The whole point of this blog IS...

For my entire adult life, I have been fascinated with wine, and specifically red wine. I consume about a bottle a week, with the end result that, when I put out my recycling, my neighbors probably think I'm a total lush. I tell myself I drink red wine for health reasons but really, I just like red wine and I have discovered that I have a reasonably good palate and nose. Because I am a writer and photographer by vocation, and because my husband and my friends keep telling me I should write as much as I take pictures, I figured, why not start with a wine blog? I will be writing about wines I get in my subscription service as well as interesting things I find in my local shops because I do believe that (a) wine doesn’t need to be a ridiculously expensive hobby and (b) good wine is available everywhere, you just have to know what to look for. I do encourage you to consider a wine subscription service if you want to try things that aren’t readily available in stores but are also not terrifyingly expensive (although you can certainly purchase investment wines through a subscription). I have a subscription service through Laithwaite’s Wine, which is one of the oldest and most respected wine subscriptions out there. In addition to a “discovery” case every few months, they routinely let me and all their subscribers know about new finds, rare bottlings, and things that might be enjoyable based on recent orders and indicated preferences. I found Laithwaite’s through two channels: National Geographic, which offers a “Wines of the World” subscription that I find to be excellent value, and because I am English by birth and happened to find one of Laithwaite’s outlets in London on a recent visit to my family there.

In this blog, I will primarily focus on red wines because that is my preference and frankly, white wine gives me a stunning headache. If I do try a white or a bubbly that I love, even just on an evening out, I will review it. This summer, I am sure I will tell you about prosecco, because it’s an indispensable component in an Aperol Spritz, and as a result, I am positive I will have some in the fridge. I tend to buy white wine for cooking and I tend to be very French in my opinion that if you wouldn’t drink a wine you purchase, then you shouldn’t cook with it, either. This is not to say that I expect you to cook with a $50 bottle of Barolo (and that’s an inexpensive Barolo, generally speaking), it’s just that I firmly believe that if you are going to cook with wine, it should equally be a wine that you would just drink. Therefore, I try to buy very drinkable whites for stewing chicken and very drinkable reds for stewing beef and pork (and chicken).

I should also point out that I will drink red wine with basically anything, including fish, seafood, and vegetarian fare. I drink it with curry. I drink it with lighter meats such as chicken. I drink it with cheese and crackers, salami, pizza, burgers, you name it. Again, this goes back to personal preference as well as learning over time which red wine will go with which food (for example, a Burgenland red from Austria is fantastic with fish and lighter fare). I won’t drink red wine with dessert, although I will tell you that pears poached in red wine is a dessert that borders on the sublime. I am the only person in my house who drinks wine, so it takes me about a week to finish a bottle. If anyone ever tells you that you should finish a bottle in one sitting, they’re wrong, unless you are serving it at a party or a lot of people are having wine with dinner, in which case, it stands to reason that you likely will finish the bottle. Yes, the flavor changes over the course of several days of a bottle being open. If that is detrimental to the wine, I will let you know. It rarely is. In short, unless you are really precious about your wine, there’s no need to buy that expensive needle thing to keep your wine in an unopened state even while you are drinking it, but for god's sake, jam the cork back in it or get a wine stopper (I have two, both useless unless my husband accidentally tosses the cork, in which case, yay! they work great!). For bubbles, I drop a teaspoon into the open bottle, with the spoon bowl sitting on top of the bottle neck. I swear it works, but I also try not to open bubbles unless I know the bottle will be finished reasonably quickly. Believe it or not, sparkling wine such as a dry prosecco makes an excellent cooking wine. No clue as to why, it just does. So if you have one open and it’s starting to go flat, try cooking with it. It’s excellent for braising chicken.

A note on aeration: I always, always aerate my wine, except, of course, anything bubbly. I do recommend trying any wine you buy, especially red, both non-aerated and then aerated. When I do this, I pour literally one mouthful of wine into a glass straight from the bottle, try it, and then pour a full glass aerated just so I can see what aeration brings, although generally speaking, I aerate my wines from the moment I open any given bottle. You will be very surprised at the difference a little aeration can make with wine. I find aeration to be the great equalizer in wines. If you have a wine that seems a little thin or unexciting, aeration can open it up, much like a blooming flower. If you have a dense wine that seems very rich and possibly a little too fruity or even chewy, aeration can knock some of that out, basically breaking up the wine. If you buy an aerator that looks like a giant glass bubble (my mother-in-law’s favorite aerator, but I myself have managed to break three of them), you can aerate an entire bottle of wine by putting the aerator in the bottle, covering the opening with a (clean) thumb, and then upturning the bottle so the aerator fills completely. Place the bottle back on the counter/tabletop/picnic blanket/nightstand/bed/etc. and carefully remove your thumb, letting the wine flow back into the bottle. Because I don’t use this type of aerator due to my nickname being Danger-Prone Daphne, I aerate an entire bottle by pouring one glass through my aerator (a much more shatter-proof one, although still glass), then replacing the cork and holding the cork firmly in place while I gently shake the bottle once or twice. You don’t need to go crazy, this isn’t the finish of a Formula 1 race and you’re not trying to soak everyone in the immediate vicinity with wine. Just a quick up-down will do to aerate the entire bottle. You could go the distance and do what I once heard Neil DeGrasse Tyson describe: pour the entire bottle into a kitchen blender and zap it on low for ten seconds and then pour it into a decanter, but I have never done that. Maybe I will for this blog. Regarding decanting: I don't, but it is a good way to aerate an entire bottle of wine and makes for a gorgeous presentation on the table at a dinner party. If there is sediment in the bottle, pouring carefully into a decanter should leave it in the bottle. Again, this does not work for sparkling wines, just still red or white wines.

My general wine preferences run to European and South American wines, so that is primarily what you will see in my blog. I am not a fan of a lot of New World wines simply because I find them to be very, very heavy on fruit and oak and I’m not crazy about that. I am not a supertaster (i.e., I am not a picky eater and I can handle really strong flavors, which is, as I have discovered in my life, a little unusual in a woman), so my wine preferences tend to be big, tannic, slightly barnyard-scented reds. There are some exceptions to this, obviously. I love, absolutely love Oregon pinot noirs, and I am coming around to California petite sirahs, which are not syrahs, but rather something else entirely. I did also recently drink a spectacular syrah-pinotage blend from South Africa that I cannot wait to write about here. You won’t see much on here from Australia and New Zealand, either (sorry, fans of Australian and New Zealand wines). I find them to be fruity to the point of jamminess and that’s just not my thing. Also, I really only like merlot if it’s in a blend, where it can do a lot to tone down excess acidity by smoothing everything out.

And finally, a note to my gentle readers: I have never been known for being prissy (or basic, as the cool kids call it now). I am well-educated, literate, well-traveled, adventurous, and reasonably fearless, and a lot of things and experiences in my life have led me to be the way I am. The first wine that captured my attention was a super-tannic chianti classico that my dad served on Christmas Eve when I was about ten years old and which I insisted on trying (my dad was Italian, so he was ok with me having a sip or two, everybody CALM DOWN). I am a classically-trained singer (soprano) but listen to rock (and a lot of hard rock and heavy metal). I wear gigantic earrings as a matter of course. I wear a lot of black. I love sparkly jewelry and hair flowers and corsets but I also love my combat boots and I used to own a denim jacket studded with safety pins. I fight for what I believe in, especially and most importantly when it comes to my two amazing kids. I speak French. I love sex. I have been told I am tough but really smart and therefore demand respect. I am hedonistic and unapologetic about that. I don’t hide my substantial cleavage, even though I am pushing 50 and some people are convinced I should. I am a weightlifter of some ability. I’m a little on the loud side. I love dirty jokes. I have an obnoxiously cackling laugh and I don’t care if it irritates people. In college, I made a guy fall off the edge of a sidewalk just by looking at him (blue-eyed brunette, we have magic powers). None of my perfume collection smells like cookies, but all of my perfume collection smells like it belongs in a harem. My husband tells me all the time that he’s pretty sure I was a courtesan in a previous life (and isn’t he lucky?). This is a long-winded way of preparing you for the fact that some of my wine descriptions may be a little, shall we say, unvarnished. If a wine reminds me of a powerful memory or something hedonistic, I will tell you exactly that (wine writers tend to have their minds in the gutter on occasion anyway, so I know I am in good company). If I don’t like something, I will let you know. I have synesthesia, so that crossed-senses influence will likely show up in my reviews. If I think you should run, not walk, but RUN to your local shop to buy something, believe me, I will tell you, but you might find yourself in hand-to-hand combat with me for the last bottle, especially if it’s a Cahors. I will never dumb anything down when I’m writing, but I also hope to make wine accessible and relatable. With that all in mind, look for 2 – 4 reviews a month, generally with photos and all. Happy drinking!