Most of Burgundy's wines come from just two grapes - Chardonnay for whites and Pinot Noir for reds - and they could not be more different in their fortunes. For whilst Chardonnay has found a home just about everywhere that wine is made, success with Pinot Noir has proven more elusive and very few places can claim to have any real success with it. When oaked, Chardonnay generally produces reliable wines with easy-drinking tropical fruit and layers of rich, buttery toffee, whilst Pinot's...

This month we'd like to share with you some of the benefits of drinking beer. That's right, beer has health benenfits! And this is something that's been known for years. In fact, a recent study by researchers at Emory University in Atlanta indicated that beer was the source of antibiotics for patients 2000 years ago. The researcher had set out to study oteoporosis in ancient African mummies and ended up finding a huge amount of teracycline in the bones. Interesting, considering...

I’m always undecided as to whether I prefer red wine or white with roast chicken but of course it depends on the accompaniments and the time of year. Last night we had it stuffed with lemon and sprinkled with a fantastic fines herbes mix of tarragon, chervil and chives I bought from the market in Nice a year or so ago. It’s a bit faded admittedly but I can’t bear to throw it away, the tarragon is so strong and the herbs so perfectly balanced.  I served it with asparagus, green beans and a...

I’ve written before about pairing wine with Chinese food - and so have some of my contributors but here’s a slightly different way of going about it that may help you decide which bottle to choose and make your pairings more successful. It involves deciding which flavours are predominant in a dish or selection of dishes.  Of course dishes of different types tend to be put on the table at the same time but they tend to be grouped together. You rarely find a delicate seafood dish served...

Choosing a wine to go with dinner shouldn't be so difficult. Use the information in this article to make pairing a wine with dinner easy ! While it is safe to say white wines go well with white meat and red wine goes well with red meat, this rule also has exceptions. The best rule to follow for selecting a wine is to follow your own taste. Each person has different preferences, and you should go with what you like. It is also worth noting that each wine is different. A Riesling grown...

The old adage, "White wine with white and red wine with red," still applies to many food and wine pairings, but with a more modern twist. Today, some wines can be paired successfully against the old saying. A good pairing of food and wine will make both the food and wine taste better than if you were to have the drink and dish separately. To be successful in pairing wines with food, it is important to understand some basics of taste as well as understand the components of wine with...