Red or White... Know How to Choose the Right Wine

There is a lot to know about wine, so we certainly do not expect you to become a connoisseur over night, nonetheless, there are ways to learn which is which and just what wine we should drink with certain foods. Here's a tip for you; remember to note the characteristics of the wine on all sensory areas of the tongue. Sweetness is detected on the very tip of the tongue, while bitter tastes are sensed in the extreme rear. Saltiness is sensed on the front, upper sides of the tongue, and the acidity-sour taste is sensed mainly on the sides. Do you know how to choose the right type of wine according to the foods you eat?

Some suggest focusing your attention on one sensation at a time in order to be more efficient in your taste. Try taking a sip of wine and swallowing immediately. Then try another sip, this time letting the wine work well around the palate into these sensory areas before swallowing. You will recognize a noticeable difference in the intensity of flavors! The main rule to remember about pairing wine with food is that there are no rules: you should drink the wines you like with the foods you like. That being said, there are some basic guidelines that can help you maximize your enjoyment of wine-food pairing.

Do keep in mind that the right wine can enhance a dish to perfection. While there are no hard and fast rules on matching food and wine because it's ultimately a matter of personal taste, there are basic guidelines on what wine connoisseurs and food lovers consider make good choices. In this article, you'll learn about how to make wine choices that will complement the flavors of a meal. Check out these tips;

• A basic guideline is to 'Match' and 'Complement' the characteristics of food to the wine, or 'Contrast' or counterbalance overpowering characteristics. For example: Spicy foods with sweeter wine.
• Be aware that some wines can be spoiled by the introduction of certain food flavors, just as they can be enhanced. If you find that a wine you've always loved suddenly tastes less desirable, track down the food you paired it with, and try drinking it without food, before dismissing the wine outright. The right wine can enhance a dish to perfection. While there are no hard and fast rules on matching food and wine because it's ultimately a matter of personal taste, there are basic guidelines on what wine connoisseurs and food lovers consider make good choices. In this article, you'll learn about how to make wine choices that will complement the flavors of a meal.

• Match the weight & texture of the food to the weight & texture of the wine
  Example: A light-bodied fish like sole works best with a light-bodied white wine like pinot grigio, while a heavier-bodied fish like salmon calls for a richer, fuller-bodied white like chardonnay.



• Balance the intensity of flavors in the food and wine
  Example: A mildly flavored food like roast turkey pairs well with light-bodied white and red wines like sauvignon blanc and Beaujolais, but in the context of a Thanksgiving dinner featuring stuffing, cranberry sauce, and other strongly flavored side dishes, an intensely flavored white like gewürztraminer or a rich, fruity red like syrah or zinfandel would be preferable.

• Balance tastes  The five basic tastes are sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami (the recently discovered fifth taste found in savory foods like mushrooms, tomatoes, soy sauce, and aged cheeses and meats). Salty and sour tastes in food make wines taste milder (fruitier and less acidic), while sweet and savory (umami) tastes make wines taste stronger (drier and more astringent).
  
  Example: A simple cut of beef tames the tannins and brings out the fruit of a young cabernet sauvignon, but chocolate (which some people enjoy with cabernet) will accentuate its tannins and diminish its fruit. Seasonings, such as salt, lemon, vinegar, and mustard, can be used to achieve balance in food-wine pairings, either to make the wine taste milder (salt, lemon, vinegar) or stronger (sugar or umami ingredients).



• Match flavors
  Flavors are combinations of tastes and aromas, and there are an infinite number of them. You can fine-tune food and wine pairings by matching flavors in the food and the wine.
  
  Example: Roast duck in a plum sauce is well-served by red wines, like barbera or syrah, with pronounced black plum flavors while grilled steak in a pepper sauce will go beautifully with a peppery zinfandel.



• Counterpoint flavors
  Sometimes, the best choice is to counterpoint flavors rather than matching them.
  
  Example: Pairing a spicy dish like Jamaican Jerk Chicken with a high-alcohol red wine may seem logical, but, in fact, the heat in the dish will ignite the alcohol in the wine to produce an unpleasantly hot, harsh impression. A better choice is a low-alcohol, fruity wine like Riesling or Gewurztraminer, which will both frame and tame the spicy flavors of the dish.

 Whether it be red or white wine that you choose to drink with your meal, enjoy it, and savor it. Don't hurry to finish the glass, endulge in it, and please do understand the unique taste!

7 Reasons for Women to Drink WINE

We like to go out with our friends but we're always wondering 'what's the best thing to drink?' Hey, we are always counting calories not to mention following health trends and risks. When it comes to reducing your risk of heart disease and cancer, there aren't many easy and pleasurable methods of prevention. That might be why studies touting the health benefits of red wine consumption always get a lot of attention. So, is red wine really the toast of the town when it comes to health paybacks? The answer is yes and no. While properties in red wine do help prevent heart disease and some cancers, and reduce inflammation caused by arthritis, these benefits aren't unique to red wine.The antioxidants in red wine may be more concentrated than in other foods because of the fermentation process they go through. New research suggests women who drink a moderate amount of alcohol on a regular basis, particularly when red wine is the drink of choice, are less likely to experience long-term weight gain than non-drinkers. Have a glass of wine with your friends when you go out. There are less calories in wine than in many mixed drinks that will go to straight to your hips!


1. Feed your head
Wine could preserve your memory, and let me tell you, as we age, we want to preserve as much as everything as we can! When researchers gave memory quizzes to women in their 70s, those who drank one drink or more every day scored much better than those who drank less or not at all. Wine helps prevent clots and reduce blood vessel inflammation, both of which have been linked to cognitive decline and heart disease, explains Tedd Goldfinger, DO, of the University of Arizona School of Medicine. Alcohol also seems to raise HDL, the so-called good cholesterol, which helps unclog your arteries.

2. Keep the scale in your corner
Studies find that people who drink wine daily have lower body mass than those who indulge occasionally; moderate wine drinkers have narrower waists and less abdominal fat than people who drink liquor. Alcohol may encourage your body to burn extra calories for as long as 90 minutes after you down a glass. Beer seems to have a similar effect. OK, this is all that I needed to read...anything to assist me in losing some of my ass is fine with me. Drink in moderation, please, and never drink and drive.


 3. Boost your body’s defenses
In one British study, those who drank roughly a glass of wine a day reduced by 11% their risk of infection by Helicobacter pylori bacteria, a major cause of gastritis, ulcers, and stomach cancers. As little as half a glass may also guard against food poisoning caused by germs like salmonella when people are exposed to contaminated food, according to a Spanish study.

4. Guard against the ovarian woes
When Australian researchers recently compared women with ovarian cancer to cancer-free women, they found that roughly one glass of wine a day seemed to reduce the risk of the disease by as much as 50 percent. Earlier research at the University of Hawaii produced similar findings. Experts suspect this may be due to antioxidants or phytoestrogens, which have high anticancer properties and are prevalent in wine. In a recent University of Michigan study, a red wine compound helped kill ovarian cancer cells in a test tube.

5. Build better bones
On average, women who drink moderately seem to have higher bone mass than abstainers. Alcohol appears to boost estrogen levels; the hormone seems to slow the body’s destruction of old bone more than it slows the production of new bone.

6. Prevent blood-sugar trouble
Premenopausal women who drink one or two glasses of wine a day are 40 percent less likely than women who don’t drink to develop type 2 diabetes, according to a 10-year study by Harvard Medical School. While the reasons aren’t clear, wine seems to reduce insulin resistance in diabetic patients.

 
7. Cooking with Wine

Here are my favorite ways to use wine in light cooking:

• Wine helps cook and add flavor to fish. Deep-fried fish dipped in tartar sauce, albeit tasty, defeats the nutritional purpose of eating fish. One way to add flavor and moisture to fish without adding fat is to cook it with wine. You can add wine to the pan while the fish is simmering, poach the fish over a saucepan of boiling wine, or drizzle fish with a tablespoon or two of wine and bake it in a foil package.

• Wine is a great ingredient in marinades. Wine is basically an acid ingredient (which helps tenderize the outside of the meat) and it has a lot of flavor. The wine-based marinade helps keep meat, poultry, or seafood moist while it cooks, too.

• Wine can help cook and simmer foods. Add wine to dishes you're cooking in a skillet on the stove, in a slow cooker, or in the oven. Simmered along with the food, it adds flavor and moisture to whatever dish you're making.

• Wine can be used in baking, too! For certain types of cakes, using wine or sherry in place of some of the fat not only lightens up the cake but adds complimentary flavors.

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