Yes, I am still on my rose kick and sampling the pink stuff anywhere I can get my hands on it. This weekend I had a great rose-tinted experience when I visited Bobby Flay’s Bar American in NYC. In addition to an interesting menu, the restaurant features a well-constructed wine list crafted by longtime sommelier Adam Reager. Luckily, this summer he has assembled a wonderful display of rose from around the globe. From where I sat, an elegant silver bowl filled with nothing but chilled bottles of lovely pink wine immediately caught my eye. The by-the-glass menu grouped 6-7 rose wines all together regardless of variety or country of origin. Best part, the rose wines are all one price ($10) making it easy for their customers to choose. I selected a fun bottle from the Basque region of France. A specialty of the region, the wine has a little bit of spritz in the bottle. The bottle is tapped with a special aerator to encourage the bubbles to come to the surface as the wine hits the glass. Great presentation (i.e. you will see this in Cellar Door soon!) making rose even cooler than it was before. Summer is not over – I repeat – summer is NOT over.

While officially not a wine geek, I love turning people who are new to wine on to wine makes me happy  - turning people who already know wine on to a new wine experience is priceless. Take the Pinot Gris vis Pinot Grigio taste test for example. Name games aside, tasting these two wines side-by-side is a great learning experience and sets the stage for understanding the structure of the grape. If you have not tried it, invite some friends over and before dinner taste the wines together. In Cellar Door, we pour Lagaria Pinot Grigio from northeastern Italy next to a Schlumberger Pinot Gris. Since the grape is famous for dropping acidity in the vineyard, Italian vintners tend to pick Pinot Grigio early resulting in a wine that is light in body and high in acidity. In Alsace France, this same grape hangs on the vine longer and picks up more bodied and aroma. Time and time again, this taste test brings smiles of “now I get it” to the faces of our guests. The reward behind simple educational bites such as the Gris vs Grigio is what makes wine so darn interesting and ever-changing. I am always looking for cool tasting experiences – so let me know if you have one that you savour.

The wine loving community in Cleveland is small but growing. As a result, wine festivals keep poping up each and every year. In August, Vintage Ohio serves up Ohio-crafted wines to a sell out crowd, last month the second annual Cleveland Wine Festival rallied a few thousand people to share a glass under sunny skies and in November the Fabulous Food Show will return to the IX Center with a moderate spread of wines to sample (yes, the Cleveland Wine School is coordinating the wine education portion of the show) for more than 7,500 wine-savvy patrons.  Add to this the various wine-related charity benefits such as the WVIZ’s annual World Series of Wine at the Jake and one might say that when it comes to wine events, Cleveland rocks! For those of us who love wine and, better yet, love to share wine with friends who feel the same - this is all good news. The best way to learn about wine is to go to these events, taste the wine, talk to the experts on hand and share your thoughts and opinions with other wine sippers. Unlike the high tech, robotic wine dispensers you may have read about, sampling wine with a crowd offers multiple opportunities to chat about your wine discoveries and learn from those around you. The best nights at our tasting center (Cellar Door)are when opinionated tasters sit and sip side-by-side. Eventually, the vinous duo will hit on a wine that starts a debate or interesting discussion.  Aaaah. This my friends is why I never drink wine alone.