It’s not every day that a 4-year-old celebrates a birthday with wine. But running a thriving wine shop in the heart of Chicago for four years is something to toast. And as icing on the cake, Just Grapes learned today that the Wall Street Journal’s wine pros chose assistant manager Maggie Smith’s pick as their [...]

Our own Maggie Smith, Assistant Manager of Just Grapes is featured in today’s wine column of the Wall Street Journal and featured wine video.  See Maggie’s food pairing suggestion for Lamb Chops, the Consilience Syrah, Santa Barbara County.

You can drink your favorite blood-red bottle with your secret stash of dark chocolate M&M’s on Halloween. At the party, just tell them all it’s the NV Black Chook Sparkling Shiraz. They’ll never guess from the looks of this dark, frothy bubbly. Maybe you prefer something as evil as you. A swig of the 2007 Evil [...]

Ever watch a sommelier swish and gargle his wine like a swig of Scope? That’s because different parts of your mouth sense different things about your wine. Alcohol, tannins, acidity, sugar—these are the elements with which a winemaker crafts his creation. Ideally, they’re so balanced that you don’t even think about them. But a professional taster senses their levels individually [...]

The news media has been abuzz over the past two days about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s $150,000 hair and wardrobe makeover. At least the wine that shares her name is only $17.99 a bottle. 2006 Palin Syrah Limari Valley Chile is not made by or for Sarah Palin. It’s a reference to a traditional Chilean [...]

A popular interior design show recently aired an episode in which the typically-challenged homeowner needed help making over her kitchen. The designer of the day was unveiling the results, demonstrating wonderful space-saving techniques such as the new wine rack installed ABOVE THE CONVECTION OVEN. If you tuned in here yesterday, you’ll recall that wine is sensitive [...]

Popular wisdom says that red wines are to be served at room temperature. If that were the case at my house, my Carménère would be breaking a sweat. It’s a toasty 70 degrees in here at the moment (hey—it’s damp outside today), which is far too warm for any wine. Room temperature used to be [...]

This is the pomace from red wine fermentation that is made up of the skins, seeds, stems of red wine.  once the juice has been pressed away from these solids, the pomace is sold off to goats farm as feed.

Unless you’ve won some contests involving watermelon seeds, you play pro baseball or you indulge in smokeless tobacco, spitting likely is not something you’re very good at. As a kid, I did my darndest to spit and to whistle with no success at either, much to the dismay of my male cousins. We’ve all been well-trained—when [...]

This is some grapes that have gone through their primary fermentation and are being dropped in the bladder press to remove some additional juice.  This “pressed” juice will be handled separately and will generally provide structure and backbone to the final blend.