Whether your great love is a plate of fiery Mexican food or deliciously hot Indian cuisine, finding the right wine to match can often be a challenge.  Spicy foods often drown out anything and everything else you hope to eat or drink, which is why making the right choice can often seem impossible.  But there is hope.

A wine with some blush can use its light, fruity flavors to help calm the fire.  Consider Sangria for a moment and its popularity in certain Latin locations.  Suddenly blush wines sound like a fine choice.  With a little bit of sweetness, a little bit of dryness, you can make some wonderful matches with your fiery friends.

If you’re thinking about popping the cork on that red wine, hold off until you have a less spicy food to eat.  Reds tend to be heavier, which is why focusing your choices on young reds like Pinot Noir and Zinfandels are smart moves.  Milder flavors and reds won’t clash, and it’s always a good idea to have the wine chilled first.

Dry white wines like Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Soave, and Riesling are all able to tackle spicy foods, particularly chicken and seafoods like fish and shellfish.  Because you want to keep your drink light, aim for young wines.

Whoever said that you can’t pair wine with fish?  Live fish, that is.  If you ever want to bring together a fine bottle of wine and the great outdoors, there are plenty of ways to do it.  From visiting parks to taking a great fishing trip with fine wine involved, wine never tasted better than when returned to where it began, out in the open in the sun and fresh air.

Outdoor Wine Adventures is just one place that offers fantastic wine trips to various locales.  The most recent being a trip with three popular Napa and Sonoma wineries in Colorado for several days of fly-fishing and wine drinking.  Called “Wine on the Fly,” it includes everything from fishing and wine tasting to riverside lunches and simply drifting down the river enjoying all that nature has to offer.

Other outdoor wine fun can come from simple outdoor affairs hosted by wine bars, wineries, and other people who are interested in bringing wine back outside for people to enjoy.  If you don’t want to head into the mountains or stroll through a vineyard, try looking up an outdoor wine bar where you can kick back, people watch, and sip a lovely glass of your favorite wine.

Portugal lies right next to Spain with the Atlantic Ocean lapping at its shores.  Portugal has several wine regions that all produce unique blends that range from cheap and immediate to expensive and aged well.  When examining the different regions in Portugal, some people tend to split up the country to separate northern regions from the central and southern regions.  The different regions tend to keep their focus on specific wines with different goals.

In the north, high-quality is the word of the day, ensuring that each bottle is of a fine quality that will leave people immensely pleased after a glass.  In the central and southern areas, the focus is more on wine that is available sooner and more affordable.  That means more bottles each year for people to enjoy.  However, it doesn’t mean the wine is any less tasty!  A trip to Portugal means taking a quick peek at the lush rolling vineyards terraced in the sides of steep banks.  Find yourself a spot for a fantastic overlook no matter which region you visit.

White wines are not all created equal.  Certain white wines will remain in the cellar for a long time before they peak and are suitable for drinking.  Others peak rather early, making for a tasty bottle without all of the waiting.  So which bottles are ready to go and which ones need some time alone?

Pinot Grigio needs only a year or so before it’s ready to be poured into your glass.  Though it is important to remember that this does not necessarily mean all Pinot Grigio bottles, it does include a large majority of them.

Chardonnays need only a year or two more than Pinot Grigio.  These tend to include the bottles that don’t cost an arm and a leg; if you spot one of those, it may have remained in the cellar a bit longer.

Grüner Veltliner wine takes things up a notch, needing as much as eight years before its release to the public.

Cru Chablis rolls right off the tongue, however, if you want the wine to roll off your tongue, the wait can be as much as a decade.

At the longest timeframe of twenty or potentially even more years is the Auslese Riesling.  They don’t call Riesling one of the noble grapes for nothing!

A wine lover can never have too many bottles of delightful wine.  Nor can they have too many quality books about wine.  The more you know, the better you will be able to discern among good wines and how to best taste them and pair them, as well as some of the greatest places to visit.  Here are a few books that you may want to consider adding to your library.

Wine (101 Essential Tips Series) by Tom Stevenson – If you’re just starting out on your wine journey, this can be a handy book to have.  Each tip is simple and straight to the point, making learning about wine easy.

House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler – In the Napa Valley, the Mondavi family works to create wine for an expanding country.  The story begins in 1906 when Cesare Mondavi came to America from Italy and continues on for four generations with plenty of drama to be had.

Oz Clarke: Grapes & Wines: A Comprehensive Guide to Varieties and Flavours by Oz Clarke and Margaret Rand – If you want to delve deeper into the wines you love and even some you may have yet to try, this new book is full of exactly that.  Learn all about the grapes and the wines they make in glorious detail.

Though “Southern Region” isn’t the official name of the area in the United States where wine is made, it can be used to cover several states:

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

While most of these states do have a handful of wineries, a few have more than others.  This is often due to climate as well as the market for the vineyards.  North Carolina has several counties that feature wineries.  It may surprise some people, but so does Texas.  If you aren’t sure where to go in the Southern Region, you have several options available.  Many states have their own websites featuring their wine growing hotspots, such as Winesocietyoftexas.org or Georgiawinecountry.com.  But you can also use wine guides from bookstores that feature locations throughout the country.  If you happen to be in the state you want to tour, check bookstores’ local sections to see if there are any books or guides available that will tell you all about the area and the vineyards you can visit.

Despite the fact that Pinot Noir is a difficult grape to grow, its popularity has pushed vineyards onward to find ways to best handle its difficulties.  Of course, weather plays a large part in the way that this little grape ripens and tastes in the end.  Small crops are most popular; if the grapes don’t get enough heat during the season, they produce a weak wine.  However, if the season is too warm, wines can taste a little too ripe.  Pinot Noir grapes thrive best when the nights are cool and the days are pleasantly warm.

At first, when people first glance at the Pinot Noir, they assume it makes a red wine.  While this is true in some cases, it can also be used to make white wines and even sparkling wines such as Champagne.  However, it is the color of the skins and not the grape flesh itself that gives a wine its color.  When a vineyard wants to make a red wine, they include the skins during the process.  If not, then the Pinot Noir skins are discarded early on, leaving only the fleshy fruit of the grape to determine the wine’s coloring.

Not everyone can go out and buy dozens of books about wine every year.  Likewise, when wine guides and other local books full of wine information come out with updates, making your old guide obsolete, it can be frustrating.  That’s what makes the internet such a fantastic resource.  You can always find up-to-date information on all things wine, whether you want information for your particular area or for locations across the globe.  Try visiting a few of these websites and see what they can do for you:

LocalWineEvents.com – A great place to see all sorts of different wine-related events across the country or internationally.  There are hundreds of great events to visit, whether it’s right in your own backyard or across the ocean.

WineSpectator.com – If you want a professional’s advice about wine, this is the place to virtually taste it.  This is the online component to the popular magazine, so if you don’t feel like subscribing, you can always visit this site for some of the latest juicy bits about wine.

WineRelease.com – A unique website, its focus is on the release of new wines each month.  They provide you with its information, such as name, location, price, and year.  You can also sign up for their monthly newsletter to always be in the know when it comes to newly released wines.

The Northeastern Region of the United States often experiences cooler weather, which can be hard on some grape varieties.  However, that hasn’t stopped vineyards from popping up in just about every state.  The Northeast consists of eleven states.  New York used to be a high producer of wine, but it has declined over the years.  Still, there are several vineyards that make their home in the more open areas of the state.

Other states also include vineyards that can be relatively easy to find using a simple guidebook or by going online and doing a quick search.  By just combining the name of the state you want to visit and “vineyard,” you will quickly find just about all the potential places you could go.  Vermont alone yields over twenty results, which can give you plenty to choose from on your next trip!

Even if you don’t find any specific vineyards you want to see, there are a number of bars you can visit that serve fine wines from around the country and across the globe.

Sulphite naturally occurs in wine during the fermentation process.  Every wine will contain at least some amount of sulphite.  Sulphites are compounds that are made up of sulfur and oxygen.  As grape juice slowly turns into alcohol, sulphites are often a by-product.  There are other times when winemakers will actively add sulfur dioxide into grapes that have been freshly pressed in order to help preserve it.  This is because there are times when bacteria and other natural elements are with the grapes as they are pressed and can potentially compromise the freshness of the wine.

Overall, sulphites in the bottle won’t do you any harm.  They are simply involved so that wine remains as fresh as possible.  Today, the winemaking process is more advanced than it used to be, so even less is needed.  The United States does have regulations that require wines to have warning labels if sulphites are in excess of ten parts per million.