Sheba's Wine Blog: Skimpy Pours, uumm NOT OKay!

There is an ongoing debate going on between me and my friends. At Faire Gallery Cafe we give a real nice pour of wine. We actually give a better pour than most restaurants. While customers love it, most don't expect it. So how much wine is too little? I went out to dinner with my brother yesterday to fusion Mexican restaurant in University Village. I ordered the $7.50 glass of Tempranillo. This was by the way the most affordable glass of red and I am rarely disappointed with Tempranillos. Well, my glass arrives and low and behold I was searching for the wine! It was the worst pour of my life! The problem is more difficult than a chintzy pour. The wine was $7.50 a glass and in these recession times buying glass after glass really adds up. They gave me so little wine I felt like I needed another glass, but didn't think it was worth the price. So, which is better? A more affordable glass pour where your customers feel comfortable buying more wine, or a higher price per glass but a decent/respectable glass pour? Let me know.

Which do you prefer? A cheaper price per glass, or a bigger pour?

• Cheap Glass of Wine
• Big, Huge Pour

powered by ilovepolls.com

Sheba's Wine Blog: What a pair!

One of the things that intimidates people about wine is the aspect of pairing. What do I pair with my dinner tonight? This also boggles young people because they do more survival cooking that chef category meals at home. Basic pastas, chicken, or stir frys. When I was in a wine course, one of our assignmants was to figure out what paired well with a Dick's hamburger and fries. Crazy right? No, not so much. The answer was champagne or sparkling wine. The bubbles and acidity cut the grease and taste yummy together. So, this got me thinking, what pairs with the foods we love? Fried chicken, takeout chinese, sandwiches etc. The basic rule of thumb is if the food is spicy, pick a sweet wine like Riesling or Gewurtraminer. If the food is sweet pick a spicy red like Grenache. If the food is light pick something light bodied, so the wine doesnt over power the food. And vice versa for heavy foods. But this is by no means a rule of thumb. I learned from a Sommelier to pair wine you like with foods you like. If you hate spicy wines, don't feel obligated to pair it with your dinner. Pick a wine based on other attributes. Maybe its a citrus dish, so you pair a wine with citrus flavors. Okay, I'll slow down. If wine pairing scares you I don't know if I'm helping right now. Every month I will making a basic wine and food pairing suggestion so we can get our feet wet together.

Sheba's Wine Blog: Step away from the "Two Buck Chuck!!"

Marketing in wine, just like in any industry can make anyone believe anything. Now don't get me wrong, I love an inexpensive bottle of wine. Especially one worth more than the price tag. There are tons of good wines for under ten bucks. Anything by Hoodsport, or Columbia winery, Chateau Ste Michelle, and Fat Bastard to name a few. They are decent wines that won't give you a headache and won't hurt your pocketbook.
But "Two Buck Chuck" drives me crazy. A couple years ago everybody got wind that this wine was a good two bottle dollar of wine. No, its not. I'm not judging, but Charles Shaw wine sold exclusively at Trader Joe's is made from the same Gallo grapes we all hate. Here is a quote from CBS News' site about the cult of "Two Buck Chuck."

It's a wine label owned by Fred Franzia, a distant relative on the Gallo family vine. He's a reclusive businessman considered a pain in the neck to California's wine establishment.
Franzia controls scores of brands and labels including Charles Shaw that under-sell the prestige vineyards. And "Two Buck Chuck" is just his latest broadside: "We have others up our sleeve we think are even better coming out."



Here is more information about Charles Shaw wines from ABC News;

But Napa winemakers claim it's not the price of the wine that has them teed off. Rather, for one ex-winery owner, it's the name "Charles Shaw." For others, it's the claim "Two Buck Chuck" makes to a Napa Valley origin.
"I like the guy; I just despise his business practices," said Tom Shelton, the CEO of a Napa Valley-based premium label, Joseph Phelps, and part of a group of Napa winemakers suing Franzia to protect the "Napa Valley" name.
"I don't have a real argument with … the existence of Two Buck Chuck," Shelton said. "My argument really is when producers like two buck chuck try to pass themselves off as Napa Valley wines."
The label reads "cellared and bottled in Napa" which is true, but Shelton says Franzia doesn't make Two Buck Chuck with Napa-grown grapes, and that's misleading to consumers.

Remember Franzia and Gallo? Those disgusting box wines we make jokes about, same stuff but in a bottle. Marketing my friends. You see, there is amazing wine out there with no PR budget and can't afford to get rated by Wine Spectator. You just have to taste and decide for yourself.
Look if you want to buy "Two Buck Chuck" for a party because its cheap, I could care less, just don't pass it off as "Good Wine."

Sheba's Wine Blog: Bottle Shock: France never knew what hit them!

The Paris 1976 tasting is an American triumph story.
Here is my quick, simple ,overview.
There is this tasting every year of the best wines worldwide and France always wins. But California is making good quality wine even though no one wants to believe it yet. The blind tasters taste the wines and decide the good wine has to be French, and the bad wine is American. They do some serious trash talking about the wine they think is American too. But low and behold it is revealed the good, amazing, fabulous wine is from California. The French blind tasters demand a retaste. Again, they declare the awful wine Californian and the good wine French. WRONG AGAIN. It was HUGE I tell ya. This event changed the wine industry. America , especially California was offically a major player in the quality wine producing industry.

Bottle Shock is the fictionalized movie coming out in August about this event. I can't wait to see it. I missed an opportunity to see a free screening at SIFF. Check out the preview. Plus, I love Alan Rickman in anything! Truely!

Sheba's Wine Blog: What is a Flight? And can I go 1st Class?

Whenever I say, " Faire has featured wine flights once a month!" People usually respond with,  "huh?" So, I figured now would be a great time to discuss one of the most fun aspects of wine tasting!! 

Wine flights are any grouping of wines, from 3 to 6 glasses, based on some theme. That theme can be anything from; Chardonnays, Wines from California, Wine from all the same producer, vintage etc. The possibilities are endless. Ordering a flight of wine is a fun way to figure out what you like, or don't like about wine.

One time in New York Me and my best friend went to a wine bar and ordered a flight of Sauvignon Blancs. Now before I go any further let me preface, My best friend hates oaky wines. I mean hates them. To quote her,  "They taste like your drinking a tree." 

It was totally fun discovering the wines we liked while she tasted last but not least a Fume' Blanc. Fume' Blancs are Sauvignon Blancs with tons of oak on them. Her face after the first sip was priceless. Something like bitter beer face, hilarious. She hated it. But, as you can see, we drank what we liked,  and hated what we hated. But most importantly had fun drinking and learning about wine. How else can you taste 4 similar wines  without buying the bottle? 

So, when I say, "Faire has featured wine flights every month!" Everybody should not only know what I mean, but want to come! 

Wine Flight Night Club

The Last Thursday of the Month

June is Riesling

4 glasses for $15

1 for $5

DJ Intuition on the turntables!!!

8:00pm - Midnight

It's not a Party without Wine!

Sheba's Weekly Wine Blog: Riesling is sooo Pleasing!

When I first started drinking alcohol,
I would only drink sweet stuff.
Wine coolers, and sweet wines.
It wasn't till I had a extensive introduction
to Italian wine that I started to like dry,
robust wines. Then, like a bitter step child
I started to hate all wines that were too sweet.
Rieslings and Gewurtraminers were the
worst victims. See, it wasn't really
Rieslings fault. Rieslings are complex
fruit forward wines, that with the right
balance of acidity can be tasty, and pair well
Chinese and Thai food. Why care
about rieslings? Because they come
in as many styles as Gucci makes
clothes. Dry, off, dry, sweet, ice wine
etc.

But, so many Rieslings are too sweet.
That's right. I said it. Too Sweet.
Wine makers are crafting wines that
taste like juice. But Rieslings from Alsace
are different. Alsace is region of France's
northeastern border with Germany.
The cool, crisp weather of the region brings
the perfect balance of sugar and acidity to
the grape. Washington state is also known
for its Riesling. With warm days that
produce tons of sugar in the grapes, and cool
nights to bring acid,
Washington state Rieslings are some of
the best. When I taste a well balanced
Riesling my tongue dances with delight.
So, I'm over my grumpy attitude and once
again can enjoy my bitter with the sweet. : )



The last Thursday of the month is
Wine Flight Club at Faire Gallery Cafe.
This month is Riesling. Taste 4 Rieslings for
$15.00 while DJ Intuition
spins the beats.
It is the ultimate wine tasting party.

Thursday June 26th
8:00pm - Midnight
Riesling

Sheba's Weekly Wine Blog: Rose' made a believer!!!

This is my first venture into the blog world. As many may know, Faire Gallery Cafe strives to make wine drinking and knowledge accessible. So, this weekly blog will focus on the fun of learning and discovering wine.
I am primarily a red wine drinker. I like robust wines with tons of complexity. I want wine that is like a good book, worth discovering over and over again. White wines can do this for me. But I don't find white wines with that much character that often. Even in the summer I am a red wine drinker. So you would understand my frustration this time of year. Early summer is Rose' season. Everywhere you look someone is trying to push some Rose' wine on you. "It's light and refreshing for summer," they always say. What if I'm not looking for light and refreshing?
Let me back up for a second. Rose' wine is where wine makers take red grapes and ferment the "grape juice" with the skins for only a short while. With red wines the skins go through the entire first fermentation process. The skins of the grape have what many call tannins which give red their mouth feel and body. Tannin is one of the reasons I love reds so much. I have to admit, I like a rough around the edges wine. Rose's have some tannin from the fermentation, but usually not enough for my taste. I used to feel like every rose' I tasted had a soar aftertaste. So this is why I hated them.
But then last year I met a beautiful Malbec Rose'. It changed my life! Okay, not my life, but my ideas about Rose's. It had way more flavor than the other Rose's I had tried. Plus it tasted like strawberries, yumm!. Then two months ago I tasted "Three Rivers Rose' Blend." It was peppery and had hinted of black cherry. It was like, ( dare I say it ) refreshing summertime wine! I know the weather in Seattle sucks right now. Mark Twain once said " The worst winter I ever spent was a summer in Seattle." But forget the weather and come drink some tasty Rose' at Faire! We have a selection for you to taste from fruity to earthy. Tell us what you think about Rose's too. If you like them, I'll keep them all summer, if not, well they won't last long!