Wine needs to breathe, it just opens up and tastes better, but if you’re anything like me, I wither don’t think far enough ahead to decant, or I just want wine when I open it.

Thankfully, the Vinturi is my new best friend. I’ve got a Vinturi red wine aerator, and when the opportunity came to try out the white wine aerator, I was, yet again, skeptical but interested. ‘Surely white wine doesn’t change dramatically enough to need to be aerated!?’.

I should really just stop being so skeptical and listen when I’m told something.

It’s a longstanding myth that white wine does not need aeration. The truth is that white wine displays the same improvements with aeration as red wine. Vinturi for White Wine has different internal dimensions and flow rates. The result is perfect aeration specifically for white wine.

So what does the Vinturi for White Wine actually do?

BETTER BOUQUET
Sample the nose. You’ll appreciate the subtle aromatic differences and the full aroma of the wine. Vinturi allows wine to display its intended aromas.

ENHANCED FLAVORS
Go ahead, take a sip. Vinturi’s wine tastes better. It is more flavorful and has better mouthfeel. It tastes like a richer, more expensive wine. It tastes like it was intended to and is more enjoyable.

SMOOTHER FINISH
Vinturi’s aeration enhances and extends the finish. Any bitterness or bad aftertaste is reduced or eliminated.

I tried this tonight with an Oregon Riesling. It’s beautiful and makes a great stocking stuffer for your favourite wino at $39.95. Buy online at Vinturi or Bed, Bath & Beyond, BevMo, Brookstone, Crate & Barrel, Nordstrom, Sur la Table, Wine Styles and CostPlus World Market.

Whenever someone in my wine world mentions their cellar, I can’t help but roll my eyes a little bit. Private wine cellars are usually associated with the creme de la creme of society - they’re large, set deep in the ground before the house is built. That’s no longer the case anymore - as is illustrated by my friends, none of whom, as fantastic as they are, are creme de la creme.

The UK company, Spiral Cellars, are planning to change all of the preconceived notions around cellars. They’ve created a precast storage solution that can be installed in practically any room in your home.

Spiral Cellars are watertight storage spaces that can be sunk into the ground in an existing ground floor room or incorporated into the build of an extension or new property. Capable of storing almost 1,900 bottles of wine, the spiral-shaped systems rely on the surrounding earth for insulation but also employ a unique air-flow system to maintain constant temperature without requiring any power.

There are three size options are available, ranging from the Mini Cellar—capable of storing at least 650 bottles—up to the White Spiral Cellar, which can accommodate up to 1,870 bottles. Pricing begins at GBP 9,200, (about $15,300 USD) and can run as much as 22,400 GBP ($37,300 USD). There are several trap door styles and optional extras such as LED lighting you can install as well.

Spiral Cellars offers a chart to help decide what size spiral cellar would work best for your home. Work out roughly how many bottles of wine you might drink in an average week, multiply it by 50 to get your yearly consumption (allowing for two weeks holiday away from home.) Next, add on the rough number of fine wines you might buy to drink in the long-term. Finally, multiply this overall figure by five, and that will give you some idea of the size of cellar you need.

Sounds like a brilliant idea to me! And definitely one I’m going to keep in mind when we finally purchase. Either that, or I’m getting a giant closet type one put in. If I can manage to keep a bottle of wine in the house for more than a night.

Through my food and drinks world, I’ve gotten pretty cozy with several mixologists, chefs, sommeliers, and restaurant owners. They know me, they trust me, and they know I have a palate.  I also don’t bring anything to them that I don’t think they can sell, and sell well.

I’ve also gotten pretty good at shilling wares along the way.

So, now, I’m on the hunt for a lovely wine - particularly one from BC - that I can showcase and help sell to restaurants in the Lower Mainland.

We can talk about how the business relationship will work, but I can promise you that it won’t be onerous!

A quick tip: I have heard from more than one sommelier is that they’re on the hunt for a lovely pinot noir. I had one for a while, but am no longer working with them. Maybe we can create the next varietal of choice?

Have you got a small winery, or wine label that produces enough to make sales worthwhile and you’re read to make a bit of a splash in the Vancouver restaurant scene? Reach out and let’s talk! Colleen at MissManifesto dot Com

Entirely, in your glass.

Next Wednesday, at the illustrious Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, Globe in your Glass,where attendees get to rub elbows with the winemakers, as
they taste selections from the following wineries from around the world:

From Canada:
Inniskillin Wines, Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate, Nk’Mip Cellars,
Osoyoos Larose, See Ya Later Ranch and Sumac Ridge Estate Winery

From Australia:
Banrock Station, Barossa Valley Estate and Hardys Wines

From New Zealand: Kim
Crawford Wines and Monkey Bay

From The United
States: Clos du Bois, Hogue Cellars, Ravenswood, Robert Mondavi Winery and
Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi

Chef Roger Planiden will offer samples of  some yummy food pairings to compliment the wide range of wine flavours in the room. Chef Planiden is from thr Great Estates of the Okanagan and will be tempting our tastebuds.

Tickets are $25 a piece, online only (not sold at the door) and all proceeds support the efforts of Canuck Place Children’s Hospice. For tix, head to CCLTD and chick the link for purchase.

>Pssst: if you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #globeinglass and DM or @ myself of Leeann for details on a secret tweet up.

Anyone who drinks martinis is very particular about their olives - the number, the kind, all that kind of thing.

But what about those of you who don’t like traditional martinis? The new chocolate olive the “cholive” takes a regular chocolate martini and makes it something a little more …chic.

Made from premium 55% dark chocolate and filled with whole cream ganache, the olive-shaped chocolate treat adds a certain je ne sais quoi to cocktails that olives just can’t manage to live up to.

Try adding a cholive with some gorgeous tawny port, some smooth brandy, a juicy red wine or perhaps a good chocolate stout. If you feel a little silly drinking a rich chocolate stout with a chocolate shaped like an olive, the company also makes “Chruffles” in 16 decadent flavours from Black Forest to Butter Pecan through to Tiramisu.

Dessert cocktails can make a lovely nightcap. Try your hand at a couple of these!

XOXO

2 oz. Raspberry Vodka
½ oz. Dark Chocolate Liqueur
½ oz. White Chocolate Liqueur
½ oz. Half & Half
1 Skewered Cholive

Sexual Chocolate

2 oz. Cherry Vodka
1 oz. White Chocolate Liqueur
½ oz. White Crème de Cocoa
½ oz. Half & Half
1 Skewered Cholive

Buttered Up

1 skewered Cholive
1 part Vanilla Vodka
1 part Kahlúa
1 part Butterscotch Schnapps
1 part Bailey’s Irish Cream
1 part White Crème de Cocoa

Find more ideas at the Cholive site.

Like music, wine is made in an almost limitless variety of styles to suit every meal, mood or occasion. Within any given bottle you might find an uplifting sparkling wine; a fresh and racy white; a lusty red, or a luscious dessert wine. The problem is, however, that because so many people are limited to drinking from a single bottle during dinner, they stick with what they’re used to, and don’t explore or venture into the different wines a restaurant might have.

Quattro on Fourth, in Vancouver BC, has decided that this is just not acceptable, and has introduced the “Bottle and a Half” program, to allow diners to mix and match flavours and varietals.

Depending on the occasion, the menu and their mood, guests choose from an often-changing wine list of 36 half bottles to make a bottle an a half. The list will always feature selections of sparkling wine, white wine, red wine, or after dinner choices.

“A great wine experience doesn’t have to be about a very expensive wine,” explains Patrick Corsi, managing partner and wine director for Quattro Restaurants. “Instead, it’s about the moment — the setting, the mood, and of course, the food. It’s about how well the wine works in that context.”

Mr. Corsi’s opinion about wines echoes that of Drinks After Dark. We want people to taste different wines, see how they work with different foods and flavours, even how they differ when in the proper wine glasses.

I can’t say it enough: Explore, try new things and don’t keep drinking the same thing, over and over again. Quattro’s bottle and a half program will help you do just that. Now, if only more restaurants would follow suit! (image sources: Quattro Group of Restaurants)

I had an opportunity to try both Seven Daughters Red & White wines recently.  At first, I was a little skeptical when I read that the wines are blends of seven different grapes, and then I remembered what Gary Vaynerchuk reminded me: trust your palate.

The Seven Daughters White Winemaker’s Blend is composed of seven distinct varietals including Riesling, Symphony, Chardonnay, Orange Muscat, Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and French Colombard. Some sultry sweet scents of orange blossom, musk and melon danced around with the fresh flavours of lychee and tangerine.  My first sip was lovely, and it finished with a slightly spicy note.

Yes, the Seven Daughter’s white is good, but then I tried the red, and I just about fell over.

The red blend is a sophisticated mix of Syrah, Merlot, Zinfandel, Carignane, Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose reminds me of blackberry and pepper, with a hint of subtle notes of lavender and vanilla. Overall, this wine tastes like dried cherries and big red fruits. Can you tell I loved the red? I did.

If you get a chance to try either of the Seven Daughters blends, whichever you prefer really, jump at it. It’s definitely worth it!