best wine chart

Ever Wonder What Wine Goes Best With What Food? This Chart Tells You We've been on a bit of a chart kick this week. What's not to love? Anytime we can look to a handy infographic to tell us what we'd otherwise spend a few minutes googling is to us a far better use of time, no? This wine chart is one such infographic. It's not the be-all-end-all of wine and food pairings (and serious aficionados will want to nitpick, and that's fine) but it is a good starting point. The color coded paths connect eleven types of food with eight styles of wine — a good thing to note before you walk into your local wine store to pick up a bottle for tonight's dinner. The chart is made by Wine Folly and available as a 13" x 19" poster ($19.95) or limited edition print ($95). You can also check out Wine Folly's accompanying 5 tips to perfect food and pairings.Wine & Food Pairing Chart, $19.95 - $95 from Wine Folly Related: When Wine and Food Really Click: The Most Sublime Wine and Food Pairings
Although many a wine writer would disagree with me, I absolutely love wine and chocolate together, and I love playing with all of the combinations to see what flavors I like the best. I do realize that not everyone has the patience I do to keep trying different combinations of wines or chocolates. Sometimes you just want to go with what you know will be good, especially when you are trying to impress someone on a Valentine’s Day date…even if that someone you want to impress is already your spouse. (Ya gotta keep the sparks going, right?) When you want a go-to guide for wine and chocolate pairing, here’s what you really need to know. In general, your wine should be at least a touch sweeter than your chocolate. (This is also the case for other desserts, as well, and explains why wedding cake never complements the dry sparkling wine it is most often served with at weddings. What a shame for both the bubbles and the cake! When matching chocolate and wine, the darker, more bitter chocolate with a higher percentage of cacao typically goes with the more tannic, and bolder wines.
Now that you know the rules, though, I’d like to encourage you to give them a try and play around with them a bit. best wine tour snacksWine is meant to be explored and, just like you and I may not agree on our favorite wines, we might also not agree on our favorite wine and chocolate pairings.best wine list in key west Just last night I had some friends over to try out a few wine and chocolate pairings to find out what they thought as compared to my impressions. wine bar names ideasWe opened up a few bottles of wine and a few different chocolates to see what we might like.top 10 sweet red wine brands First, here are the wines we opened:best wine for cake
And these are the chocolates we tried:best wine awards 2013 With the Rodney Strong Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, I loved both the truffles and the Dove Dark Chocolate Promises. Each chocolate brought out a different flavor in the wine, though, so the effects were different. For example, I thought that the truffles really made the cherry notes of the Pinot Noir shine. My husband and neighbor disagreed with me on the best pairings for the Little Black Dress Merlot. I liked it with the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, but the other two did not. We all agreed it was a good match with the Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, though. My husband and I both liked the Dreaming Tree Cabernet with the Butterfinger candy bar. Typical wine and chocolate pairing guidelines would tell us to  match it with a darker chocolate, like the 70% Cacao, but there was something about that Butterfinger which made that pairing even more delicious!
We also liked it with the dark chocolate and sea salt. The Decoy Zinfandel was a perfect match for the Godiva 50% Cacao Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt, but not the darker chocolate as one might expect. Perhaps I’m just not one for that bitter of a chocolate! I think the best way to find out what you like is to give a few combinations a try. And I can almost guarantee doing this on a date night or even with a group of friends can be a lot of fun. Open up a few different bottles of red wine, pull out some different chocolates and see what YOU like best. Here is a Wine and Chocolate Pairing Chart that you can download and print to help you have some wine pairing fun! I’d love to hear about your favorite wine and chocolate combinations in the comments so I can give them a try myself.  What do you like?We all know the old adage: you get what you pay for, and in many cases, that’s true. Nothing quite tastes like Coke, a seat on a Delta flight is more comfortable than that on Spirit Airlines and chances are that store brand cold remedy isn’t going to do the same job, at least not as quickly, as the brand name.
Sometimes, though, there are shortcuts to finding a cheaper, great alternative. Lucky for you - wine is one of those times if you know a few simple things. If you want the taste of a $100 bottle for under $20, it’s important to understand a few things - mainly region, varietal, and vintage. Or, you can just use this handy guide. 1. Region - Where grapes are grown. Countries use designations for their regions and even within regions there may be designations. The region enhances the flavor of the wine based on climate, soil, and exposure to sunlight. Knowing where grapes were grown is the first step to picking a good cheap wine. 2. Varietal - A wine using one kind of grape. Wines come in varietals and blends. Many varietals belong to the same family so if you find yourself fond of a particular grape, look up other similar grapes to extend your familiarity with wine (this will also help you when searching for alternatives) 3. Vintage - The year the grapes used in a wine were grown or the wine was produced.
Wines within year or even two of the vintage will likely be of similar quality although watch for notations of particularly bad years, or dips in scores, by consulting a wine chart. So how do you pick a great cheap wine from this information? It’s pretty easy once you practice. Using a vintage chart, like this one, look for gold and fuschia boxes denoting the excellent and outstanding ratings. For example, if you like Cabernet, you’ll notice that North Coast California Cabernets were exceptional during the 2001 Vintage. You’re likely to only find these bottles for over $90 and for some you may have to get them at an auction. But, we know that 2001 was a really good year for that region and varietal so we can look for other varietals from the same region and discover that good options include the 2002 Cellar No. 8 for about $11. Going into the wine shop armed with great varietal, region and vintage information will help you, or the shop staff, find the best cheap wines.
Here’s our list of the best cheap wine based on some of the best bottles available at auction or after a long wait on vineyard waiting lists: If you try a wine you like but it’s a bit too pricey for your day to day, take note of the varietal (e.g. pinot noir, chardonnay), region and vintage. Look for wines produced in a similar place within a year and you’ll likely find a new favorite. Use a wine chart to find the best vintages and work from there - find styles of wine you like and look for the best rankings within the last 3-5 years and then work from there.If you’re not familiar with a particular type of grape but notice a high-rated wine, use the internet to discover the family from which that grape comes. For example, our Chilean splurge is a Carmenere, a grape that has come and gone throughout history. It’s in the Cabernet family, so a similar region and vintage will work.Don’t be afraid of smaller sizes - if you’re not sure about a wine and no one has given you advice, try a half bottle or other smaller size to see if you like it.
Talk to the experts -- whether you’re at a restaurant or shop -- sommeliers and wine shop staff love to talk about their favorites, make suggestions, and help keep customers happy. After all, you’re likely to come back again if you are happy with your purchase. While it would be nice if this were foolproof, it is important to remember the existence of micro-climates. A warm climate region may have, within it, an area that is cool climate so pay attention to the region. Warm climate wines have a specific taste and characteristics that wine lovers identify with. So do cool climate wines. If you don’t pay attention to the region and micro climates you could end up being a warm climate wine lover with a distinctly cold climate wine. Warm Climate Wines are high in alcohol content, low in acidity and have lush, rounded fruit flavors. Cool Climate Wines are lower in alcohol content, high in acidity and have tart, young or unripe fruit flavors. While neither type is better, many people will describe their wine in a way that a wine savvy person could determine if a wine is from a cool or warm climate - for that reason, pay attention to any micro climates near areas you like.