LindaJ

Is the sparkler any good normally? I can see a whole mountain of issues with preserving quality by putting it in a can - heat shock comes to mind. But overall, if it's sparkling wine, I'll drink it at least once

There are times when it's perfectly reasonable to food pair your selection with a tasty Diet Coke. That was one of those times.

This discussion is going totally off topic from the original question, but when has that stopped us before It's more economical to buy a wine by the glass in a restaurant than spending retail on a bottle that is an unknown. I'll gladly pay the markup which is why restaurants should expand wine-by-the-glass programs. I very much appreciate their selecting and storing wines that I probably otherwise wouldn't try. Plus I can do my own little wine pairing instead of being stuck drinking a whole bottle. These restaurants with non-sucky wine programs may be in the minority, but I'm a vocal consumer about going to them, just as I'm vocal in the wine shops when I think price or selection is out of whack with reality. It sort of makes me sad that a lot of people need to adulterate the fine taste of wine with horrible food (SARCASM), but then again, this is primarily a food website.

I think there's a lot to be said for appreciating wine as wine and not simply as an accompaniment to food. We're tired when we come home from work and sometimes a full meal just isn't in the cards. Sometimes I crave a wine the way someone else might crave a food, so matching the food to the wine is more important to me than vice versa. I think wine in itself is a complete food - maybe not nutritionally, but certainly spiritually. Enjoying it alone as an expression of the earth's bounty and the winemaker's art - well, I'm all about that.

Red unless I'm in the mood for white or sparkling. Hell, I love it all.

Any recs on pink sparklers? Maybe it's a girl thing, but I love pink with bubbles.

I've read all the pros and cons. I know there are millions of French and Italians whose mothers drank who seem to be just fine. However, the US medical consensus is that no amount of alcohol is deemed safe during pregnancy. The Brits say 1 to 2 units of alcohol/per week is fine. I'm a big time lush and foodie in general, but the evidence is difficult to ignore. Since it's a first pregnancy, and a bit risky in general medically, I'm foregoing the grape. Thanks for your suggestions. It seems there really aren't that many alternatives. Too bad really.

I'm pregnant and suffering greatly from wine withdrawal. Any suggestions? I've tried the Sutter Home stuff and it tastes about as good as the real Sutter Home stuff (yuck). I picked up some Ariel (from J. Lohr) at Trader Joe's and by gosh, if it didn't at least taste like wine and not Welch's. I'd drink it even if I didn't have to, especially the red. My cravings so far are for sushi, sake and single malt scotch - all things I can't have :( I want a good Pinot Noir in the delivery room damnit Did I mention I'm hormonal?

I have wrestled with this for a few years now. Partly out of jogging my terrible memory and partly out of a scrapbook fetish, I have laboriously taken off wine labels. This mostly involves soaking the bottle, carefully removing the label with a craft knife, pasting it on acid-free paper, and placing it in an acid-free sheet protector. There is often an intermediary step of flattening the label which includes the use of several college era economics textbooks (which is their only use since the info is out of date). Since it takes longer to do this than to drink the damn bottle, I'm looking for a better way. What do people do? I recently saw something called "label off" or similar that rips the puppy right off the bottle. I need ideas. Any other suggestions or discussions about organizing a cellar book manually or from software would be super cool as well.

Georges Deboeuf 2003 $9.99 Grape Kool Aid, banana and sour cherry too. It is, however, a very pretty ruby stain glass color. I should simply put it out to look at and avoid further drinking. It is as expected, but hope springs eternal so I bought the bottle.

Mr. Clip asked: masters-of-wine.org

This has been such an interesting flame war... umm... discussion that I felt the need to register after trolling for a number of months. Hi! This isn't The Wine Spectator, but there's value in an opinion that does NOT have a big ad for The Wine Clip next to it. That's why I come to this site. Many potential customers for this device will come to this site for years when they do a search for the product. Would be helpful if the CEO didn't behave like an ass And I only mean that in a helpful, constructive way. Wish I had been at the tastings. But I won't buy the gagdet. I'd rather invest the money in product.