Food with wine or wine with food

Do you match wine with food or pick a wine and then select a food match? Most books and advice are based on the assumption that you choose the food first.

I like to do it the other way around. I spend time resaerching a recipe for a wine I am planning to enjoy.

Have a look at some of these food suggestions to go with wine.

What do you do? Leave a comment.

What Americans Drink

My friend Steve de Long has just posted an article which mentions the distribution of grape varieties used to make the wine Americans are consuming.

Loads of Cabernet and Chardonnay, just a smidgen of shiraz, Semillon doesn't get a look in, Pinot grigio is much more popular than in OZ and that 20% other category hides lots of diversity.

Viognier - no longer a fad!

When I started out with Vinodiversity I had to decide just what varieties were "alternative" and what were mainstream. I adopted, with a few modifications the definition used by the Australia Alternative Varieties Wine Show. Viognier is still on their list as "alternative" and it is on mine as well.

But is it still an alternative variety? Even given Viognier's dual role as a varietal and as a copigmentation partner with Shiraz you could argue that the variety has become mainstream.

Vinodiversity's listing of Australian Wineries using the variety now has 300 plus entries. My guess is that somewhere between a third and a half of these wineries are making a dry white viognier wine, the others are using it just with Shiraz. I haven't collected any hard data on this.

See the list of 300 wineries with Viognier and let me know if missed any.

Last chance for variety table at give away price

I have been selling the wine grape variety table and wine and grape indexes at a very low price, just $50.00 posted to an Australian address. Now I've done my sums I realise I just have to put the price up.

From Thursday 1 March 2007 it will be $60.00, still a bargain compared to the close to $90 you would pay to get one sent from the US... but why wait to pay more.

Put in your order now while it is still available at the old price!


Order your copy Now

De Long's Wine Grape Varietal Table

I now have supplies of this table for mailing to Australian addresses. The cost, including GST and Postage is just $50.00; but I can only hold this price until 28 Feb. After that I will have to put the price up to $60.00, still a bargain, but why wait to pay more!

I display this chart each month at the Victorian Regional Wine Showcases and it attracts lots of attention among those keen to learn more about varietal wines.

De Long's Wine Grape Varietal Table