1 invite your guests
Six to 10 people is the ideal group for a tasting party: big enough to spark interesting conversation, but still small enough for everyone to sit around the table.

2 go shopping
Buy three or four different wines and cheeses (see pairing suggestions below). You’ll need 12 to 20 ounces of each cheese and two or three bottles of each wine. Buy cheeses no more than a day in advance so they’ll be fresh and flavorful.

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Chill sparkling wines overnight. Chill white wines two to three hours before the party (too cold kills the flavor), red wines about 30 minutes prior. “Red wines taste best at the temperature of a wine cellar–about 55 degrees, not room temperature,” says Dina Cheney, author of Tasting Club. Take cheese out of fridge one hour before the party.

3 arrange the pairings
* On a side table or counter, pair cheeses and wines in order from mildest to strongest, as shown, below left.

* Group similar cheeses on one plate (soft cheeses, goat cheeses, etc.). “Don’t crowd all the cheese together,” warns Marguerite Thomas, a writer and editor for wine-reviewonline.com, “or the flavors will get murky.”

* On folded index cards, list each cheese and its accompanying wine.

* On the dining table, put out palate cleansers (crackers, bread, water) for guests to nibble on or drink between selections, a bucket or bowl to dump extra wine into (dump at least some–the more you drink, the less you taste), and notepaper and pens so guests can jot down their thoughts and impressions.

how to taste wine
Look at it. Pour two ounces of wine into your glass. Hold glass up against a white napkin to check out its color. Often, the richness of a wine’s color will coincide with the depth of its flavor (so a full-flavored cabernet could be a deeper red than a mellower pinot noir).
Swirl it. Put glass onto a table and swirl it, firmly holding the stem, to help release the wine’s aroma. Stick your nose in the glass and smell–a lot of a wine’s flavor is in its scent.
Taste it. Take a sip and swish it around your mouth, taking in a little air (oxygen helps to release the flavors). Is the wine sweet or dry? Buttery or crisp? If it’s a red, are there tannins? (Tannins give your mouth that dried-out feel.)
Swallow it. Pay attention to the wine’s finish. Is the taste in your mouth different from when you took your first sip? And, hey, do you like this wine?

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you might taste…
• rosemary

• vanilla

• tobacco

• raspberry

• coffee

how to taste cheese
Look at it. Is the cheese smooth? Waxy? Golden? Oily? Don’t be shy–break off a small piece and feel it.
Smell it. Do you smell any herbs or flowers? Is it especially stinky?
Taste it. Take a small bite. What flavors do you taste? (Nuts? Pepper? Any of the herbs you smelled?) How’s the texture? Creamy? Rubbery? Hard?
Swallow it. Do any flavors linger in your mouth? And what’s your overall impression? Do you like it?
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you might taste…
• salt

• lemon

• sage

• hazelnut

• honey

TIP
Round cheeses are best cut in wedges.

Hard cheeses are good crumbled or broken off into chunks.

Slice block cheeses into thin rectangles.

Party on!
Go to redbookmag.com/wineandcheese for shopping recommendations, menu ideas, wine and cheese storing tips, and much more!

pairing suggestions
Sparkling wines go with mild, buttery triple-cream cheeses (St. Andre, Explorateur).

Simple, young wines (sauvignon blanc, Sancerre) go with soft, young cheeses (goat cheese).

Chardonnays and full cabernets go well with semi-soft cheeses (Brie, Camembert).

Medium-bodied reds (pinot noir, CГґtes du RhГґne) go with hard, stronger-flavored cheeses (Parmesan, GruyГЁre, aged cheddar).

Sweet/dessert wines go with pungent blue cheeses. It may sound odd, but try it!

Source: Redbook, Oct2006

1 Instead of going candy crazy all night, limit the number of houses you go to and get just a few pieces. Then settle in with friends and watch a scary movie.
2 Pace yourself by creating a schedule. For example, you can choose to eat eight pieces of candy on Halloween and then one piece a day after that until it’s all gone. Or decide that you will eat no more than three pieces a day for a week.
3 Separate your candy into three piles: what you really like, what you sort of like, and what you couldn’t care less about.В  Then give away all but the first pile.В 
4 Stay in and make your own healthy Halloween recipes with friends. Try this recipe for Bloody Finger Pizza.

You’ll need:

• chopped red bell peppers

• low-fat string cheese sticks

• cooked pizza crust

• pizza sauce

Spread pizza sauce on cooked crust. Arrange cheese sticks on the pizza. Then place bell pepper pieces at tips of cheese to look like fingernails. Heat in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until the cheese starts to melt.

Source: Current Health 1, Oct2006

• Store all candy in airtight containers (preferably in their original wrappers) in a cool, dark, dry place, like a pantry.

• Don’t mix treats that absorb moisture, such as caramels, mints and hard candies, with those that lose moisture, like fudge and creamy candies. Storing these sweets in the same container will cause the harder candies to become sticky.

• Apart from hard candy and chocolate, sweets shouldn’t be frozen. And don’t freeze any chocolate that contains fruit or nuts: A white-gray film may form on the chocolate and the cold temperatures can make the texture grainy.

• Sprinkle a spoonful of granulated (not powdered) sugar over unwrapped hard candy before storing in an airtight container. The sugar absorbs moisture, keeping the candy from becoming soft and sticky.

By: Nieburg, Nicola, Vegetarian Times, Oct2006

shrimp
NOW: For mini seafood rolls, thaw, then chop frozen cooked shrimp. Use enough mayonnaise to coat shrimp, then salt and pepper to taste. Season with fresh lemon juice. Stuff rolls, garnish with parsley.

LATER: Divide any leftover shrimp into meal-size portions while still frozen and store in freezer. To make weeknight meal prep easy, defrost and sautГ© shrimp for pasta dishes, or add to stir-fried vegetables.

eggs
NOW: A staple of easy summer entertaining, deviled eggs remain a crowd pleaser. Try jazzing up your signature recipe with chopped Spanish olives, cornichons, diced white onions, or crumbled bacon.

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LATER: Refrigerate extra hard-boiled eggs for up to one week. Eat out of hand with a sprinkle of sea salt and cayenne, slice and use to top mixed greens, or add to tuna, chicken, or potatoes for salads.

lamb chops
NOW: When purchased in bulk, mini lamb chops make for a savory, platefree appetizer for guests. Season chops with salt and pepper and chopped rosemary, then grill or broil. Serve with small napkins.

LATER: Store leftover cooked chops in refrigerator. For lunch, slice lamb from bone, stuff in pita bread, and add feta, red onion, lettuce, and tahini dressing for a Middle Eastern-style sandwich.

berries
NOW: For a light, no-fuss dessert, pair fresh berries and miniature cakes or pastries sprinkled with powdered sugar. Or. serve berries with lemon sorbet or vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of melted chocolate.

LATER: Liven up your bowl of morning cereal with a handful of leftover blueberries and raspberries or create a nutritious smoothie by blending together berries, yogurt, honey, juice. ice, and vanilla extract.

Source: Country Living, Aug2006

Size (and shape) matters! Forget about those golf ball-size glasses used in banquet halls; they’re just too small to concentrate the wine’s aromas, let alone to allow you to swirl the wine without sloshing it on your shirt. Good wineglasses are like loud-speakers – their shape, volume and rim diameter amplify a wine’s inherent qualities. The glass doesn’t change the wine itself, but rather the way we smell and taste it. Pinot noir, for example, benefits from a large bowl to capture its aromas, whereas champagne flutes are long and narrow to preserve the bubbles. The rim’s shape is important, too. Thick ones act like speed bumps in front of the mouth and don’t uniformly deliver the wine to the tongue. Thin rims spread the liquid evenly across a broad section of the palate.

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Simplify your choices Just as we’re bending traditional rules about matching food and wine nowadays, we’re also relaxing our approach to glassware-choosing what pleases us, and what’s practical. All you really need are two all-purpose styles: bordeaux glasses are the most versatile for reds, and sauvignon blanc glasses work for most whites. The bowls of each type are more narrow than a standard bar wineglass, and the rims are thin and tapered. Both types are made by leading glassware makers, including Baccarat, Schott Zwiesel, Waterford, Spiegelau and Riedel. Note: purists tend to prefer crystal because of its greater clarity, brilliance and thinness, but glass works just fine for wine and is considerably cheaper.

Wash and wear Most glass stemware can be cleaned in the dishwasher, but that kitchen companion is the worst enemy of crystal stemware: the soap will etch a fragile surface after repeated washings. Therefore, crystal glasses should always be washed by hand.

Most wine lovers prefer not to use any soap, because even the slightest residue can affect the wine. If you choose to try this method, rinse the glasses thoroughly under the hottest water possible. (The most finicky people use distilled water, as the chlorine sometimes present in tap water can also leave a taste on the glass.) Hold the bowl rather than the delicate stem or the base, because they may snap. For glasses with large bowls, use a long-stemmed brush to clean the bowl.

If you prefer to put your glass stemware in the dishwasher, look for a detergent that is gentle on glass, such as Cascade. Tip: use only half the usual amount.

In the end, most of us are more interested in the wine than the glassware. The answer to enjoying wine is crystal clear: a few good glasses and several close friends.

glass acts
• 2003 Sandhill Pinot Blanc Burrowing Owl Vineyard VQA, (British Columbia, $16) Medium-bodied with aromas of pear, melon, peach and subtle oak that pairs with white fish and chicken. Will drink beautifully from a sauvignon blanc glass.

• 2004 Caliterra Merlot (Chile, $10) Smooth, velvety texture with the aroma of plush plum. Drink it with roast pork and chicken from a bordeaux glass.

• 2002 Wyndham Estate Bin 555 Shiraz (Australia, from $16) Delicious, jammy red fruit with a coot mint aroma. Full-bodied and robust. Drink with hearty meat dishes from a bordeaux glass.

By: Maclean, Natalie, Chatelaine, Aug2006

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