In the vineyards where the sun does dance,

Beneath the sky&#39;s eternal expanse,

A nectar flows, both bold and refined,

The essence of wine, a gift to find.

&nbsp;

Within its depths, a symphony unfurls,

Notes of passion, as life gently swirls,

From grape to glass, a transformation true,

An alchemy of nature, ancient and new.

&nbsp;

In the vineyards, time becomes a dream,

As golden memories glisten and gleam,

Each sip a portal, a journey to explore,

A taste of life&#39;s essence, forevermore.

&nbsp;

Like the wine that ages with loving care,

Life too evolves, beyond compare,

From youthful vigor to wisdom&#39;s embrace,

Each chapter written with its own grace.

&nbsp;

The wine&#39;s aroma, a fragrant tale,

Whispers of stories that will never fail,

To stir the senses, ignite the soul,

As life&#39;s rich tapestry begins to unfold.

&nbsp;

In every glass, a vibrant reflection,

Of joy and sorrow, of love&#39;s affection,

For wine, like life, is a fleeting art,

A celebration of moments, held close to the heart.

&nbsp;

So raise your glass, let laughter flow,

In wine, in life, let your spirit grow,

Savor each sip, let passion entwine,

For in wine and life, the essence divine.

&nbsp;

The Promise of Wine

Wines from grapes grown in higher altitude areas with cooler climate has become quite the trend recently. This specific growing environment gives intense flavor but elegance and freshness to the final wines. To highlight and champion these conditions more and more winemakers are starting to use alto as a marketing and labelling term to show their grapes were grown in high altitude vineyards.

Decoding the wine label: Alto

Brut is a word often seen on labels for different kinds of sparkling wine. As you may have discovered when drinking these wines, it indicates that the wine is dry, meaning there is no perceived sweetness in the wine. But how about Extra Brut or Dry, what do they mean and are they the same as Brut?

Decoding the wine label: Brut

Semi-sweet Riesling, a type of wine falling out of style. It’s a shame, since these wines are perfect to pair with flavorful cuisines like Asian or Mexican, or simply drink as they come under the summer sun. The higher level of sugar left in the wine also means that the alcoholic fermentation was stopped before finishing, providing a wine with lower alcohol level and therefor easier grabbing a second glass of.

Decoding the wine label: Spätlese

Have you ever heard the word Xinomavro? Most have not. It is however a word on many sommeliers’ lips today, as it happens to be considered the grape variety with the highest quality in Greece, and one that is trending at the moment. The fact that Greece have been making wine for a long time comes as no surprise, but they have never exported an amount to make sure wine lovers around the globe tried it. With the growing wine tourism many have discovered these wines and are serving them in wine bars and restaurants in many countries today.

Decoding the wine label: Xinomavro

Chianti Classico, Valpolicella Classico, Soave Classico… Why do all these Italian wine regions have the Classico addendum and what does it mean? What is the difference for wines labeled as Classico?

Classico is a wine term in Italy seen on a few wine labels and it indicates that the wine’s from the historic center of the region, the heart. Using Chianti and Chianti Classico and their Sangiovese-based red wines as an example, Chianti is a rather large wine district within the Tuscany region. Chianti Classico is located withing Chianti as the central part and the one that originally existed. Back then this smaller region was actually called Chianti, but as the region grew the quality of the wine plummeted and the well-known characteristics of these red wines were watered down. The reputation took a hit and sales diminished. Eventually this led to the creation of Chianti Classico, which would be drawn from the original Chianti borders to recover the typicity of these wines. Today the quality of both Chianti and Chianti Classico have risen a lot due to modern techniques and knowledge about pruning, planting and temperature control in the winery.

Decoding the wine label: Classico

In the rarefied world of fine wine, where bottles can command prices equivalent to luxury cars, authenticity is everything. Laurent Ponsot's gripping memoir "FBI: Fake Bottle Investigation" reads more like a high-stakes thriller than a traditional wine book, chronicling his relentless pursuit of one of the wine world's most infamous counterfeiters, Rudy Kurniawan.

From Burgundy's Vineyards to the FBI's Most Wanted: A Winemaker's Quest for Justice

Chablis – one of the more popular styles of wine today and a region known by many. Most are familiar with the word Chablis and the light, fresh white wine with a touch of minerality it brings. Even though it’s a renowned wine, few knows what it really is.

Decoding the wine label: Chablis

Many grape varieties around the world of wine have names local to the region or country they’re grown in, even though they’re exactly the same. The most famous example would be Syrah in France where the same grape is named Shiraz in Australia. Another variety with two names is Pinot Grigio, or Pinot Gris.

Decoding the wine label: Pinot Grigio

Have you ever seen the term sur lie on a wine label? It’s not a grape and not a wine region, but a winemaking method used to give certain styles of white wine a rounder texture and a more complex flavor profile.

Decoding the wine label: Sur lie

Quality Meats

Grace Hood

RT: Hello and Welcome to CorkRules!&nbsp;

A podcast where&nbsp;we will review a wine list from your favorite restaurants. I&rsquo;m your host Robert Tas along with Grace Hood, Wine Educator and Certified Sommelier. Hello Grace,&nbsp;it&rsquo;s great to have you!

GH: Hi Robert! I am so stoked to be here! Love what you&rsquo;re doing with CorkRules and excited to chat wine lists with you

RT Before we jump in, let&rsquo;s talk about those wine lists. We created Corkrules to help demystify wine list&rsquo;s because we know from experience, that sometimes when we get that&nbsp;list handed to us, well&hellip; it can be intimidating, and even a little daunting. Our aim is to help prepare you to navigate that list, find those hidden gems, or value wines or that special bottle that will take your dining experience over the top.

RT. So Grace before we jump into our review let&rsquo;s talk about how somms go about creating those lists. I know you have worked created many wine lists in the past. How did you tackle this daunting task?

GH: Great question - there are a few things that a wine director or sommelier does when it comes to buying wine for their restaurant and creating a wine list.

1-What is the cuisine? And what wines will pair with it of course?

2-Who is your clientele? What do they like to drink? What are their demographics? What is their price point for wines?

3-How will you organize the list so it can best be understood?

I was eager to jump into the CorkRules project b/c as a sommelier I hear all the time &ldquo;I&#39;m not a wine expert&rdquo; or &ldquo;I only really know what I like&rdquo; etc. The main goal of my career is to provide the average person with the tools and knowledge so they can make wine choices for themselves. They can learn about what they like and don&rsquo;t like, and start making connections between regions and varietals and types of wine, so they can feel empowered when they go to a restaurant and look at lists like these.

RT: Grace, I love your approach to simplifying the wine experience. Let&rsquo;s look at our list today which comes from Quality Meats Steakhouse in NYC. What are your first impressions Grace?

GH: Just from a first glance, I definitely think this is a pretty traditional type list you&rsquo;d see at a steak house! These types of old school steak houses have been a staple of the wine world in America for a long time, in that they were one of the only types restaurants with wine restaurants probably up until the 1990s. America has only recently become a wine-drinking nation - for a long time, if we drank at all ( thank you Puritans lol) it was beer or moonshine! Wine was regarded as being something only the wealthy had the money and access to. A big part of that had to do with the fact that we didn&rsquo;t produce our own wine, so importing it back in the day was a major undertaking that drove the prices up to the point where the everyday person couldn&rsquo;t afford wine. But that all changed with the Paris tasting of 1976 when the now famous Chateau Montelena of Napa beat out every other wine to become the first American winery to win the then highest honor in the wine world! They have it on the list! 2019 Chateau Montelana!&nbsp; From there, the American wine industry was born - and now almost 50 years later, every state in America has at least 1 vineyard, and we are the #1 wine drinking country in the world.

RT: Great history lessonNo matter how much we change as wine drinking community, there will always be staples and classic establishments that have their fabulous vintage appeal. B/c no matter how much esoteric orange wine we drink and gluten-free bread we eat, sometimes you just need a juicy steak and a big bold red wine to go with it :)

RT: You are spot on? And thanks for that history lesson. When it comes to the Quality Meats list, how would someone tackle their wine list?

GH: So when it comes to a wine list, the first thing I do is convene with my fellow diners - what are we all thinking of ordering? Do we want to get individual glasses or a bottle? Are we celebrating something? And what do we all have to do tomorrow hahah

RT: Hahaha

MV: A lot of people ask me &ldquo;what is the right way to taste wine? If I start with red can I go back to white? Etc&rdquo; and there def is a science to it, and very similar to how we think of courses at a meal. Your amuse bouche is usually very light and delicate, so you would want a light delicate wine to pair with it, like a sparkling wine like a &nbsp;&ndash; NV Ruiniart or a light white like Gerrad Boulay 2020 Sancerre, so it does not overwhelm the ingredients or your palate. Then for an appetizer, you might go with something a little bit weighter - say you have a Salad or a soup - you&rsquo;ll want to go with something that can stand up to the dressing or the salad, or the richness of the soup, like medium-bodied white like a 2019 Billaud Simon chablis or a rose like 2018 Anne Bridgette. And then of course when we get to the main course that will most likely haven&rsquo;t a heavier meatier ingredient like poultry or meat, you&rsquo;ll want a wine that can stand up to the fat and acid in that delicious course - that&#39;s why everyone knows that a big bold red wine like a Tuscan 2018 Antoria Tignelo or the 2017 Mascot by Harlan goes with steak! It&#39;s possibly the most notable wine pairing across the board.

&nbsp;

RT: Totally! You can&rsquo;t have chilled oysters with merlot - it would just be too much :) So when it comes to other classic steak house lists that you have seen, what is notable about Quality Meats list?

&nbsp;

GH: So from the first glance, they&rsquo;ve definitely have pretty classic steak house mix of Europe and California. Over on the European side, they have a hearty selection of what we call &ldquo;old world&rdquo; wines which simply means European wines, with an emphasis on Italy, France and a little bit of Spain, which you will traditionally find in steak house lists b/c they produce some big bold classic varietals - your cabs, your super tuscans, your pinots, your merlots, your Bordeaux&rsquo;s, your Riojas etc. They also have a big collection of California, which again produce your pack a punch red wines&nbsp; that can stand up to the thick juicy cuts of meat at steak houses. However, where they really start to break it down is in their &ldquo;Prime Cuts&rdquo; and &ldquo;Quality Collection&rdquo; - Their allocations list, which essentially just means wines that had a very small production, and were purchased usually a head of time by either distributors or private collectors or restaurant groups that have a deal with that winery. So they&rsquo;re really special and unique b/c there are not many of those wines available! Hence why they also have a higher price point.

RT: Ooh, Terrific. Grace, speaking of price, sometimes people have a budget in mind..&nbsp; any great value wines you&rsquo;d point us to?&nbsp;

GH: Absolutely - b/c we&rsquo;re at a steak house we will most likely be ordering reds, so ones that stick out to me immediately are Bergstr&ouml;m &ldquo;Cumberland Reserve&rdquo; 2018 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir from &nbsp;Willamette Valley is one of my favorite wine-producing regions in the world, with its nickname being &ldquo;The burgundy of America&rdquo; b/c it produces amazing lush rich velvety gorgeous pinot noirs at 1/3 the price of Burgundy France. Bergstrom is one the most highly regarded and sought-after grapes in the region, and a personal favorite of mine as well.

Further down in the Spain region, we have Ysios 2015 Rioja Reserva La Rioja at $120. I love Spanish wines for a variety of reasons, but one amazing and unique thing about Spanish wines is that the winemakers actually hold off on releasing their vintages until they believe they&rsquo;re ready to drink. So this 2015, even though it was harvested, made into wine and barreled down into 2015, it probably wasn&rsquo;t put into bottle till 2016, and then probably wasn&rsquo;t released to the public till last year! B/c Spanish winemakers understand that their bold tannic tempreaNULLlos develop into more lush juicy delicious palatable wines over time. A big reason why some people don&rsquo;t enjoy red wines is b/c they find them too hot or dry or acidic or tannic. And that probably is due to the fact that they&rsquo;re drinking them very young. People ask me all the time &ldquo;what is the point of aging&rdquo; a wine and I tell them that wine is a living thing until you pull the cork. B/c red wine has tannins and sugar within their bottle, there&rsquo;s a chemical process still happening even when the wine comes out of a barrel and into a bottle. It matures and develops into something more lush and chill, making it less tannic and richer over time. Vintage/older wines are delicious, but sometimes also come with a higher price point - so that is why Spanish reds are so amazing! You can experience older delicious red wines at an affordable prince point :)

RT: Great call out on those Spanish wines. Now Grace, what if I have a big client dinner or special occasion where I want to take it up a notch?

GH: Totally! I get asked a lot &ldquo;If you had all the money in the world, what wine would you buy&rdquo; and again - older reds! They are actually worth the money and are such a unique experience of a grape and a place and a winemaker. One wine that stood out to me immediately was the Domaine de la Roman&eacute;e-Conti Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru 2012 Burgundy. DRC as it is known in the wine world is arguably the most prestigious and expensive wine in the world! It comes from one of the most well renowned and exclusive wineries in France and has a cult following. It would be a big flex as the kids say!

&nbsp;&nbsp;RT: No kidding. Anything else you&rsquo;d consider for that special occasion?

GH: 2015/11 &ndash; Pontet Canet

Great Thank you so much for all your great suggestions and helping us navigate Quality Meats.

To our audience, thank you all for joining us here on Corkrules.&nbsp; If you would like us to review one of your favorite restaurants, please send us email to: <a href="mailto:Info@corkrules.Com">Info@corkrules.Com</a> or visit our web website where we have a request form available and we will do our best to get it in the queue as quick as possible.

We are looking forward to being with you on another CorkRules episode soon. In the meantime, please check out our website for other episodes of your favorite restaurant wine lists. Follow us on social media @corkrules and @wineswithgrace

And finally, drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly.

&nbsp;

Thank you.

&nbsp;

End

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

BRAT

Bocca di Lupe

Gap Weekend: A Film Shoot in Wine Country

Alba Restaurant

Alba

10 Greek Street

L'Auberge Chez Francois

Andrew Edmunds

Salt Seafood and Oyster Bar

Matteos Ristorante Italiano

Matteo's

Sycamore Lane is a popular wine brand that offers a range of varietals, including Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and others. The wines are known for their consistent quality and affordability.

Stylish, modern restaurant in a 1902 bank building offering high-end steakhouse fare & a roof bar.

Steak Frites

Alexis Percival is a New York City based CMS certified sommelier, consultant and event planner who puts the art in party.

Certified sommelier Alexis Percival

homepage

CorkRules application allows you to discover wines at your favorite restaurants, learn with friends and be confident with price transparency. Order wine with confidence at restaurants and retailers. Get personalized recommendations. #DrinkWhatYouLove

Cowford Chophouse

Ca' del Bosco Cuvee Prestige Rose Brut NV

Franciacorta, Italy

G.H. Mumm

(Cordon Rouge) Brut Champagne NV

Blend

Champagne, France

La Rioja Alta

Rioja Gran Reserva 904 1995

Tempranillo

Rioja, Spain

Tenimenti Ca'Bianca

Brachetto d'Acqui 2021

Brachetto

Brachetto d'Acqui, Italy

Graham Beck

The Game Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

Cabernet Sauvignon

South Africa

Matteo Braidot

Pinot Grigio 2020

Pinot Grigio

Hospices de Beaune

Corton Grand Cru, Cuvee Charlotte Dumay 1976

Cortona, Burgundy, France

Arnot-Roberts

Rose 2020

Touriga Nacional

USA

Cave de Lugny

Macon-Lugny Les Charmes 2019

Chardonnay

France

Château de Fontenille

Les Survivantes Bordeaux Blanc Sec NV

Blend

Bordeaux, France

Louis Roederer

Blanc de Blancs Brut Champagne (Vintage) 2020

Chardonnay

Champagne, France

Krug

Brut Champagne NV

Blend

Champagne, France

Perrier-Jouët

Belle Epoque Brut Champagne NV

Blend

Champagne, France

Veuve Clicquot

Yellow Label Brut NV

Champagne, France

Château Nénin

Pomerol 2018

Cabernet Franc

Pomerol, Bordeaux, France