Love It and Drink It Blog

If you’re preparing a recipe that calls for adding a dry red wine, it can feel challenging to know the best red wine to cook with. Never fear! Choosing the right dry red wine for cooking isn’t difficult if you remember a few basic rules.

Choosing a Dry Red Wine for Cooking

The first thing to remember is to never, ever buy the “cooking wine” that’s sold in grocery stores. True, they’re inexpensive, but they’re also nothing more than a blend of inferior wines and added salt that comprises a one-way ticket to a ruined dinner. What’s more, don’t use leftover wine that’s been uncorked and past its prime drinking time. The standard rule states that if you wouldn’t drink it, you shouldn’t cook with it.

When using dry red wine for cooking, it’s important to remember that as an ingredient, wine conveys all of its flavors, body, and acidity to the dish. While its subtleties may not be as pronounced,

Certainly, every wine lover has a favorite vintage, but wine aficionados consider French wine indisputably the best in the world. What makes French wine superior to wines produced in more than 50 countries around the globe? It’s all about the terroir.

The best French wine takes on the flavors of the regions and soils in which the grapes grow (aka, terroir), and you won’t find a more diverse set of growing regions—each uniquely suited for cultivating certain grapes—than you’ll find in France. From the cooler climates of Champagne to the north, to the warm, dry climates of the Rhone Valley in the southeast and all the areas in between, France has a little bit of everything. The diverse set of wines reflect that, and it’s this diversity that makes French wine more complementary to food than other wines.

What Are the 7 French Wine Regions?

Unlike American wines that are named after the wine grape, French wines are named for the region in which the g

Don’t let the translucent appearance and delicate aromas of Nebbiolo wine fool you. One sip, and you’ll discover that this is a bold, full-bodied red wine rich with tannins. 

Nebbiolo grapes are cultivated in Barolo and Barbaresco, located in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is here that some of the world’s most celebrated wines are produced. Nebbiolo is Italian for “fog,” and the grapes are likely named so because the best Nebbiolo grape vineyards are located high above the valley where the fog collects.

What Are The Differences Between Barbaresco and Barolo Wines?

Nebbiolo wine boasts delicate aromas of roses, raspberries, and cherries, followed by robust flavors of cherry, coffee, and anise. And while there are similarities between Barbaresco and Barolo, there are also differences.

Barolo is more strikingly tannic compared with Barbaresco, due to the latter’s

Aromatic and sweet, Riesling wine is a perennial favorite for casual wine lovers and aficionados alike. The best Riesling wine has flavor notes of apricot, peach, apple, and lemon. Young Rieslings might feature a secondary flavor of honeycomb or ginger, while aged Rieslings may contain a whisper of petrol flavorings, something wine collectors prize when choosing Riesling wine.

The History of Riesling Wine

Riesling grapes originated in Germany, where unearthed documents place them in the year 1435. German nobility fancied the wine and stockpiled it, recognizing that it improved with age. Of course, now it’s produced around the world, and affordable Riesling wine prices don’t require one to possess the wealth of European royalty.

Riesling grapes are hard-wooded and cold weather tolerant, making colder wine growing climates ideal for the hardy vines. They also grow well in areas with rocky terrain and good exposure to the sun. Germany is still the

Summer may be fleeting, but Moscato white wine is a sweet vintage you can enjoy year-round. Whether you sip it as an aperitif or savor it with a gourmet meal, the hints of orange blossom and peach, mandarin orange, sweet lemon, pear, and honeysuckle will delight your palate. 

What Is Moscato Wine?

Moscato wine is produced from Muscat grapes, of which there are 200 known varieties grown around the world. Italy is the top producer of semi-sweet, semi-sparkling Moscato using Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains grapes grown in the Piedmont region. While Moscato typically comes from Italy, you can also find varieties from California and Australia, as well as Germany, where it’s labeled “Muskateller,” and Spain, where it’s called “Moscatel.” 

Is Moscato sweet? Quite simply, yes. It’s also light with low alcohol content. This is due to its brief fermentation process, which tends to produce wine with higher levels of sugar and lower amounts of alcohol.&nb

If you’ve enjoyed a delicious glass of Dead Canyon Ranch Red or Encore Dark Red recently, you may not have realized that you were actually drinking a red blend wine. What is red blend wine? Quite simply, it is a domestic wine not made from one specific wine grape but rather a blend of several different grape varieties. 

How Is Red Blend Wine Made?

You may know that red blend wine is becoming increasingly popular, selling more than pinot noir or merlot and even rivaling the historically best selling red wine, cabernet sauvignon. What you may not know is that the best red wines have always been a blend. 

Creating a red blend wine is part art and part science. Essentially, winemakers are d

Whether you're cracking open a bottle with dinner or pouring yourself a glass after a long day at work, wine has long been a fixture in many of our lives — now more than ever. But have you ever wondered where your wine comes from? We know we have, which is precisely why we decided to look at the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's website, which keeps track of all the wine brewed and bottled across the continental United States.

We've compiled their statistics into the infographic you see below — scroll past for a bit more context and commentary on each section. 

You may think that the correct way to spell “whiskey” isn’t all that important in the big scheme of things. For the average person, that’s probably true. But if you are a true whiskey aficionado, the spelling of the word makes all the difference in the world.

Which is the Correct Spelling--Whiskey or Whisky?

Both “whiskey” and “whisky” are spelled correctly. Then why are they spelled differently? It’s not a quirky distinction some marketer made up to differentiate their brand. Whiskey, with an e, refers to liquor distilled in the United States and Ireland. Whisky, sans e, distinguishes liquor distilled in Scotland and Canada. 

The word whiskey refers to a wide range of distilled liquors. They are produced with a fermented mash of grains and most often aged in oak barrels. If you are a whis

Imagine for a moment that you have a beautiful bottle of 1982 Lafite Rotschild (valued at $4,349!). As you uncork it, you anticipate the cinnamon-spiced exotic notes of herbs and black currants delighting your palate and dancing across your tongue. You pour a glass, take a sip, and thrill to the taste of...vinegar?

Fortunately, this scenario is complete fiction. Why? Because that incredibly expensive bottle of wine contains sulfites. 

What Are Sulfites and Why Does Wine Contain Them?

Sulfites, also known as sulfur dioxide, are naturally occurring and an added preservative found in wine and many other foods and beverages. 

Naturally occurring sulfites are antimicrobial agents produced as a byproduct of yeast metabolism during fermentation. 

Sulfites added by vintners during the winemaking process preserve freshness and keep the wine from oxidizing

If you’ve ever ordered wine in an upscale restaurant, your first taste may have been poured by a wine sommelier (pronounced suh-muhl-yay). Sommelier is French for wine steward. But that’s a bit deceiving. A sommelier is so much more than a fancy name for a waiter or waitress. What’s more, a sommelier’s expertise goes beyond knowing one must serve white wine with fish and red wine with beef. 

What is a Wine Sommelier?

A sommelier receives professional training in every aspect of wine service, food, wine pairings, and wine storage. In addition, they develop wine lists for restaurants, train staff on wine service, and work with chefs to develop menus featuring complementary food and wine pairings. Above all els