Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Other stories

Wine of the week

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published April 19, 2006

If Costco and Sam's Club are big wine retailers, then it should be no surprise that the Olive Garden is the restaurant where diners drink the most wine.

Wine Business magazine reports that the chain's short list and small prices racked up $2.4-billion in wine sales in a year.

How they've racked up the numbers is an open secret worth stealing. Wine service is simple, understandable and generous. Olive Garden's list ranges from the Principato house red, white and pink made by the Cavit through Sutter Home and Yellow Tail to Estancia and Franciscan a Barolo, and an amarone.

Yet most bottles are $25 or less, wines by the glass start at $3.95, and best of all, samples are free and frequent.

Picking wines is easy. The list is short enough that servers can learn the wines. Wines are divided by flavor: Whites from light and fruity to full and smooth; red from smooth through berry to robust.

Pairing is just as easy. Olive Garden headquarters' food/wine matching advice is forgiving (and on target):

-- Red with fish? Pinot noir. With seafood Alfredo, shiraz.

-- White with red meat: Tuscan T-bone, chardonnay; with angel hair pomodoro, try pinot grigio.

-- Pink with anything? Sure. If white zin makes you blush, ask for Italian rosato.

GOOD SPIRITS

Confidently calling itself "the premier worldwide gift delivery service for champagne, fine wines, spirits, gourmet gift baskets, cigars, chocolates and more," 1877Spirits.com has come up with a Luxury Spirits of the Month Club. And you'll pay $1,000 for that luxury.

It sounds like the perfect gift to make a continuing impression - a different spirit is sent every month for a year.

Johnnie Walker Green Label scotch was the March bottling. Don Julio reposado tequila comes to the recipient this month, followed monthly by such spirits as Bulleit bourbon, Ciroc vodka, Tanqueray No. 10 gin and Don Julio blanco tequila.

All bottles arrive gift-wrapped and with a personalized message.

SEXY SIPS

Wine Adventure, a serious wine magazine for women, has its lighter moments by way of a new column. Written by Baroness Sheri de Borchgrave, the column is titled "The Sensual Side." Its initial topic: Wine as Foreplay. Subscription information (six issues for $30): toll-free 1-800-340-9610 or www.wamagazine.com.

WINE OF THE WEEK

Columbia Crest, two vines semillon-chardonnay, Washington, 2002

Once Washington state got into the wine business, growers found that the state grew very good riesling and semillon. Unfortunately American wine drinkers had eyes and palates only for chardonnay. Or so they said and so the wineries planted.

At last imagination, or the example of no-worries sem-chards from Australia, has prompted a little rethinking. Common sense raises a friendly smiling head in a few easy-going white blends in which sweet, round semillon chips in the lion's share.

In Bordeaux, lush semillon is the base of grand Sauternes, and it can make fine still and dessert wines in the United States. This modest entry from Columbia Crest shows it as a grand refrigerator wine (Covey Run does a handsome sem-chard too).

The texture is round and lush; the flavors are honey, melon, pears and other light fruits. Yet it has enough crispness to make it lively and refreshing, a clever alternative to chardonnay or steely pinot grigio. Put it on ice and let the mercury rise.

Availability: $6 to $10 in supermarkets.

[Last modified April 19, 2006, 08:09:32]