A-Z Wine - How To Taste Wine Like A Pro

Easy Baked Salmon with Red Wine Sauce

2007-12-03T21:33:00.001-08:00

One of the easiest ways to bake salmon is to pan fry it briefly before putting it in the oven. Baked salmon receipes cooked this way are quick and easy. An easy baked salmon recipe just right for a mid week supper after work or as part of a dinner with friends. Try this baked salmon fillet recipe served with an unusual red wine sauce.

Ingredients - serves 6

* 6 x 150g/5oz Salmon Fillets, skin on
* 2 finely diced shallots
* 450ml/14floz full bodied red wine such as a Bordeaux
* 250g/8oz unsalted butter, diced
* Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
* Olive oil

Method

Prepare the Red Wine sauce first.

Pour the wine into a pan with the diced shallots. Bring to the boil and reduce until you have about 3 tablespoons. Turn the heat down to low and whisk in the diced butter until it becomes emulsified with the red wine reduction, don' let it boil. Season with salt to taste and take off the heat.

The sauce can be reheated gently when needed.

The Salmon

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan with an ovenproof handle over a high heat.

Cut 3 diagonal slashes into the skin of each salmon fillet, brush with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Tip! Still under the influence of the aromas you've inhaled in step II, take a sip of the wine. Don't make it too big or too small.

Place the salmon skin side down in the frying pan and sear for 3 or 4 minutes. When golden brown, turn over and quickly cook for 30 seconds. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for about 6 minutes or until done to your liking. Try not to overcook the baked salmon or it will be dry and tasteless.
Tip! Meeting challenges threats more actively and invent new ideas to make Napa Wine popular.

Serve the salmon skin side up with the warm red wine sauce poured around it and a simple salad or steamed French beans on the side.

And there you have it, a healthy, quick, easy baked salmon dish with very little washing up - my kind of cooking.
Tip! Color - Take a look. View the wine, examine its color.

Cherie is a freelance cook, cookery writer and webmaster. For more great salmon recipes including how to smoke, grill, bake and poach Salmon and for quick and easy recipes using canned salmon, click here - http://www.great-salmon-recipes.com. Read more about her - http://www.great-salmon-recipes.com/Website.html

Sole Poached in White Wine: Worthy of Monet's Table

2007-12-03T21:32:00.002-08:00

Impressionist painter Claude Monet ate his main meal at 11:30 a.m. so he could take advantage of the afternoon light. Monet would get upset if his talented cook, Marguerite, served the meal a few minutes late. Author Claire Joyes and photographer Jean-Bernard Naudin document the artist's love of food in "Monet's Table: The Cooking Journals of Claude Monet," one of the most beautiful cook books ever published.

In the 1880s nobody thought about dieting, Joyes explains, and Monet ate what he wanted and all he wanted. Photos show an aging Monet becoming a rotund Monet. He loved simple, good food and, above all, fresh food from his gardens and farm yard. Fellow artists - Whistler, Cezanne, Rodin and others - were often invited for lunch. Guests were never invited for dinner because Monet went to bed early.

Monet adored fresh fish, especially pike from his fish pond. The cook book has lots of fish recipes, including Filet de sole a la Veron. The fish sauce - egg yolks, fish broth, wine, butter and herbs - is made first. Then the fish is dredged in flour and melted butter and broiled.

Today, many of us are eating healthier and this recipe for Sole Poached in White Wine is not only healthy, it's a one-pan recipe and you can make it in 15 minutes. Pair the fish with crusty bread, a green salad, and fresh fruit and you have a fabulous French meal. Serve the meal on blue and white plates and you'll feel like you're sitting at Monet's table.
Tip! Still under the influence of the aromas you've inhaled in step II, take a sip of the wine. Don't make it too big or too small.

INGREDIENTS: 1 1/2 pounds sole, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 medium onion (chopped), 1 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon lemon pepper, 1 garlic clove (peeled), 3/4 cup chopped canned tomatoes (drained), 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, 1/4 cup dry white wine, 1/4 cup fat free half and half, 1 tablespoon soft butter, 1 tablespoon Wondra flour

METHOD: Pour olive oil into skillet. Saute onions in oil until soft. Add salt, lemon pepper, and garlic clove. Lay fish on top of onions. Scatter chopped tomatoes and parsley over fish. Pour wine around fish. Cover loosely with foil and cook over medium heat 5-10 minutes, or until fish flakes with a fork. Remove foil and garlic clove. Drizzle half and half into sauce. Work flour into butter and stir into sauce. Cook over medium heat, shaking the pan a bit, until sauce has thickened. Makes 4 servings.

Copyright 2006 by Harriet Hodgson.

http://www.healthwriter.blogspot.com
Tip! A third alternative is to pump out the air in the bottle with a “wine pump.” You can get a wine pump virtually anywhere these days, even in stores such as Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Linens and Things.

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 27 years and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Before she became a health writer she was a food writer for the former "Rochester Magazine" in her home town of Rochester, MN. Her 24th book, "Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief," written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from http://www.amazon.com A five-star review of the book is also posted on Amazon.

Direct Mail Marketing and Wine Labels - What's Your Big Idea?

2007-12-03T21:32:00.001-08:00

Not long ago, I read that well-known California winemaker Rodney Strong had passed away. While recounting his professional career, the article cited Strong's innovative direct mail marketing tactics.

An excerpt:

"Strong developed a marketing strategy that involved direct mail in which he offered to sell wine with a buyer's individual information on the label - 'From the wine cellar of so-and-so,' or 'A gift from such-and-such corporation'."  
Tip! Taste. Finally, taste the wine.

The program continues to this day, as living testament to its effectiveness.

That story got me thinking about the way we market our products and services in relation to their uniqueness.

For instance:

Why do so many companies today waste time and money marketing average products and services to hard-to-impress consumers? Why don't more companies follow the Rodney Strong model (remarkable product / service idea first; marketing second)?
Tip! Color - Take a look. View the wine, examine its color.

Marketing the Remarkable Rodney Strong took something simple but interesting -- personalized wine labels -- and made it available to his audience. Why was it so popular? Because nobody else was doing it at the time. Rodney gambled on an idea, and it worked. He made something that was remarkable to his customers. Then, all he had left to do was tell them about it (in this case through direct mail), and they asked for it by the thousands!

Here's the idea again:

Come up with a remarkable product or service, and then start telling people about it. Word-of-mouth will take it from there.

How Do You Measure Up? If you struggle when creating your direct mail message, it might indicate that your product or service could use a shot of "the old remarkable."

Or think of it this way...

If you stripped away all the marketing glitz and set your product on a shelf by itself (or described your service on a plain piece of paper) -- would it seem remarkable? Would it impress members of your target audience? Or, are you relying on your marketing to add the pizzazz?
Tip! Swirl – I am quite sure you have seen diners swirling their glasses of wine at least somewhere once. This step is integral to the art of smelling as swirling acts as a catalyst in releasing the wine's bouquet.

Instead of struggling to promote something average, dig deep to find the above-average aspect of what you're selling. If there isn't such an aspect ... go back to the drawing board and make one.

* You may republish this article in its entirety as long as you include the byline and author's note. If publishing online, please leave the hyperlinks active.

About the Author Brandon Cornett is the editor of PostcardSmart.com, the Internet's largest website dedicated entirely to direct mail marketing with postcards. For more expert articles on postcard marketing, visit http://www.PostcardSmart.com.

Marketing to the Affluent - with Wine

2007-12-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

With its association to an affluent, sophisticated lifestyle, wine can make a good accompaniment when marketing to an affluent audience. However, I am not talking here about ordering expensive wine at a client diner. Wine can be used more creatively and productively to connect to this target audience.

For example, wine proved to be a powerful marketing element for a startup magazine targeting an audience that is personally affluent and controls an enormous amount of money.

BuySide magazine is a publication for institutional investors and money managers. When it was first conceived, it had to overcome what seemed to be a big drawback. Its founder, Gordon Holmes, lived in Sonoma, California, and insisted that the magazine be based near his home, far away from both the financial and media centers in New York.
Tip! Commitment to the future development of Napa Valley's land, wine and society.

In discussions with Holmes, I discovered that Holmes' insistence on basing his operations in Sonoma was not just a whim or a wish to have a short commute to work. It turns out that five generations of his family had been involved in California agriculture and he was passionate about California wine and wine-growing.

I made a decision to turn BuySide's remoteness from financial and media centers of action into a positive. His location in California's wine country would become part of the magazine's positioning.
Tip! Look. They say you can tell a lot about a wine just by the way it looks.

The first step was to create a private label BuySide Wine. In a deal with local wineries, we were able to source a sufficient amount of BuySide Merlot and Chardonnay. A special wine bottle label was designed to reflect the unique story of this boutique wine.

Next, a direct mail campaign was developed using wine as a theme and Buyside wine as a premium. The campaign was aimed at advertisers and companies that wanted to reach the magazine's audience of institutional investors.

The chief element of the direct mail campaign was a brochure. The reader was immediately confronted with a stark, bold headline on the front of the brochure:
Tip! Low Tannins vs High Tannins: Tannins are a vital ingredient in wines, especially red wines. It comes from the stalks, skins and pips of grapes.

"WHERE DO YOU GO TO TALK TO INVESTORS WITH $TRILLIONS TO INVEST? When the brochure was opened, the inside headline provided the answer: "TO THE WINE COUNTRY"

On the left side of the inside page, we developed a fanciful photo that conveyed the message we wanted: In the photo, Holmes was wearing a suit and holding a cellphone, sitting at a desk which had a computer on top of it, in the middle of a winery. Next to the desk was a street sign that said "Wall Street." The other side of the page told the story of Buyside and how it reached this affluent, influential audience of institutional investors. The copy also directed readers to an offer in the back.

As part of the offer, companies that responded to the mailing would receive a free bottle of BuySide wine—white or red.

The mailing and promotion powered the magazine to success far ahead of schedule. But wine proved to be more than a launching pad in a direct mail campaign. It became part of the magazine's positioning, separating it from the competition. The wine angle proved powerful for years to come. At money management conferences, where wine was given out at BuySide's booth, people would come into the conference and ask ‘Where are the wine guys?" Everyone knew what they meant.
Tip! A second option is to transfer the remaining wine to a half-bottle (375ml) and put it in the fridge. Doing this eliminates most of the air that would normally come in contact with the wine in a standard-size bottle (750ml).

While developing a private label wine may not be for everyone, there are other ways to use wine creatively in affluent marketing. Wine tastings, and food and wine get-togethers have been used successfully by professionals seeking to market their services to an affluent audience. But like wine itself, it takes taste and sophistication to make it work.
Tip! Decide beforehand if you will do wine tasting or not.

Leon Altman is the founder of InvestingIN.com (http://www.InvestingIN.com), a website that provides articles and newsletters about opportunities in different areas. To sign up for any of its free newsletters, go to http://www.investingin.com/freenewsletters.htm.

Success is Like Wine

2007-12-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

If you have been searching for ways to make money online I'm sure you have come across many "get rich schemes". These are everywhere. The only person who gets rich is the one who created the scheme and only for a short while before that person gets caught. You should think to your self, if all of these schemes worked, then everyone would be making a lot of money online.

Instant gratification is something that most people want. I know, because I have been there. I have spent money on products that I thought would make me money quickly. Of course none of them gave me the money in the time they said they could. If you want instant gratification play the lotto and hope to get lucky, that's the only way to make money pretty much instantly. For the rest of us we need to remember that having an online business or just making money online can take a little while.

The first thing anyone wanting to make money online should put on his or her goal/to-do list, is to be patient. That's the one thing people forget about when trying to make money online, is that it wont come instantly. This could make you a lot of money in the future. Just stick to what ever you are doing, this plus hard work should get you to the financial goals you want.

I like to think of success as wine. Would you drink wine right after it was made? Maybe, but it wouldn't taste as good as if it were aged for a while. This is true for success online and offline. Success takes time as does wine, so I like to live be this saying that I thought of: Success is like wine, it takes time to be great.
Tip! Short Palate vs Long Palate: The 'length' of a wine is the amount of time the sensations of taste and aroma persist after swallowing. Usually, the longer the better.

Travis Werbelow is the owner of http://www.youngnetprenuer.com, and can give you more information about making money online and at home. While you are there be sure to sign up for his newsletter, you will get a Free Secrets To Success Report, plus hundreds of tips to make money online and at home.