Mystery tasting brings to mind the richness of Greek wines
Mary Earl
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One hot summer night, a wine friend dropped by with a glint in his eyes and a bottle of wine in a brown paper bag. He gave me these clues. It was from a country he had never had wine from before and the grape started with A.
I tasted it and got it right on the third guess. It helped that I grew up in Chicagoland just a train ride from Greektown.
With over 700-plus wineries, 28 appellations, four primary wine regions, and around 350 native varietals with impossible-to-pronounce names, Greece has a lot to bring to the table, but its biggest asset is innovation.
Bubbles in beverages: Carbonation at the root of popular seltzers, water
Mary Earl
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Saturday afternoon, June 26, when the temperature reached 99, the house was a cool 73. Wine did not appeal to me, no matter how cold it was. I wanted tiny bubbles to refresh me. So, curtains drawn and doors closed, I hid inside and consumed a half-case of sparkling water and a frosty can of beer.
But I did not completely abandon wine. My novel approach for the next four days was sipping those sparkling waters from a wine glass. That made me happy, hydrated and curious about the history of CO2 and how it shaped the beverage industry and led to the rising popularity of hard seltzers.