Chairman, Gary Vaynerchuk, explains in this sincere video the details of what Cork’d users can expect. Cork’d Senior Editor, Jon Troutman will continue working in the wine industry with Gary in other capacities, so keep your eyes peeled. To all of our users, thank you for supporting us and interacting with us. We have truly enjoyed this experience and learning the wine world right along with you.

The press judging was held at Jet Runway Café in Ft. Lauderdale and involved a presentation of four flights of wine including Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. The setting was impressive, featuring a lineup of private jets on the tarmac directly outside the expansive windows that surrounded our tables – appropriate ambiance for the presentation of the “flights!” We swirled and sipped our way though the four wines in each flight, assigning them rankings and an ultimate ”medal” designation during the interactive judging process.

Following the judging portion of the evening, we were treated to a five course dinner prepared by Silver Lining Catering that paired beautifully with the selection of wines. The fabulous menu included Lobster, Crab and Coconut Ceviche which harmonized beautifully with the selection of Chardonnays from Phelps Creek, Castillo de Amorosa, Deerfield, and Mattabella; Crisped Pan Seared Salmon with Braised Red Cabbage, Parsnip Puree and Balsamic Reduction that was perfect with Pinot Noirs from Russian Hill, Z’IVO, Gunthier, and Papapietro; Hand Rolled Three Mushroom Ravioli with Pesto Cream Sauce, Cabernet Reduction and Fresh Herbs that was enhanced with both the Cabernet Sauvignon from Pope Valley, Mithra, Seven Hills, Barnett AND the Pinot Noir (yes, I cheated!) and lastly, one of my all time faves, Syrah Braised Short Rib with Sage Infused Winter Root Vegetable Hash that was positively delicious paired with the Syrah selections from David Earthquake, Bianchi, Brochelle and Hyde Vineyard. Ahhh, all in a day’s tasting!

The 4th Annual American Fine Wine Competition will take place on January 16 & 17, 2011 at the Hyatt Pier 66 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The competition, featuring more than 600 wines and judged by some of South Florida’s most respected wine professionals, is closed to the public, but don’t fret! All of the wines can be tasted, accompanied by a wine-inspired four course dinner, at the American Fine Wine Competition Gala on February 12, 2011. In addition to the food and wine, highlights include Guest emcee, Alan Kalter (announcer for the Late Show with David Letterman), performing artist Michael Israel and internationally acclaimed Saxophonist Dayve Stewart & The Vibe. Proceeds from the Gala will benefit the Diabetes Research Institute and the Sun Sentinel Children’s Fund. Hope to see you Floridians there for an evening of food, wine and fun, all for a very good cause!

TastingRoom.com allows you to give the gift of wine without having to choose a single bottle for the wine lover in your life. Instead, their unique wine samplers feature six pours from some of America’s most heralded wineries. Take their “Taste Adventures” sampler, which has six pours from six different wineries, from the likes of Grgich Hills, Gundlach Bunschu, and other impressive names. They also offer samplers with a flight of six wines from a single winery, like DeLoach and Whitehall Lane. Or get seriously festive and give the TastingRoom.com Gift Bundles. These samplers take your gift an extra mile by including a gift card for your loved one to buy a full bottle of their choice. Each sampler comes equipped with tasting notes from the winemakers, and the taste-size (50 ml) bottles are sealed using a “zero-oxygen” method that ensures top-notch, original quality every time. You’re giving more than just wine – you’re giving an experience.

Now let’s crunch the numbers… to buy full-sized bottles of these highly scored wines for friends and family, you’d be forced to drop at least a couple Benjamins. With the exclusive 50% discount they’ve agreed to give Cork’d subscribers, you can give the gift of a Tasting Room experience for less than 15 bones.

You read right! We twisted the arms of the TastingRoom.com team into offering you an exclusive 50% off the price of any one sampler. Just use the code CK50 at checkout and the deal is on!

If there is one wine product you buy, wrap, and slap a bow on this year, it’s got to be TastingRoom.com

Save the Cava and Prosecco, well regarded sparklers from Spain and Italy, respectively, for other times of the year. The holiday season is Champagne season, a time to treat yourself and loved ones to the very best. And there’s no denying that Champagne is the very best when it comes to the art of sparkling wine making.

From the very moment you hear the celebratory “pop” of the cork, to that first fabled nose-tickling sip from a flute, there’s something distinctly festive about Champagne. It’s the wine that all the rest model themselves after. Some even carry the term “Méthode Champenoise” on their label, meaning the wine was produced in the same method that genuine Champagne is.  Yet only one type of wine had earned the right to carry the name “Champagne” on its label, and that’s the real thing. Champagne only comes from the Champagne region of France. That’s why we’re proud supporters of the movement to protect wine place and origin names. Sign the petition and join us in the effort to protect names like Chianti, Tokaj, Port, and of course, Champagne.

With the holidays in full swing, the question isn’t, “what type of wine should I buy”?

It’s, “what type of Champagne should I buy? We’ve got two tips for navigating the Champagne aisle of your wine shop in the final month of 2010.

2002 Vintage Champagne: Champagne houses only bottle Vintage Champagnes, those made with grapes from a single vintage, in the best of years. Lucky for you, many of the current release Champagnes on the market right now are from 2002, one of the best years in Champagne in recent memory. They won’t be cheap but you can almost be sure that you’re getting memorable wine from a great vintage.

Grower Champagne:  You sometimes shop at the local Farmers Market instead of Wal-Mart. Why not support the small farmers of Champagne this holiday season, and stray from the reliable, big names? Grower Champagnes come from single, independently owned estates, made by the same people who the grapes, making them the ultimate expression of terroir.

This email is brought to you in collaboration with the Champagne Bureau, a client of Cork’d

South Africa has the soil, climate and topography that create the perfect haven for many great varietals to blossom. Bright and lively Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc balance out hearty Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet. Influences of traveling wine makers from France, Italy and California have introduced a wide range of wine making techniques to the vineyards of South Africa. As a result, the wines are very appealing on a variety of levels.

The wines of France and Italy show at their best with food, they generally aren’t stand-alone wines. Delicate balance of fruits, tannins and acids give the taster a hint of flavors that tease at the palate, yet are made whole when the right food is introduced. On the opposite side of the spectrum are the wines of California and Australia that are bold and fruit forward. These wines contain a blend of definite identifiable flavors, ripe fruits, spices, dark chocolates, heavier tannins and sharper acids. These wines are aggressive   and can be enjoyed alone, without the need for a food pairing. These wines can be enjoyed for the sake of enjoying wine and are great for brooding over.

If you are not in the mood for a multi-course meal, yet are not quite in the mood for brooding either, a nice South African wine could be the perfect wine to enjoy. These wines are not as delicate as the wines of Europe. They have distinctive flavors, yet their flavors are slightly more neutral than a bold Australian Shiraz or an intense stinging California Sauvignon Blanc.They blend with and enhance foods,  yet they are great alone and have enough definable flavors to encourage discussion and another taste.

South African wines come at a great value as well. There are many inexpensive options to choose from. Some stand out examples from the tasting were Indaba 2010 Chenin Blanc, which rather than typical grapefruit or lemon-lime notes exhibited very juicy, under-ripe orange flavors, the Buitenverwachting Constantia Estate 2009 Sauvignon Blanc which had a very intriguing milkweed component  and the De Toren Fusion V 2007 a blend of Bordeaux grapes that hinted at dark chocolate and just enough tannin to make it age worthy, but not too much to enjoy now. All of these wines are under $50 (the Indaba, in fact, is just under $10), go well with food, but provided plenty of new flavor nuances to discover throughout the glass.

If forced to choose, what would be your “electric chair” food and wine pairing?

In other words, what would you eat and drink for your very last meal on God’s little green earth. Inevitably, names like DRC, Lafite, d’Yquem and Krug weave their way into the conversation, matched with foods like duck breast, Wagyu, Foie Gras, and Sturgeon Caviar.

Even though I love posing the question, I always wrestle with an answer. Last night though, from the comfort of home, I believe I settled on an answer. Oysters & Muscadet.

The oysters come from East Dennis Oyster Farm, Cape Cod. Plump, sweet and juicy, they’re at the pinnacle of the season right now. I personally like to add just a thimble full of red wine vinegar to each. I was lucky enough to pull the perfect bottle to go alongside my deathbed dish.

2005 Luneau-Papin Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine pueri solis:

Golden straw color, surprisingly deep color for Muscadet. Classic nose of oyster shell coupled with toasted pine nuts, lemon and a touch of grassiness. Palate is very round and leesy, with honeyed lemon, apple and mineral notes coming through. Long, full, almost salty finish. Anyone who has tried to refute the notion of minerality in wine is sure to have their mind changed after a glass of this.

Aged 42 months on the lees, this isn’t your everyday bottle of Muscadet. In fact, as someone pointed out to me, it’s not even permitted by French AOC law to carry the “Sur Lie” (on lees) labeling, because with more than 3 years, it was on the lees too long. A gorgeously textured and complex wine, it could probably improve with a couple more years of age. But why wait? You never know when your last meal will come…

note: I originally posted a modified version of this on WineBerserkers.com but because the response was so strong and I love hearing people’s answers, I wanted to open it up to others. Given the choice, what would your “final” food and wine match be?

Pinot Noir had a good enough relationship with one of its parents, Pinot Meunier, spending a great deal in Champagne together, but something was missing. Pinot Noir feeling rejected and ignored by Traminer, the parent it rarely, if ever, saw, the spicy Pinot Noir took off in its see-through red dress to ensure its own lineage.

Well, Pinot Noir traveled far and wide, finding grapes to cross with wherever it went – sometimes it didn’t even know the other grape’s name. Ultimately, its travels spawned all sorts of offspring, though none could ever be as fickle as the neurotic Pinot Noir.

Pinot St. Laurent, or St. Laurent, named after the namesake day of Saint Laurent, August 10^th, as this is the day the grape normally turns color, was one of these offspring. Originally of Burgundian roots, St. Laurent has since traveled to Austria and resides there almost exclusively.

Like any other awkward teen, St. Laurent didn’t grow to be the most popular grape, though it had several loyal friends. It developed a thicker skin than its parent, Pinot Noir, though still took on many of the characteristics of Pinot Noir in the way of aromas and flavors. Still, St. Laurent found itself to be darker with a more velvety texture. What’s more? St. Laurent settled for lighter soils than Pinot Noir ever would. Still, try as St. Laurent might, it has never figured out from where those characteristics derived.

Eventually, St. Laurent bottled up its issues and was ready to become a parent itself. Consulting with matchmakers Prof. Fritz Zweigelt back in the 1920s, St. Laurent and another popular Austrian grape, Blaufränkisch, decided it’d be appropriate to cross and voila! Blauer Zweigelt, less formally known as Zweigelt, was born.

Unlike St. Laurent, Zweigelt quickly gained popularity and has since taken the status as the most widely grown red grape in Austria.  Zweigelt kept some of the characteristics of the St. Laurent side, but the sturdy Blaufränkisch contributed to Zweigelts “super grape” status.

Zweigelt is frost resistant, has few growing problems no matter soil or location and is disease resistant. Comfortable in any situation, the grape can span from light and easy drinking to full, and luscious. And wouldn’t you know it, the incestuous grape is a perfect blending partner for it Austria’s other red grapes: Blaufränkish and St. Laurent.

Accounting for roughly 33% of Austria’s total wine production as a whole, it is unlikely any of Austria’s red varietals will see the popularity the country’s flagship grape, Gruener Veltliner, does today. However, the category has recently been making great strides among connoisseurs and curious consumers looking for something a bit off the beaten path. Although their names may be difficult for a US consumer to pronounce, they are easily enjoyed. Unlike other countries indigenous reds, Austrian red varietals are consumer friendly, versatile and easy to pair with anything from game meats to small-talk conversation, all year round.

Pairing wine with anything fried can be difficult. Fried foods need acidic wines to cut the fat. Here are 8 of my Hanukkah menu specific and “fried food friendly” kosher wines, one for each night.

1^st Night: Willm ’08 Gewurztraminer- With its spicy notes and dry as a bone structure, its perfect for cottage cheese latkes with applesauce.

2^nd Night: Efron’s Cave Jerusalem Rose Reserve 2007 No mixing here! This semi-dry, made from 100% Chenin Blanc with its tropical fruit backdrop will fairs extremely well with sweet potato baked latkes with sour cream.

3^rd Night: Bokobsa  ’08 Cuvee du Centenaire Cotes Du Rhone- Dark Fruit. Tannic. Dry finish. Three mandatory qualities for an amazing pair with red wine braised brisket.

4^th Night: Willm  ’08 Pinot Blanc-It’s aromatic scent, stone mineral feel and citrus notes sets the stage for the light Jerusalem herbed salmon.

5^th Night: Mony Massada ’09 Colombard- Fermented in stainless steel aids this berry-like, citrus scented and flavored wine to be acidic, yet well rounded. The citrus fruit will cut the oil from and pair well with, potato kinish.

6^th Night: Don Ernesto ‘09 Vin Gris- Just as oxymoronic as sweet and peppery, spicy and fruity seem, this wine’s is off-dry, strawberry and raspberry layers sprinkled with clove spiced notes play leading lady to Kugel Yerushalmi [Jerusalem Kugel]. savory/sweet caramelized noodles spiced with black pepper

7^th Night: Efron’s ’07 Cave Jerusalem Rose Reserve-Syrah with just a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon to round out the flavors. Medium bodied, bone dry and red fruit rich; cranberries, currants and pomegranate notes fill the glass. Serve it chilled with pomegranate chicken breasts.

8^th Night: Baron Herzog ’07 Late Harvest Zinfandel- Sweet, almost overripe dark berries like huckleberry, blackberry and boysenberry. It has a rich mouth feel with a slight crispness in its long silken finish. Because of its berry richness it pairs amazingly well with sufganiot [Hanukkah Jelly Doughnuts]

Second only to Purim, (where catching a buzz is actually an encouraged part of our holiday celebration… seriously, look it up), Hanukkah is my favorite holiday. But no matter if you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanzaa, remember, you don’t have to be Jewish to drink kosher wines. You just have to have fabulous taste!

Happy Holidays! “Embrace Life. Sit back, sip and enjoy!” – Vino CaPisco

When presented with dishes such as roasted turkey, caramelized onion and cornbread stuffing, cranberry compote, sweet potato casserole and Brussels sprouts at the same meal, the best wines to select (and guests too I might add) are those that “play nicely with others.” Choose wines that are fruit-forward with a food-friendly acidity that will not only stimulate your taste buds but “do no harm” to your already flavor filled meal. Hold off on tannic Cabernet Sauvignons or heavily oaked Chardonnays and opt instead for lighter style Rieslings, unoaked Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot.

The same principles apply when trying to satisfy a variety of palates at your holiday gathering. Avoiding wines with harsh tannins and heavy oak influence is usually a good game plan. Select a fruity, approachable Cru Beaujolais or crisp, bubbly Spanish Cava to appease your guests. While universally appealing, these wines will also complement the flavors in your meal beautifully.

Thirdly, we all know holidays like Thanksgiving can involve feeding a small army of family and friends; however, finding an appropriate wine to serve doesn’t have to break the bank. Choose wines from regions known for producing great values at reasonable prices including Spain’s Rioja, Chile’s Central Valley and France’s Beaujolais AOC to name a few. Save your Classified Growth Bordeaux and California cult collectibles for another occasion! Stock up on your favorite value wines and have them on hand when guests drop by for some “holiday cheer.”

Use the above principles to eliminate your wine pairing paralysis and get you through any major holiday meal in style. Here are a few recommendations to get you started – Cheers and have a fabulous Thanksgiving Holiday!

1. J Vineyards “Cuvée 20” Brut Sparkling Wine NV $20
2. Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler Riesling QbA Mosel 2009 $12
3. Castillo de Molina Chardonnay Reserva, Casablanca Valley 2009 $15
4. Bodegas Faustino VII Rioja 2007 $12
5.  Louis Jadot Moulin-à-Vent Château des Jacques 2009 $18
6. Viña San Pedro 1865 Single Vineyard Syrah 2007 $25

Have your own suggestions? Leave a comment and let me know what you plan to serve on Thanksgiving…

One of the names that immediately popped in my head was J. I’d enjoyed their bubblies in the past, as well as wonderful food & wine pairings at their Signature Bar and the Bubble Room. Located just 10 min down the road from Healdsburg, in Russian River Valley, J Vineyards are well known for good quality and very elegant bottles. Founded in 1986 by Judy Jordan (thus “J”) the daughter of Jordan Winery’s founder Tom Jordan, they initially focused entirely on sparkling wine. While other California houses have expanded their sparkling production, J have actually been reducing theirs, as they’ve tried to assert themselves as a world-class expert in Pinot Noir. Let sparkling wine be more of a boutique item for J, let the French mega-brand-controlled estates churn out volume. Truth be told, sparkling wine is still a specialty item in America, drunk primarily on special occasions and holidays, thus the demand is relatively lower than in France where it’s treated more as a versatile food wine – a notion I subscribe to wholeheartedly. On the other hand, America’s love affair with Pinot Noir seems at all-time high, with Russian River Valley in Sonoma, Santa-Rita Hills in Central Coast, and Willamette Valley in Oregon carrying significant prestige in the eyes of the American (and even Asian) consumer. So why not try to elevate J’s Pinot into the same elite ranks as Williams Selyem, Rochioli, and Gary Farrell?! — all near-cult Pinot entities that made grand reputations on the soils of the Russian River Valley (or RRV), and in turn applied the strengths of their own brands to make “RRV” a brand name as well.

So I dropped by and met with J Vineyards PR Director George Rose, as well as their winemaker George Bursick, who prior to J had been a founding member and winemaker for 22 years at Ferrari-Carano winery.

We went through the lineup of their entry-level “Cuvée 20″ NV Brut ($22), through their 1999 Late Disgorged Vintage Brut ($65). The entire flight was made of wonderful wines with great acidity and nice roundness.

For a detailed, unabridged breakdown of these wines and where to find them, check out Iron Chevsky blog