Wine Additives

Natural and organic wines are gaining footholds for perceived health reasons. Of course, many think the Impossible Burger at Burger King is a healthy alternative -- until you check out the fat and sodium content. Anyway, what about all the stuff that might be in your wine?

Making Wine in a Restaurant Fun

Because nobody wants the restaurant staff staring at them while they try to make a selection from the wine list then sneer at their choice.

Restaurants would love to sell more wine to their lunch and dinner guests. Many already have a bar selling wines by the glass. The problem is sticker shock at restaurant markups that has to be overcome. The other issue is a complicated wine list with no real info the the selections. So what can be done? In short find restaurants that are wine-friendly, where you can experiment a bit with different wines. Yes, it can be done without having 500 wines on the wine list. It should be fun and educational.

The Decade's Wine Trends

Yes, we're at the end of another decade so we should look back and see what's changed in the American wine world.

Alcohol Tolerance

Ever wonder why some are lightweights when it comes to drinking and others can pack it away? Here are factors that play into one's tolerance.

Reading an American Wine Label

  Buying wine is a risky proposition. There is some information on the label, but most of us don't know what it all means. There's the winery name or maybe it's just a label belonging to another winery and made in a location where wine under other labels is made. There's the vintage telling you when the grapes were grown though more specifically the year the grapes were harvested (that matters in the Southern Hemisphere). There's a growning location that's likely to be a county, a grape growing region (usually within one county), and maybe a vineyard name. Even the alcohol level has a fairly wide range it can fall in depending on which side of 14% alcohol it falls. See, it gets complicated.

  Below are the basics.

Wine Rules You Can Break

We all know a troublemaker; the one who says, "Rules are made for breaking." Well, there seems to be a ton of rules related to wine. I mean, people will gasp in horror if you throw an ice cube in your chardonnay on a hot day. Here are a few of wine commandments you can break that won't get you sent to hell.

Best of Sonoma County 2019

The local paper, the Press Democrat, does a yearly readers' choice "best of" for food, drink, entertainment, shopping, and services within Sonoma County. To the visitor what locals think of their restaurants, wineries and some other categories can help you figure out your itinerary.

Gender-Specific Drinks

Sometimes gender-specific items make sense. Women's clothes, things made smaller, lighter for women who are often smaller and lighter. As a kid I probably noticed clothing and bicycles first. Of course, many things can just come in sizes rather than having male and female versions. Instead of men's and women's backpacks, what if I'm a 5 ft 3 inch male? I'd be okay with buying a small pack, but maybe not a girl's.

Masculinity and Femininity in Marketing

A little insight into how marketing folks view you. That is, what's considered masculine (like watching sports and drinking Bud) and what's feminine (yoga and a latte). So you'll see beer ads aimed at guys with wine ads more likely for women.

Click on the chart to enlarge.