Vinfolio Blog | Wine Posts - Industry News & Collector Resources

The best Valentine's Day wine ideas should reflect your personality as a couple.

Valentine’s Day Wine Ideas for Every Type of Celebration

Buying Wine, Enjoying Wine, HolidayBy Vinfolio Staff January 31, 2019

My idea of the perfect Valentine’s Day wine is generally either vintage Champagne or aged red Burgundy. However, last year, we decided to try something a little different. We chose a bottle of 1961 Château Prieuré du Monastir Del Camp Rivesaltes–a truly special wine that had fascinating flavors of fresh citrus and dried fruit. Serving decades-old Grenache was an unexpectedly great Valentine’s Day wine idea because it made the evening much more memorable. My spouse and I have shared dozens of bottles of Champagne together, but we’ve only had one bottle of 1961 Grenache from the Languedoc.

One of the best Grenache food pairings is grilled vegetables.

Your Guide to Grenache Food Pairings

Enjoying Wine, Serving, VarietalsBy Vinfolio Staff January 25, 2019

This summer, I went to a wedding and was served the most delicious homemade Indian food I’ve ever tasted. I filled my plate with buttery chicken makhani, smoky tandoori, and a huge variety of spicy curries. The bride and groom provided two different alcoholic beverages to pair with the food: lager beer and Grenache. I’ll admit that when I saw Grenache on the menu, I was a little skeptical. I wasn’t sure how the wine’s flavors would interact with all of the complex spices in the meal. To my surprise, however, the Grenache blend the couple chose perfectly complemented the food. The fruitiness of the Grenache played well with the creamier dishes on the table, while the spicy notes in the wine enhanced the food’s smoky paprika and cardamom flavors. Grenache and Indian food is now one of my favorite pairings.

Biodynamic winemaking is one fine wine market trend

2019’s Fine Wine Market Trends: What You Need to Know

Buying Wine, Collecting, Investing, News, Wine MarketsBy Vinfolio Staff January 18, 2019

What’s in store for the fine wine market this year? We’ve taken a look at the data and found a number of emerging trends that might impact your buying and selling decisions this year. Many of these trends have been gaining ground for a while, but this year they may have particular impact on the market.

Masseto makes some of the Super Tuscan best vintages

Super Tuscans: The Best Vintages for Your Collection

Buying Wine, Collecting, Italy, Wine RegionsBy Vinfolio Staff January 17, 2019

What I love most about Super Tuscans is how diverse these wines are. Some are almost purple in color, with bold, fruit-forward flavors, while others are bright red, finessed, and racy. No matter what type of wine you prefer to drink, there’s a Super Tuscan out there that is perfect for you. However, this diversity also makes these wines more difficult to shop for based on vintage alone. When you drink a red Bordeaux blend or a white Burgundy, you usually know exactly what to expect before you uncork the bottle, based on what critics have said about the vintage. But with Super Tuscans, finding the best vintages isn’t always so clear-cut. The best vintage for a bold Syrah blend, for example, might differ from that for a Sangiovese blend. To find the highest-quality Super Tuscan vintages, you need to take into consideration the weather conditions and how they affected the primary grape varieties in the blend.

A port and chocolate pairing brings out the best in each.

How to Find the Perfect Port and Chocolate Pairing

Enjoying Wine, Fortified Wine, Portugal, ServingBy Vinfolio Staff January 11, 2019

One of my friend’s favorite holiday traditions is to sit next to the fireplace with a bottle of vintage Graham’s at her side. She sips the wine slowly while nibbling on dark chocolate truffles or chocolate-covered almonds. For her, port and chocolate go hand-in-hand. Even though she’s served port with other desserts before, she always goes back to that same classic port and chocolate pairing.

How to Give Wine as a Hostess Gift

Gifts, Holiday, PartiesBy Vinfolio Staff January 4, 2019

For Christmas one year, my mom invited her childhood friend to stay over for a few days. As a gesture of gratitude, my mom’s friend brought her the most thoughtful gift: a beautiful wine basket filled with my mom’s favorite Champagnes, including bottles of Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame and Perrier-Jouët. Not only was the gift attractively packaged in a beautiful wicker basket, but the wine itself was of spectacular quality. Although my mom appreciates fine wine, she rarely buys it for herself, so the gift allowed her to enjoy the bottles she loves for the first time in years.

Sauternes, Champagne, and port all make great Christmas wine.

The Ultimate Guide to Christmas Wine

Buying Wine, Enjoying Wine, Holiday, PartiesBy Vinfolio Staff December 21, 2018

Whenever I see a magnum from one of my favorite producers, I almost always buy it without a second thought. That’s because I host a Christmas dinner party with my extended family every year, and we go through around a dozen standard-size bottles over the course of the night. Hosting a party like this is a serious challenge–not only do you need to make sure there’s enough wine to go around, but you also have to choose those wines carefully so that they appeal to everyone’s diverse tastes. It took my family and me a number of years to refine our Christmas wine list, but we have finally come up with the perfect combination of wines that make everyone in the family happy.

Hosting a New Year's Eve wine tasting party can be a great experience

How to Host a Memorable New Year’s Eve Wine Tasting Party

Enjoying Wine, Holiday, Parties, TastingBy Vinfolio Staff December 20, 2018

For much of my life, New Year’s Eve celebrations revolved around dancing, fireworks, and flutes of Champagne. However, in the past few years, I’ve made wine a much bigger part of my holiday celebrations. It all started when I was invited to a friend’s house for a formal New Year’s Eve dinner party. I brought along a magnum of 2001 Ridge Monte Bello to share with everyone. As the night wore on, I noticed that several of the guests had pulled their chairs over to my side of the table hoping for a refill. They’d never had Ridge wine before and wanted to learn more about the producer. This gave me an idea: what if I hosted a New Year’s Eve wine tasting party?

A great start to a Christmas wine basket is one red wine and one white.

Why You Should Make a Christmas Wine Basket for Everyone on Your List

Buying Wine, Gifts, HolidayBy Vinfolio Staff December 14, 2018

A wine collector I know buys dozens of bottles online around the holiday season, and over the years, he’s become acquaintances with the UPS driver who drops off the packages. They often have conversations about their favorite bottles of wine while he signs for the deliveries. One year, my friend decided to get the UPS driver a Christmas wine basket to show his appreciation for handling the deliveries with such care. He chose three bottles of wine that he thought the driver would enjoy and gave the basket to him during one of his usual deliveries. The driver was thrilled with the unexpected gift and the thought that went into it.

How to Create Champagne Gift Baskets from Scratch

Buying Wine, Champagne, France, Gifts, HolidayBy Vinfolio Staff December 7, 2018

About ten years ago, one of my colleagues was looking for the perfect Champagne gift basket to give to his brother for Christmas. His brother is a huge fan of Dom Pérignon and was particularly fond of the 1998 vintage. After shopping around, my colleague heard about a gift basket at Costco that included a bottle of 1998 Dom Pérignon. By the time he got to the store, though, the baskets were sold out. Rather than buying a different pre-made basket, my colleague decided to make his own version instead. He bought a beautiful Longaberger basket and two bottles of 1998 Dom Pérignon online, then filled the basket with his brother’s favorite snacks. In the end, his brother appreciated the gift that much more, knowing that it had been made with him in mind.

The Best Christmas Champagne, from Bollinger to Krug

Buying Wine, Champagne, France, HolidayBy Vinfolio Staff December 6, 2018

My father loves to drink Pol Roger, especially as Christmas approaches. Starting in early December, he brings a bottle to just about every holiday party and dinner event on his calendar. I’ve seen him drink Pol Roger with everything from festive cheese platters to Christmas ham to gingerbread cookies. No dish is too salty, too sweet, or too hearty for his favorite bottles of Blanc de Blancs and Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.

Some of the best Southern Rhone producers are Rayas, Pegau, and Beaucastel.

Your Guide to the Best Southern Rhone Producers, Appellations, and Vintages

France, Producers, Producers and Wineries, Rhone, Wine RegionsBy Vinfolio Staff November 30, 2018

After your first experience with the best Southern Rhône producers, it’s hard not to fill your cellar up with these incredible bottles. One of my colleagues started buying Barroche Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Pure in 2004, and she has continued to buy this label ever since. The wine’s fine tannin, elegance, and perfectly ripe fruit flavors draw her back to this producer year after year, and she has also started collecting some of the estate’s other delicious wines, like the Signature label.