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Dining Out
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Berkeley Wine Company ... your uncompromising source for great wines at exceptional prices Now with Two Convenient Locations: Berkeley Heights, NJ 908.464.3610 79 Morristown Road Bernardsville, NJ (next to Shoprite) (formerly Raritan Liquors) 908.502.5335 berkeleywine.com Great Wine is NEVER out of Season featuring extraordinary wines from the rarest wine varietals, most unique wine regions and small boutique winemakers and producers, as well as cra brews, and the nest spirits. Consult with our Wine Professionals for perfect food, wine pairing and entertaining ideas. Here’s a wine trivia question I posed to an audience at a wine tasting seminar that I conducted recently. How many varieties of wine grapes are grown across the entire wine- making world? This group like most generated the most common grapes seen on virtually all wine shop shelves, Chardonnay, Caber- net Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc were all mentioned. Even new grapes or at least ones that I had never heard of and was pretty sure never exist- ed were offered. The rare White Cabernet grape stands out. While different pronunciations yielded new incarnations of old reliable, Pinaw Greege and more specifical- ly, Santa Margareet and countless perversions of Montepulciano. Clearly these were hybrids born of wine grape confusion and/or a foggy memory. But who could blame them. The wine world can be a very confusing place. The answer is that there are close to ten thousand Vitis Vinifera, or wine grapes, grown on five continents, many of them grafted hybrid cross- es. You’ll find a great many of them catalogued in Anthony J. Hawkins' The Super Gigantic Y2K Wine Grape Glossary. Can you taste all of these grapes? You clearly cannot. However, you can enjoy some of the grapes that are the most popular in other parts of the world. These grapes typically produce easy-drinking and delicious wines. The names don’t yet roll off the tongue like Merlot and Chardonnay but there was a time when even they were not quite so easy to say. A word of advice when choosing new wines, start small. You don’t have to buy the most expensive choice of these grapes on the shelf. I would argue that it is probably better to start with a mixed case of medium priced wines that you have never heard of. Give your wine professional an idea of the kind of wines that you’ve liked in the past and the types of cuisine that you enjoy. That information should give them a direction where he or she should be able to make suggestions that don’t constitute a quantum leap from palate’s sweet spot. As you work through the case, jot down a few notes about your favorites (details are impor- tant) and take a picture of the label with your cell phone. A little feed- back goes a long way in developing a fruitful (pun intended) and ulti- mately successful relationship. After a while, the enjoyment comes from the wine adventure. Can you say Grignolino? Sure you can. I knew you could. HOW MANY VARIETIES OF WINE GRAPES ARE GROWN ACROSS THE ENTIRE WINE-MAKING WORLD? By: David Wagner, Wine Director, Berkeley Wine Company