not that thing you have to go mess with when your hair-dryer manages to blow all the power in one-side of your house!

  • Somewhere Over the Rhine: Riesling

    When you mention Riesling, many will say “Oh, I don’t really like sweet wines, ” assuming all wines labeled Rieslings are sweet. However, Riesling can fall anywhere on the spectrum from bone dry to an intensely-concentrated sweetness, with variances in between. Riesling is one of the varietals most determined by its terroir, and wines can differ in their level of alcohol by volume. Many of the classic German semisweet version are 8% alcohol by volume or less, while newer, dryer Alsace and Austrian Rieslings are around 12%.

  • Labor Day and the Work of the Vineyard

    To depart from the multiple posts you’ll find on which wines to pair with your Labor Day celebration (Burgers and Syrah, chicken and Chardonnay, grilled seafood and Torrontés, and if you haven’t been hit by the recession: steak and Cabernet Sauvignon or grilled lamb and Bordeaux) I thought we’d talk about “the true meaning of Labor Day.”