FARMAGEDDON – The Unseen War on American Family Farms

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Vanishing Of The Bees

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3-Meat Loaf Layered with Bacon and Served with Homemade Ketchup!

This has to be one of my favorite dishes yet. I only cook from 2 cook books; Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions and Deborah Krasner’s Good Meat. Between these two cookbooks I’ve have access to over 500 delicious recipes and I haven’t made one yet that wasn’t yummy. But this one was over the top.

I can’t emphasize this enough, the tremendous flavors I achieve in these recipes are largely due to the quality and type of meat that is being used. I buy everything from my local farmer where cows are eating a salad bar everyday and pigs are doing what pigs are supposed to and lambs are happy grazing in the pasture. Truly this shouldn’t be something I have to educate people on, it should be the normal farming practice. That being said, industrial farmers spend billions of dollars on clever marketing to portray their model as the farms we grew up with.

I just found out today that Iowa has officially banned feedlots or industrial farms. Nothing could thrill me more. While we are looking for alternative fuel we should turn our focus on one of the biggest contributing factors to our current environmental issues and should be focusing on eliminating food models that facilitate the break down and destruction of our environment and our health. Feedlot/CAFO/industrial farming models should be eliminated. But why are they still here and why are they getting more government support than the small farmer? Because it is cheaper to raise, feed, and produce animals in this model. The farmers or corporations behind these farms get to keep more money in their pocket. Additionally, Americans demand cheap food. We can’t fathom paying $5 for a dozen eggs made by really happy and healthy chickens or milk and dairy from healthy, happy cows as well as happy farmers who are committed to the animals health, but more importantly our health. We are what we eat and feedlot animals are sick and toxic. Becoming a vegetarian isn’t the answer, especially when most ruminants have a special stomach containing as much as four compartments to break down and digest those foods and passing them onto us in a digestible form. What vegetarians and vegans don’t understand is that you while you can wash chemicals and pesticides off of the skin of fruits and vegetables, you can’t wash it out of the cells or membranes of the fruits and vegetables because they get into the soil and ultimately into the cells of the plants. Fruits and vegetables don’t have a liver to eliminate toxins while animals do. The answer is to change the conventional farming model and get back to traditional farming methods. Oh, but I digress…

This recipe from Good Meat was super simple to make, but requires some planning in advance to make sure you purchase all three ground meats from your farmer. All you need is 1 pound of ground beef, 1 pound of ground lamb, 1 pound of ground pork, a carrot, an onion, fresh flat-leaf parsley, some oats, raw whole milk, eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano and bacon. There are many cheeses at Whole Foods that aren’t pasteurized and fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano is one of them and worth the price.

After you finely chop up the onion, carrot, and parsley, you throw everything into a bowl and mix it by hand making sure not to over mix it. You have the option of making this into a pate by putting in a loaf pan or a meat loaf by placing it in a cast-iron frying pan and forming into a oval and patting down, then layering uncooked bacon strips on the top of the loaf or pate. Place in oven at 300 to 350 for an hour. I prefer slow cooking over lower heat for longer periods cook. Relish in the aroma as all the juices and flavors meld into a fantastic epicurean delight!

WAIT! After removing the finished meat loaf from the oven, let it stand for ten to fifteen minutes before cutting and serving. Americans are the only people in the world who are hell bent on eating hot food. No other country in the world eats their food without letting it cool down. You can’t taste your food when it is hot, now there is a novel idea. Additionally, you burn your tongue, mouth, and end up swallowing it in chunks because you can’t chew and you mess up your digestive juices.  So chill out, drink some wine and don’t scream at the chef because your food is warm rather than scorching hot.

***Again the bacon is from farm raised, happy pigs so the quality shows up in the flavor of the bacon.

I also made homemade ketchup because I couldn’t find any ketchup that didn’t have sugar, soy, and a other unnecessary additives and fillers. Sally Fallon has a very simple and delicious ketchup recipe in Nourishing Traditions that is fermented in the traditional way and acts as a digestive aid rather than a burden. It is hard to believe that you can make ketchup from simple, real ingredients without manipulating and replacing with synthetic food flavors and additives.

Ketchup
3 cups of organic canned tomato paste
1/4 cup of whey
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/2 cup of maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of homemade fish sauce or commercial fish sauce

Just mix everything together and transfer into a quart-sized wide mouth mason jar. Leave at room temperature for about 2 days before transferring to refrigerator. It’s easy and it’s healthy. You can make your own mustard,  BBQ sauce,  Teriyaki sauce, dressings, horseradish, pesto, chutney, salsa and so much more without all the crap in it and in a form that is very digestible.

Ketchup provides us with an excellent example of a condiment that was formerly fermented and therefore health promoting, but whose benefits were lost with large scale canning methods and a reliance on sugar rather than lactic acid as a preservative.

The  word “ketchup” derives from the Chinese Amoy dialect ke-tsiap or pickled fish-brine or sauce, the universal condiment of the ancient world. The English added foods like mushrooms, walnuts, cucumbers and oysters to this fermented brew; Americans added tomatoes from Mexico to make tomato ketchup.

Writing in 1730, Dean Swift mentions ketchup as one of several fermented foods favored by the English. ‘And for our home-bred British cheer, Botargo (fish roe relish), catsup and cabiar (caviar).’

Americans consume one-half billion bottles of ketchup per year. The chief ingredient of the modern version, after tomatoes, is high fructose corn syrup. A return to ancient preservation methods would transform America’s favorite condiment from a health liability (produced in huge factories) to a beneficial digestive aid (produced as an artisanal product in farming communities.) Sally Fallon Nourishing Traditions

Stuffed Green Peppers with Brown Rice

This was a great recipe from Nourishing Traditions Cookbook. More over, it wasn’t very difficult to prepare and was a culinary delight. Simply purchase 6 organic green peppers, 1 pound of grass-fed/finished ground beef, olive oil, onion, tomato paste, homemade beef stock, some herbs, grated Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. You will also need rice which is a separate recipe that requires some planing. As you will need to soak and ferment the rice in whey for 7 to 24 hours before cooking in butter. This process neutralizes a large portion of phytic acid in grains and will vastly improve nutritional benefits and digestibility. Along with cooking the rice in butter, an necessary digestive aid when consuming grains and vegetables. Believe me this process really makes incredibly delicious rice.

An optional ingredient is 1/4 ground heart. I purchase beef and chicken hearts from my local co-op and they are from grass-fed/finished, pasture raised farm animals. I wouldn’t recommend eating the organ of commercially farmed animals.

After you remove the stems, simply brown your meat then add the other ingredients boil until liquid reduces to half. Stir in rice and season to taste. Make sure to butter a Pyrex dish before setting the peppers in them. After filling each pepper, top with cheese and cook. Like so many of the meals in Nourishing Traditions, this is a meal in and of itself. It is very satisfying and filling.See all photos here.

We drank a very nice bottle of one of my favorite wines; a 2008 Gaja Ca’Marcanda Promis.

Bon Appetit!

This is not the place to speculate on the mysterious instructive spirit that taught our ancestors to sak and ferment their grains before eating them; the important thing to realize is that these practices accord very well with what modern science has discovered about grains. All grains contain phytic acid (an organic acid in which phosphorus is bound) in the outer layer or bran. Untreated phytic acid can combine with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc inn the intestinal tract and block their absorption. This is why a diet high in unfermented whole grains may lead to serious mineral deficiencies and bone loss. The modern misguided practice of consuming large amounts of unprocessed bran often improves colon transit time at first but may lead to irritable bowel syndrome and, in the long term, many other adverse effects. Soaking allows enzymes, lactobacilli and other helpful organisms to break down and neutralize phytic acid. As little as seven hours of soaking in warm acidulated water will neutralize a large portion of phytic acid in grains. The simple practice of soaking cracked or rolled cereal grains overnight will vastly improve their nutritional benefits.

Soaking in warm water also neutralizes enzyme inhibitors, present in all seeds, and encourages the production of numerous beneficial enzymes. The action of these enzymes also increases the amounts of many vitamins, especially B vitamins.

Scientists have learned that proteins in grains, especially gluten, are very difficult to digest.  A diet high in unfermented whole grains, particularly high-gluten grains like wheat,  puts an enormous strain on the whole digestive mechanism. When this mechanism breaks down with age or overuse, the results take the form of allergies, celiac disease, mental illness, chronic indigestion and candida albicans overgrowth. Recent research links gluten intolerance with multiple sclerosis. During the process of soaking and fermenting, gluten and other difficult-to-digest proteins are partially broken down into simpler components that are more readily available for absorption. – Sally Fallon Nourishing Traditions

Gaja Ca’Marcanda Promis 2008

Homemade Beet Soup

This beet soup was outstanding and very simple. The soups in Nourishing Traditions are all made from scratch using homemade broth or stock. Read this great article Beautiful Broth to learn the power in broth, stock and soups. The reason is that most commercial brands have a lot of additional ingredients that aren’t good for you and you simply don’t know how they are made. Additionally, soups at restaurants are made from a soup “base” that is largely made of hydrolyzed vegetable protein–which is loaded with neurotoxic MSG and related compounds.

I did not know that in many countries soups was and is a breakfast food. Children were often served soups or broths before school and people would generally start their day off with a bowl of soup, not cereal and coffee or pastries. Read this great article Broth is Beautiful to find out more!

The soups in Nourishing Traditions can be broken up into two categories. Clear unblended soups featuring  meat, vegetables or grains in a meat-based broth; and creamy blended soups. This beet soup was a creamy, blended soup. I suggest investing in a really nice handheld blender for the pureed soups. That little fancy gadget will make your life so much easy and making these soups a breeze. You can blend the soup right there in the pot. Beets are incredibly nutritious and healing. They are often used in other countries as a digestive tonic to help assimilate, heal and aid in digestion. Of course all of this info is at your fingertips in Sally’s book.

This soup was incredibly easy. I would also recommend doubling the recipe because it goes fast and buy nice size beets or buy more beets if they are small. I started out by washing the beets and then chopping them up into small pieces. I then placed them in a cast iron dutch oven with a lot of our raw cow butter and sautéed for about thirty minutes or until they were tender.

A side note, our gas stove isn’t calibrated correctly and low seems like medium, so I had to have a guy come out and recalibrate our flame. This is really important because you want to slow cook all of your food over a low flame to preserve the nutrients. Americans are

the only ones who incinerate their food.

After the beets were ready, I added water, simmered for a bit and then puréed. I let is cool for a few minutes spooned out in bowls and added creame fraiche and chives. This was a meal in and of itself.

A few other tips. Like many cream soups, they taste better with a dollop of cultured cream. However, Sally recommends making your own cultured cream and offers several recipes. I recommend using raw cream from your local farmer. You can find or making creame fraiche. You can buy this French sour cream at Whole Foods or other grocery stores, or make it yourself. I would make this in advance so it is handy in the fridge when needed.

Do not hesitate to add cultured cream to your soup for fear of eating too much fat. It supplies no only enzymes but also valuable fat-soluble vitamins. These fat-soluble vitamins are what your body needs too utilize the minerals in the soup.  Furthermore, cultured cream imparts a smooth texture and delicious taste, ensuring that your soup will be eaten with relish by young and old. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions

She also recommends using fish sauce in place of sea salt. It is full of valuable enzymes and lactic acid and helps aid in digestion and adds a delicious flavor to your soups.

Another excellent addition to soup is fish sauce. You can make this yourself, or buy a Thai or Vietnamese variety (called nam pla or nuoc mam).  These clear brown fermented sauces, made from small whole fish including the head and organs, are rich in iodine and other substances that benefit the thyroid gland. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions

Bon appétit !

Nutrition Researcher Sally Fallon on Heart Disease, Cancer, Digestive Disorders and Good Nutrition!

Listen to my interview with Sally Fallon President of The Weston A. Price Foundation and author of Nourishing Traditions and Eat Fat, Lose Fat. Rethink the way you eat and learn how the food pyramid recommendations could be detrimental to your health and causing most if not all of your sickness and ailments.

Sally Fallon Morell is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (with Mary G. Enig, PhD), a well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods with a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. She joined forces with Enig again to write Eat Fat, Lose Fat, and has authored numerous articles on the subject of diet and health. The President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk, Sally is also a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and community activist. Her four healthy children were raised on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.

Lamb Stew w/ Apricots, Ginger, and Cinnamon!

I made this the other night. Since I came back to California and learning all about sustainable farming vs. factory/industrial farming, I’ve rekindled my love for cooking. Actually, Candi Mazzoni was the main inspirational force to getting me back in the kitchen. While I stayed with her we had a home cooked meal every night. She made the best meals that filled the house with such delicious aromas and her laughter and joy permeated the entire house. Meal time was a remarkable experience. I watched her in the kitchen and felt the warmth and love in her house and I wanted that.

I love lamb and after finding a local farmer and a cop-op, I’ve been experimenting with cooking and pasture raised, grass-fed/finished animals. Now my presentation is much to be desired, but I never claimed to be a gourmet chef…at least not yet, so be patient with me as I’m learning…from scratch.

My farmer, WallaceFarms.com, offers a variety of great meat cuts and grass-fed/finished lamb is one of them so I bought several cuts of lamb and I really wanted to make lamb stew. I found a great recipe in Deborah Krasner’s book Good Meat.

I had a lot of fun making this dish and it was to die for. The apricot sauce was delicious. I will admit, I just bought a brand new food processor and spent about 10 min trying to figure out how to make it work. With some cursing, banging, and bitching, I finally was able to figure it out! My son was completely laughing at me and how upset I could let a food processor make me. I burst out laughing when I thought about it.

In spite of my rumble with the food processor the lamb stew turned out to be outstanding. I served it with some raw yogurt and fresh cilantro as well as sweet potatoes drizzled in farm fresh raw butter and sprinkled with a bit of sea salt. The recipe called for a dollop of Greek yogurt, but we opted for our local farmers raw yogurt.  All raw dairy products are full fat. The farmers do not make low-fat, or reduced fat products as those are very unhealthy for you. I paired this stew with a Merlot from Rutherford Hill: 2005 Rutherford Hill Merlot, Napa Valley

I sent a picture of the lamb stew cooking to my friend and he said it looked like “Sloppy Joes”. Well my dad loved it and said it reminded him of his childhood! That is what matters.

As a side note: I think people need to be careful when making fun of the cook or treating their job as not important. Unfortunately many women have thrown the towel in and opted out of the kitchen to find recognition in the work place where their time and efforts are valued by their peers. It is foolish to devalue the chef who honors time honored traditions and runs the household.

While it isn’t the most glamorous job, especially in a society that defines a person by what they do, people who stay home  or work part-time to run the home front should be held in high esteem by their partners. A smart man, one worth his weight, knows this, especially today when sickness is a multi-trillion dollar industry.

So don’t take your position lightly and be happy while your running the household knowing that the health and vitality of your family rests in your hands. Nutrition is so important when we see more and more people getting sick more often, dying of diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes and where digestive disorders are the norm. I would take time to praise the cook who goes to great lengths to ensure the family is eating the best quality food cooked in the best way.

The Congressional Record pointed out the Frederick Stare, professor of nutrition at Harvard, has accepted research funds from various food manufacturers. The Congressional Record said that food processing companies pay him a large personal salary for consulting with their boards of directors. Dr. Stare was at that time on the board of directors of food companies that put sugar in their canned beans. Which is Dr. Stare going to advocate, red meat or his company’s sugar-laced canned beans? How do you think he will advice congressional committees asking his advice? H.L. Newbold, MD Type A Type B Weight Loss Book from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

Lunch With Tony Terlato

On November 11th, I interviewed wine legend Tony Terlato. It was a fabulous interview from a personal stand point because Tony was very transparent and really opened up about his life, his family, parenting and his relationship with JoJo. We talked more about his life than we did about wine. Although I hadn’t met him in person yet, Tony has a strong presence about him and I felt as if we were conducting the interview face to face.

Tony not only has the gift of gab but he has the gift of being able to connect with people. I felt like I knew him. At the end of the interview I blurted out that I really wanted to visit Terlato Wines International at the refurbished Armour Estate and have one of those legendary Terlato lunches I’ve heard so much about. To my surprise, Tony invited me for lunch. On a very snowy Tuesday, December 21st, I grabbed my friend (designated driver) and we headed from suburbia to Buffalo Grove to have a gourmet homemade lunch with Tony Terlato.

Before we sat down for lunch we toured the spectacularly beautiful Armour Estate. It was incredible to see the detail, the quality, and craftsmanship within the structure of this mansion. The original owners traveled around the world and would purchase entire rooms to have shipped back and included in their house, their architect traveled with them. In one of the main rooms they purchased and shipped a famous covered bridge for the roof/ceiling. The Terlato’s have fully restored the Armour Mansion to its original condition and as a result it is now apart of the historical society. You can read all about the construction and history of the Armour Estate here.

After touring the house, we started tasting through some of the Terlato portfolio. I really enjoyed their wines largely due to the fact that I like wines that don’t over power the palate. I like big wines that are complex but balanced. I have a strong attraction to European style wines that are very food friendly. All of these wines were amazing and very food friendly. I also really love Tony’s philosophy. When drinking and then rating wines, we have to ask the question of the reviewer, “What is your measuring stick? What is your reference point to which you hold all other wines comparable to?” Wouldn’t we ask this for anyone we were taking advice from?  If we don’t ask this question, then how do we really know where that person is coming from? Being in the wine business since his twenties, specializing in Italian and French wines, Tony uses these legendary wines as his measuring stick for the wines that he chooses to import and in his own winemaking. This is why he has one of the most prestigious portfolio’s in the world.

The first wine we tasted was a 2007 Chimney Rock Elevage Blanc, from Stages Leap District. I really enjoyed this wine, what’s not to like? As Steve Heimoff of Wine Enthusiast says, “Lots to like in this dry, elegant wine, which is a Graves-style blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The flavors are quite complex, with nectarine, peach, pineapple, and flowery buttercup accented with a nutty, cashew-rich oiliness. All that richness is perfectly balanced with crisp acidity.”

We moved on to a lovely chardonnay from Russian River: 2006  Terlato Family Vineyards Chardonnay. This wine was equally fabulous. It is restrained yet elegant; clean and bright with aromas of pear, apple, butter, vanilla and toast; juicy and bright with some oak and a long butterscotch and pineapple finish. This is a great wine for the value, a wine that wine aficionados will be keep coming back for.

As we progressed through the tasting, I noticed that the wines kept getting better and better. As Tony and I talked, he gave me some friendly advice about my wine reviews and told me I couldn’t be nice all the time, his wines included, about all the wines I write about. I needed to be a bit more irreverent. I want to say that I don’t like every wine I drink. In fact, there are many wines I don’t like and if you talk to my friends, they will say that I’m quite the wine snob. I bring my own wine with me wherever I go because I would rather not drink any wine than to be stuck drinking crappy, cheap, poorly made wine and I don’t drink anything else but wine. Anyone who has drank with me learns really fast about what I’m talking about. We will drink one of my wines from my personal portfolio and then order a bottle of their choice off the menu. Each time they all make the same face and say the same thing, “This is like night and day.” But I have the attitude of, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all.” It takes more effort for me to talk about a wine that I don’t like than it does for me to praise and talk about wines that I absolutely enjoy and love. Further,  who am I to tell you what is good or bad. You might love a wine that I think is undrinkable or vice versa, I don’t feel like I should be the final authority. After all, I don’t listen to most of the wine critics myself!

We moved from whites to reds and I got excited because I love reds. The first red we tasted was from Sta. Rita Hills: 2007 Sanford Pinot Noir. This wine has generous notes of ripe cherries, fresh-turned earth, cinnamon and black raspberries. Velvet texture with deep layers of flavor, and a long finish. A fairly robust Pinot but not heavy. Superb effort.

The next was a Merlot from Rutherford Hill: 2005 Rutherford Hill Merlot, Napa Valley. Again, the wines just increased in quality and deliciousness, or maybe by this time I was very warm and toasty and in a very happy place. This Merlot was rich and flavorful. While concentrated it was elegant. Black cherries, vanilla spice and a bit smokey followed with a lingering finish. I liked this so much that I paired it with the Beef Stew I made a week later and it was spectacular.

The last wine we tasted before having lunch was a Chimney Rock Cabernet Sauvignon from Stags Leap District. This 2005 Cabernet Sauvignong was outstanding! As Steve Heimoff from Wine Enthusiast said, “Chimney Rock continues a successful string of vintages with this powerful ’05. It’s a distinguished wine that calls to mind the description of Stags Leap Cabernet as an iron fist in a velvet glove. Rich and full-bodied, it has lush flavors of black currants and smoky new oak.”

After tasting we moved into the kitchen and had clams in white sauce. One of my favorite dishes in the world, clams, mussels, white or red sauce, bring it on! As I expressed my enthusiasm for the appetizer, Tony shared his favorite mussel dish with me. I can’t wait to make it. We had the 2008 Terlato Vineyards Pinot Grigio to cleanse our palate with. A very aromatic wine with tropical aromas and as well as in the mouth. I can’t say I remember much about this wine because I was distracted by all the excitement and conversation in the kitchen. Most of the staff joined us at this time and we simply hung out around the island with the chef and talked.

Then we moved to the dining room and enjoyed our main course which was a Tony’s favorite pasta dish followed by a light salad, the Italian way! I simply remember the Zinfandel we drank and the conversation. We drank a Dry Creek valley late release Zinfandel by Giarrusso Family which was yummy and paired well with the pasta dish. This was a fantastic estate grown late release Zinfandel. Was delicious and John made sure my glass was full. I had a driver so I indulged myself.

After some pleasant conversation, it was time to go. I would have had to move in if I stayed any longer, but I had such a delightful time spending the afternoon with Tony, John, and Billy. I can’t say enough good things about them. Including the very generous gift they gave to us when we left: a bottle of 2001 Episode and a bottle of 2006 Galaxy. I wasted no time in opening the 2001 Episode and drinking it with some of my favorite winos. We all say in silence as we enjoyed this fabulous wine. I should have laid it down, but I love to enjoy life with the people I love the most and when something like this falls into my lap, I have no other choice than to share the gift and moment with others who will appreciate it, and we did!

Thank Tony, John, and Billy and the staff. What a great day. What great wines, food, and most of all, great conversation! Muuuaaaa!

View all the pictures from that day.

Wine Tasting Notes Guide

Have you ever wondered what types of questions you should be asking when you’re tasting wine? Whether your keeping notes for yourself or you are entertaining, be prepared!

We’ve made it easy for you and have created a simple, comprehensive tasting note guide that you can use for your own tastings or to give to your guests at your wine tasting parties or bring to a wine tasting party for your friends.

Your friends, family, co-workers, and guests will be impressed with your cleverness. You savvy Oenophile you!

It’s simple! Click on The Wine Wench Tasting Notes Guide , download the PDF and print as many copies as you need! Hope you enjoy!

Be sure to have your Adobe Reader updated to the latest version

Wine Tip #9 – When Should I Drink My Wine?

This is a great question and can cause a great deal of confusion for the majority of pleasure seeking wine drinkers. I’m not going to get into storing or collecting wine in this post, that is a subject all on its own I’m not read to tackle.

When I first started drinking wine I believed, like many wine drinkers, that all wine got better with age. I would hold onto wine only to open it a year or two later to find it dull, flat, and gross. All wines aren’t created equal. Most wines are meant to drink right after bottling. In fact, less than 1% of wines are made to age for more than five years.

Most wines are made to be enjoyed while they are young, vibrant and fresh. Therefore, you should drink most wines after they hit the bottle to capture the wine’s best aromas and flavors.

You should drink most red wines within two to five years of the vintage/year. While most white wines within one to three years of the vintage/year. If there isn’t a year/vintage on the label, drink red wine within two years and white wine within one year of purchasing.

For the wines that you plan on drinking a year or two from now, make sure you store them on their side to keep the cork moist, fully plump and air tight (with the exception of sparkling wines and screwtop lids),  in a cool spot, preferably dark, away from harsh lights or artificial lighting, temperature fluctuations, heat, sunlight, any vibration, and chemical odors or strong smells. Invest in a nice wine storage cooler.

Refrain from storing unopened wine on your counter, especially in the sunlight. Recork and refrigerate.

Also, let wine sit and settle for 24 to 48 hours that has been shipped or that’s been in transit. Lastly, for wines you plan on holding on to longer than a few months, try not to purchase it if it has been sitting under artificial or well-lit shelves. Ask for a bottle that is still in the storage room, boxed up.

The best temperature for storing wine is 55% but a constant temperature between 53 and 60 is good too. Ideal humidity is 75%. Some people prefer it more or less.

A fun little tasting tip: if you have a wine from two separate vintages save them for your next tasting experiment and taste them at the same time. Also, experiment with temperature. First, taste the wine directly from the bottle before chilling, then put the remaining wine in the refrigerator or bring down using a VacuVin rapid ice wine cooler and try it again. You will be completely surprised at what you find.

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