It seems to be in our nature to want things to be constant. If you buy a bottle of wine and enjoy it, you might want to experience that pleasure again, maybe even share it with friends, but you ...
I love German wines. It's bad, really bad. If this was high school I'd be scribbling, “Justin loves Riesling,” in the margins of all my notebooks and have a picture of the Mosel valley taped to the ...
Have You Ever Dunked your Oreo in a Glass of Sherry?
Last week, I received my study material for Fine Vintage's WSET Level 3 certification course, which I'll be immersed in for six days. The textbook opens up with a foreward by Jancis Robinson, the ...
Baby, It’s Freezing Outside: 5 Kitchen Hacks to Warm Up Your Winter
By this point in 2019, I don’t need to preach to you about the misery of winter in Chicago. Even though this isn’t my first frigid rodeo, something about this winter feels more painful than the past ...
Riesling is a hard sell. In the time I've worked at The Chopping Block, I've seen two types of Riesling drinkers come through the store: wine novices and wine experts, but there's a whole sea of ...
Not long ago, the only cheese in America was sliced onto rye, melted into macaroni or spritzed from an aerosol can. Today, artisan cheeses are tended by trained cheese mongers at specialty shops; ...
5 Wines and What We’re Eating with Them this Summer
The days of showing up with a six pack of Bud Light and a half-eaten box of pizza are over. As we age, there’s a new obligation to bring something exciting. Something sophisticated. Something that ...
Last week, a co-worker came to me after one of our wine classes and asked if I thought appellations really matter. Apparently, it was a topic of discussion during class and there had been good points ...
