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  • The Chopping Blog

Mary Ross

Mary Ross
Mary Ross is an internationally-recognized wine and food professional, educator and journalist. Read more about Mary at http://www.thechoppingblock.com/meet-our-sommelier.

Recent Posts

Holiday Wine Shopping

You may not know what you’ll be drinking this holiday season, but your wine merchant does.

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Wine & Cheese: Culinary Heaven or Eden?  You Decide

You say you adore sea salt caramels and suppose it’s because they’re just so darn delicious! Sort of. In fact, we’re hard wired to crave the nutritional necessities of salt, sugar and fat in modern ...

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Pink Wine So Fine

Rosè wine sales are down, and that’s fine by me. Don’t get me wrong: I love a rosè and a nosh at the end of a day, a rich Spanish rosado to wash down barbeque, an elegant rosè Champagne to enhance a ...

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The Nose Knows: The Remarkable Power of Smell

Here’s one of my aha! moments with wine: I’m a young sommelier, tasting a Gewurztraminer for placement on my wine list. With my nose deep in the glass, I sniff - and poof! In an instant, I’m ...

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How to Host a Wine Tasting at Home

A wine tasting at home is a fun and unique way to entertain. It requires some organization and some ground rules, but you may be surprised by the benefits!

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Not Too Sweet: Pairing Sweeter Wine with Food

‘Sweet’ or ‘sour’ was how customers ordered wine from my dad, when he sold his first bottle one minute after the Repeal of Prohibition.

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White Burgundy Added to Stellar Class and Wine List

You may hear it in the air: birds chirping, breeze in the trees, and wine pros everywhere slurping, spitting and scratching in their notebooks. Because if it’s Spring, it’s time for wine list ...

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Welcome Spring with Wine and Asparagus

While Spring busts out all over so does my favorite vegetable – asparagus.

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There’s a Riesling for Everything

There were all of three sommeliers in Chicago back in the 1980’s, but we were a feisty bunch and took on the challenge of getting our customers to enjoy dry Rosè with the gusto of their European ...

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Wine Vocabulary 201

A wine vocabulary helps you communicate aspects that you enjoy in wine and maybe some you don’t. Most modern winespeak is easy, such as the term ‘rich’, meaning a wine that’s rich in flavor and ...

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