Recently, I was asked to present a lecutre and tutored tasting for a group of young professionals. During the reception that followed, we sampled four table wines with various appetizers and two dessert wines - Ferrante Vidal Blanc Ice Wine from Ohio and Fonseca Bin 27 Port. Sampling two dessert wines in a pre-dinner reception is not something I would normally suggest but the event host was very interested in expanding the tasting to include a lesson on dessert wines. I gotta tell you. The chatter at the dessert station was fantastic. On one end of the spectrum, we tasted a fortified red with mouthfilling tannins and, on the other, a lower alcohol white that was sheer nectar. Sipped alone, everyone was very fond of the Port - but paired with the right fruity dessert such as our lemon tart - the ice wine really danced on your palate. While I did encourage tasters to sample the port with a hunk of blue cheese, most went back to the ice wine for seconds. If you have not tried an ice wine lately, I highly suggest that you pick up a bottle or two. Crafted from grapes that are left on the vine until Dec and pressed while still frozen, the sweet juice becomes too much for the little yeast to consume. The finished wine is lower in alcohol with a good dose of sugar and (done right) palate cleansing acidity.

Whether it comes from Canada, New York State or Ohio, the honeyed aromas offer a great break from the savory food of winter and suggest that maybe…just maybe spring is in the air! Cheers.

Last night, one of my students asked “does wine have a season.” We were tasting a flight of Chardonnay at the time and the flavor profile of the oldest vintage (2000) prompted the question. While some sippers assume that whites are for summer and reds for winter, this offered a perfect opportunity to bust the myth. The class agreed that the bottle maturation certainly altered the flavor profile of the Chardonnay making it winter-worthy and a perfect partner for a wintery mushroom soup on a cold night. We all know that New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Italian Pinot Grigio are light, refreshing summertime choices and Syrah-ladden Rhone Valley reds pair nicely with a harvest stew - but does wine really have a season? The question stuck with me. After class, I stopped off at a new wine bar in Cleveland called Gratto for a quick glass. Gratto’s wine director, Mike Tomaselli, poured a glass of rose and joined me. With one glance at his glass he said “yeah I know it’s not rose season, but I think rose is fine anytime of the year.” There it was again - wine season! After a bit of chatter, we both agreed that rose is great for the Thankgiving Day table, fun on a holiday table and perfect for Valentine’s Day. Silly to wait for summer just to have a glass of rose. Right? Perhaps food drives the seasonality of some wines, but for me - I’m sticking with my gut and going with No. Wine does not have nor need a season.