Gourmet Business December 2016

It seems that there has been a lot of focus on beer and cocktails lately. The cocktail recipes that I have been seeing on restaurant menus are getting increasingly complex. Sometimes I wish restaurants would put as much effort into choosing the wines available by the glass as they do into creating their cocktail menu. To me wine is still the ultimate beverage because it can be paired with the food to make the entire meal more enjoyable. 

Even if wine is not at the top of everyone’s mind some of the year, there is no doubt that the holidays are a time for the wine to get extra attention. For this reason, I also think that wine related gifts are always big sellers. These gifts can include a better bottle opener, a beautiful glass carafe, varietal specific wine glasses, and even an aerator. All of these gifts can elevate the enjoyment of wine, and bring great happiness to the wine drinker. 

I certainly have my fair share of all of the above items to enhance my presentation of wine. I also have things that can actually change the avor of the wine for the better in a matter of minutes. I am talking about my collection of aerators that, all in different ways, add air into the freshly opened wine. The flavor differences between freshly opened wine and the same wine run through an aerating device are remarkable. I can’t tell you how often guests look at me with curiosity as I pour their wine through the Venturi, wondering what the heck I was doing. I have even had skeptical friends and family challenge me to a taste test, and no one to date could say they didn’t taste a difference. 

By far, my biggest epiphany to date relating to wine, involved a wine glass. Chad Price promised me that wine served in his glass would make it taste better. I think I probably looked at Chad with the same skeptical eye that some of my guests have had when peering at my aerator. Well, I took the challenge, and watched carefully as Chad poured some red wine into the bowl of his Eisch Sensisplus wine glass. I sensed no hocus pocus or illusion, just the simple filling of a glass. Wow! There is no doubt that the wine in a normal wine glass, and the same wine in the Sensisplus tasted different. The avor was more open, and you could sense the subtleties. Ditto for my colleagues who took the same challenge. I was assured that there wasn’t a coating on the glass that accounted for the flavor change, it was the changing of the molecules and the way it interacted with the wine... let’s just call it magic beyond our understanding of molecular structure. So if you’re looking for the ultimate wine accessory, you should experience this revolutionary wine glass yourself. 

Happy Holidays! 

David Spencer 

Publisher, Gourmet Business 

dspencer@gourmetbusiness.com