EPISODE IDEAS: Living the WINE LIFE

EPISODE IDEAS

Red wine makes my head hurt!
More often than not, it's the people you're drinking the wine with that give you the headache, not the wine. "Wine Life" gives some funny and helpful tips on how to avoid getting into those headache-inducing wine conversations and explains what is in red wine that actually can give some people headaches.

Skins and stems and seeds, oh my!

We explore America's love affair with red wine by visiting three of the America's largest red wine producers. Much of the character of the wine comes from the winemaker. We get to meet some of these characters when we take a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the ideas, technology, and people that make America’s most popular reds.

I only like white wine

We conduct a really blind tasting -- blindfolded, that is -- with some friends to see if they can really tell the difference between red and white. Then, we cook up a classic food and red wine match, Cotes du Rhone with rosemary lamb chops and enjoy it with our friends. They taste together and discover that when it works, it works.

The other red wine

Just about everyone is familiar with Cabernet, Merlot, and even Zinfandel, but what about the other red wines? We taste some of the lesser-known reds from some off-the-beaten-track wine regions. We visit Paso Robles and taste their rustic southern French Rhone style grapes.

Strange bedfellows

Things that you didn’t expect you could enjoy with red wine. Like dark chocolate and cabernet. Linking terroir, tannin and taste.

Weekly picks

"Wine Life" shares three of our favorite new reds in the ten to twenty dollar range.

RANT

Delicious yes, but too darn much alcohol!

Making a wine list and checking it twice

Forget about becoming an expert: just love it! We give funny, practical advice about how to be a wine lover in three simple steps: one, make a list of your favorite wines and carry it around with you in your wallet or purse; two, shop around to get some good advice on easy-to-use corkscrews, and when you find one you like, buy a couple; and three, buy big wine glasses. When you visit someone and spot nice hefty wine glasses in the cabinet, you know you're in the home of a wine lover.

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about ordering wine in a restaurant, but were afraid to ask

We visit three restaurants where the owners, sommeliers and wait staff share some funny anecdotes and give some advice on how to order wine in a restaurant; why it costs so much, understanding the math behind the price. Who can you trust, and how do you get dependably good advice? Plus, an insider’s secret: every wine list has a bargain -- We show you how to find it.

To spit or not to spit, that is the question

From a casual tasting in a small wine shop on a Saturday afternoon to the large expos packed with tens of thousands of people, we take the mystery out of going to a wine tasting and how to have fun while you learn how to taste wine. Most importantly, we talk about the fine art of spitting.

Weekly picks

We share three favorites we don’t want to spit in the ten to twenty dollar range.

RANT

Back to wine school!

When I’m a ‘64

Wine for special occasions. We celebrate milestones in our lives. Your husband is turning forty -- your mother is seventy -- it’s your best friend’s fiftieth. We pick the milestone wines for milestone events and fantasize about what wine we would celebrate with if money were no object.

It’s my party and I’ll wine if I want to

You need glasses! You need good party wine! You need to figure out how much wine to buy! We share unique insights into wine party planning by actually planning a wine-tasting party. To lighten the winter doldrums, we plan a February blues party where our friends enjoy themselves and talk about the party and the wine.

Wine-friendly food

A properly cooked piece of beef with a good red wine is always greater than the sum of its parts. It's one of the tidal forces of nature. But, rules are made to be broken, rigid rules especially, like white wine with fish, red wine with meat. In the last few years, wine lovers have started looking wider for great seafood wines, and there's a better rule of thumb: white wine with white seafood, pink wine with pink seafood, and red wine with red seafood. We cook some of his favorite recipes for wine-friendly meals.

You only get married for the first time once!

We help plan the wedding of a good friend by picking a truly special champagne for the toast and we get to enjoy it at the reception.

Hide the wine, here comes Thanksgiving!

"Wine Life" shares some of holiday tips: What goes great with the pudgy flesh of turkey? Something simultaneously dry and over cooked yet flabby and slightly saline? If you ladle on the cranberries, it's like poisoning the wine well. Welcome to America's most wine un-friendly holiday. That's right, forget all this matching up that was never meant to be. Get a couple of big monster wines and blow the turkey inside out.

Starting wine lineup for Super Bowl Sunday

Back in the 20th century when Super Bowl parties were all men, you could probably serve nothing but pilsner and wurst and not think twice. We help an old friend plan a Super Bowl wine party and they all enjoy the game.

RANT: Wine Gifts I’ve Received

Wine is always welcome as a gift. Old wine, new wine, cheap wine, expensive wine, all wine finds its way into the food chain one way or another. Every gift of wine must first and foremost be delicious. Interesting is fine, complex is good, subtle is okay, but delicious is the target. Then there are the gifts that are not wine. We rant about the odd, outrageous and funny gifts we have received over the years. Like the wine bottle that plays Que Sera, Sera or a 3d wine tie.

Que Syrah Shiraz

From Washington State to Australia, a wine with any other name…

We Will Taste No Wine Before It’s …

Aging and Storing Wines

We take two cases of identical wine and store one case in the trunk of a car for 3 months and one case in a wine cellar for 3 months. We get together with some friends for a blind tasting to see if the way wine is stored makes a difference.

No Wine Is An Island

Volcanic reds and exotic whites from Sicily and Sardinia.

The Road to Tuscany I

Landscape Of Wine

Turning off the main road to experience the Italian Wine Life

Bread, cheese, and wine

Tuscan steak

Off The Beaten Path: Villa Vallerosa. In America, food travels an average of 2000 miles before it reaches your table. But this part of Sabina offers a unique self-sufficiency. Everything you eat and drink comes from within a few miles of this small valley.

The Road to Tuscany II

Chianti Far And Wide

Core Classico

Chianti hill towns (Colli Aretini, Fiorentini, Pisane, and Senesi)

Chianti classified olive oil.

Matching Wine & Food

Red wine, red food; pink wine, pink food; white wine, white food

Geography, tasting local wines with local foods

Easy cooking with wine.

On The Wine Road: Paso Robles

How to get there

White wine

Red wine

Something good to eat

Fine Wine On A Tight Budget

Under-$10 magic

Undiscovered regions

Robbing the wine graveyard

Healthy bottles

The Magic Of Wine & Cheese

Why it works

History, tannin & protein

Soft French cheese, Hard Italian cheese, Goat’s milk cheese

Falling In Love With Wine & Chocolate

Terroir, tannin, and taste

Understanding cocoa

Matching wine and chocolate

Sparkling Around The World

From pennies a glass to unspeakable prices

The Grape Beyond

Old-world grapes flourish in new homes

New Wines, New Forms

From screw caps to boxes, as we ship more and more wine, new packages and forms emerge

An Appellation A Day

Geography can make wine shopping easier

Wine's Eccentric Flavors

Exotic, funky, downright strange sometimes

Seafood Wine Dinner

Seaside wines and seafood are a natural match

The Last Days Of Chez Cork

A last fond farewell to a surprisingly new technology