• Bottles and corks from 2011 Foxtrot Pinot Noir.
    Food and Wine Pairings - Pinot Noir/Nero - Varietals - Wine Tasting Notes

    Canadian Wine for Our American Holidays

    December 7, 2015 - By 

    Every year for the past 16 years, Julie and I have hosted a “Sunday Before Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner.” Billed as a pre-Thanksgiving event for our friends who have become our extended family, the event has grown with the square footage of the house and the capacity of the kitchen. From a relatively modest dozen-or-so guests at the inaugural event in 1999, we had 40 guests this year, a near capacity crowd. The menu is steeped in holiday tradition, with a little variation around the edges, and wonderful wine. It has always been a protein-and-dessert-fest, featuring a very large, traditionally-oven-roasted turkey…

  • Ohio Wines - Pinot Noir/Nero - Wine

    Wayda’s Wine of the Week from Ohio’s Grand River Valley

    November 20, 2015 - By 

    It has been several weeks since I have published here because I have been wine traveling and hosting large food and wine parties – but I am back! Julie and I took a long, fabulous wine tasting trip in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, which you will be reading much more about in the next couple of weeks. We also have been entertaining this fall on a large scale, featuring some of our trip’s most interesting wine and food experiences, which I will write about as well. Great wine and food make for great parties. Now, as we prepare…

  • Cabernet Sauvignon - Varietals - Washington Wines - Wine Tasting Notes - Wineries

    Quilceda Creek: An American First Growth Wine

    October 1, 2015 - By 

    In the mid-1990s I was first introduced to the wines of Quilceda Creek, one of the early producers in Washington’s Columbia Valley. Julie was representing a client in a case in Seattle and she brought home a bottle. We just did not understand what we had. A year or two later, our friend Steve Hamm, a wine professional for 35+ years who I have mentioned in previous articles, hosted a ten-vintage vertical tasting of Quilceda Creek. None of us who were there, including Steve, can put a finger on exactly when the tasting was or which vintages were involved. But…

  • Ohio Wines - Varietals - Wine News - Wine Tasting Notes

    Promise and Challenges of Ohio Wine (Part 2)

    August 3, 2015 - By 

    Wine grapes, like Goldilocks, like it to be not too hot and not too cold. Growing grapes for fine wine requires avoiding temperature extremes. That is why most wine grapes in the world are grown between 30 degrees and 50 degrees latitude in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Those are the temperate climate zones, providing on average enough sun and a sufficient number of warm days to allow vinifera grapes to grow and ripen. It is not just about latitude. Microclimates can alter the average temperature and rainfall within a larger zone. Many of the most prestigious wine regions in the world…

  • Education - Wine Ombudsman - Wine Tasting Notes

    Introducing the Wine Ombudsman and Four Wines Under $15

    June 15, 2015 - By 

    In a technical, legal sense, an ombudsman is often a corporate or government official whose task it is to investigate allegations of wrongdoing against members of their organization. In a broader sense, however, an ombudsman functions as a trouble shooter and a problem solver, a go-between that seeks to address the needs of the public. That more general meaning was what I had in mind when I first conceived of the name “Wine Ombudsman.” It began simply as a way to help a friend who was organizing a fundraising event for the Alzheimer’s Association of Central Ohio. After the inaugural event…

  • Oregon Wines - Pinot Noir/Nero - Wine Tasting Notes

    Celebrating Oregon Wine Month with Thomas Pinot Noir

    June 1, 2015 - By 

    The month of May was Oregon Wine Month, and while I am not sure by what authority that designation was made, I nonetheless enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to drink more Oregon wines. In honor of Oregon Wine Month, I thought it would be fun to put together a tasting of one of the best, but also one of the least-widely known, Oregon Pinot Noirs. Several weeks ago, I invited a handful of central Ohio’s accomplished wine and food professionals to join me in tasting six vintages of the John Thomas Dundee Hills Pinot Noir. We tasted and evaluated the 2007…

  • Wine - Wine Events - Wine Tasting Notes

    The Wines of (Not So) Polar Q

    May 19, 2015 - By 

    The date was January 28, 1990. The San Francisco 49ers were blowing out the Denver Broncos with a final score of 55-10. At the same time a small band of fanatics – some might say maniacs – gathered in the cold and snow of a suburban back yard in Columbus, Ohio. Their purpose was not to watch Super Bowl XXIV, but to engage in one of America’s other great traditions, the back yard barbecue, cooking and eating in the out of doors. That was the birth of Polar Q, a mid-winter barbecue held every year on Super Bowl Sunday. There…

  • Italian - Italian Wine - Pinot Noir/Nero - Restaurants and Wine Lists - Wine - Wine Tasting Notes

    Alana’s Offers Unique Italian Wine

    April 6, 2015 - By 

    As I noted in my very first post to this blog, one potential direction for my budding wine career is to develop an import portfolio featuring wines that one does not often see in the United States. The world of wine is wide and varied, and I am excited by opportunities to broaden the experience of the unique. These can be uncommon wines because they are made from varietals little known here, or are wines from better-known grapes that are grown in regions of the world that are not well represented in the American marketplace. A few weeks ago, Julie and…

  • French Wine - Riesling - Wine - Wine Shops - Wine Tasting Notes

    Excellent Under-$20 Wine Available at Columbus-area Shop

    March 9, 2015 - By 

    Relative to many of the people I know in the wine trade I was a latecomer to Riesling, a white wine often thought of as sweet and best known as coming from Germany. Even today, Riesling, mostly from Germany, comprises a very small part of my cellar, and it is a shame because Riesling is produced in many parts of the world, can come in many styles and can provide a truly profound wine experience. Several weeks ago, Julie and I went to the Twisted Vine, a very interesting wine shop in the Grandview neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. The Twisted Vine…

  • Barolo - Italian Wine - Restaurants and Wine Lists - Wine - Wine Tasting Notes

    Great Italian Wine Available at Local Columbus Eatery

    February 23, 2015 - By 

    Often when I serve wine to friends, they ask where they might be able to buy it.  Much of the wine I serve at home has been purchased direct from the winery or elsewhere and shipped or was purchased locally but in previous vintages and aged in my cellar. Most times, the wines I serve are not readily available here in central Ohio.  That is why I was excited to write about a wine I had at a local restaurant here in Columbus. Harvest Bar and Kitchen in Clintonville does not, according to the bartender, have a substantial wine trade. It does,…