In episode three of the CorkRules podcast, certified sommelier Grace Hood shares her expertise on how sommeliers create and organize a great wine list and provides a brief overview of how to pair wines. She also reviews the wine list of <a href="https://www.qualitymeatsnyc.com/">Quality Meat Steakhouse</a>, a restaurant renowned for serving the finest steaks and cuts of meat in NYC.

If you are looking for a robust cabernet sauvignon to pair well with the Bone-In Dry-Aged Prime Sirloin, consider the reasonably-priced Post &amp; Beam by Far Niente, 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley. It is the heavy presence of tannins in cabernet sauvignon that make it such an excellent match with a rare cut. The effect of tannins is in the texture, not the taste. Just as a strong cup of tea heavy with tannins makes the mouth feel dry, a heavy tannin wine is best to cut through fat.

At Quality Meat Steakhouse, the 15-page wine list provides a wide variety of types, styles, and vintages of wine with a vast array of tasting notes and subtle differences.

With so many choices, how do you make a wise, and informed choice of wine to pair with your food. It can take years to understand which wines pair well with what foods. Luckily, that&rsquo;s where a certified sommelier can help you. This is their area of expertise and experience, so why not take advantage of it and ask for their advice? For instance, if choosing the Fresh Cracked Lobster the Caposaldo, Pinot Grigio, Veneto, 2020 would be a wise choice. Dry white wines generally work better with shellfish because the shellfish is slightly sweet and mild, a crisp dry white helps accentuate the flavors without adding to the sweetness, much like a twist of lemon adds just a nice amount of acidity to help balance the fats and sugars.

If you don&rsquo;t have a sommelier by your side, these simple rules on pairing wine with food will help you decide what to choose.

<ul>
	<li>When it comes to acidity, the wine should be more acidic than the food.</li>
	<li>Likewise, the wine should be sweeter than the food.</li>
	<li>Choose wine and food that are comparable in flavor.</li>
	<li>Bold, tannin-heavy red wines pair best with heavier, red meats</li>
	<li>Crisp, dry white wines pair best with light-intensity meats</li>
	<li>Bitter wines, tannin-rich wines are best balanced with fat.</li>
	<li>When eating sauce-rich foods, pair the wine to the sauce, not the meat</li>
</ul>

If you want to hear more about the wine list at Quality Meat Steakhouse, check out the CorkRules <a href="https://corkrules.com/episodes">wine review podcast </a>where Grace identifies the notable wines from Bordeaux, points out the best-value wines on the list, and shares a little knowledge on the wine and moonshine history in the States.

Cheers.

In episode three of the CorkRules podcast, certified sommelier Grace Hood shares her expertise on how sommeliers create and organize a great wine list and provides a brief overview of how to pair wines.

Quick Tips on Pairing Wine at Quality Meat Steakhouse

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

The Four Horsemen

Grant Wood

The Four Horseman 

Located on 295 Grand St in Brooklyn, near Williamsburg, The Four Horseman is a cozy wine bar with great small plates that merry well with a very thoughtful wine list and was started by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.

Alright Robert, so looking at their almost 50-page wine list, I think this is a very passionate list with tons of personality so this is a place I would definitely lean into the staff and ask what is most exciting to them in the moment as I&rsquo;m sure they&rsquo;ll be more than willing to share with you. Let&rsquo;s dive in and look at what caught by attention though.

I&rsquo;d like to start by saying that I like how their table of contents is laid out but starting with &ldquo;what&rsquo;s new&rsquo;&rsquo; and &lsquo;&rsquo;last call&rsquo;&rsquo; as a fun way to show you something new that they&rsquo;re excited about as well as things that might be on the way out and might not get in for a while. It&rsquo;s a useful tool that my favorite wine shops use to keep things fresh and make sure you don&rsquo;t miss out. For their new additions, I&rsquo;d go for the 2017 Eric Rodez Coteaux &ldquo;Ambonnay Rouge&rdquo; Pinot Noir which is very rare to find a still red Pinot Noir from Champagne. For their last call, I&rsquo;d go for the 2020 Emmanuel Haget &ldquo;Palabres&rdquo; which is Pineau d&rsquo;Aunis from the Loire, which is light, spicy, and easygoing at a very accessible price.

Since we&rsquo;re in summer and it&rsquo;s always a good idea for rose then I like the 2020 Enderle &amp; Moll rose of Sp&auml;tburgunder coming from Baden in Germany but if you want to splurge then I can&rsquo;t say no to the 2010 Lopez de Heredia &ldquo;Vina Tondonia&rdquo; Gran Reserva from Rioja which is, yes, an ageable rose.

For bubbles, I think the &quot;Jus Jus Day&quot; Chardonnay and Muscat Blanc by Martha Stoumen and Julia Sherman is super fun and a great value. The 01&rsquo; &lsquo;Reserve Priv&eacute;e by B&eacute;r&ecirc;che et Fils would be a great banger to splurge on from the Montagne de Reims.

For whites, I&rsquo;d go for the 2017 &ldquo;Saul&eacute;tas&rdquo; by Sebastien Riffault in Sancerre but of course, I can&rsquo;t pass up 2016 &lsquo;Pur Sang&rsquo; Blanc Fume de Pouilly from Dagueneau. They also have a fair amount of Burgundy so don&rsquo;t pass up a good rec from your server if that&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re in the mood for. There&rsquo;s a great selection but not enough time for me to really get into on this pod. Alternatively, I think the 2019 C&ocirc;tes du Jura Pollock&rsquo;s&nbsp;Chardonnay is a great way to experience a different side of French chardonnay.

On to reds, a great value is the 2018 syrah from Jean-Michel Stephan who makes amazing C&ocirc;te Rotie but his regular syrah is a banger for the price compared to his more coveted bottlings. If you want to splurge, then, of course, you can go with Chave or Clape as well which never disappoints. Moving away from France, I know you like big wines with age Robert so if you go here anytime soon then you have to order the 9&rsquo; C&ocirc;tes du Jura Pollock&rsquo;s&nbsp;Chardonnay who is a true OG of barolo and worth the splurge. Another fun wine with some age is the 10&rsquo; Priorat Dits del Terra by Terroir al Limit which is a project by Eden Sadie and Dominik Huber doing awesome things with unique sites from Spain&rsquo;s Priorat. One last wine I&rsquo;ll mention that would be fun is the 2019 Port Phillip &ldquo;Ray-Monde Vineyard&rdquo; pinot noir by Josh Cooper down under in Australia. These are not the big, ripe Aussie wines that most people think of though. This is a much more of a light and more delicate style of Aussie juice.

There&rsquo;s a great list of mags too, so don&rsquo;t be shy and I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;re in for a good time at The Four Horseman.

&nbsp;

Cheers!

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.

Enduring neighborhood diner dispensing classic grub in a straightforward setting.

28-50 Wine Workshop & Kitchen

28-50

Bleu Provence

KOCHINYC

Kochi

Wally's

Hav & Mar

Bern's Steakhouse

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

La Parisienne

Available Wines
Total Wines - 6

Domaine de la Tour - Domaine Joblot Fabrice

Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2016

Pinot Noir

Bourgogne, Burgundy, France

Chateau La Gordonne Cotes de Provence 'Font Freye' Rose 2018

France

René Briand

Blanc de Blancs Brut NV

Chardonnay

Vin de France, France

Delobel Sauvignon Blanc Touraine Angle Droit 2018

Loire, France

Saint-Emilion 2018

Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux, France

Lentz

Cremant d'Alsace Brut NV

Alsace, France