Hello, fellow CorkRulers! As the holiday season approaches, it&#39;s time to dust off your cocktail shakers and wine glasses. Whether you&#39;re hosting a small gathering or simply enjoying a quiet evening by the fire, we&#39;ve got you covered with some fun and festive wine-based cocktails. From spritz to negroni, champagne to ros&eacute; fros&eacute;, let&#39;s dive into the merry world of holiday libations!

1. Aperol Spritz

Let&#39;s start with a classic Italian cocktail, the Aperol Spritz. This vibrant orange drink is a perfect aperitif to kickstart your holiday celebrations.

Ingredients:

- 3 parts Prosecco

- 2 parts Aperol

- 1 part soda water

- Orange slice, for garnish

Instructions:

Fill a wine glass with ice, pour in the Prosecco, followed by the Aperol. Add a splash of soda water and garnish with an orange slice. Simple, yet delicious!

2. Negroni Sbagliato&nbsp;

Next up is the Negroni, a sophisticated cocktail with a bittersweet twist. This ruby-red concoction is sure to warm you up on a chilly winter night.&nbsp;

Ingredients:&nbsp;

- 1 part sparkling wine or prosecco&nbsp;

- 1 part Campari&nbsp;

- 1 part sweet vermouth&nbsp;

- Orange peel, for garnish&nbsp;

Instructions:

Stir the gin, Campari, and vermouth in a mixing glass with ice. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with an orange peel. Cheers to that!

3. Champagne Cocktail

No holiday celebration is complete without a bit of sparkle! This classic Champagne cocktail is a timeless choice for any festive occasion.

Ingredients:

- 1 sugar cube

- 2-3 dashes of Angostura bitters

- Champagne

- Lemon twist, for garnish

Instructions:

Soak the sugar cube in Angostura bitters and drop it into a Champagne flute. Fill the glass with Champagne and garnish with a lemon twist. Let the celebrations begin!

4. Ros&eacute; Fros&eacute;

Last but not least, let&#39;s shake things up with a frozen delight - the Ros&eacute; Fros&eacute;. This icy cocktail is a fun and refreshing twist on traditional ros&eacute; wine.

Ingredients:

- 1 bottle of ros&eacute; wine

- 2 cups of strawberries

- 1 tablespoon of sugar

- 2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Instructions:

Pour the ros&eacute; into ice cube trays and freeze until solid. Blend the strawberries and sugar in a blender until smooth, then add the ros&eacute; cubes and lemon juice. Blend until it&#39;s slushy and serve immediately. It&#39;s a froz&eacute; kind of holiday!

So, there you have it, wine lovers! Four fantastic wine-based cocktails to brighten up your holiday season. Remember, the key to a great cocktail is not just the ingredients, but also the company you share it with. So, raise a glass, share a toast, and enjoy these festive drinks with your loved ones. Happy holidays!

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Hello, fellow CorkRulers! As the holiday season approaches, it's time to dust off your cocktail shakers and wine glasses. Whether you're hosting a small gathering or simply enjoying a quiet evening by the fire, we've got you covered with some fun and festive wine-based cocktails. From spritz to negroni, champagne to rosé frosé, let's dive into the merry world of holiday libations!

Celebrate the Holidays with Wine-Based Cocktails: A Fun Guide

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

Sea Dog Brew Pub

Alexis Rogers

Felice

Felice

RT: Hello and Welcome to CorkRules!

A podcast where (in each episode) we will review a wine list from your favorite restaurants. I&rsquo;m your host Robert Tas along with Alexis Rogers, Wine Director, WSET 3, Introductory Sommelier, and French Wine Scholar Candidate. Hello Alexis, it&rsquo;s great to have you on this episode.

AR: Hi Robert! Great to be here. I&rsquo;m really excited to be talking about the wine list at Felice! With the exception of the Champagne section, their list is all Italian! Italian wine is notoriously difficult to understand - and pronounce! Wines from here can be labeled by grape, region, the whim of the winemaker or all of the above!

RT:&nbsp; Well, then I&rsquo;m glad you&rsquo;re here to talk us through it!&nbsp; CorkRules was created to demystify wine lists because we know from experience that sometimes when we get that list handed to us, well&hellip; it can be intimidating, even more so if it&rsquo;s hard to pronounce.

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.

Today we are talking about Felice, an expanding group that just opened up its 6th location in Brooklyn Heights. The first Felice was opened in Manhattan&rsquo;s Upper East Side in 2007 by Jacopo Giustiniani to showcase not only the cuisine of his homeland but the wines as well. So Alexis, what&rsquo;s your overall impression of the list @ Felice?

AR: As a Wine Director, I love the organization! The list is sorted by white/red/rose/sparkling and then by region within those categories. This gives a guest somewhere to start. As a consumer - and lover of Italian wines, I&rsquo;m thrilled at the representation of nearly all of Italy&rsquo;s 20 wine regions, including my personal favorite - Trentino - Alto Adige in Northern Italy. For hundreds of years, this area was under Austria&rsquo;s control and its influences are still evident today in the language, wines and food.

RT : That&rsquo;s definitely a lesser-known region! What did you find from there that you would recommend?

AR: Definitely the 2018 Gruner Veltliner by Klaus Lentsch! Gruner Veltliner is Austria&rsquo;s signature grape but it has been spreading to other cooler Central European regions and is even starting to pop up in the States! It carries notes of bright lemon and lime, white grapefruit, dried sage and basil and a distinctive white pepper note. Fun fact - it&rsquo;s one of the only wines that can pair with notoriously difficult to pair artichokes so this bottle would be great alongside the Carciofi e Calamari Friti appetizer.

RT: That sounds like a delicious pairing! And it&rsquo;s a value!

AR : It really is! So much so that you could probably afford to have another bottle for your main course!

RT: So now I&rsquo;m getting hungry and I&rsquo;m eyeing that Fettuccine Bolognese. What would you select for our meal?

AR : That rich meaty tomato sauce takes me right to Tuscany and its Sangiovese-based wines. Let&rsquo;s look at the section labeled &ldquo;Library Wines by the Glass&rdquo;. These are going to be selections from higher-end bottles that usually aren&#39;t sold by the glass. The 2015 La Togata Brunello di Montalcino is a splurge, but would absolutely be worth it. This is 100% Sangiovese aged 5 years before release. It&rsquo;s worth the wait too! This full-bodied red gives aromas and flavors of red cherry, fig, leather, chocolate, dried roses and a distinct rustic tomato-leaf note.

RT: Wow! That sounds like a tomato sauce lover&rsquo;s dream! While we are talking about splurges&hellip; say I&rsquo;m taking a date out for a romantic Italian dinner, which wine should I choose to REALLY impress them?

AR: No discussion of fine Italian wine is complete without talking about Barolo or Barbaresco. Barolo and Barbaresco are neighboring villages in the Piemonte region that both craft some of the country&rsquo;s finest wines from the illustrious Nebbiolo grape. They are full-bodied and powerful with big tannins and tasting notes of tar and roses, dried cherry, black licorice, red raspberry and - my favorite - clay pot. Barolos tend to be fuller and more concentrated but they need a significant amount of time to age in the bottle to mellow out enough to be enjoyable to drink.

RT: How long?

AR: I like to give them at least 10 years. That&rsquo;s why in this case, I would select the Produttori del Barbaresco Rabaja 2016. Barbarescos are more approachable in their youth and can be drunk a bit younger - I&rsquo;d still give &lsquo;em about 5 years or so though. Try this with the Tagliata di Manzo - a 12 oz sirloin steak. The fats will help to mellow out some of those big tannins. This is definitely a splurge but another that would be totally worth it. Just remember to savor every sip!

RT: There is always so much to discover with the wines of Italy!

AR: There really is, with over 355 NATIVE grapes alone and over 900,000 registered vineyards, one could spend a lifetime trying them all.

RT: Doesn&#39;t sound like a bad life to me! Alexis, thank you so much for being our guide and helping us navigate the Italian wine list at Felice. I can&rsquo;t wait to do some food and wine pairing there! To our audience, thank you all for joining us here on CorkRules. If you would like us to review one of your favorite

restaurants, please send us email to: Info@corkrules.Com 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 quickly 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. And finally, drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly.

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END

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