Types of Wine

It's Fourth of July weekend and, on what will likely be a boiling hot summer day for most of the US, picnics and barbecues with their typical summer holiday fare will rule. While I am tempted to suggest wines that pair well with picnic fare like burgers, ribs and chicken, I'm going to ignore the food and instead focus on the weather. An unusually warm San Francisco summer has put me on a rosé kick of late.

-A quick aside: Rosé all too often gets a bad rap for not being a "serious" wine. Part of this is deserved as there is no shortage of crappy bulk rosé being pawned off on ignorant consumers. The reality though is that there are some fantastic rosés on the market and it's a shame that rosé is often bypassed and dismissed as some sort of inferior alternative to "real" wine (i.e red or white).-

Anyway, rosé is arguably the ideal wine for a hot summer night (though Vinho Verde and Alvarinho make an incredibly strong case for the title "Best Wine for Hot Summer Night").

Champagne is a sparkling wine made in the Champagne (AOC) region of France.  Some of the most famous wineries in the world are located there.  They deserve their fame for consistently producing some of the most ethereal wines anywhere.  These wines can be expensive so it is important to have a strategy in mind when making purchases.

To learn the history of Champagne, the region and the developments in Champagne, please see Part One of this series.

One issue with buying Champagne is storage.  Champagne is delicate and improper storage can easily hurt the wine.  When a consumer sees a bottle either in a store or on a restaurant’s list, how do they know what condition the bottle is in.  Of course, in a restaurant setting, the patron, if they have enough confidence, can send the bottle back, although that is not always easy to do.