Decoding the wine list [ March 20th, 2010 ] Posted in » Wine Article archive, wine education
There’s a secret to ordering wine at a restaurant. But like making cheap long distance phone calls–first you have to know the code. Most restaurants have two wine lists. There’s the one they put on your table, which may be as simple as a choice between the house red and the house white, or as complex as the blueprint for the B-2 bomber. This first wine list is the public list, known as the “regular” or “standard” list. The second list, the “reserve,” is the one kept in the back for the true connoisseurs, and the prices reflect the rarity of the wines. This list is for people with expertise and the financial wherewithal to indulge their tastes. If you’re someone who is used to buying off this second list, you’re way ahead of us.
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The most common poison in our great-grandmothers was arsenic. The average person could buy him under the pretext of buying rat poison. Arsenic has no smell and can accumulate in the tissues, which makes possible the gradual poisoning of small doses. Plus, the symptoms of arsenic poisoning can easily be confused with symptoms of cholera, and the gradual poisoning - with a lot of diseases until venerichiskih, the benefit of the then medicine has not yet reached today’s heights.
One sunny day in 1979, when Del and Ray Lewand were on a wine tasting tour of the Alexander Valley they decided to stay overnight at a local inn. That stay triggered an idea. Both were Los Angeles natives, but with their children pretty well grown they were beginning to think of a move away from southern California. “We hadn’t settled on a way to support ourselves,” says Ray, “but after the night at the inn we looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, this is something we could do.”