Wine Rack Store Blog

Today I had a busy day! To begin with I had to get some paperwork sorted out with enrollment services at my school. That always seems to turn into waiting in a line to learn about one more paper you need to fill out, followed by waiting in the same line to find out about one more paper to fill out. Luckily, the enrollment office opens early and I made it to my doctor's appointment with time to sit and wait there. Once I finished up at the doctor's, it was off to work at the native plant nursery. I completely love my job, but it is still work. All day I was on my feet potting up, fertilizing and watering salmonberries. It may not sound hard, but in the heat of the summer it tires me out quick!

So I make my way home and stop in my garden to admire all the growth, picking some peas and peppers and kale for a salad, and finally get in the shower. After the shower, I do a calming yoga routine to ease away from the stress, and finish off the night opening up a bottle of wine from my wine rack. My boyfriend is getting a delicious dinner ready in the kitchen while I sip away in my pajamas, waiting to finish off full day with a well-deserved relaxing meal, good company, and my glass of wine. Perfect.

Labels: bottle openers, dinner, garden, work

Here at the Wine Rack Store, we feel it’s our duty to help you enjoy our products to the fullest. So, with the introduction of our new 222 Bottle Premium Glass Holder Wine Rack, we will be featuring fabulous tips on holding a wine tasting party.

A wine tasting party is the perfect way to gather family and friends to learn about wine, and test new or unusual varietals. Whether you pair wines with specific cheeses, or do a vertical or horizontal tasting, you are sure to experience new joys in both red wines and white wines as a result of the focused tasting.

1. Determine your guest list and send invites at least two weeks before your tasting.

2. Design a tasting card for each guest that specifies the type of wine, the producing vineyard, the year and a brief description of the wine (usually found on the wine’s label), with room to note the wine’s distinct appearance, aroma, flavor, and cheese pairing nuances.

3. To make your party a bit more exciting, offer a “blind tasting” experience. In this case, you still provide your guests with their individual tasting cards. However, you pour each wine without identifying the label (cover bottles with foil or a brown bag and mark with a number prior to serving). This allows them to integrate all of their senses to identify the respective wines based on the labels’ descriptions. The guest that identifies the most wines correctly wins a bottle of wine.

4. Decorations for a wine tasting party can be as simple or elaborate as you’d like. Most important is to keep the party atmosphere casual and engaging.

Extra Tips:

1. Typically, you will want to work from dry to sweet with white wines and progress from light to full-bodied with red wines.
2. The general rule of thumb for pouring is: 2 ounces of wine per glass, per wine for each tasting.

3. Provide plain bread and water between wines for guests to cleanse their palate.
What You Need:

* Four to Six Wines
* Bottle opener
* Appetizers - you might consider offering some light choices before the tasting
* Loaf of bread cubed – provide plain bread for guests to cleanse palate between wines
* Wine glasses – one per guest
* Pitcher of water – for rinsing glasses and palates between wines
* Dump bucket – for discarding wine before next pouring
* Tasting cards – for describing and recording each wine tasted
* Aluminum foil or brown bags to cover wine bottles if you choose blind tasting
*Pens and Paper


Happy Tasting!

Labels: 222 Bottle Premium Glass Holder Wine Rack, blind tasting, bottle openers, horizontal wine tasting, tips, vertical wine tasting, wine rack store, wine tasting party

Congratulations to the Class of 2009! As you venture out to explore the grapevines of your life, remember to take time to taste the grapes. A great bottle of wine perfectly represents the qualities of life. It begins with the entire universe, and all of the energy from which each life gives and receives. From a small seed, vines reach out to revel in the sunlight and find their path to fruition. Some vines may be broken, or bitten by frost, but for every tendril that shrinks, another will venture out to try again. With care, toiling, and some lazy days in the sun, the vines will blossom into grapes. The grapes are life’s sweet moments, bursting with flavor and promise. Yet, no matter how beautiful, plentiful, and sweet, the fruit must still be crushed in order to transform into the next life phase. More trials and tribulations await the young grapes on their journey to becoming wine, but age will soothe the bitterness and concentrate the joyfulness. Time always prevails, and when it is right, we can sit back, pop the cork, and savor the flavor of our lives.

Now, if I only had a bottle of wine for every happy graduate this year, I’d have enough to fill my entire Instant Wine Cellar!

Labels: bottle openers, class of 2009, graduate, grapevines, instant wine cellars

Let’s make this very clear: I am NOT a morning person. As I sit at my desk at 4:30 this morning… YES THAT'S AM!!!…and wait for coffee to perk (I loathe anything perky before 10am), I ponder the following question: Would a glass of wine make my morning more enjoyable that a Mug-o-Joe? Granted, wine is not toasty warm in your hands, but it certainly goes a long way in warming the heart! I consider the choices nestled cozily in my wine storage cubes. The white are obviously out, because they are just too light-headed to understand the woes of early morning. Zinfandel? No, you can’t drink what you can’t spell at 4am. Pinot Noir is just too risky for a crack-of-dawn challenge. Just as I’m about ready to throw in the cork, I see the perfect morning pick me up: a lovely little claret. With a big bouquet to woo my whining, and a silky palette to sooth my sleepy soul, I’m once again swaddled in comfort and ready to uncork the day!

Labels: bottle openers, claret, Classic Wine Rack, coffee, storage cube