Virginia joins the customer-friendly philosophy by allowing consumers to BYOW, bring their own wine to restaurants and pay a corkage fee. Just one common courtesy here: Don’t bring something that is already on the restaurant’s wine list. You want to keep the restaurant in business and not add to their operating cost burden.

Maybe my favorite legislative enactment is from Maryland which requires food purveyors, farm markets, and grocers to define what those “local” signs really mean. This word has had a true liberal dosing of meaning. Big banners often proclaim local only to learn that one store’s definition involves hundreds of miles while one really means the nearby grower. The law applies to fruits, vegetables, fish, and shellfish by requiring a defined point of origin. Let’s keep those signs accurate and support the true definition of local.

Oregon’s wine industry, with its much hearalded 2008 Pinot Noir accolades, just got an additional boost. License plates can now advertise wine country which should boost sales for the entire tourism industry. Why not tag something so impressive!

Celebrate the red, white, and blue by toasting these impressive legislative enactments. OK, one is costly (a 9% alcohol sales tax), but it may help the coffers in a responsible way.

Enjoy the 4th.

So many choices with so many meal partners. Time for a stew, a pot roast (a great red wine partner). Add the root vegetables, and you have an all-in-one meal that spells delicious. BTW, turning on the oven to make dinner helps turn the kitchen into the cozy spot we so desperately covet!

The true hearty among us have no difficulty firing up the outdoor grill even with inches of snow on the ground. Weber has some advice for those thinking they might want the 2-inch thick rib-eye prepared just right. Remember it takes longer to get the grill going when the temperature is in the chill column.

Don’t forget dessert. Even a double scoop of vanilla with hot fudge sauce can do the trick. Nothing fancy needed, just a chance to appease the sweet tooth–hard to do with just a bowl of berries!

No rocket science here;  just survival strategies as we hunker down for another snowy weekend on the East Coast.

Brr….

It’s still a little early to determine the quality of this year’s crop, but it’s a time filled with lots of activity. Joseph Drouhin’s release has a distinct label drawn by a 5th generation Drouhin, the CEO’s 12-year old daughter flower watercolor inspired the label. The wine in its pre-release is described as having “an appealing red-blue color, a nose evoking red currant and cherry, and refreshing acidity.” Another name that is closely associated with the annual bottle opening parties is Georges Duboeuf. Plenty of scheduled events throughout the country to celebrate the annual release. Name a city, find a restaurant, often a French one, and you’ll have no trouble finding a celebration. Try it and see if this year’s crop matches your palate of expectation.

Another wine; another day; another event. This year marks the 1st annual Zinfandel Day, Friday, November 19. As many reach for a Beaujolais Nouveau for the holiday table; purists often exclaim the virtues of the true, all-American wine, a Zin for the traditional holiday feast. When confused about the complexity of a Zinfandel, remember the 3 R’s, wineries well known for their Zinfandels:  Ridge, Rosenblum, and Ravenswood?

What a wonderful time of the year. So many celebrations; so many wonderful wines.

Salud.

There was news this summer of additional accolades for multiple wineries while new enterprises were coming on board. Public highlights of recognition include the Virginia wine that was served two years ago at Inauguration events and then this past summer at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding. Somehow the end of harvest sent up a warning flag of different news as two wineries are now in financial trouble. One, the larger and more widely known, Kluge Estates is fighting the banks to avoid a complete shutdown. The other, Sweeley Estate Winery has acknowledged that foreclosure bank proceedings are scheduled for later this month.

How did this happen so quickly? Are these two wineries just another example of the devastating effects of the economy? Both tough questions to answer. Maybe the ecstatic aura surrounding the strength of Virginia as a wine destination had to produce some casualties. After all a lesson from the past several years is that quick growth and vast spending met with devastating results in a number of industries and individual businesses.

The bigger question for the state is what next? The simple answer is that all the new wineries are in survival competition with each other as it is easy for visitors to pay a mere tasting fee for a weekend outing but another level of commitment to purchase wine or join one of the many wine clubs. Another stumbling block rests at the heels of the distributors as product into the nearby DC market has not been as successful an undertaking as many of these wineries need. In turn many nearby local restaurants have not been quick to jump on the local wine bandwagon but instead offer lists that lean more heavily to other more familiar domestic and international areas. No one is saying that everyone of these 180 wineries deserves a place at the restaurant table, but that instead plenty of worthy contenders are having difficulty getting that seat.

As a wine and food writer, I can only hope that the furling up of these two winery flags will open a common sense approach to further growth and enable the established wineries to continue to work with their terroir and produce the best product from their grapes. Too much progress has been made over the past two decades to turn our back on what Thomas Jefferson believed was a natural product from his beloved state.

Let’s champion the growth and support the wineries that deserve a place at the table.

The alcoholic beverage industry has always done well during down times, times of negative economic news. We worry; we imbibe. Yet, recent information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that we actually spent less on food and alcoholic beverages during 2009 than in the prior two years. That’s surprising, but it translates into drinking less expensive alcoholic beverages and dining at more moderately priced restaurants.

What has changed and what does it mean? We continue to imbibe whether for social or economic reasons. We may have taken our beverage consumption down to second-tier brands or have fewer beverages when we dine out. We still dine out, but are more careful about how we spend our money; the increase in burger places and small plate menus attest to this trend. We may even make our own wine or keep it as grape juice!

However we take our drinks, the end result still emits a less than optimistic tone. Much has to improve before the Lafite  Rothschild comes back to the table, but in the meantime cuddle up with your favorite beverage as you ingest one of the wine and spirit book recommendations from wine critic Eric Asimov of The New York Times.

We are talking about big bottlers moving more of their line to screw tops and our moving along with them and not snubbing our noses at those decisions. Your nose is important. The wine’s nose is important, too. Time for practicality lesson one.

Sure I’ve been to Lisbon and spent time with Mr. Cork, but that was a while ago. That was when one didn’t question a bottling method and didn’t think faraway thoughts about cost and ease of opening. Those were what we call the Presentation Days. You know how fancy five-star restaurants would spend time ceremoniously opening a bottle, and you would shrink at the responsibility placed on you. Should you swirl, sip, or spit? The air was filled with anticipation.

Plenty of high-end restaurants still do ceremony, but have taken it down multiple levels. As a drinking public, we are more knowledgeable about our wines and prefer a wine list with explanation rather than a cost-driven volume of high-end wines that rival our mortgages. Enter the screw-top. Wait, wipe the perspiration from your brow. You have not left the fancy and moved to the diner. Your fine dining restaurant is as likely to have several screw-top bottles in a variety of price points as expensive bottles that demand ceremony. After all many of the big names from Australia’s McLaren Vale made the decision a long time ago to take the turn and go with a more accessible bottle. They have plenty of company.

Your fear of storage, of putting a bottle away for future generations, may also have to be reassessed. There is no equation that works in all instances. Screw tops do not necessarily mean inferior wine. Nor do foil-lined, cork-encased bottles guarantee superior quality. Not hardly. After all, the term that a wine is corked could not be used for one with a screw top!

Yet, natural cork has and will continue to have its devotees, the adherents to tradition and a belief in quality control. Those of us who save and collect our corks for some future art project may do just as well with recycling.

In the meantime, let me suggest a seasonal meal shift and a lovely 2007 Perrin Cotes du Rhone (screw top) to welcome October.

This time the beneficial focus rests with the eyes in preserving vision (even in instances where there has already been some deterioration). This made sense to the researchers who cited the anti-aging properties of the compound so eye degeneration issues formed a natural fit. Let’s see if I have this right: Eat and drink some of these special foods and beverages and your heart and eyes benefit from the consumption. Nothing too difficult about this concept.

Wait, there’s more. Another study also just released addressed the obesity-fighting properties of resveratrol. This quickly brings to mind the French Paradox: A phrase employed with the earliest resveratrol studies that questioned how the French can remain so thin while they consume such large quantities of wine. As Yogi would say, deja vu all over again.

Nothing wrong with either of these studies. They point us in the right nutritional direction, and they have the seasonal advantage of information. Peanuts for the baseball game; grapes and blueberries as new seasonally ripe fruits, and wine anytime.

This makes sense to me!

Check it out:

–A new study from the Netherlands found that coffee and tea drinking in moderation reduced the risk of heart disease. Too often we find studies with a particularly small sample size. Not this time. They followed almost 40,000 coffee and tea drinkers for 13 years. Impressive. Those that consumed 2-4 cups of coffee daily had a 20% lower risk of heart disease than those consuming less coffee. Tea drinkers: You’ll love this. Those who drank 3-6 cups of tea daily reduced their risk by 45%. Even those who drank more than 6 cups daily were able to reduce their risk by 36%. Wonder about the mixed drinkers: The coffee-tea-coffee-tea routine folks?

–More interested in the positive news re: wine? Got you covered. We’ve talked a lot about the health benefits from red wine and its major property, resveratrol, and now, not one, but two studies indicate the positive powers from the compound in red wine and grapes. Drink and be skinny one study finds (fat cell reduction protects against heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s). The other study reaffirms the overall heart-healthy benefits from red wine. Of course, the researchers point out additional research is needed, but these results are in the right column.

–Soft drink consumption down. Well, that’s not totally accurate but in a study at Harvard’s Brigham & Women’s University, researchers found that if they created a “soda tax” more people would forgo the sugary sweet drinks. They raised the price of the beverages by 35% for a 4-week period and watched sales drop while coffee and diet beverage increased by 20%. Not so sure about the diet drink approach but believe taxing sugary drinks may provide some of the positive health results (less diabetes, obesity) than relying completely on individual decision-making.

So it’s a hot week, this first official week of summer, cool yourself down with an iced coffee or iced tea. Enjoy dinner with a glass of red wine, and hydrate sufficiently with water. Your body will thank you.

–Giving Dad something for the grill is like giving Mom (on Mother’s Day) a new kitchen tool or a handy cooking device. Another day. Sure he loves to grill and everyone likes the post-grill kitchen clean-up, but another spatula, another day.

–Taking Dad out to eat on Father’s Day just means lots of people, lots of lines, and potentially less than stellar service. Make it yourself: That’ll be a better treat. Go ahead, you pop it on the grill! Remember, clean-up’s easy.

Dad might prefer a trip to a winery: Every state now produces wine. Lots of ‘em figured out how to make it a family affair so Dad gets to do what he wants, and the family is occupied with arts ‘n crafts, food vendors, and activities for the underage set. Check out your neighboring vineyards.

Maybe he could catch a ballgame in person or via television. Sorry, Strasburg fans, he’s not pitching today.

Repeat the Mantra: Give Dad a break; let him decide his Day.

I’d begin with a Graham Beck Brut. Not overly expensive but wonderfully light and summer bubbly. Start the game with this pour, and you’re off to a good start no matter which team is playing!

If you prefer whites for the matches, then here’s a name to remember: Ken Forrester. The Petit Chenin Blanc or Chenin Blanc can begin any event, sporting or otherwise. A wonderfully drinkable, refreshing pair. The Forrester brand will not disappoint in reds, either, as their Shiraz Grenache will have you thinking of French Rhones.

Not just the Forrester label, but many kindred spirits make South Africa well-known for their Shirazes or as the French say, the Syrah grapes. Sometimes just knowing a region helps you focus: Think the Stellenbosch region and you’ll have no trouble finding a wine to suit your mood and menu.

As for food and wine pairing, that depends somewhat on time of day or when you play the match tape, but one thing is certain, you can end the match/meal with a perfectly paired dessert wine. I go back to Ken Forrester for a Late Harvest Chenin Blanc.

As they say, I’ve been a fan for a long time. The Games just get us refocused on the bounty.

Salud to the country and its well-established wine regions.

An interesting side-note is that women seemed to fare better with this beverage link than their male counterparts. Just a few weeks ago we found that women are increasingly the largest purchasers of wine in this country but still are often ignored when a wine list is presented at a restaurant. Maybe someone will start to note that women are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about wines and are not afraid to walk into a wine store or order wine in a restaurant. Have you noticed that wine stores are hiring more women! Pay attention, restaurants!

A beverage at a totally different part of the spectrum has demonstrated positive results as well. Not that long ago we discovered that coffee drinking counted as part of our daily hydration endeavor. Now a study demonstrates that tea which had been considered a dehydrating beverage actually rehydrates better than plain water as it provides the positive, heart-healthy antioxidant effects.

Just one more bit of health news to ponder today. Again we look at the heart-health link and this time we toss out much of what we previously considered about the dangerous factors in dairy food contributing to higher cholesterol and possible weight gain. A new Swedish study demonstrates the opposite result between dairy foods and cholesterol. Again, women fared better than men; this time with improved heart-cholesterol numbers. Women who consumed the most milk products had an improved cholesterol profile.

If one study says go to the right, an author awaits to disprove the notion. That’s a possible end result of the dairy-cholesterol link. Call me a skeptic!

As with all studies, these are beginning pieces of welcome news for lifestyle changes and improved health benefits.

Stay tuned.

Those who plant vines in soil without chemicals and adhere to the pesticide-free guidelines are bringing an ever increasing new crop of flavor-rich, intense terroir to market. In California’s Mendocino County, there’s Frey Vineyards, a winery devoted to the sustainable, organic, and sulfite-free production since its first plantings in the 1960s. Maybe a better known and more easily attainable wine comes from Fetzer. Their  view on sustainability impacts every part of their wine operation. They admit that there are still a shortage of grape growers producing strictly organic grapes, but see the number steadily increasing. More oenologists are moving in this direction and various organic certified sustainable wine organizations are advocating the message. Grouping these wines together with an easy to recognize stamp or label helps consumers sort through the myriad of wine selections.

So as you go green and think green today, consider the ever-growing Organic Wine market. If your wine merchant does not have an organic section, help educate him to the positive possibilities.

Sip responsibly, go green.

The school lunch program continues to be under the microscope. Numerous reports are out indiciating the postive effects of removing sugary drinks from the building and replacing them with less sweet choices including bottled water. With the First Lady so heavily focused on obesity issues, watch the attention grow on the lunchbox issue.

Spices are under scrutiny this week with more pepper recalls and an FDA focus on the number of spice recalls over the past few years.

On the trend side of the spice world is the annual Flavor Profile from McCormick, the 10th annual forecast of pairings and new, emerging flavors. Here’s a good example: Pumpkin Pie Spice and Coconut Milk  with an accompanying recipe to make the pairing easier: Caribbean Chicken with Mango Coconut Sauce.

Now for the most important news of the week: to celebrate the first day of Spring, Rita’s will be hosting its 18th annual First Day of Spring Giveaway, next Saturday from noon til 10P. Those who visit one of the 500 franchised operations that day will get to choose their favorite flavor and get a free regular sized Italian ice. Don’t forget that Rita’s has partnered with PEEPS from March 20-April 4 for a perfect combination. Just so you know, you’ll have lots of company, Rita’s gives away about 14 million ounces in this annual promotion.

Bring your Saturday paper and enjoy a true Spring welcome!

Non-drinkers gained the most weight, and weight gain decreased as the alcohol intake increased! Those who drank 15 to less than 30 grams daily had the lowest risk of obesity or weight gain. They studied liquor, beer, white wine, and red wine and found that red wine was the most effective in terms of consumption v. weight gain.

Here’s the perfect combination: A diet plan and a glass of wine to help tolerate the stress of dieting!

We definitely need more studies like this even if they seem counter-intuitive. As with all health studies, not all information works for everyone, but there seem to be no shortage of possible studies to match your lifestyle!

Wine, coffee, chocolate: Bring ‘em on.

The leaders of the Chilean Wine Industry call the loss limited which is astonishing. This week’s numbers indicate a financial loss of $250 million (125 million liters), but the industry last year proved itself a strong contender in the international wine world with over a billion liters of wine.  They feel fortunate that the loss is not greater, and, of course express their concerns for the overall devastation that the earthquake caused. This information is, of course, still in the estimation period as the infrastructure at individual wineries has not yet been fully determined. Daily updates have become the norm.

If you are looking for a way to help Chile during this devastation, drink Chilean wine.

Do your part: Support a strong, growing wine industry with so many wonderful, affordable, and delicious choices!

OK, it can be; it doesn’t have to be super sweet or even sweet as the significant number of dry Rieslings attest. No longer do you need to avoid a great grape. There’s basically a Riesling for every type of white wine drinker. You can trust the Riesling Taste Profile and make a decision based on the graphic on the back label. You will be in for a pleasant wine surprise if the profile matches what you plan to eat or what you like in a wine.

Over a million cases already include the profile graphic and additional wineries are expected to come on board as this particular grape is the fastest selling white grape in the United States. Imagine its numbers if consumers who suffer from Riesling Phobia would look at the graph and be comfortable with the grape!

There are so many foods that favor a Riesling pairing. Or, the other way to think about this versatile grape is that there is a food-friendly Riesling ready for you to try.

I need no convincing: I’ll start with one from the Mosel.

Consider this: Wine prices continue to drop as more distributors have become knowledgeable about less expensive wines. Is the Cabernet rush over? Some would say it has been toned down considerably for its price escalation and our newly-found interest in the under $20 and under $10 bins. Have you seen the latest strategy: Plenty of 2nd label wines are appearing in our markets and are filling up consumer carts as they are averaging $7. Hard to beat a price like that for an everyday drinkable product! If you don’t believe me, study the crowds at Trader Joe’s filling their baskets with $4.99 bottles!

Yes, the California Cab has proven an expensive luxury for many while European and South American wines are having a front row seat at the wine bar.

Time to take care of your heart. Enjoy the requisite number of fruits and vegetables, eat the right proteins, choose fats carefully, and take out your favorite glass.

Wine works wonders to soothe the soul and keep the heart healthy.

Salud.

Artisan beers became a craze, and big brewers needed to step down into the craft market. Wait, for many that became a significant financial step upwards. Look at the popularity of Blue Moon and the significant number of brewers making Hefeweizens. Slice of lemon, please.

Remember expensive bottles of French wine? OK, they still exist as do the reserve wine lists, but as the recession took its toll on our dining out and dining-in budgets, we learned to embrace new regions of the world and become familiar with other wines and sparklings such as Malbec, Cava, and Prosecco. What was being poured in Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa became of greater interest to us as we scoured those regions for our new vintages.

No longer were we limited to American wines from California, Oregon, Washington, and New York. We learned Thomas Jefferson was right: Virginia became an established wine region with award-winning wines from Barboursville, Chrysalis, and Jefferson Vineyards.

We even became fascinated by different wine glasses for different wines. What was once limited to high-end stores and fancy restaurants became more commonplace on the shelves at Target as Riedel moved into the consumer space with its 4 and 6-boxed items. A glass for red, one for white, and the emergence of the flute instead of the floating half circle for sparkling! Of course, those who follow every trend knew they needed a specific glass for a specific pour. Stop, not that one, that’s for Zinfandel only!

We even bought the whole wine lineup including the darling of the opening set, the Rabbit, and the multitude of decanting carafes. We became serious wine drinkers, and as we traveled wine regions, we became more knowledgeable, and less intimidated, by what we drank!

As we look forward, we’ve gone back to the old cocktail routine and elevated the bartender to a drink specialist who has studied the chemistry, or alchemy, of an ingredient-shaken beverage. Specialty cocktail menus re-emerged and the high priced, fun-sounding cocktail helped many restaurants survive.

We became caffeine freaks with an almost unstoppable fascination with coffee drinks, both hot and iced. It was clearly the Starbucks decade, a title the company hopes to regain in the upcoming year. Grocery stores proudly introduced coffee bars. We decided one double espresso was too limiting and added caffeine-based energy drinks to our daily consumption routines. All these steps hit soda sales as they plummeted, and the old brands started to lose the high fructose corn syrup and explore cane sugar drinks.

We were a thirsty group and little has quenched our thirst as we reach for the next tantalizing trend.

They did not study red v. white wine nor light beers v. heavy lagers, but the study author believes that lighter beverages fare better in the overindulgence headache department.

You’ve been warned.

Now admittedly they used a Riesling, I imagine a German Mosel, which has quite distinctive flavors and a recognizable color. Individuals in a red room gave it higher marks than those with the same wine in a green-painted space! The red and blue wine tasters said they would pay more for the wine than those in the white or green room.

As long as your walls are red or blue, you might be able to serve a lesser priced wine for your next party!

Seriously, some of these so-called tests are just too good to ignore!

What about a deep purple Syrah from Santa Ynez in California in a red room?

What a clash of colors!