The 4H Club: Safety Tips for Responsible Drinking
Certain questions are inevitable for we who work in the wine biz. That’s why year-in and year-out, I end up writing answers to “What wine goes with turkey on Thanksgiving?” “How long will an open bottle of wine last?” and “What cheap wines taste good?”
With New Years Eve coming up and all, I felt it was probably about time to write the annual piece on hangovers – how to avoid them, that is, since enjoying wine or other alcoholic drinks responsibly is an important grown-up skill to master.
If you’re still drinking like a college frat boy or imagining yourself as one of the SATC gals slurping down Cosmos, you need to rethink things.
Oddly enough for a sommelier, I come from a Mormon family; while I feel like it’s my moral obligation to drink up tasty wines on behalf of all my deprived pioneer forbearers, I certainly don’t need to do it in a single night. So much misery is wrought from over-consumption of alcohol that I can understand why faiths like Mormonism or Islam forbid it all together.
Yet balanced against that is an increasing body of medical research that showcases how moderate drinking, particularly of antioxidant- and resveratrol-rich red wine, is healthy. From cholesterol fighting to anti-ageing benefits to the potential reduction of Alzheimer’s risks, most medical researchers agree moderate consumption is good for you.
Read more at Lot18.
Bubbly World Tour: Your Guide to Sparkling Wines
Sparkling wines are inherently festive – from wedding celebrations to Valentine’s romance to toasting Dick Clark for yet another Rockin’ New Year’s Eve, we tend to wait for a “big” occasion to uncork something carbonated. That’s a shame, because bubbly wines can be some of the most versatile when it comes to food and wine pairing and are well suited to celebrating life’s small moments just as surely as the big ones.
This season, resolve to educate yourself and your sparkling palate and quit blaming the bubbly for your headache too by the way. It’s not the CO2 any more than it’s the sulfites causing you morning-after misery; it’s called over-consumption. That said, el cheapo sparkling wines are just that, cheaply made and that’s a danger one can easily avoid by avoiding wines that cost the same as, say, a Big Mac.
Read more at Lot18.
