From the monthly archives:

December 2009

Champagne to ring in 2010

by Marisa D'Vari30 December 2009

Champagne Lunch at the Wine Media Guild
Curious about some favorite Champagnes? At a recent Wine Media Guild (WMG) event here in New York I had the opportunity to taste several different brands for this holiday season. Speaking at the event – an annual event – was Ed McCarthy, author of Champagne for Dummies

Below are some [...]

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Book Review: About Wine by J. Patrick Henderson and Dellie Rex

by Marisa D'Vari28 December 2009

For whatever reason, I received the book About Wine by J. Patrick Henderson and Dellie Rex over two years ago, yet had been too overwhelmed by my wine studies to open anything that wasn’t Janscis Robinson or Tom Stevenson. It’s only now that I have my diploma from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust that [...]

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Macari Early Wine Chardonnay 2009

by Marisa D'Vari27 December 2009

MACARI
… Macari is one of several rising star wineries in the North Fork, and though somewhat surprising to find this 2009 Chardonnay available on the market while it is still 2009 (we still have four days to go!) it is a fabulous holiday wine to pair with oysters and shellfish.

Opening it blind, it had the [...]

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Barefoot

by Marisa D'Vari23 December 2009

Barefoot Sparkling Wines
Just in time for the holidays, affordable (around $10) sparkling wines! Barefoot bubbly has won several Gold Medal awards, and is very cutely packaged with the familiar "bare footprint" right on the bottle.
I popped the cork for a pre-xmas office party, and the crowd devoured the Moscoto sparkler before I could taste. The [...]

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ABCs of Wine: Tasting “Anything But Chardonnay”

by Marisa D'Vari20 December 2009

Apremont Appellation in the French Alps

As a wine educator, one of the most pleasurable aspects of my profession is choosing a theme for a class and introducing students to exciting wines or wine regions I have discovered. And here in Manhattan, this is a special challenge, because in this jaded city most everyone dabbling in [...]

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WSET NYC Graduation 2009

by Marisa D'Vari16 December 2009

Marisa D’Vari, seated (L)
… so you can imagine how exciting it was to celebrate graduation from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust after nearly three years of non-stop study. The event was held at Il Trulli, a fashionable NYC restaurant, and it was great to catch up with former classmates, former grads, and all the [...]

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Restaurant Review: STK in Manhattan

by Marisa D'Vari16 December 2009

“Look, horns!” A blonde gestures to the gleaming white fiberglass priapic shapes jutting above the heads of the testosterone-fueled bar crowd at the glamorous new Meatpacking steakhouse STK. “How apropos!”

With its sleek, dramatic design, STK exemplifies the new female-friendly, NYC steakhouse geared to a younger, hipper crowd.

Under the direction of executive chef Todd Mark Miller, [...]

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Wine Writers – Write on!

by Marisa D'Vari10 December 2009

Ok, so if you review wine at the larger tasting events in Manhattan, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, you know the gut-wrenching, high-pressured feeling of knowing to take accurate (read time consuming) tasting notes when the world’s treasures are before you. You might have already realized that napkins, leaflets, scraps of paper are not the [...]

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Chablis Soiree

by Marisa D'Vari4 December 2009

Women at Chablis Event
… so after enjoying Grand Cru Chablis after an excellent presentation on the subject, many of Manhattan’s top journalists came to celebrate at the SoHo Grand. Earlier that day there had been an excellent presentation on Chablis wines (read about it here)

Sushma and Christian
Above you can see one of the wine makers, [...]

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