Press

In my experience, wine professionals are extremely generous. Wine is all about sharing, after all, and drinking it alone can be a pretty miserable (or disconcerting) experience. Asked to donate to a charity auction, for example, wine producers and collectors tend to rally round. But there is another rather brilliant way of helping others. German superstar wine producers Klaus Peter (KP) and Julia Keller have dreamt up a way of being altruistic that could be copied by any wine producer, at minimal cost.

Along with being excellent poolside drinks, these bottles go great with a wide array of foods such as sushi and salad. They also complement acidic and smokey dishes, such as Carolina and Texas barbeque. Not to mention spicy dishes are famously balanced by sweet or off-dry wines as the residual sugar acts as a foil to the dish’s heat.

Scan the sparkling wine list at any restaurant and you’ll see a few familiar names: Champagne, Prosecco, Cava. But you probably won’t find one of Europe’s lesser known, food-friendly, and affordably-priced wines: Sekt, a sparkling wine from Germany and Austria.

Non-alcoholic beverages are leading an industry-shifting movement. With all the solid alcohol-free and low-alcohol options out there, hangovers can truly be a thing of the past. Whether you prefer to abstain from alcohol for pregnancy, health, religious, or other preference-based reasons, there’s no shortage of alcohol-free wines to keep you in high spirits (pun intended).

A truly versatile wine—one that pairs as harmoniously with tuna crudo as with steak—is a sommelier’s best friend. Confronted daily with the task of matching a table of diners with the right bottle to complement a wide range of flavors, the pros rely on wines that have a lot of flexibility and crowd appeal. Wine Spectator asked eight leading wine directors to share the wines they turn to when the menu selections—and wine drinkers’ palate preferences—run the gamut.

Last summer, floods inundated western Germany, killing nearly 200 people and devastating the Ahr Valley. Local winemakers whose vines were decimated raised money by selling “flood wines” – bottles whose labels were soiled by mud. The effort has raised $5 million to support the local industry, and raised awareness about winemaking in the region. Correspondent Seth Doane reports.