Looking for a gift for someone who likes wine? This is our gift to our fans: Some great suggestions in all price ranges that should glean you a few "Wow, thanks!" reactions.

From Bold:

Wine to bring to a casual party: I’ve brought the Layer Cake primitivo to a few parties and I always hear, "Hey, this is delicious! Is it expensive?" and the answer, thankfully, is no.

This primitivo from Puglia, Italy, has the same makeup as zinfandel, so it’s a big wine with some spice and depth and is good just for sipping or with food. It tastes like an expensive wine, but costs about $17.99.

Wines for the serious wine lover: The big, bold, just-amazingly-yummy Justin red wines, from Paso Robles, Calif. I love them all, but especially the Isoceles (blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc; $62) and Justification (blend of merlot and cabernet franc; $45). When I’m at a restaurant and one of these is on the menu, it’s pricey, but it’s also impressive. Great gifts for a red wine lover.

Wine gadget for the wine lover who has it all: Unusual wine gift bags, wine charms or wine glasses. There are some wonderfully creative artists who excel in those areas. Try winedivashop.com, etsy.com, or even try making your own. The glasses run from $10-$20 each; the gift bags and charms are less than $10 for a few.

Stocking stuffer/holiday décor for the wine lover: It’s great to have a "go to" resource when you’re in the mood to try something new, or are trying to remember details from a particularly wonderful wine moment. A new book, 1000 Great Everyday Wines from the World’s Best Wineries, by Jim Gordon (former Wine Spectator managing editor) is just the gift.

From how to read wine labels, to varietal information, and winery and wine descriptions in all large wine countries of the world, this will help you decide what to try next. It retails for $25, but Amazon has it for $16.50. So buy one for yourself, too!

Read the full story

Last week I got together with Swirl Girl Sweet and a few friends for a dinner at her house. As usual, though there was no special occasion, we outdid ourselves on the menu. A regular old Saturday night turned into an epic evening of great wine, fabulous food and a lot of fun catching up with old friends.

Since Swirl Girl Sweet’s boyfriend couldn’t make it to the dinner, she used the opportunity to cook a bunch of food he didn’t like and she rarely got to enjoy. This included all things seafood, cheese, and on the wine front, a list of summery whites.

My contribution to the night included a delicious pasta recipe with escarole, pancetta and Brie cheese. I used fresh pasta from Mama Gizzi Pasta in Greenacres (those of you pasta lovers who don’t know about this place should check it out immediately!) and substituted an uncured and hardwood smoked turkey bacon (I like the Applegate brand sold in Publix) for the pancetta. Read the full story

Tannins

A naturally occurring compound in wine (most often associated with red wines) that comes from the skins, stems and seeds of grapes. Tannins can also be imparted from the oak barrel in which the wine ages.

Tannins give red wine firm structure and enable it to age well. Highly tannic red wines have a “puckery” feeling in the mouth when young. As the wine ages, the tannins will soften.

Most white wines have very little tannins because the grapes don’t ferment on their skins.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil; Perfect Pairings, Evan Goldstein)

Bouquet vs. Aroma

Although you might think the terms can be used interchangeably, they do have distinct meanings when it comes to smelling wine.

The bouquet is the sum of a wine’s aromas, how a wine smells as a whole; it is considered a key determinant of quality.

The aroma is a scent that’s a component of the bouquet or nose. For example, “cherry” is an aromatic component of a fruity bouquet.

(www.discoverfrance.net)

Decant

The act of pouring a wine off any sediment (usually accumulated in older wines) or deposits that may have precipitated out and settled in the bottle. Sometimes this word is used to describe the act of pouring a wine into a decanter to mix it with oxygen, but that is more accurately called aeration.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil.)

Acid/Acidity

Acid is a natural component of wine and also one of the most distinctive in a wine. It is responsible for the tangy, zesty quality, and also helps wine to age.

There are many acids in wine; some of the most important ones come from the grapes, while others are produced during fermentation.

Wines with the right balance of acid to alcohol content are vibrant, while those with too little acid relative to alcohol can be flat, and those with too much can be biting.

A wine with low acidity (and proper balance) will be perceived on the tongue as soft and smooth, and one with high acidity will be tingly and mouth-watering.

(Great Wine Made Simple, Andrea Immer Robinson; The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil.)

Cork

Of course, it’s the object that seals a bottle.

But, in particular, cork (the natural kind, not synthetic) is the bark of the Cork Oak tree (Quercus suber) grown primarily in Spain and Portugal. The bark can grow two to three inches thick, and its unique physical properties make it ideal for stopping a bottle: it has a honeycomb cell structure, is elastic, waterproof, lightweight and fire resistant.

The bark is stripped from the tree, the corks are stamped out, and then cleaned and imprinted. The tree’s bark does grow back, and is ready for a new harvest of corks about nine years later.

(from uncork.biz and Great Wine Made Simple, Andrea Immer Robinson)

Event Listing: Directions, nearby restaurants, more

You don’t have to just like wining and dining for the next event the Swirl Girls will be participating in. Designers, come on down!

Sweet, Bold and Earthy will be helping to present wines at Wine, Dine & Design, billed as the first annual cultural event of its kind in Palm Beach Gardens, on Saturday, March 20th, from 3 – 8 p.m., at Store Self Storage and Wine Storage on Military Trail. (We’ll be there from 5 – 8 p.m.)

The event includes an interior design showcase, art, food, wine and educational seminars. The design part of the event, as well as the live music, dance and art exhibits are free. The wine and dine portion costs $30 per person. Read the full story

Chaptalization

The addition of sugar to wine must before or during fermentation in order to raise the potential alcohol content. (In the process of fermentation, yeast converts sugar to alcohol.)

It is legal and widely used in cooler European regions, where cold temperatures in a particular year can lead to grapes that don’t ripen fully, and therefore, produce thin wines. By increasing the wine’s alcohol content, the winemaker can produce a fuller bodied wine.

Chaptalization is not permitted in many warm wine regions, including California.
(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil)

I like dictionaries.

In a house that’s only 900 square feet, I have two: one on the bookshelf in the living room and one on the nightstand next to my bed.

I prefer to look up the meaning of a word using the tangible version rather than the electronic one, because I like that, on my way to the word in question, I get distracted by so many others.

In a new weekly feature for the Swirl Girls blog, I want to accessorize my love of wine with my love of lexicology, so I’m introducing the Wine Word of the Week today, which will post on Wednesdays. (I like alliteration, too.) Read the full story