Do you have wines gathering dust on your wine rack? Here are ten great excuses to open your home, and that bottle of wine, to others this season.


Invite your coworkers over to a simple but festive meal. Bake a lasagna, toss a salad and open a few bottles of Chianti. Have everyone agree to leave work problems at the front door and talk about hobbies, brag about family and share funny or happy memories.

Celebrate a recent success with pizza and a bottle of Pinot Noir or Chianti. Meat Lover Supreme your idea of pizza? Pair your slice with a robust glass of Zinfandel!

Invite your boss or your spouse's boss over to dinner. Try a nice roast paired with a bottle of Pinot Noir.

Treat your next door neighbors to a casserole and a bottle of Oaky Chardonnay or rustic red wine and catch up on the neighborhood news.

Look up an old high school or college chum and rekindle the friendship. Laugh at how much you've both grown up (or haven't). Hearty stew goes well with a bottle of Malbec or Syrah.

Invite your son or daughter's sports coaches over for dinner, thanking them for their selfless effort.

Invite your priest or pastor over to a nice home cooked meal.

Invite the hockey crowd over and have a chicken wing party, pairing different types of wings with Merlot, Zinfandel and Syrah.

Invite your child's best friend's parents over for dinner.

Try out a new recipe on your best friend or close coworker. Drink a glass to your success, or drink two to practice making perfect.

And last but not least...

Let the kids sleep over at a friends house and make a romantic meal for just the two of you, capped off by a nice glass of wine cuddled on the couch.

Kathleen Lisson is a Certified Specialist of Wine and teaches wine classes in Albany, NY. Find wine and food pairing advice at my website: http://kathleenlisson.blogspot.com

Today, as every year in May, I sit with my wine distributors and taste rosé wines to select one for our list for the summer. We typically run rosé on the wine list starting about Memorial Day (or whenever the rosés land in the US). We do not re-order rosé after Labor Day in the fall.

For me, rosé is the quintessential patio wine: the wine I reach for on a hot day on the patio when I want something light and refreshing. My other go-to wines for hot weather are Spanish Verdejo and Argentinean Torrontés. But no matter how much I try, I cannot get customers to order rosé. My only customers who order rosé seem to be those people in the restaurant and wine businesses.

What's the matter? Have you had a miserable experience with White Zinfandel?

This year, I picked a wonderful Grenache rosé from the same cooperative that makes our Picpoul de Pinet. It stood out in a fairly broad line up of rosés for having just the right balance of fruit, nose, and dryness. When I taste, I don't look at the bottle and I don't know the price. What I do know is that I picked the least expensive rosé of the lot and my sales rep said, "Isn't it a fantastic wine?"

This just goes to show that price is not always an indicator of quality (and also why you should let your sommelier help you pick a wine, especially if you are on a budget). I picked this no-name rosé over some big names such as Tavel.

While I have your attention, a bit about how rosé is made. There are a bunch of ways, but typically red grapes are crushed and the skins are left in contact with the juice for just a couple of days, then the skins are discarded. By contrast in red wine making, the skins stay in contact with the juice throughout the fermentation process.

Some really cheap rosés are made by blending a little red wine with white wine.

Maybe this is the year that you will give rosé another chance?

contributed by Ed Matthews, Chef/Owner of One Block West Restaurant in Winchester, Virginia http://www.oneblockwest.com a fine dining restaurant in Winchester, Virginia. The restaurant's menu changes daily and showcases the bounty of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Ed Matthews is the owner and executive chef.