In episode three of the CorkRules podcast, certified sommelier Grace Hood shares her expertise on how sommeliers create and organize a great wine list and provides a brief overview of how to pair wines. She also reviews the wine list of <a href="https://www.qualitymeatsnyc.com/">Quality Meat Steakhouse</a>, a restaurant renowned for serving the finest steaks and cuts of meat in NYC.

If you are looking for a robust cabernet sauvignon to pair well with the Bone-In Dry-Aged Prime Sirloin, consider the reasonably-priced Post &amp; Beam by Far Niente, 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley. It is the heavy presence of tannins in cabernet sauvignon that make it such an excellent match with a rare cut. The effect of tannins is in the texture, not the taste. Just as a strong cup of tea heavy with tannins makes the mouth feel dry, a heavy tannin wine is best to cut through fat.

At Quality Meat Steakhouse, the 15-page wine list provides a wide variety of types, styles, and vintages of wine with a vast array of tasting notes and subtle differences.

With so many choices, how do you make a wise, and informed choice of wine to pair with your food. It can take years to understand which wines pair well with what foods. Luckily, that&rsquo;s where a certified sommelier can help you. This is their area of expertise and experience, so why not take advantage of it and ask for their advice? For instance, if choosing the Fresh Cracked Lobster the Caposaldo, Pinot Grigio, Veneto, 2020 would be a wise choice. Dry white wines generally work better with shellfish because the shellfish is slightly sweet and mild, a crisp dry white helps accentuate the flavors without adding to the sweetness, much like a twist of lemon adds just a nice amount of acidity to help balance the fats and sugars.

If you don&rsquo;t have a sommelier by your side, these simple rules on pairing wine with food will help you decide what to choose.

<ul>
	<li>When it comes to acidity, the wine should be more acidic than the food.</li>
	<li>Likewise, the wine should be sweeter than the food.</li>
	<li>Choose wine and food that are comparable in flavor.</li>
	<li>Bold, tannin-heavy red wines pair best with heavier, red meats</li>
	<li>Crisp, dry white wines pair best with light-intensity meats</li>
	<li>Bitter wines, tannin-rich wines are best balanced with fat.</li>
	<li>When eating sauce-rich foods, pair the wine to the sauce, not the meat</li>
</ul>

If you want to hear more about the wine list at Quality Meat Steakhouse, check out the CorkRules <a href="https://corkrules.com/episodes">wine review podcast </a>where Grace identifies the notable wines from Bordeaux, points out the best-value wines on the list, and shares a little knowledge on the wine and moonshine history in the States.

Cheers.

In episode three of the CorkRules podcast, certified sommelier Grace Hood shares her expertise on how sommeliers create and organize a great wine list and provides a brief overview of how to pair wines.

Quick Tips on Pairing Wine at Quality Meat Steakhouse

Wines from grapes grown in higher altitude areas with cooler climate has become quite the trend recently. This specific growing environment gives intense flavor but elegance and freshness to the final wines. To highlight and champion these conditions more and more winemakers are starting to use alto as a marketing and labelling term to show their grapes were grown in high altitude vineyards.

Decoding the wine label: Alto

Brut is a word often seen on labels for different kinds of sparkling wine. As you may have discovered when drinking these wines, it indicates that the wine is dry, meaning there is no perceived sweetness in the wine. But how about Extra Brut or Dry, what do they mean and are they the same as Brut?

Decoding the wine label: Brut

Semi-sweet Riesling, a type of wine falling out of style. It’s a shame, since these wines are perfect to pair with flavorful cuisines like Asian or Mexican, or simply drink as they come under the summer sun. The higher level of sugar left in the wine also means that the alcoholic fermentation was stopped before finishing, providing a wine with lower alcohol level and therefor easier grabbing a second glass of.

Decoding the wine label: Spätlese

Have you ever heard the word Xinomavro? Most have not. It is however a word on many sommeliers’ lips today, as it happens to be considered the grape variety with the highest quality in Greece, and one that is trending at the moment. The fact that Greece have been making wine for a long time comes as no surprise, but they have never exported an amount to make sure wine lovers around the globe tried it. With the growing wine tourism many have discovered these wines and are serving them in wine bars and restaurants in many countries today.

Decoding the wine label: Xinomavro

Chianti Classico, Valpolicella Classico, Soave Classico… Why do all these Italian wine regions have the Classico addendum and what does it mean? What is the difference for wines labeled as Classico?

Classico is a wine term in Italy seen on a few wine labels and it indicates that the wine’s from the historic center of the region, the heart. Using Chianti and Chianti Classico and their Sangiovese-based red wines as an example, Chianti is a rather large wine district within the Tuscany region. Chianti Classico is located withing Chianti as the central part and the one that originally existed. Back then this smaller region was actually called Chianti, but as the region grew the quality of the wine plummeted and the well-known characteristics of these red wines were watered down. The reputation took a hit and sales diminished. Eventually this led to the creation of Chianti Classico, which would be drawn from the original Chianti borders to recover the typicity of these wines. Today the quality of both Chianti and Chianti Classico have risen a lot due to modern techniques and knowledge about pruning, planting and temperature control in the winery.

Decoding the wine label: Classico

In the rarefied world of fine wine, where bottles can command prices equivalent to luxury cars, authenticity is everything. Laurent Ponsot's gripping memoir "FBI: Fake Bottle Investigation" reads more like a high-stakes thriller than a traditional wine book, chronicling his relentless pursuit of one of the wine world's most infamous counterfeiters, Rudy Kurniawan.

From Burgundy's Vineyards to the FBI's Most Wanted: A Winemaker's Quest for Justice

Chablis – one of the more popular styles of wine today and a region known by many. Most are familiar with the word Chablis and the light, fresh white wine with a touch of minerality it brings. Even though it’s a renowned wine, few knows what it really is.

Decoding the wine label: Chablis

Many grape varieties around the world of wine have names local to the region or country they’re grown in, even though they’re exactly the same. The most famous example would be Syrah in France where the same grape is named Shiraz in Australia. Another variety with two names is Pinot Grigio, or Pinot Gris.

Decoding the wine label: Pinot Grigio

Have you ever seen the term sur lie on a wine label? It’s not a grape and not a wine region, but a winemaking method used to give certain styles of white wine a rounder texture and a more complex flavor profile.

Decoding the wine label: Sur lie

June

Grant Wood

June Wine Bar

June Wine Bar is a quaint and cozy wine bar with a fun and focused menu to match a great selection of libations, wines by the glass, and an impressive wine list. Join us as we talk about what we think is exciting to us.

I really enjoy wine bars like this that serve as a casual and relaxed way to get friends together and order all sorts of shareable plates to accompany a wide array of wines to evoke one&rsquo;s appetite which I think is the true spice of life.&nbsp; As you know, Robert, I love a good cocktail so let me start by recommending the &ldquo;Not tired, just pissed&rdquo; featuring Yola Mezcal, Contratto bitter, green Chartreuse and lime which is right up my ally but the &ldquo;Some velvet morning&rdquo; which features Smith &amp; Cross rum, lime, and velvet Falernum. These are sure ways to ease you into your evening.

By the glass, I&rsquo;d go for the 2019 Kabaj &ldquo;Hydra&rdquo; pet-nat which is a sparkling orange wine made from Malvasia in Slovenia which is fun way to get a little weird but the 2020 Domaine Rietsch &ldquo;Tout Blanc&rdquo; which is a blend of riesling and auxerrois from Alsace is another super fresh and food-friendly white.

For red btg I&rsquo;d go for the 2020 Domaine Les Grande Vignes which is a cabernet franc / grolleau from the Loire which is a fantastic and fun red to change things up.

Let&rsquo;s get into their bottle list though! For bubbles, I like the Jacques Lassaigne &ldquo;Les Vignes de Montgueux&rdquo; extra brut bdb from Champagne which is a great wine at a great price on their list but a fun sparkling red to try would be the Terrevive &ldquo;No Autoclave&rdquo; Lambrusco from 2020 which are always fun wines to expand pair with a variety of dishes.

Moving to whites, I like the 2017 Bernhard Ott Stein 1 from the Kamptal since gr&uuml;ner veltliner is so food versatile and just plain awesome!

Another fun favorite of mine is the 2018 Alheit &ldquo;Cartology&rdquo; which is a blend of Chenin and Semillon coming from old bush vines in the Western Cape. &ldquo;Cartology&rdquo; is a really round and textual white that ages really nicely as well.

On to reds, the 2020 Babass Dervieux &ldquo;Groll n&rsquo; Roll&rdquo; is a fun Grolleau from the Loire is a fun value that&rsquo;s a fun food wine but the 2018 Frank Cornelissen &ldquo;Munjebel Terre Siciliane CS&rdquo; is a badass Nerello Mascalese that is a great splurge wine. Also, the 2020 Envinate &ldquo;Migan&rdquo; from the Canary Islands made from the old Listan Negro is a really interesting lighter red from a really cool Island off of Spain.

&nbsp;

BRAT

Bocca di Lupe

Gap Weekend: A Film Shoot in Wine Country

Alba Restaurant

Alba

10 Greek Street

L'Auberge Chez Francois

Andrew Edmunds

Salt Seafood and Oyster Bar

Matteos Ristorante Italiano

Matteo's

Château Duhart-Milon is a winery located in the Pauillac appellation of Bordeaux, known for producing high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon dominated blends. The estate has a long history dating back to the 18th century, and has been owned by Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) since 1962. The current winemaker is Eric Kohler.

Craft

Craft L.A.

Barbrix

Wally's

The Belvedere

Spago Las Vegas by Wolfgang Puck

Spago

Jeune Et Jolie

Cucina Urbana

Rossoblu

Petit Trois

Cowboy Star

homepage

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RST Seafood Restaurant (Richmond Seafood Tavern)

Santa & D'Sas Moscato, Swan Hill NV

Australia

Wicks Estate, Sauvignon Blanc, Adelaide Hills NV

Adelaide Hills, South Australia, Australia

Fire Block, Old Vine Shiraz, Clare Valley NV

Clare Valley, South Australia, Australia

TarraWarra Estate, Reserve Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley NV

Victoria, Australia

Ottelia

Pinot Gris NV

Pinot Gris

Australia

Secret Garden

Pinot Grigio NV

Pinot Grigio

New South Wales, Australia

Wicks Estate

Pinot Gris NV

Pinot Gris

Adelaide Hills, South Australia, Australia

Munamuna Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough NV

Marlborough, New Zealand

Klinker Brick

Grenache Blanc NV

Grenache Blanc

Lodi, USA

Tar & Roses

Shiraz NV

Shiraz/Syrah

Heathcote, Australia

Stella Bella Skuttlebutt Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River NV

Margaret River, Australia

Teusner, The Gentleman Cabernet Sauvignon, Eden Valley NV

South Australia, Australia

Wicks Estate Riesling NV

Riesling

Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia, Australia

Rochford

Estate Pinot Gris NV

Pinot Gris

Yarra Valley, Australia

Vigneti Le Monde NV

Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy