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Rank the United States holds among export markets for Champagne. Only the United Kingdom is a larger export market for Champagne. Champagne sales in the U.S. have increased for six years in a row. Last year, we drank 23.7 million bottles and spent $652 million on France’s finest bubbly. (At KM & Co., we’re pretty sure we account for some of that increase).

You should rinse your glass with water between wines at a tasting.

Answer: False.

Although it may be tempting to rinse your glass with water between wines when you are at a wine tasting, doing so is actually counterproductive. Even a little leftover water in the glass will dilute a wine, making it taste unbalanced and discombobulated. If you think the next wine will be influenced by the previous wine, the best bet is to rinse your glass with a few drops of the wine to come. Interestingly, in Italy they don’t consider a washed glass prepared to even receive wine until they (as I like to think of the ritual) “baptize” it with rinse wine, a process known as avvinare i bicchieri (ah-vee-NAH-reh ee bee-kee-AIR-reh). There is one big exception to the “rinsing with wine” idea. If a wine is flawed, it’s best to abandon that glass altogether and proceed with a new, fresh glass for the next wine.

Move Over Pinot Noir

You’d think all grape names were known by now, given that 5,000 to 10,000 grape varieties are thought to exist. Of course, some varieties exist only as part of scientific collections, and some varieties are… Continue reading

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