How to Train Yourself to Memorize Varietal Characteristics

by Marisa D'Vari6 January 2010
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White Burgundy Tasting
Imagine yourself at a very elegant restaurant, hosting an important client, or trying to impress a date. You both decide on white fish as an entrée, so you are leaning toward a white wine. And since Chardonnay is such a popular grape, and Burgundy, France, such a respected region, you decide to go [...]

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Do you love wine? Visit the New York Wine Expo

by Marisa D'Vari5 January 2010
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New York Wine Expo
Imagine how exciting it will be to discover all the new trends in wine, and sip wine from Italy, Germany, Australia, South America — even from Oregon and California. It happens in NYC February 26 – 28 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center

I went last year and it was lots of [...]

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Q/A with Kanonkop Winemaker Abrie Beeslaar on 2007 Pinotage

by Marisa D'Vari3 January 2010
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Kanonkop Abrie Beeslaar
One of the advantages of living in the new millennium – for wine students, at any rate, is the opportunity to compare tasting notes on the Internet and even connect with winemakers. Recently I tasted 2007 Kanonkop Pinotage with an eye on how I would know it was a 2007 South African Pinotage [...]

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Champagne to ring in 2010

by Marisa D'Vari30 December 2009
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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
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 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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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“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
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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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Review: Jennifer Rosen’s book “Waiter, There’s a Horse in My Wine”

by Marisa D'Vari3 December 2009

Let’s face it, sometimes reading the back of a bottle of wine is simply not enough. We’ve all had the experience of tasting a wine so incredible we want to know everything about it at once: the name of the grapes, the style of wine, and why it tastes so much more incredible than any [...]

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Review: Jennifer Rosen’s “Wine Teasers” Card Deck

by Marisa D'Vari3 December 2009

Educators often remark that the best way to learn a new skill is to have fun as you do so. This seems to be the theory behind Jennifer Rosen’s Wine Teasers Wine Game, which is a pack of fifty question cards one can whip out in a moment’s notice to disarm any self-described wine snob [...]

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Book Review: The Cork Jester’s Guide to Wine

by Marisa D'Vari3 December 2009

Curious to learn everything about wine — and have fun doing so? Your local bookstore’s shelves groan with thick, wordy volumes about wine, but if you really want a fun, readable, quick study of wine basics — and to laugh out loud while reading it — look to Jennifer Rosen’s The Cork Jester’s Guide to [...]

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Uncorking Chablis

by Marisa D'Vari3 December 2009
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If you are just getting interested in the world of wine, you are probably wondering how California Chardonnay is different from Chardonnay in other areas of the world. This grape actually finds its fullest expression in the Chablis region of France, about two hours from Paris. And if you have ever ordered Chablis in a [...]

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Wine Review: Blind Tasting Light, Fruity Reds

by Marisa D'Vari3 December 2009
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Light Fruity Reds
"They do all seem so similar!" says a friend, known as the "supertaster," sniffing the mystery wine inside bag #2.

In front of us are three opened bottles of wine, each of their identities covered by sleek silver bags. All we know is that one is a Valpolicella Classico 2007, a Gamay from Touraine, [...]

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Book Review: Red, White, and Drunk All Over

by Marisa D'Vari1 December 2009

Like most people, I’m sure you think the life of a wine writer is exciting, yes? And romantic. And you are quite right — the life of a professional wine writer is something to be admired. And what are the qualities that make for a professional wine writer, you might ask? Of course, they are [...]

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Interview with Burgundian Negociant Jean-Marie de Champs of Domaines et Saveurs Collection

by Marisa D'Vari29 November 2009
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Jean Marie de Champs with her Rose Guy Charlemagne Champagne
On a recent visit to Burgundy for the Hospice du Beaune I was so delighted to meet one of its top negociants, Jean-Marie de Champs of Domaines et Saveurs Collection. If you love fine wine – yet have never been to Burgundy – your second surprise [...]

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Wine Review: Tasting Wines of BlackStone of Sonoma County

by Marisa D'Vari29 November 2009
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Blackstone Merlot
Sometimes I get so caught up in my studies of the Old World I discover it has been months since I’ve sipped wine from the new world, especially California. Winemaker Gary Sitton of Blackstone Winery in Sonoma sent me some of his new releases …

The Pinot Noir 2007 ($20) is rich and expressive [...]

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