Bianchi Wine & Tasting Room

Where Should You Store Your Wine at Home?

After you return home from your Paso Robles winery tours, you will probably have some souvenir wines that you want to store for just the right occasion. Proper wine storage is a must for aging wines, and it will help you get the best qualities out of every bottle you keep.

This video discusses some wine storage basics to teach viewers where wines will be safest in the home. The biggest rule to remember is that heat and light are wine’s worst enemies. Therefore, the kitchen is often not a great place to store wine unless you have low, dark, and cool cabinets away from appliances that produce heat. Closets and basements are much better areas for wine storage, so look to these spaces when you are keeping wines at home.

To plan your trip to Paso Robles, start with Bianchi Winery and Tasting Room, where you can take in amazing scenery while enjoying some of the best wines from the region. Contact us to start organizing your winery tour by visiting our website or by calling us at (805) 835-4321

Tips for Pairing Wine and Meat

Sitting down to an elegant meal is a much more satisfying experience when you have a carefully selected wine to enhance the flavors of your food. When you are selecting wine for a main course, pairing the wine to the meat is generally best, and you can do this by following the guidelines below.

Don’t fear red wines:

The classic rule of pairing red wine with red meat, and white wine with poultry and fish, does not have to hold you back in your pairing selections. You can choose a bright, vibrant red wine like Merlot to pair with fish, and almost any red wine can be paired harmoniously with chicken. If you want to step out of the red wine and red meat tradition, you can pair filet mignon with a fruity Riesling if you top the meat with earthy mushrooms or a creamy herb sauce.

Pair full-bodied wine with bolder flavors:

You should save your big, bold Cabernets and Zinfandels for nights when you serve meat that can stand up to these full-bodied heavy hitters. Lamb is excellent with fruity, high-tannin reds that might overpower lighter dishes, and beef is always a great pairing for peppery, herbal red wines like Syrah and Zinfandel.

Use sweetness with caution:

While sweeter white wines like Moscato and Riesling can be excellent with chicken, fish, and even some beef dishes, they may not be appropriate for all white wine pairings. Eating pork is an example of when sweet white wine may be overwhelming to the palate, because pork already has a bit of subtle sweetness. Dry white wines like Pinot Grigio are typically a safer choice for pairing.

To find all the right wines for your favorite meat dishes, browse the selection of Signature and Heritage wines available from Bianchi Winery and Tasting Room. Start shopping for wines on our website or call (805) 835-4321 to plan a visit to our tasting room where you can get more expert tips on creating delicious pairings with our wines.

Learn More About Wine At These Sites

If you want more background information on where your favorite wines come from and tasting tips to help you enjoy them, browse the recommended links below. For a hands-on experience to boost your wine knowledge, schedule a visit to the Tasting Room at Bianchi Winery. Contact us to plan your visit by going to our website or calling (805) 835-4321.

Visit Snooth.com for a look at some chocolate and wine pairings that are sure to please your senses.

Wine Spectator explores the turbulent history of Merlot production in California wineries.

This article from the Discovery Channel offers a deeper description of the winemaking process.

Learn about the soil and climate found in Paso Robles vineyards with this article from the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance.

MusingsOnTheVine.com describes terroir and its importance in viticulture.

The Art of Pairing Wine and Chocolate

Chocolate and wine seem like a natural match for decadent pairings that can turn a wine tasting into a whole new experience for your palate. However, finding the right chocolate to go with the wines you are sampling can take a little more finesse than you might expect. Chocolate is a tricky pairing for wine, because it features its own subtle flavors, bitterness, and acidity that can alter the taste of tannins and fruit tones in your wines. When you find the right pairings, you will be pleased with the resulting flavors, but there may be some trial and error in choosing the right matches. Here are some tips to help you get the pairing just right:

Start out light:

If you begin tasting with a bold, bittersweet dark chocolate, it would be like starting a wine tasting with a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon. You will overwhelm your taste buds and reduce your palate’s sensitivity to the more subtle flavors of lighter chocolate options. Build up to dark chocolate in your pairings, starting with sweeter milk and white chocolates.

Beware of tannin:

While it is perfectly acceptable to pair high-tannin wines with chocolate, you should be aware of the effect this will have on the tannins. Because you will not want the wine to overpower the chocolate, you should choose a bitter chocolate for the pairing. This will mute the tannins in the wine, allowing the fruitier, sweeter notes to show through.

Mix and match:

As you get used to some of the more standard pairings like milk chocolate and dessert wine, dark chocolate and full-bodied reds, and white chocolate with fruity white wines, you can branch out for more creative combinations. While not all pairings will work harmoniously, it can be fun and exciting to test the waters yourself instead of going with the typical suggestions.

If you are planning your own chocolate and wine tasting event at home, stock up on wines from Bianchi Winery and Tasting Room in Paso Robles by calling us at (805) 835-4321 or visiting our website. Join our wine club for excellent deals on our wines delivered straight to your home.

Learn How to Decant Your Wines with this Helpful Video

Decanting wine is a process that allows the wine to breathe so that its more delicate flavors have an opportunity to show through when you taste it. Typically, decanting is most beneficial for aged red wines that have sediment in them that can damage the flavor.

To try decanting your wine at home, follow the simple steps seen in this video. Decanting is easy, requiring only about 30 minutes to let the wine fully breathe and develop its flavors out of the bottle.

For a look at some wines you “decant” live without, visit Bianchi Winery and Tasting Room on our website or call us at (805) 835-4321. We are a Paso Robles winery, featuring some of the best wines the area has to offer along with a beautiful lakeside tasting room fit for an afternoon of leisure.