Understanding Wine Labels
Every bottle of wine must have a label, and that label must provide certain information about the wine. Some of the information on a wine label is required by the country where the wine is [more…]
Bartending Primer: Essential Recipes
Bartending For Dummies lists over a thousand drink recipes; in this article, you'll find a sampling of 26 recipes, from A to Z, that will help get you started on your bartending career. Some are classic [more…]
Attending a Wine Tasting Event
Finding out about wine is like space travel: Once you get going, there's no end in sight. Fortunately for those who choose to be educated wine drinkers, learning about wine is a fascinating experience, [more…]
Substituting Ingredients
Say you're making a vinaigrette dressing for a salad and suddenly realize that you're out of vinegar. But you do have lemons, which are an acceptable substitute. How much lemon do you use? Or you may not [more…]
Discover Italian Wines: The Top Red-Grape Varieties
Twenty-one red grape varieties compose Italy's major varieties for red wine. Four of these are especially important, either for the quality of wine they produce or for their dissemination throughout the [more…]
Getting to Know Beer Basics
Basically, beer is an alcoholic beverage that's fermented and brewed from rice, barley, corn, hops, water, and yeast. The beer brewing process begins with pure water, corn grits, and malted barley. Malted [more…]
V.O., X.O.: Deciphering Cognac Labels
You've seen those Cognac abbreviations: V.O., X.O, V.S.O.P, and so on. What in the world do all those designations mean? The labels tell you how old the Cognac [more…]
Exploring Wine: Italy's Top White-Grape Varieties
Seventeen white grape varieties compose Italy's major varieties for white or sparkling wine production. Following are five particularly key varieties in their rough order of importance. [more…]
Filet Mignon with Irish Whiskey Sauce
This decadent recipe for Filet Mignon with Irish Whiskey Sauce is wonderful for a special dinner. The filet generally is considered the most tender cut of beef, but it lacks a little flavor when compared [more…]
Getting to Know Australian Wine
Make no mistake about it: Australia is one of the world powers of wine. It is famous for its fresh, fruity red and white table wines that manage to be extremely consistent in quality. The country has about [more…]
Debunking Italian Wine Myths
Sometimes ideas or stories take on lives of their own, and innocent Italian-wine lovers become unwitting believers in what are the wine equivalent of urban legends. Here are some examples of those myths [more…]
Setting Up Your Home Bar for Entertaining
When doing any sort of entertaining, one of the biggest hassles is trying to figure how to set up your bar. Here are a few tips for setting up your home bar. [more…]
Homebrewing Problem: No Fermentation
Fermentation problems occur frequently to homebrewers, and a common one is that the would-be beer just never started fermenting. Before you pour your homebrew down the sink, make sure the process actually [more…]
Make It Mexican: Tequila, Sangria, and Beer
The only thing that sounds like more fun than eating Mexican food is drinking Mexican drinks. Mexican beers, sangrias, and tequilas are so popular that they are the gateway for many people to tasting Mexican [more…]
Shaking Cocktails, Making Martinis
The main reasons for shaking drinks are to chill a cocktail, mix the ingredients, or put a head of foam on some cocktails.
As a general rule, you should shake all cloudy drinks [more…]
Discovering How to Sniff a Glass of Wine
The process of tasting a wine — of systematically experiencing all the wine's attributes — involves three steps: Looking at it, smelling it, and, finally, tasting it. Before you explore the smelling ritual [more…]
Assembling the Basic Tools for Bartending
The most important assets for any profession are the right tools. You need basic bar tools to mix, serve, and store your food and drink. Whether you're stocking a home bar or working as a professional, [more…]
What'll You Drink? Clear Spirits, Dark Spirits
All spirits (vodka, rum, tequila, bourbon, and so on) fall into one of two broad categories: clear spiritsand dark spirits. Clear spirits are the ones you can see though; dark spirits range in color from [more…]
Styles of Scotch Whisky
The Scots produce two broad categories of whisky: single malt whiskies (one whisky from a single distillery) and blended whiskies (a mixture of two or more whiskies from two or more distilleries). [more…]
Storing Your Leftover Wine
A sparkling-wine stopper, a device that fits over the opened bottle and keeps it closed, is really effective in keeping any remaining Champagne or sparkling wine fresh [more…]
Do-It-Yourself Strawberry-Flavored Vodka
Some vodka-aficionados make their own flavored vodka to ensure that the flavors are real and come from organically grown sources. Doing so also controls the amount of flavoring the vodka has. Here's a [more…]
Understanding Malting and Mashing Barley for Homebrewing
Of the four main ingredients used in homebrewing beer (barley, hops, yeast, and water), barley makes the biggest contribution. Barley gives beer its color, underlying flavor, sweetness, body, head of foam [more…]
Bourbon — an American Whiskey
Several different terms are used to classify the types of American whiskeys known as Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. The following list cuts through the jargon: [more…]
What's the Time Commitment for Beginner Homebrewers?
If you're interested in homebrewing, you're understandably concerned with how much time it takes to brew beer at home. In addition to the hands-on activities such as cooking and bottling, you also face [more…]
Getting to Know London Dry Gins
London dry gin, the world's most popular gin type, is rarely made in London (only one distiller remains in the city) and is dry only in the sense that it lacks sugar to make it sweet. London dry gins tend [more…]
