Savouring the Good Stuff
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Grilled New York Strip with Herb Compound Butter and Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
Before you sit down to eat tonight: pour the Cabernet. Taste it. Notice the tannin — that gripping, drying quality on the gums that builds through the finish. Now take the first bite of steak. Chew. Sip the wine again. The grip softens. The fruit comes forward. The…
Cabernet Sauvignon: Learning to Taste the Structure
There is a sensation that happens with Cabernet Sauvignon that does not happen with most other wines. A gripping, drying quality that builds through the finish and lingers on the gums. Not a flavour — a physical response. It is the first thing people notice…
Napa Valley: What the World Was Forced to Notice
Paris, 1976. A room full of the most respected wine judges in France. Eleven bottles on the table, wrapped in paper so the labels are invisible. The judges sip, evaluate, score. When the results are tallied, the top-scoring Cabernet Sauvignon is from a narrow…
California Chardonnay & Apple Pie Gouda: A Pairing That Agrees With Itself
Most pairings earn their keep through contrast. Acidity against fat. Salt against sweetness. Tension is the usual engine. This one runs the other way. California Chardonnay and Apple Pie Gouda are a matching pairing — two things saying nearly the same sentence in two…
Warm Artichoke & Burrata Plate with California Chardonnay
The best pairings work from more than one angle. A wine that shares one note with a dish is pleasant. A wine that mirrors three is something else — each bite and sip makes the other taste more complete. This plate does that with an oaked California Chardonnay….
How To Make Your Own Delectable Butter: A Simple and Tasty Recipe
Flavor Foundation: Making Butter Just over a year ago I discovered the joys of making my own butter. What makes this a little unusual is that I began making my own cheeses nearly 15 years ago. Last year, we had just moved to North Carolina and happily discovered a…
Chardonnay: The Three Decisions That Explain Everything
You can taste the same grape and think you are tasting entirely different wine. That is Chardonnay. No other white grape shows as much variation across winemakers, regions, and styles. A Chablis and a Napa Valley Chardonnay share a grape and almost…
You Don’t Have to Finish the Bottle
One of the most common reasons people drink more wine than they actually want is this: they feel like they have to finish the bottle. The logic is familiar. You opened it. It’ll go bad. Wasting it feels wrong. So, you pour another glass, and then one more after…
California Chardonnay: What the New World Did with a French Grape
The same grape. A different set of decisions. Chablis and California Chardonnay are both Chardonnay — but the similarities mostly stop there. Where Chablis is angular, mineral, and unoaked, California Chardonnay is generous, layered, and built for…
What to Order: Pad Thai, Spicy Thai Food, and Gewurztraminer
This week’s pairing involves takeout. No recipe, no mise en place, no Dutch oven. You call the restaurant, you pick up the order, you open a bottle of Gewurztraminer, and you learn something about wine pairing that most people never quite believe until they experience…
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Meet Anne
Meet your guide through Food Wine and Flavor. Anne holds WSET3, CSW, FWS (French Wine Scholar) and CSWS (Certified Sherry Wines Specialist) certifications as well as a passion for Savoring the Good Stuff!
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