What Does Your Wine Choice Say About Your Personality?

Does the wine you order say something about your personality? As any woman will tell you, it’s her prerogative to shift personalities as quickly as she goes from a patent leather pump to a jeweled flat – so check out what wine you would be today.

Chardonnay – Like a favorite cashmere cardigan, you’re comfortable with yourself, fun-loving, and easy-going. You’re true confidant at work or at play.

Sauvignon Blanc – Always up for spinning a tale or the latest bawdy joke you heard, your sharp wit and priceless one-liners liven up any conversation with your fresh take.

Riesling – Your sweetness is always counted on, but underneath it lurks a curious, adventurous side that emerges in the boardroom or the bedroom.

Pinot Noir – You strive for a touch of chic elegance and you’re a lover of food. You like to err on the side of class when making a statement, be it fashion or otherwise.

Cabernet Sauvignon – Your bold side doesn’t take a day off and you’re rightly unapologetic about it. You play with the big girls and never fail to give an honest (or at times blunt) assessment.

Shiraz – Unafraid to make a move, your spicy side gets you past the velvet rope, through the glass ceiling, and his digits.

Merlot – You’re the level-headed go-to gal who can always be called on to calmly settle who-wore-it-best disputes, your frazzled girlfriend, or the check.

SwirlSavvy's New Wine Column on Culinate

It's official! I have my first regular wine column. I'll be writing "Swirl," a fun Q&A wine column for a food and cooking-oriented community/social network site called Culinate. It's one of domestic goddess Rachael Ray's favorite sites and I hope it becomes one of yours too.

The first column "Making a good bottle choice" is included below. Send over questions you'd like addressed in the column. And again, thanks for your support.

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I got hooked on wine while living in San Francisco. After moving there, I quickly began spending as much time as possible (without raising eyebrows) in Napa and Sonoma counties. Shortly after discovering this new world, I fell in love with how passionate everyone in the industry is about wine — from winemakers to vineyard caretakers to the people who poured the wine in tasting rooms.

Wine wasn’t something they learned about and drank to impress their friends or colleagues. Instead, they believed, as I do now, that wine is something of the earth, which makes us slow down, at least for a bit, to take time truly to commune with others.

And most importantly, wine is simply a soulful and delicious thing to drink.

With this in mind, I’d like Swirl to take the intimidation out of wine and add more fun and adventure to the subject. As a food-loving friend of Culinate, I’m eager to answer your wine-related questions, whether related to entertaining, food pairing, what to try, how to order — whatever’s on your mind. To get this Q&A format going, please send your questions to me at Anu [at] SwirlEvents [dot] com.

How to be sure to pick a good wine

To kick off, I’d like to address one of the most commonly asked questions: “How do I make sure a wine I pick is going to be good without tasting it?”

We have so many choices in wine, whether in a restaurant or in the supermarket aisles, and we can’t “try wine on” before paying for it the way we would a new pair of shoes. Picking the “right” bottle can give some of us the trepidation we normally experience in a used-car lot.

Many of us choose wine based on a label we find familiar or attractive, and make a beeline out of the store, praying the bottle is good enough to go with the elaborate dinner we’ve planned.

Here are some methods to deal with the madness:

1. Know the importer. There are a healthy handful of great wine importers that scour the back roads of tiny villages across the world to find the best international bottles (tough job, eh?). You’re nearly certain to pick a worthy bottle by choosing one of their selections. Some of my favorite importers include Kermit Lynch, Michael Skurnik, Louis Dressner, Jenny & Francois (great for natural/organic), Terry Theise, Becky Wasserman, and Rosenthal.
2. Establish your go-to shop. I prefer shopping in small wine shops. When shelf space is precious, each bottle needs to earn its keep. Plus, a small wine shop doesn’t make me glaze over like the superstores do. A good wine shop’s staff should be well-educated about wine in general, and very knowledgeable about their particular selection. Keep going to the same store so the staff learns your preferences. And most importantly, make your preferences known. Remember one good bottle you had recently and be able to describe your experience. You don’t have to have remembered the producer or vintage. If you can say, “I recently loved this white wine because it was really fresh and tasted zippy in my mouth,” or “I’ve had a few Oregon Pinot Noirs and really enjoyed them, but want to try something a bit different,” you give the staff a lot to go on about your tastes.
3. Expand your horizons, slightly. Generally like Chardonnay? Then try its “Old World” (i.e., European) equivalent, white Burgundy. It’s the same grape, but Old World convention names the wine by its region of origin instead of by the varietal (grape) name. A few more equivalents to get you started: Pinot Noir = red Burgundy; Cabernet/Merlot = Bordeaux (red); Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon = Bordeaux (white); Sancerre and Pouilly-Fuissé, Sangiovese = Chianti.

How to order wine in a restaurant

Want tips on how to order wine in a restaurant? Read on:

We've all been in the situation before- you're at a restaurant on a big date or with important client when the wine list is dropped in front of you with a thud. Understandably, your reaction might be to hightail it out or order a beer and skip the daunting process all together. Some wine lists are as thick as the Twilight series. Wine lists are organized differently. And choices abound from every region, at every price. The combination of factors makes the process intimidating, especially if your dinner companion is a wine enthusiast, or worse yet, a connoisseur.

Since it's impossible to know every wine producer in the world, you need to pick your wine through a reliable process.

1) First, let your dinner companions figure out what they're eating. The old waiter’s habit of asking asked what you'd like to drink before you've had a chance to review the menu should stop!

2) Use your resources, i.e. the waitstaff or the sommelier. Sommeliers love giving suggestions and may even produce the “perfect bottle” that isn't on the list. Give the sommelier some direction to ensure you get something you’ll like. Know whether you want white or red. You also probably know whether you want a red that's big and bold or light and fruity or a white that's crisp and fresh or smooth and buttery. Alternatively, describe a great wine you had recently.

3) Know your budget and make it clear to the waiter, surreptitiously. Point to a bottle on the list in your price range and ask if the waitress can suggest something more appropriate for the group. A good waiter will pick up on your hint.

4) If you want to exercise more control on your wine choice, select your wine to complement the meal. One method is to think about what most of the diners will be eating and try to match wine by the weight of the food. Heavier dishes like steaks or heavily seasoned meats need a more full-bodied, hearty wine like a Malbec (my favorite is the Ben Marco Malbec) or Bordeaux (when I splurge, I pick the Chateau Palmer Alter Ego). Fish and lighter fare requires a light to medium-bodied wine, either red or white.

5) Go regional. When I’m in a Tuscan restaurant, I choose a Tuscan wine, in a Provencal French restaurant, I choose a wine from Provence. Over the thousands of years that wine was made in a particular region, it was developed to complement the native food style. You’re already on the right track when you choose regionally.

6) If all else fails, order a bottle of red and/or bottle of white that are universally food flattering. My "default" white wine choices are a dry Riesling from Alsace or a Gruner Veltliner from Austria. My red wine choices are a Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley, Oregon or a red Burgundy from France. And if nothing else, I choose Champagne. It suits everything from spicy Indian cuisine to cream sauced pasta. Plus, it’s amazing how quickly rising bubbles bring smiles to your companions’ faces.

Best Way to Remove Wine Stains from your Teeth

After tasting 7 different deeply tannis wines from Bierzo, Spain for an upcoming article, my teeth were deeply stained in the way that makes you shun conversation with anyone even somewhat normal. I needed a way to get all this junk off before I went to dinner with friends at Hearth and I was no where near my toothbrush and sink. So, I decided to try Wine Wipes, a product I was sent a while back and had absentmindedly tossed in my purse figuring I'd need them at some point. Now, I'm not one to disparage products because I know how hard it is to create and how personally attached one can get to said product. Here's why I'm writing about it - someone needs to come up with something that works...and isn't painful. Sadly, Wine Wipes, although convenient and cute, didn't do the trick and they left a horrible taste in my mouth. I had to drink more red wine to get the taste out, thus defeating the purpose. I think Wine Wipes should keep at it and give us something that truly works and leaves a pleasant or no aftertaste. I'd be the first to endorse it.

Instead of going to dire lengths and drinking your red wine from a straw, below are some recommended cures for mega-purple mouth. How do you solve looking like Dracula?

1) Rub a lemon wedge against teeth
2) Swish with water and chew on bread
3) Drink enough so you forget people are staring
4) Not practical, but find some baking soda and salt, make a paste and rub your teeth

5 Wines to Order on a Date

If you want to impress your date or appear sophisticated, here are some "big date" worthy wine choices:

1. If you want a white want – try something more sophisticated than a Pinot Grigio - Next time, try a Sauvignon Blanc from either New Zealand or, to be really chic, from Chile. Chile’s just coming onto the scene for Sauv Blancs. Great value choices include – Oyster Bay Sauv Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. OR Casa Lapostolle Sauv Blanc from Chile.
   
2. A spicy, smoky and sexy wine - like Syrah or Shiraz (which are the same grape but will taste different based on where they're from). Try the Green Point Shiraz Or Layer Cake Shiraz – both from Australia. For a really impressive Syrah – try any of the Syrahs from Terlato which run from $30 to $55. Their Angel’s Peak is my favorite. This is a perfect one to have at home to really impress.
3. A big, bold brawny red – a Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina is the ultimate budget-friendly “muscular” wine to offer your date. Ladies - don't have a guy over and only be able to offer him Prosecco...
   
4. A bottle of Champagne -You can get great value in Champagne with high quality by looking for what’s called a “Grower Champagne”. Look for the initials “RM” on label vs. “NM” (which are the big brands)
5. Stock your home with a wine with a story! If you want to expose your adventurous side, have a bottle on-hand from a place you've traveled to. Tales of adventures in faraway lands are sure to make your date inch just a bit closer...