Food & Wine Pairing

Food & Wine Pairing Tool

Best Wine to Pair With Honey Baked Ham

I never knew that The HoneyBaked Ham Company had the monopoly on honey-baked hams for many years until spiral cutter inventor Harry Hoenselaar’s patent finally ran out in 1981. At that point other companies, such as Smithfield, joined the game. These other companies used cutters based on the same principle as Hoenselaar’s, creating one continuous slice around the bone. However, Hoenselaar wasn’t only known for the cutter, but he also devised a secret marinade, smoked each ham for hours over assorted hardwood chip types, then sealed the ham with his sweet, signature glaze, resulting in a crunchy, crackly wrapper. The Honey Baked Ham Company started in 1957 as one store in Detroit and has grown to over 400 stores run by his children and grandchildren.

Part II: Wine's Velvet Rope - 11 California Winery Mailing Lists to Sign Up For

by Loren Sonkin

Last month I wrote about 11 California winery mailing lists for which to sign up. That got a lot of positive feedback along with some requests for additional winery lists. Everyone really wanted to know what the up and coming wineries are and whose lists may be hard to get on in the future. While there is no telling which way the prevailing winds of taste will go, here are some more suggestions about lists that may just be filling up soon if they haven’t already.

Wine's Velvet Rope - 11 California Winery Mailing Lists to Sign Up For

by Loren Sonkin

I am often asked which wineries mailing lists I should sign up for. Before I answer that question, let’s back up a bit. What are mailing lists? They are different than wine clubs. A mailing list is an offering from a winery to buy their wines. Many wineries offer their wines to allow a consumer to buy directly from the winery. Typically, the prices are not any lower than one would find at retail and at times, they are even priced a bit higher. For the wineries, it’s a great deal as they can avoid the middleman and capture more profits from the sale of a bottle of wine. But, why would a consumer want to do this?

Sonoma’s Celebrity Wineries: Of Emmy’s, Grammy’s and Writer’s Block

by Michael Cervin

It's nice to be a celebrity - people treat you well, you get what you want, you own nice things, and you drink expensive wines. Beyond that you usually have the money to do most anything you would like, say, starting a winery for instance, so you can drink your own expensive wines. Though we have a handful of celebrity-wineries here in Santa Barbara, it is Sonoma that seems to have a lock on celebrities-turned-vignerons. A visit to the bewitching wine country of Sonoma shows the diversity of celebrity styles and their wineries, offering diverse experiences from theatrical to tranquil amid the still rural setting of the Sonoma countryside.

Chianti for Summer - The Wine List - September 2014

by Loren Sonkin

Mention Chianti to some people and the last thing they think of is a great quality wine. They remember the cheap wines in college that came in the straw basket that was better as a candle holder than a wine. Or worse, that Hannibal Lecter drank Chianti with a man’s liver and fava beans. There are, however, some really great Chianti’s. For a brief synopsis of Chianti, here is the first article I ever wrote for IntoWine.

Food & Wine Pairing