It can be embarrassing if you are out on a date at a fancy restaurant and you don?t know the right wine to order, it?s even worse if you are out with another couple. Even though ordering a bottle of wine while dining out isn?t all that different than buying from a winery you do have people watching you and that can make the situation a little uncomfortable if you don?t have at least some kind of knowledge of basic wines.

The thing to remember is that not even the so-called wine masters that go to all the wine tasting events know every wine. What is important to you as a novice is to just study up a little if you have a big date coming up and you have an idea where you are going and what kind of food and wines are likely to be there. You should also try to get an idea of what the cost will be ahead of time so you aren?t surprised by that as well.

The majority of dining establishments these days offer a wine list but that list can vary even more than the meal selection of various restaurants. Usually the wine list will be printed on a menu just like the food selection and the different types of wines will be listed by the color and type of wine as well as by region plus the smarter restaurateurs will have the list numbered which keeps you from having to try to pronounce that fancy French or Italian wine properly.

What type of meal you will be eating is of superior importance when considering what wine to order. This is when it pays to have done your homework or at least be familiar with the wines that the particular restaurant you are dining at offers. If you are in a higher class restaurant they will usually have a wine steward you can ask for advice as well.

Now that we have some of the preliminaries out of the way, let?s look at some more specific advice. One thing you should avoid in most cases is ordering the house wine, it is there out of convenience and like most things in life that are convenient they come with a price. House wines generally are marked up in price more than others; you may get a much better wine for only a few dollars more.

To help you avoid overpaying look over the wine list and note the average price, if you keep around that figure you should be safe. Thirdly, you should order a wine that is from the same region as the food you are ordering if at all possible. If you are dining at a restaurant known for exquisite Spanish meals then Spanish wines should be made available. You can also ask your waiter for some suggestions and if they have any specials that he recommends. Keep in mind when you are ordering that if you plan on having a few glasses of wine it is always less expensive to order a bottle.

Gregg Hall is a consultant for online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida. Find out about personalized wine bottles at http://www.winebottlespersonalized.com

Having invested possibly hundreds of dollars in your latest bottle of vintage wine (ah well, we can but dream), the next important decision is where to store this prized possession?

The main issue when it comes to storing wine is that it needs to be maintained at a cool temperature of between 12 and 16 degrees Celsius. Shoved under the bed won’t do.

Many modern wines do not need to be aged over a great period of time; therefore extensive cellars are often unnecessary. Having said this, if you have the time, space and resource to excavate a cellar, your wine will surely benefit. A purpose built cellar is not normally an option for most households and so suitable alternatives must be explored.

Ideal areas for storage include a corner of a garage, garden shed, an unused fireplace or a cupboard that is against an outside wall.

Wherever you choose to store your wine, a few basic criteria are worth keeping in mind.

Choose an area that is less likely to be subjected to fluctuating temperatures caused by household heating systems.

Wines benefit from being kept in dark conditions. Although this is not always practical, wine should certainly be stored in an area that is not exposed it to direct sunlight.

As a final point, always store your wine bottles on their side. Corks are designed to be kept moist, so that they remain airtight and do not crumble when a corkscrew is inserted.

Bear in mind that some wines do not benefit from being stored at all. If you have poor or no storage facilities available, consider purchasing wine that matures quickly such as most white wines or new technology reds or, possibly, a new Beaujolais.

Move wine as little as possible once it has been placed in storage, unless of course it is being moved into a glass!

If you have a particularly special wine collection, it may be worth engaging a specialist company to store your wine for you (Oops, I’m dreaming again). Good storage has been recognized as vital for many wines and as such, many companies now provide storage facilities. Of course, this does not come cheap and is best reserved for those very special bottles or for those experts who are considering selling their wine on, at a future date.

Since Neil Best first investigated the history of wine he’s been recording his findings at Good Glug. This article is part of the free Good Glug Wine Appreciation Mini Course. Visit now and get your copy.

The ideal temperature to store wines is between 55?F and 58?F (13?C?15?C). However, any temperature between 40??65?F (5??18?C) will suffice as long as it remains constant. The degree and the speed of the temperature change are critical. A gradual change of a few degrees between summer and winter won’t matter. The same change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.

The most important rule when storing wine is to avoid large temperature changes or fluctuations. You’ll notice damage of this nature straight away from the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will damage the ‘integrity’ of the cork. It’s like having the cork pulled in and out again every day. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may be pushed out along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the bottle neck) allowing air to seep back in. Once the air is in contact with your wine the irreversible process of oxidation begins and your wine is ruined. At 55? to 58?F the wine will age properly, enabling it to fully develop. Higher temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the ageing process. Irreversible damage will be done if your wine is kept at a temperature above 82?F for even a month. At 55?F wines will age slowly and develop great complexity and you will never have to worry about them.

Every wine you buy should be placed in your cellar. Even if you are planning on opening the wine shortly after purchase it will benefit from resting to recover from the shock of traveling. Before any bottle makes it into your cellar you need to consider the treatment it received before you acquired it. Every wine lover knows that heat damages wine but how many of us take care to protect our wine at every stage? For example, you buy wine at a shop or winery, but leave it in your hot car all afternoon. You get it home to your temperature- controlled cellar, but by then you may have already cooked it. Remember that high temperatures can result in undesirable chemical reactions that would not normally take place.

Chris Miley is the author of the very popular book ?How To Build And Start Your Own Wine Cellar? which includes complete instructions for building your own basement wine cellar plus many other ideas for wine storage areas in your home, from a cupboard under the stairs to a temperature controlled wine cabinet. Go to http://www.winecellarsecrets.com to find out more about building your own wine cellar.

We’ve all been there. Those times in our lives when we swear that alcohol will never again touch our lips. These instances usually happen in the early mornings, with the cracks from the bathroom linoleum digging into our knees and our contact lenses glued to our eyeballs as if holding on for dear life, afraid that the heaves of our stomach will cause them to fall out.

With alcohol freely flowing – booze oozing out of bottles, people professing their love for each other, glasses of wine practically filling themselves up – it’s easy to forget the hangover that awaits in the coming hours. Lurking in the bathroom, hiding beneath the sink or behind a closed shower curtain, this hangover is sure to pop into ours lives anytime we play the role of the unsuspecting partier, leaving us to swear off drinking for life or longer.

Though everything has a price, and a hangover may very well be the price we pay for a wild night out, drinking wine does not always have to cost you in the form of a hangover. Taking some precautions can mean the difference between feeling fine and shooting a beady eyed glare in the direction of every bottle in your wine cellar.

Drink Water
Alcohol dehydrates you, which is why the next day is met with a headache and the ability to drink three bottles of soda, five liters of water, and a pot of coffee without ever having to pee. The best way to thwart this is to drink a glass of water for every glass of wine you drink. While wine does contain water, the alcohol in the wine trumps the water’s affect, disallowing you to utilize duality and count a glass of wine as both water and alcohol. Drinking a glass of water for every glass of wine will keep you hydrated, decreasing the chances of a rough morning.

Eat Before
Drinking on an empty stomach may seem like a good idea. As the sensation of wine glides down your esophagus, setting up residence by itself in your stomach and making you feel giddier than it would setting up residence next to a five course meal, drinking on empty can cause you to run out of gas in hangover Hell. Eating about an hour before going out drinking, however, helps to absorb the alcohol, keeping you from getting too drunk, too quickly. While you don’t need to eat everything in sight, eating a meal containing bread or pasta is a good way to arm yourself with a hangover deterrent.

Don’t Mix with Prescription Drugs
Several prescription drugs contain a label that says, This medicine will increase the affects of alcohol. While some people may look at this and see it as a way to save money at the bars, taking a few pills and generating a virtual two for one deal is probably not the best way to save a buck. Prescription pills and alcohol can be a dangerous combination and when your body is met with a dangerous combination, it fights back, doing all it can to kick any dangerous substances out of your system. This can only lead to a wilder than intended night, and a morning full of mourning.

Know When to Say When
Though a saying usually equated with drinking and driving, knowing when to say when is also applicable to drinking in general. Even if you drink plenty of water, eat on a full stomach, and lay off prescription drugs, drinking huge amounts of wine can still cause you to get sick. When wine is flowing smoothly, it’s easy to keep drinking without realizing the amount of alcohol you are actually consuming. Because the human brain has a late reaction to alcohol, you may be getting extremely drunk without immediately feeling inebriated. It’s best to drink slowly, pacing yourself to avoid that one moment where you rise from your chair and realize, three drinks too late, that you’ve consumed far too much. Drink in moderation and remind those around you that friends don’t let friends get hangovers.

Obviously, the full proof way of avoiding a hangover is to not drink at all. But, there’s no fun in that; the fact that the Great Depression was preceded by a decade without alcohol is no coincidence. We all want the ability to eat, drink, and be merry. And we all want a glass of wine to savor. By simply being proactive in your drinking, you should be able to avoid regret the morning after. And you should be able to avoid the realization of why, when it comes down to it, a hangover is really just two four letter words.

Jennifer Jordan is the senior editor at http://www.savoreachglass.com. With a vast knowledge of wine etiquette, she writes articles on everything from how to hold a glass of wine to how to hold your hair back after too many glasses. Ultimately, she writes her articles with the intention that readers will remember wine is fun and each glass of anything fun should always be savored.

Nobody likes to look like an amateur when doing anything and wine tasting is no exception. By simply following a few guidelines you can look as if you have been to dozens of wine tastings even if you don?t know a cabernet sauvignon from a pinot noir. Chances are that no one is going to come up and ask you to be a head judge!

The first step to tasting wine is a visual one, fill the wine glass to no more than half full at most, one third is better. Secondly, hold the wine glass by the stem so as not to influence the taste by heating it with the heat from your hand and also so that you are able to better see the wine. Observe the intensity of the color as well as how transparent the wine is. When observing the intensity you should look at it from above.

Now comes the fun part, swirl the wine in the glass to prepare it for tasting. The wine will leave small traces inside the glass, the more alcohol the more traces it will leave. Next, observe the color which shows the variety of grape that the wine comes from. Generally speaking you will find a cabernet sauvignon is usually violet to dark while pinot noir is more of a ruby color.

The color of a wine is also determined by the conditions of the climate during the season of growing and harvesting that the grapes went through. For example a very hot summer combined with a dry fall will produce full ripe grapes with a very dark color while a cooler summer and wet fall will give more undeveloped grapes which are much lighter. The type of wine making process has a lot to do with the color as well; red wine is fermented with the skin and the longer the process the darker the wine ends up.

The age of a wine also tells its color. When a wine is young it is full of coloring agents that make it denser and rich looking and as time goes by these agents are affected by chemical reactions that result in sediment being formed at the bottom and the color lightens up. When you see a wine with a lot of sediment at the bottom you can usually assume that it is older and has been aging for quite awhile.

So there you have it a basic overview of wine tasting that will at least give you some semblance of knowing what you are doing, so enjoy!

Gregg Hall is a consultant for online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida. Find out about personalized wine bottles at http://www.winebottlespersonalized.com

Which wine goes with turkey is a question that comes up often during the holiday season. My personal choice would be a delicious bottle of Pinot Gris. However, your guests might prefer a red wine to a white. I’ll list a couple of alternatives below, and let you make your own decision. There are, of course, many wine selections that will go with turkey and traditional holiday meals.

If your guests prefer white wines, then Pinot Gris would be the natural choice for a match with turkey. There are many good ones, and you should be able to find a bottle or two at your supermarket in the $10 – $15 range. Another white wine that would win your guests over is a bottle of Viognier, which might be a little harder to find than the Pinot Gris, but is a crisp alternative to the ever-boring Chardonnay.

If you usually like wine with a little sweetness, try a White Zinfandel. If you think you’d like to try a dessert wine, you might look for a sparkling Early Muscat or a bottle of Vin Glace made with Pinot Gris grapes. The Vin Glace will usually come in the 375 ml bottle.

If your guests prefer red wines, consider a Pinot Noir to go with your turkey. It will have a richer fruit flavor than most white wines, but will match up well with the meal. Pinot Noir is traditionally very smooth, so it will not overwhelm the taste of the food. Look for a bottle from Oregon, California, or France in the $15 – $20 range. Serve Pinot Noir very lightly chilled (about 60 degrees Fahrenheit). Put the Pinot Noir in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before serving, and you will bring out the fruit flavors and will remove the alcohol taste that can overwhelm when served at room temperature.

I would avoid any bold reds, unless the meal features some form of red meat. That means leave the Cabernet Sauvignon in the cellar for a more opportune time.

Scott maintains his own wine blog PinotGris.Net

Provence is often overlooked by companies that offer traditional wine tasting tours, in spite of the excellence of its wines. If you?re a true wine lover and wine fan, this beautiful location in France offers the most fascinating scenery and, not to mention, some of the best vineyards around.

In Provence, as everywhere in the Mediterranean, you?ll find the people full of warmth, spontaneity and a ?joie de vivre?. As you will soon discover, any of these master oenologists (winemakers) will be delighted to introduce you to the wines they have become famous for; and share a little of the region?s history with you.

In Provence your days will be filled with sunshine and warmth, and lush nights, scented with jasmine, lavender and wild thyme – whether you stay in a bustling, crowded metropolis with all the modern conveniences, or a turn-of-the-century country guest house filled with 17th and 18th century antiques.

However, little do outsiders know that winemaking in Provence is a serious business. Many of the winegrowers here have won the rights to include the prestigious ?AOC? designation (Appellation d?Origine Controlee) on their bottles of wines. This label assures the buyer of a guaranteed vintage from the designated region. In order to win the right to become designated as an appellation wine, winegrowers much pass rigorous tests and inspections.

If you are thinking of traveling to the south of France in the near future, think about including a trip to one of the vineyards of the 60 winegrowers in the Cotes de Provence region. A small, yet beautiful area, it takes in the departments of the Var and part of the Bouches-du-Rhone.

Located in the heart of Provence?s winemaking region, the ?Maison des Cotes de Provence? boasts an outstanding selection of appellation wines. The Cotes de Provence winegrowers are experts in utilizing traditional methods when harvesting and bottling their wines. Their deep respect for the soil, the climate and the different varieties of grapes they use comes through in the quality and taste of each bottle.

During your visit to Provence, you can also arrange to take a wine tasting course at one of the vineyards where you will learn a complete understanding of wine: its robe (color), its bouquet (perfume), its body (strength) and everything you need to know about service, conservation and more. Not only will you be able to taste the finest wines, but you will also learn invaluable winemaking tips you can?t learn elsewhere.

For the true wine lover, Provence is definitely a place to visit ? both for the fantastic wines and unforgettable scenery!

About The Author
Mark Anthony is an avid wine lover. He owns a number of wine-related sites, including http://www.frenchwinesecrets.com, http://www.italianwinesecrets.com and http://www.napawinesecrets.info . More wine articles, resources and information can be found by visiting his sites.

Ruster Ausbruch is a specialty sweet dessert wine from Austria. In understanding what Ruster Ausbruch is, it is helpful to first look at the name itself: Ruster is pronounced ?rooster?, like the bird, and it simply means that the wine comes from the town of Rust (pronounced roost) in the Burgenland region of Austria. Ausbruch is pronounced ahs-brook, and comes from the German word Ausbrechen, which means to ?break out.? There are a number of dessert wines hailing from different countries called Ausbruch, and it refers to the method used to select the grapes during harvest: the grapes which have been affected by botrytis cinerea (also known as noble rot) are ?broken out? of the bunch, leaving the clean, un-affected grapes behind. It is this noble rot that is being referred to when you find a dessert wine being called a ?Noble Wine.?

The quality of the final product depends upon how meticulously this selection process it is done. The simplest way involves taking two buckets and making one pass at the vines, roughly separating the merely ripe grapes from those affected by noble rot.

The more labor intensive way involves going through the vineyard day after day, sometimes as much as a dozen times, and only picking the most perfectly noble-rotted grapes with each pass and leaving the rest on the vine until they reach rotted perfection. Those affected by the lesser black or green molds are also picked but then discarded. With this method, even the most experienced picker will collect only about enough grapes to produce 20 liters of wine with each pass. In fact, winemaker Michael Wenzel of the Wenzel Winery in Rust tells of a year when it took a team of 7 harvesters working full-time for 10 days to pick enough grapes for a mere 300 liters of this precious wine.

Production then goes something like this: maceration generally takes between a half to 2 days, depending upon the quality of the nobly rotted grapes. Next comes a gentle run through the press. The must is then left to ferment until it reaches around 12% alcohol, which takes approximately four months. The wines are then aged in wooden casks or oak barrels, the length of time and type of barrel used depending upon the style of the vintner

The most traditional blend of grapes used for making Ruster Ausbruch is Furmint and Muskateller, but you?ll find examples from single variety or cuvees of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Neuburger, Traminer and Welschriesling as well.

As a bit of a history lesson, the first official record of Ausbruch wines comes from the communal register of the town of Weiden, which is on the opposite side of the Neusiedler Lake from Rust, and is dated 1617. There are those that like to claim Ausbruch as being the first type of dessert wine on record.

Precious few Ruster Ausbruch wines are currently imported to the United States, and they can be difficult to locate at your local wine shop. Two outstanding producers to look for are the Feiler-Artinger winery, which just celebrated its 100-year anniversary, and the Wenzel winery, whose family have been making wine in Rust since 1647. Both can be found online at the Austrian specialty wine shop www.winemonger.com, which offers at least 6 different varieties of Ruster Ausbruch dessert wine at last count. Another good resource are the many wine-shop search engines which can be found on the internet.

Last year, Wine Enthusiast magazine named the 2001 Wenzel SAZ Ruster Ausbruch wine to it?s ?Top 100 Wines in the World? list, a wine which vintner Michael Wenzel describes this way: ?This is the flagship of our Ruster Ausbruch wines. ?Saz? stands for the historically important lage [vineyard area on our property. The idea was to create a Ruster Ausbruch from grapes that have been the traditional combination used for hundreds of years: 60% Furmint, 40% In the glass it is a beautiful sparkly yellow. The nose is immensely fruity, with notes of apricot and citrus fruits. An explosion of fruits. On the palate you are overwhelmed by the finesse of the acid that carries the wine and builds the backbone for long cellaring potential. The 2001 Saz was aged for 18 months in new wood barrels.?

What is the cellar potential for a Ruster Ausbruch? Vintner Kurt Feiler, from the Feiler-Artinger winery, describes their passage into maturity this way: ?The Ruster Ausbruch has a cellaring potential of up to 50, 60 years. It shows well in the first 2 years, then closes down in year 3 for about a year, and then opens back up with fruit and more complexity on the palate; more rounded and integrated. It will hold at this perfect taste for another 15 years and then slows development as it moves into its ripening period. The sweet impression of the sugar reduces during this final period, developing a more crispy, slightly drier finish. For our Ruster Ausbruch blends every grape is picked single varietal, at different times, and then after fermentation they are blended. This also helps us to control the final feeling.?

One might be tempted to serve such a sweet dessert wine alongside the dessert course, but both Michael Wenzel and Kurt Feiler recommend a different route: pair these wines with something savory, such as a blue-veined cheese or some prepared foie gras, to create incredible balance and harmony. If you do elect to serve it as the finishing touch of the meal, they would recommend keeping the dessert simple and not-too-sweet, such as a white cake or ripe fruit dish. Or better yet, serve a glass of Ruster as the entire dessert course. This is one dessert wine that can certainly stand alone, and deserves to do so.

These rare and exquisite wines are a must for the dessert wine connoisseur, and a knockout for the sweet wine novice.

Emily Schindler is a wine importer based in Los Angeles. To learn more about her company, read more articles about wine, or to find great Austrian wines, visit http://www.winemonger.com.

Italy is famous for many things, but perhaps it is most famous for its wine. The wines of Italy are almost as varied as the people themselves. Wine is very common in Italy, as are tea and coffee in other parts of the world. There are many different types of wine. The two most distinct classifications are red wine and white wine. There is a lot more to that than meets the eye when it comes to fine wine though. There are table wines, after dinner wines, lighter wine to be enjoyed during the day, the types of wine, whether white wine or red wine, are almost endless.

Almost all wine is produced from fermented grapes. Red wine is made by fermenting red grapes just as white wine is made from fermented white grapes. The red wines are usually heavier, often creamier and richer than their white wine counterparts. After dinner wines are frequently very strong and bold red wines produced with much aplomb. Red wines are served with red meats such as beef during meals. In Italy it is not uncommon to have a glass or two of wine when enjoying any meal.

If you are serving fish, poultry or perhaps pork, a white wine is usually served with the meal. White wines are usually lighter and fruitier than red wines. The white wines of Italy vary region by region and even batch by batch.

While wines are produced in similar fashion, even under ideal circumstances in the fermentation of the grapes, there are variations in the wine production. Something so seemingly unimportant as a change in temperature during the fermentation process can have a noticeable effect on the wine being produced. Probably the best thing to keep in mind when you are sampling Italian wine, is to make sure you find one, whether a red wine or white wine, that you enjoy personally.

Vaughn Balchunas writes about food and health. Great Italian Wines have been with us for thousands of years and now we know that red wine, especially, has some fascinating health benefits.

Wine has become a popular beverage with many Americans, and is sold almost everywhere. This is because it is studied consistently for its wide variety in taste, depending on where it’s produced, and it can be an important part of a meal, since it is known to enhance the taste of certain foods. Thus, residential wine cellars allow a homeowner the space to store their favorite wines and/or build an impressive collection of vintages. Residential wine cellars are also very affordable and don’t take up that much space.

Residential wine cellars allow a wine connoisseur to store wines for a long period of time, or age the wine. Aging a wine contributes to its taste and sophistication. Since a wine also records its environment in its taste, temperature, humidity, light, and vibration will also impact the taste of the wine in residential wine cellars. Generally, 55?F is the average temperature that wines should be kept at. 50? to 60?F is usually acceptable, but some white wines like to be as low at 45?F.

Sudden fluctuations in the temperature can adversely affect the wine’s taste. Humidity of your cellar should stay between 60% and 80%. Exposing your cellar to light should be avoided, because light disrupts the aging process. Excessive vibration of your wine can disturb the sediments found in the bottle.

Residential wine cellars don’t have to cost a lot of money. In fact, you can probably build residential wine cellars yourself with your extra basement space or use an alternative area in your house or apartment. A dark interior closet or pantry will work nicely, although don’t store the wine near strong-smelling foods. Keep your wine away from stoves and heat sources, as they would allow the temperature to fluctuate too much. Cool, damp basements are good as well.

Find wine, bar and alcohol accessories online at WineandBarAccessories.net: whether you’re hosting a dinner party or a wine tasting event, there are a variety of wine and bar accessories any good host should have on hand. From wine racks to cabinets and glasses and corkscrews, a variety of items exist for the wine lovers and hard liquor drinkers in your life. For more on information on fine wines of the world visit Killerwines.com