Cigar Cases and Boxes by Perdomo Cigars

This week I received a package and didn’t know what it was. Much like a little kid at Christmas, I ripped through the FedEx box to find the most beautiful custom made cigar box full of Perdomo’s finest line of cigars. The best part was that it was personalized with my name and title. I got the biggest smile on my face and couldn’t help but think how incredibly thoughtful Nick and Janine Perdomo were. If more people took the time to do those simple things, marriage would be saved, relationships would be mended and friendships would rarely dissolve.

The moment I saw it, touched it, smelled it, I knew I had to get my tobacco license so I could share these amazing custom boxes and cigar cases with you. These make beautiful gifts for bosses, husbands–wait my research is showing me that more and more women are taking up cigar smoking–so truly these could be for anyone! All my guy friends glared at me in envy, “Well are you gonna share them with us?” “NOPE,” I replied! “Get your own.”

Word is out in my building and all the guys are friending me, they want in on the cigars and wine and I’m happy to oblige.

Now that we have our liquor license, we are moving on to our tobacco license. Wait til you see some of the awesome cigar cases we will be selling by the Holidays!

For The Wine Ho On The Go!

Now this is an accessory that every wine ho needs! Baggin the Box has just taken on a WHOLE new meaning if you know what I mean. Forget about sneaking candy and pop into the movies, sneak in your favorite drink!

If your a drunk or support a drunk you need to own this Baggy Wine Tote by Scandinavian Design Center.

My hats off to Jakob, the designer, who thought of this! What creativity, thinking of the true wino who hates drinking cheap house wines provided by certain establishments and needs to sneak in his/her top notch wine to movies, plays, and concerts discretely and under the radar.

This simply fabulous Bag n Box Tote retails for about $60 bucks. Get yours today.

Rapid Ice Wine Cooler

This weekend I invested in a VacuVin Rapid Ice Wine Cooler since I prefer my wines chilled. My private collection consists largely of red wines and in my opinion red wines are served to warm. This is a great little bar tool every wino should have. It is easy and doesn’t take up any space. Simply place it in the freezer six hours before you plan on drinking. When you are ready to drink your wine, you remove the rapid ice wine cooler from the freezer and slide over your wine bottle. In about five minutes your wine will be chilled and it keeps it chilled.

Thanks to heating and air conditioning, modern house temperatures are 68 to 73 degrees… I know people who keep theirs higher. Historically, the average room temperature was 55 to 65 degrees and this is the ideal serving temperature. You can quickly see why modern homes aren’t conducive for your wine and would be wise to invest in a wine storage cooler.

Red wines should be served between 55 to 65 degrees. As Master Sommelier Alpana Singh says:

Serving reds closer to their proper cellar temperature heightens the fruit flavor while lessening the alcohol aroma, giving the wine a more vivid structure with focused acidity.  She recommends drinking warm, rather than chilled, vodka to see the difference.

Cheap wines and lighter wines should chilled too. The grape acidity reacts to the cold in a way that makes the wine crispy and snappy, “brightening the wines acidity and heightening its fruitiness, giving it a crunchy, rich texture that will make the simpler or less expensive red wines taste richer and fuller,” says Alpana Singh from Alpana Pours.

Heavier and more complex wines should be served warmer…but not at modern day room temperatures.

Wine Type——————————–Serving Temperature
Sparkling (red, white, rose)                                     40-45
White                                                                                 45-50
Rose & light-bodied red                                             50-55
Medium-bodied red                                                     55-60
Full-bodied red                                                             60-65

To get a more extensive idea of what temperature your favorite wine should be served at visit Nuvo Vino’s Wine Temperature Chart and Wine Temperature Tutorial.

It is a good idea to invest in a Wine Thermometer to get the full essence from your wines.

What happens if the wine temperature is too high?
The higher the temperature, the faster the volatile compounds evaporate from wine in a glass. When red wine is served above 68°F, the alcohol can begin to evaporate so quickly that it unbalances the wine. This same effect happens with whites at about 58°F.

The palate is increasingly sensitive to sweetness the higher the temperature. Most sweet wines have low acidity in relation to their sweetness. When served too warm they taste cloyingly sweet. Chilling sweet wines tempers the sweetness while showcasing the acidity for balance.

With sparkling wines, the higher the temperature, the faster carbon dioxide is released. This not only creates overly frothy wines after opening, but they become flat very quickly.

What happens if the wine temperature is too low?
Quite simply, wine served too cold causes an imprisonment of important aromas derived from the grape. Whites and reds served too cool can taste rather dead, withholding their prominence. In the case of reds, tannins will taste rough and bitter. Serving reds warmer will soften those rough tannins. -Nuvo Vino Temperature Tutorial

A Wine Glass Worth A Thousand Words OR Just One?

When words can’t say what you are thinking! Get a Wine Glass! The wine glass that says, “Don’t think, just drink!”

The Wine Vacuum – Store It, Don’t Pour It!

Another handy dandy gadget every wino needs for their wine bar is the the Wine Vacuum. What the heck is a wine vacuum you ask! Well I’m going to try to explain it. Here goes nothing!

Often you buy wine and don’t finish the bottle for whatever reason but you don’t want to waste it and aren’t sure how to preserve it or if you are like me you like to experiment with lot’s of different wines every night and don’t wait for “special” occasions to drink, everyday is a special occasion in my book, hell I’m alive and super healthy that’s worth celebrating!  So there you are in your living room sitting back, feet up immersed into your favorite weekly series or book when you get up to go to bed only to realize you have half of bottle left. Damn it! Your liver is on overload but you don’t want to pour this yummy dinner down the drain…so you need an alternative.

What is one to do? Some would try to insert the cork back into the bottle with great strenuous effort and little success while others are a bit smarter and use decorative wine stoppers. The problem with the cork is that while you may get it back into the bottle it will more than likely suffer breakage and cracking which exposes the wine to oxygen. The decorative wine stopper while cute, also doesn’t stop oxygen from reaching the wine.

Why does that matter?
When you open a bottle of wine it is instantly exposed to air and when wine is exposed to air for any extended period of time, let’s say overnight,  it turns or rather is oxidized or spoiled which tastes flat or stale. In order to finish that lovely bottle of wine that you started you need to remove the oxygen from the bottle and the best tool to do this is a pump which comes in many styles and names. One of my favorite is the Vacu Vin Preserver for $10.99 which comes with one rubber stoppers. The idea behind the pump is that it sucks the air out of the bottle allowing you to get a one or two more days out of the wine. It won’t preserve it forever and every wine is different but I usually get one to two additional drinking days which is more than enough time for me to finish the bottle off before it spoils or goes flat and I don’t have to waste it!

Whether you purchase The VacuVin Pump or whatever, they should all “click” when you’ve successfully extracted all the air from the bottle. This doesn’t take a mental giant to work and is an added benefit to your wine tool kit and your pocket book. Make sure to purchase extra stoppers because more than likely your going to use them, especially if you entertain and have a few bottles of your favorite wine left!

Wine & Glass Guide! Very Cool

Last week I introduced you to the Nuvo Vino infrared wine thermometer and some really handy tools on their site that teach the importance of wine temperature and proper serving temperature for different wines. I found this site incredibly educational, my wine geek is shining through, and fun. I love sharing with you guys what I’m learning because I am educating you while I am learning myself.

This week I want to introduce another really cool site that in my opinion will come into play at some point in your wine drinking experience. Last week I was out with one of my best gal pal’s, Deb, and while we were sitting at the bar she asked me what the difference was between the different wine glasses. That is a great question which I tried my best to explain not knowing that much myself. This conversation got me thinking and the next day I started researching wine glasses and wine.

As I expected I found a great site and tool to explain and help every wine geek figure out what is what. Even if you don’t entertain but just want some basic knowledge on what wine goes with what glass you will really appreciate and have some fun on this site. Riedel (pronounced “Rhee-dl”) is the finest wine glass company in the world. They’ve been making wine glasses for over 250 years and eleven generations. Riedel has set the standard for delicate glassware with their unique glass blowing techniques. All other glass makers use Riedel as the measuring stick. Riedel has gone to great lengths to create a very comprehensive but simple wine and glass guide based on over 250 years of experience and their unique philosophy.  They have a glass for every wine you could possibly think of and spirits too! Their Wine & Glass Guide is a bookmark must every wine geek should have handy.

It is so simple even a caveman could do it. Simply go to the Wine & Glass Guide and click on the wine you are drinking and up pops several wine glasses to choose from! Some wines have more glass options. I would also like to mention that when I was in California I went to a Target store and to my surprise they had an entire Riedel wine glass display so don’t fret, while these can be expensive glasses they have made a line of more affordable glasses too!

Claus Riedel was the first person in the long history of the glass to design its shape according to the character of the wine. He is thus the inventor of the functional wine glass. He has worked with experienced wine aficionado’s, sommeliers and tasters to determine all that goes into helping bring the best characteristics out of a glass of wine.

Professor Claus J. Riedel was the first designer to recognize that the bouquet, taste, balance and finish of wines are affected by the shape of the glass from which they are drunk.

Fifty years ago he began his pioneering work to create stemware that would match and complement different wines and spirits. In the late 1950s, Riedel started to produce glasses which at that time were a design revolution. Thin-blown, unadorned, reducing the design to its essence: Bowl, stem, base.

Working with experienced tasters, Riedel discovered that wine enjoyed from his glasses showed more depth and better balance than when served in other glasses. Claus J. Riedel laid the groundwork for stemware which was functional as well as beautiful, and made according to the Bauhaus design principle: form follows function.

The glasses are designed to emphasize a wine’s harmony, not faults. Riedel has always viewed the wine glass as an instrument to bring together: the personality of the wine, smell, taste, appearance (including the beauty of the object).

To fully appreciate the different grape varieties and the subtle characteristics of individual wines, it is essential to have a glass which has a shape fine-tuned for the purpose. The shape is responsible for the quality and intensity of the bouquet and the flow of the wine.

The initial contact point depends on the shape and volume of the glass, the diameter of the rim, and its finish (whether it is a cut and polished or rolled edge) as well as the thickness of the crystal.

As you put your wine glass to your lips, your taste buds are on the alert. The wine flow is directed onto the appropriate taste zones of your palate and consequently leads to different taste pictures. Once your tongue is in contact with the wine three messages are transmitted at the same time: temperature, texture and taste. – Wine & Glass Guide

Some other fun & educational links:
Serving Temperatures
Wine Color  Guide
Stages Of Wine Tasting

Is Your Wine Sick?

I’ve been having so much fun today searching the internet. I found some very cool gadgets and tools for us winos. Like this one by Nuvo Vino the first infrared thermometer designed to quickly take your wines temperature! Because it does make a difference according to Emile Peynad who was a legendary Bordeaux oenologist and author of The Taste of Wine! And she is right; many times Reds are served to warm and whites are served to chilled! I also chill my reds because they are served so warm it makes them unappealing to me and I LOVE red wines. I am the quintessential Rebel Red girl!

In order to serve wine at a proper temperature, it’s often necessary to ‘unlearn’ some of the basic rules you’ve learned.

For example, the expression ‘room temperature’ is no longer relevant to wine. Modern central heating systems cause rooms to exceed 72°F. At that temperature, all wines lose their appeal.

The tendency of most wine drinkers is to overestimate the difference between wines – serving whites too cold and reds too warm. This is a reason that many white wine drinkers dislike red wine. To them it tastes too rich, syrupy, and exudes too much alcohol. A red wine served at an appropriate temperature greatly lessens those characteristics.

Another tragic myth is that white wine should be served out of the refrigerator. At 40°F, any wine’s aroma and flavor will be completely imprisoned.

All joking aside I think this is a must for your wine tool kit. Not only is it really cool but it is intelligent adding to your savvy image you are building amongst your wine drinking pals!

Here are some tools I found really useful and educational:
Wine Temperature Chart
Wine Temperature Facts

In addition, I highly recommend clicking on the Wine Temperature Tutorial in the bottom right hand corner! Great information.

Need A Custom Wine Cellar?

I came across this website and was really impressed. Located in New Jersey, this is a company and website worth spending some time on, especially if you are considering adding a wine cellar in your home. Before The Wine Wench, before consulting, before AlphaWomen.com, I was actually in real estate and mortgages my niche was the higher-end market. I worked with a few builders, some developers and my market was in a very prestigious area which allowed me to see and sell some pretty spectacular homes and some pretty disastrous homes too. The things money can buy. Not all money is created equal in my opinion because some of the stuff I saw was just down right hideous. It actually hurt my brain to look at…like bad perfume does on an airplane.

Bad architects, bad designs, bad flow, bad decorating, bad, bad and more bad. It is true that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure because I saw this all the time in these homes. You would think a $6 million home would be outlandish but there were some that were so awful I don’t have words to describe the decorating horrors I witnessed

Ohhh, I digress. To bring it back to the topic on hand, many of the homes had wine cellars, some that were as big as my 1500 square foot 2 bed/2 bath apartment…some were bigger.

I remember being in one house where they not only had the most incredible wine cellar but a cigar room and a tasting room as well. My mouth hit the floor as I just stood there like I had just entered the pearly gates of heaven. Entertainment rooms, theater rooms, indoor Olympic size pools, imported marble, tiles, art, etc etc… didn’t really impress me, but these wine cellars and custom bars mesmerized me. The detail, the craftsmanship, the wood, marble, granite and stone that are used…if done right they are truly works of art or masterpieces that bring peace to the mind. People seemed to go balls to the walls when it came to these two amenities (and their in home theaters). In many areas they cut corners or just didn’t have an eye for quality or design integrity and it showed, but when it came to wine cellars and bars they stepped back and let the experts handle it and it always showed.

Washington Valley Cellars is the sommelier of wine cellars.  They are designers and builders of distinctive wine cellars and don’t take my word on it, go and check out their photo gallery on some of their projects. You are sure to get some great ideas. Who knows maybe they could give you a recommendation if they don’t travel to your state.

Personally, I could live in one of those cellars! I am making it public that I would like to volunteer to be the wine biatch to the cellar fella…although the wine wouldn’t safe or last very long with me living down there.

They also offer a great resource of links for the wine cellar aficionado on their links page. In my opinion these guys seem like the bad boys of custom wine cellars and I give them The Wine Wench approval.

Some tips from a seasoned collector and cellar designer:
1. Design your cellar large enough to accommodate twenty percent more bottle than you think you’ll ever need. You’ll be  happy you did.

2. Plan aisles as wide as possible so you can maneuver comfortably

3. Have a backup cooling unit in case one fails. Put condensers and compressors on timers so two of three are working at any one time and the third can pinch-hit in an emergency. A generator for a lengthy power outage provides peace of mind.

4. Keep humidity around seventy percent, which is high enough to keep corks stable and low enough to prevent mold and labels from separating.

5. Incorporate racking for odd or over-sized bottles that won’t fit in a standard rack. Long, slender bottles used for German and Alsatian wines should never be placed in diamond-shaped or square bins because they can easily slide out of bins and onto the floor.

6. If you have a security system in your home, consider integrating a temperature monitor with preset sensors for your cellar. If the temperature exceeds a preset maximum or falls below a preset minimum, an alarm is sent to your security company so they can inform you immediately.

-Compliments of Jay Rosen and Swirl & Sip Magazine

Underoose, Underwear, uh…Wine Wear?

When I was a kid I loved barbie dolls! I spent endless hours lost in make believe with Barbie and Ken. I had the whole nine yards with the fully furnished Barbie mansion, pool, sports car, and sexy, but always naked, Ken–always wondered what happened to his boy parts–the accessories were endless, similar to the American Girl Doll phenomenon today.

Let’s pause for a moment and talk about accessories. Ever since I can remember no matter what toy I had it came with oodles of accessories, from my Holly Hobby Kitchen to Barbie to Cabbage Patch Kids to even  Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, I had a shit load of accessories for all my darn toys. How the heck did I keep track of all of it? How the heck did my parents afford all of that stuff with six girls and three boys? I had an extensive wardrobe for Barbie, Ken not so much, but Barbie had it all. Anything was possible and never was there a dull moment in my make believe world.  So much so that my Barbie and Ken dolls seemed to be naked more than clothed because I was always “re-outfitting” them…okay well that’s what I told my mom and that is the story I’m sticking to!

I think back on those years with fond memories and wonder why I had to grow up and stop my childlike daydreaming…that is until I came across this website, it addresses both my wino hobby and that little kid in me – Wine Wear! Don’t leave your bottle home without it!  Whether your drinking with friends or drinking by yourself you don’t ever have to feel alone or too grown up to engage imaginary play because with Wine Wear your bottle of wine turns into whatever or whoever you want it to be with the right outfit, from a football player to a chef to a “friend of Bill W”, whatever mood you are in, WineWear.com has the outfit your wine bottle needs.

It is the tea party for adults, but instead of stuffed animals and tea you bring out all your dressed up wine bottles and have wine and cheese! No matter how old you are you can finally let your inner child out. With Wine Wine wear you will always have someone to talk to even when others don’t want to. In fact, the drunker you get it will probably start talking back!

Never drink alone again! Dress up your wine bottle today by visiting WineWear.com to purchase your wine bottle’s full line of clothing. Taking your drinking hobby and imaginary friends to a whole new level!

BTW: They make great gifts too!

“I drank a bottle of wine for company. It was Chateau Margaux.  It was pleasant to be drinking slowly and to be tasting the wine and to be drinking alone. A bottle of wine  was good company.”  -Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Decant, Decant, Decant…De Can’t WHAT?

Decanters! Another item that every wine aficionado must own at least one of, if not several. For those of you who are novice to this vino lingo, a decanter has nothing to do with canning foods or removing the outer container of an enriched uranium fuel rod (easy mistake…I know). It is a term used to describe a simple process of allowing your wine to breathe.

Although there is a bit of controversy over decanting, it is intended for more tannic wines like Barolo, Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, Port, and Rhône. It can be harmful for more delicate wines like Chianti and Pinot Noir according to Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible.

A decanter is a vessel that is used to hold the decantation of a liquid (such as wine) which may contain sediment. Decanters are normally used as serving vessels for wine. Decanters vary in shape and design. They are usually made of an inert material (such as glass) and will hold at least one standard bottle of wine (0.75 litre).^[1] A similar kind of vessel, the carafe (pronounced “kə’ɹæf”), is used for serving wine as well as other drinks, but is not supplied with a stopper. -Compliments of Wikipedia

Whether decanting wine is necessary or not, it doesn’t matter! Owning some, if not all, of these elegant decanters overrides the argument to decant or not to decant because it’s about accessorizing–all great hobbies come with lot’s of accessories–and it makes you look wine intelligent! So in my book, decanters are a necessity. Check out these really elegant and sexy Riedel Decanters from WineStuff.com. They are in the same category as art to me and would make a lovely center piece or display on any table at your next Desperate Housewives party. Move over appletini’s, wine is the new biatch in town.

Ladies what’s there not to love about these elegant decanters especially when they are all on sale!

Brush up on your wine decanting history!

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