The holiday season is a time for celebration, and champagne is a popular beverage of choice for many. Whether you&#39;re looking for a high-end champagne to mark a special occasion or a more approachable option for casual gatherings, there are plenty of choices to consider.&nbsp;

By the way, we love champagne with all kinds of food (seafood, fried chicken, spicy food, etc) and is more than just for a quick toast at midnight.&nbsp;

High-End Champagnes:&nbsp;

When it comes to high-end champagnes, names like <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/MoA-t-and-Chandon-Dom-Perignon-Brut-2013-w87575582p">Dom Perignon</a> and Krug often come to mind. These prestigious champagnes are typically reserved for special occasions and are known for their exceptional quality and craftsmanship. <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/MoA-t-and-Chandon-Dom-Perignon-Brut-2013-w87575582p">Dom Perignon</a> is produced by Moet &amp; Chandon and is named after the Benedictine monk who is often credited with discovering the champagne-making process. Krug, on the other hand, is known for its rich and complex flavors, thanks to its unique production methods, including fermentation in small oak barrels. These won&#39;t disappoint! Yum!!&nbsp;

More Approachable Options:&nbsp;

If you&#39;re looking for a more approachable champagne that still offers great quality, there are plenty of options to consider. <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/Ruinart-Brut-Rose-w2136832vx">Ruinart Rose</a> and <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/Charles-Heidsieck-Brut-Blanc-De-Blancs-w1263779l4">Charles Heidsieck Blanc de Blanc</a> are two examples of champagnes that are well-regarded but are often more affordable than their high-end counterparts. <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/Ruinart-Brut-Rose-w2136832vx">Ruinart Rose</a> is known for its delicate, fruity flavors, while <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/Charles-Heidsieck-Brut-Blanc-De-Blancs-w1263779l4">Charles Heidsieck Blanc de Blanc</a> is a type of champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes, resulting in a crisp and elegant taste. Solid choices!&nbsp;

Blanc de Blanc:

Blanc de Blanc is a term used to describe champagnes that are made exclusively from white grapes, typically Chardonnay. This style of champagne is known for its light and crisp flavors, making it a popular choice for those who prefer a more delicate taste. Blanc de Blanc champagnes are often a great option for pairing with seafood or light appetizers.&nbsp;

Lower-End Examples and Spanish Cava:

If you&#39;re looking for lower-end champagne options, there are plenty of choices to consider. <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/Piper-Heidsieck-Brut-Cuvee-w504046291">Piper-Heidsieck&#39;s Brut Non-Vintage</a> is a great affordable option that still offers great quality and flavor. This champagne is known for its fresh and lively taste, making it a great choice for casual gatherings. In addition to champagne, <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/Gramona-Brut-Corpinnat-Imperial-2017-w91087350j">Spanish Cava</a> is another great option to consider for all budgets. Cava is a sparkling wine that is produced in Spain using the traditional champagne method, and it offers great quality at a more affordable price point.&nbsp;

Whether you&#39;re looking for a high-end champagne to mark a special occasion or a more approachable option for casual gatherings, there are plenty of choices to consider. From prestigious names like <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/MoA-t-and-Chandon-Dom-Perignon-Brut-2013-w87575582p">Dom Perignon</a> and Krug to more affordable options like <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/Ruinart-Brut-Rose-w2136832vx">Ruinart Rose</a> and <a href="https://www.grapesthewineco.com/wines/Gramona-Brut-Corpinnat-Imperial-2017-w91087350j">Spanish Cava</a>, there&#39;s a champagne out there for every taste and budget.&nbsp;

Cheers to the holiday season! #drinkwhatyoulove #bubbles

The holiday season is a time for celebration, and champagne is a popular beverage of choice for many. Whether you're looking for a high-end champagne to mark a special occasion or a more approachable option for casual gatherings, there are plenty of choices to consider.

Bubbles for the Holidays!!

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

Kirby’s Steakhouse

Josh Ardizzoni

The Grill

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 Josh Ardizzoni, Certified Sommelier, and cellar consultant.

Hello Josh,&nbsp;welcome to the CorkRules team!

JA: Hi Robert! Great to be here.

RT: Before we jump in, let&rsquo;s talk about CorkRules.

We created CorkRules to demystify wine list&rsquo;s because we know from experience, that sometimes when we get that 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:&nbsp;So, sit back and listen as we review your favorite wine list.

RT: Today we are taking a look inside the wine list of one of New York&rsquo;s most extravagant and truly awe-inspiring restaurants, The Grill.

This place is the definition of an occasion restaurant; it&rsquo;s a throwback to the midcentury &lsquo;Golden Age&rsquo; of continental dining and it is absolutely dripping with style and luxury.

The wine list here is super extensive and it seems like page after page of big-ticket bottles staring down diners ...

Josh, How do you even begin to gameplan for picking wines from a list like this?

JA: Well, it makes sense that a restaurant like this would have an absolutely epic wine program and The Grill does not disappoint!

There are thousands of selections spanning a literal who&rsquo;s who of classic regions, producers, and vintages. There are so many legendary wines on offer that even the pros heads spin when they see this list - it is truly overwhelming.

Of course, we are here to help navigate this massive selection, and I thought we&rsquo;d talk about a couple of carefully measured strategies to getting the very best out of this &ldquo;wow factor&rdquo; dining experience whether you want to pull out all the stops or escape with your next mortgage payment still on time.

RT: Hah! Alright so kick us off here - let&rsquo;s talk about ways to get the meal started.

JA: The Grill has a really impressive appetizer selection including raw bar options. and especially if you&rsquo;re here to celebrate, Champagne feels almost mandatory. All the big names are available &ndash; Dom P&eacute;rignon, Cristal, Krug&hellip; but I think there&rsquo;s a ton to discover on the grower-side of Champagne here too.

These are wines made by the same hands that farm the grapes and really show a little more of the exciting side of where Champagne is going...

Les Beaux Regards from B&eacute;reche &amp; Fils will only set you back about 1/3rd the cost of a bottle of Dom and is a really sexy style of Blanc des Blancs, meaning all Chardonnay grapes. It&rsquo;s fresher and brighter, and will really add a whole new dimension to all kinds of cold appetizers.

Also, although there aren&rsquo;t a huge number of wines on this list under $100, there is one attractive ros&eacute; Champagne, La Caravelle, which is a cool little piece of New York history named for the legendary former Midtown restaurant. It&rsquo;ll do very nicely if you want to save up to splurge elsewhere.

RT: Wow, wouldn&rsquo;t have thought there was that kind of value hiding underneath all those iconic Champagne names.

JA: One thing that I find really freeing is that on a list as serious as this, you can feel pretty confident that less expensive options still have a really good reason to be included with the heavy hitters. Either the Sommeliers personally likes them, or they represent the same markers of quality as the big boys, just without the history or prestige attached to them.

RT: Alright, so we need to pick a bottle for dinner now. The entr&eacute;es focus mostly on, you guessed it, grilled items. What&rsquo;s the order?

JA: Let&rsquo;s focus on two of the most classic regions of France because I think they are really the strength of The Grill&rsquo;s wine program and this is as good a dining room as anywhere to fully appreciate them! I&rsquo;m talking about Burgundy and Bordeaux. If you&rsquo;re feeling rich seafood dishes or tasty game birds, Pinot Noir from Burgundy pretty much reigns supreme.

If someone else is paying, you could consider the 60+ Grand Cru bins from Domaine de la Roman&eacute;e-Conti, perhaps the most vaunted estate in the whole wine world. More realistically, gems like 2015 Volnay-Champans from Marquis d&rsquo;Angerville at or even 2017 C&ocirc;te de Nuits-Villages from a rising star winemaker named Didier Fornerol for just are just about as good as younger Burgundy gets for the money.

RT: Let&rsquo;s say I&rsquo;m going big with a steak or the Prime Rib from their trolley that roams the dining room. What then?

JA: The meatier you want to go, I&rsquo;d start to think about sliding into Bordeaux. here we are going to find blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and the like, which have a bit deeper tone and match up best with beef, venison, and lamb.

Again, there are endless opportunities to taste virtually any of the Grand Cru Class&eacute;, the most famous Chateaux of Bordeaux, and from so many vintages. You could go with a petite or second wine, produced from the younger vines of these bigtime estates.

RT: explain what petite second wine means?

JA: &hellip;.Les Hauts de Smith, which is the younger-drinking offering from Ch&acirc;teau Smith Haut Lafitte. A steal! But even considering the prices, I&rsquo;m going to capitalize on the rare level of access to older, more mature wines.

RT: Love the older wines. It&rsquo;s not often lists have that range.

JA: I see a supple and luxurious 1986 Ch&acirc;teau Rauzan-S&eacute;gla from Margaux, or a more powerful and complex 1995 Ch&acirc;teau Pontet-Canet from Pauillac, which has that firmer Cabernet punch. Not cheap, but very in line with the place. You simply don&rsquo;t get the chance to drink great vintages like this at very many restaurants, and I think that experience is what The Grill is all about.

RT: Those really sound like bottles that would make memories. So, considering the restaurant we are talking about today, take it a step further&hellip; since they are all here for the taking, what are the dream bottles if there was no limit on budget?

JA: I&rsquo;d look for the true &lsquo;unicorn&rsquo; wines &ndash; bottlings where the overall production is super low or vintages that were all snatched up and drank by aficionados a long time ago. I&rsquo;d open with the magnificent and powerful 2015 Comte Lafon Montrachet, glorious White Burgundy to pair up with the tableside-prepared wild mushroom omelette which I think just jumps off the menu as a must-order. For dinner, the legendary 1990 Hermitage from Jean-Louis Chave, one of the greatest Syrahs ever bottled&hellip;. And let&rsquo;s finish with a Ch&acirc;teau d&rsquo;Yquem, Sauternes from 1882, because why not? It&rsquo;s fun to imagine! &nbsp;

RT: If I win the lottery, I&rsquo;m coming to that dinner.

JA: Hah! In all seriousness, you don&rsquo;t have to be the private jet type to fully enjoy this wine list. Ask for a Sommelier to help drill down past all the flashing lights with you and find something magical in whatever price range you want to explore. There are countless great wines to choose from here &ndash; it&rsquo;s just a downright amazing place to drink wine! Enjoy.

RT: Josh, thank you so much for all your great suggestions and helping us navigate The Grill&rsquo;s epic wine list. I can&rsquo;t wait to go try them myself. Mother&rsquo;s Day is around the corner.

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: <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.&nbsp;

And finally, drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly.

Thank you.

End

&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

Marenco is a family-owned winery that specializes in producing high-quality Moscato d'Asti wines in the Piedmont region of Italy. The winery has been in operation since 1925 and is known for its dedication to sustainable and environmentally-friendly winemaking practices.

Fashionable Italian restaurant with a cocktail bar & private dining, plus event space.

Frenchette

Le Bernardin

Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels

La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels

Charlie Bird

Becco

Buddha-Bar Restaurant New York

Buddha Bar

Franks Wine Bar

Frank's

Maison

Maison Premiere

Pastis

Aldo Sohm Wine Bar

Aldo Sohm

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

Sant Ambroeus Brookfield Place

Podere Sassaie

Asimenia Sauvignon 2019

Sauvignon Blanc

Toscana, Italy

Cantina Tramin

Kellerei Pinot Nero Alto Adige 2020

Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy

Delamotte

Brut Champagne NV

Blend

Champagne, France

Fattoria Sardi Pet-Nat Rose Toscana IGT, Tuscany 2020

Tuscany, Italy

Fattoria Sardi

Pet-Nat Toscana Bianco Frizzante 2020

Toscana, Italy

Fattoria Sardi 'Felice' Rosato Colline Lucchesi IGT 2019

Tuscany, Italy

Medici Ermete

Concerto Lambrusco Reggiano NV

Lambrusco

Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Fattoria Sardi Vermentino Colline Lucchesi 2021

Tuscany, Italy

Sant Ambroeus Prosecco Extra Dry NV

Veneto, Italy

Coppo

Moscato d'Asti, Moncalvina 2018

Moscato d'Asti, Piedmont, Italy

Fattoria Sardi

Felice Sangiovese 2018

Sangiovese

Toscana, Italy

Fiol Prosecco Rose, Veneto NV

Veneto, Italy

Kellerei Tramin, Maglen Pinot Nero Riserva, VdT 2020

Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy

Fattoria Sardi

Colline Lucchesi Rosso 2018

Italy

Ca' del Bosco

Franciacorta Cuvee Prestige NV

Blend

Lombardia, Italy