• About
  • Indiana Wineries
  • Michigan Wineries
  • Wisconsin Wineries

Howard W. Hewitt

~ … The "W" stands for wine!

Howard W. Hewitt

Tag Archives: Wine Spectator

Get to a wine shop, drink better!

31 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by Howard in Newspaper Column 2017, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

buying wine, wine shops, Wine Spectator

It’s time to get out of the supermarket and into the wine shop.

There are good wine shops near wherever you live. You have to get away from grocery store wine – that wine has soured many potential wine drinkers. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that for only a few dollars more, you can be drinking better wine.

grape-sense-logoI’ve been paying a lot of attention to wine prices at the local market and notice they’re creeping up. They are increasing because more people are buying value wine and often end up less than satisfied but don’t know any better. They’re not getting any help.  But you can go to a wine shop and buy substantially better wine at an equal or minimally higher price because the market is so competitive once you get out of the grocery.

Smaller wineries cannot afford the marketing and often don’t have the product to supply major grocery chains so they work with smaller distributors and stock the shelves of wine shops.

So let’s go to the wine shop.

Start thinking more about wine when you drink it. What were the characteristics you enjoyed? Do you want something smooth and mild on the palate or do you want a big mouthful of flavor. Do like a little acid on the finish or do you like the tannins (that slight bitterness) which helps balance the strong flavors of big-tasting food?

The most important thing in finding a shop isn’t its inventory or how pretty the shop appears. You need to meet the wine shop proprietor or the shops sales people and have a nice long chat. The biggest wine novice mistake is the fear of asking a stupid question or worrying about their wine knowledge.

This is the way I buy wine. I have about four or five stores I buy wine from regularly. I trust my knowledge but almost always take home a bottle or two recommended by the shop owner.

And now a few words about labels and those nifty little tasting notes some shops put up beneath some or all bottles. For the most part, those can be helpful. But remember, the description on the bottle is part of the winery’s marketing.

The notes in the wine shops might come from one of the big wine review publications like Wine Spectator or Wine Advocate. Some shops do their own notes, those are the places I might be more inclined to trust.

Cheers!

NOTE: I’m about to undergo several weeks of medical treatment. During that time I hope and plan to continue writing new columns. On occasion I will bring back one of my earlier columns and freshen it up as I have done here. I will always note when it’s a previously published piece. Thanks for reading.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Celebrating an Important Milestone

16 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by Howard in Indiana, Newspaper Column 2016, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Award of Excellence, Milestones, Wine Spectator, winning wine lists

Everyone has milestones in their life. Think of events like birthdays, anniversaries, new job, retirement, a first date, maybe even getting fired or divorced. As a society we’re pretty good at celebrating life’s events.

Grape Sense LogoToday’s Grape Sense represents the 200th piece I’ve written since starting an every-other- week newspaper column in October of 2007. At one point I had 23 newspaper in three states, it is a few less now but something I view as a great achievement and I’m proud of what I’ve done with this idea.

Milestones deserve, no let’s make that require, celebration. How else would Grape Sense propose a celebration – but with wine, of course!

Writing 200 columns about wine hasn’t always been easy but always enjoyable. I don’t really run out of ideas as often as fall short with the proper motivation. I’m working on that.

My celebration wine will be one of two choices. I’ll either open a bottle of Rochioli Pinot Noir from Sonoma’s Russian River Valley or Joseph Phelps’ Napa Valley Cabernet. Those are two great bottles of wine. The final choice will come down to what’s for dinner!

The point here is to celebrate your life and celebrate whether you feel like it or not. Time goes fast and pausing to really reflect on certain points in your life is rewarding and sometimes even educational. No, you don’t have to go out and find a $65 bottle of Cabernet. Just find something you know is really good.

Find a wine you really like and enjoy it. It doesn’t matter if it’s red, white or pink. It doesn’t matter if you Happy Milestone Grape Sense readers! Column No. 201 is just two weeks away!

Indiana Restaurant Wine Award Winners

If you’re a foodie and like wine, you certainly appreciate a good wine list. There are plenty of good wine lists in Indiana but not a lot of great ones. I’m often shocked by the number of really bad wine choices.

WineSpectator Best of Award LogoThere were only four Hoosier restaurants recently recognized with a Wine Spectator Best of Award Excellence. That’s the second-highest honor. Indiana had no Grand award winners (the top honor). The awards of excellence went to McGraw’s Steak, Chop & Fish House, South Bend; Peterson’s, Indianapolis; St. Elmo’s, Indianapolis, and The Capital Grille, Indianapolis.

The third-tier ranking of Award of Excellence found a few more restaurants – most of them in Indianapolis including, Black Market, Fleming’s Steakhouse, Fogo de Chao, Harry & Izzys, Morton’s

Steakhouse, Ocean Prime, Seasons 52, Shula’s Steakhouse, Sullivan’s Steakhouse, and Tastings (a wine Award of Excellence winners elsewhere around the Hoosier state, Ciao Bella, Schererville; Heston Supper Club, LaPorte; Ford’s Black Angus, Terre Haute; Janko’s Little Zagreb, Bloomington; Joseph Decuis, Roanoke; LaSalle Grille, South Bend; Tapastrie, South Bend; Carriage House Dining Room & Gardens, South Bend; William B’s, Michigan City.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Try Wine Spectator’s Peach Caprese

04 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by Howard in Food & Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Peach Caprese, Wine Spectator

CapreseLoI have subscribed to Wine Spectator for a number of years. I pick up the other wine publications in airports and such but have also enjoyed the Spectator most.

In the most recent issue cheese columnist Sam Gugino shared a recipe for “Summertime Peach Caprese.” I made it last night and my guests loved it. I thought it was pretty spectacular as well.

Think of the traditional tomato-salad version and you have it. My version is in the photo. I was tempted to mess a bit with the recipe but didn’t. Here you go:

Spectator logo

SUMMERTIME PEACH CAPRESE

1 1/2 pounds peaches, peel if you wish (I didn’t)

1 pound fresh mozzarella, cut in half

1/4 cup equal parts mint and basil, packed

4 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Cut the peaches and cheese into 1/4-inch slices. Overlap them on a platter. Tear the herbs into small pieces and sprinkle over the plate. Drizzle with oil, salt and pepper to taste.

We enjoyed some Franciscan Equilibrium (see below) and a nice Chablis during the salad. Crazy good! Thank you Wine Spectator!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Recent Posts

  • Huber’s – Not just about wine anymore
  • Where have the all the biscuits gone?
  • Just what is a ‘bad wine?’

Grape Sense on Instagram

Have you met Karen? She works mid week mornings at the shop and is reminding everyone to join us for Saturday Sipps this weekend. We will be pouring the popular Auntsfield Sauv Blanc, another new Rose, and a Pinot noir from the Loire Valley! It all begins at 11 AM through the afternoon
Very mixed thoughts about an unplanned visit to Nonna’s Italian Italian in Plainfield just off I 70 from last night. Unexpectedly stuck in town for a couple of hours thought I would try it out it’s an odd set up where you have to order at the register. Calamari was great my salad was great the lasagna was good except for some odd white sauce top of the marinara which was delicious the white sauce was congealed and tasted bitter… The home-baked roll was delicious… The glass of Gabbiano Chianti was OK well I paid 1150 for a glass that sells for eight bucks … total bill $36 for those items which I thought was a little high mostly the wine cost. Service seem confused and disjointed but they were all very pleasant I’d probably give it a second chance not sure
Join Curt and I Saturday at the Wine Shop for Saturday Sipps. We will be pouring an unusual and delicious Austrian Rose, Italian Vermentino, and Sicilian red! Of course, all three 20 percent off Saturday only!
New coffee shop in Greenwood! Paul Jacquin, in photo, owner of Vino Villa has opened up Cafe Euclid in small house behind the wine shop and restaurant! Lovely patio for outdoor seating and good coffee!

Categories

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 3,651 other followers

Howard’s Wine Ratings

"Very Highly Recommended" - Drop everything and rush out to buy this wine!

"Highly Recommended" - Wine is varietally correct, well made, great balance, a must buy!

"Recommended" - Good wine and a good value. Not spectacular but a solid choice.

"Not Recommended" - Run the other direction.

Wine Travel Photos

My Magazine Stories

Friend Me On …

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Archives

My Summer With Lymphoma: Lymphoma, My Stem Cell Transplant

Good news on cancer and eyes

I have failed miserably at keeping ‘the cancer blog’ updated – and that’s a good thing, I suppose. I have now been “clean” since my April autologous stem cell transplant. I had a PET scan in June and a CT scan this week (Sept. 11) and both showed negative results. My oncologist was very pleased […]

Decisions, Decisions – Job & Health issues

  It’s been two weeks since my last update, one week-plus since I dropped one of my three antibiotics, and 97 days since my stem cell transplant for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.   So there are a few things to update and a few thoughts to share. Let’s start with the cancer. My team of oncologists at […]

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Howard W. Hewitt
    • Join 3,651 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Howard W. Hewitt
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: