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What makes a particular wine a “top” wine? Taste? Availability? Aging potential? Price? Dare I say advertising dollars? And what makes one source more or less credible than the next? Everybody tastes wine differently, and every palate is unique, right? The best way is to graze over multiple lists and find wines that most interests you. Over time, you may find that your palate is more synonymous with one publication or another. With numerous top lists revealed in December, I thought it would be great to give readers the lowdown on many of the wines featured in Top 100 lists from national publications Wine Spectator (ws) and Wine Enthusiast (we) as well as our local expert, Paul Gregutt (pg). Wines featured in this column can be found at Leschi Market.

Buy Now! – On the pricier side, more limited, but well …

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As you search for perfect meaningful gifts for that special someone this month, let me offer a few suggestions.

Theme based wine gifts are equally as fun to assemble as they are to receive. All you need to do is choose your price point and choose your theme. A “Tour de France” package can include a wine from several different regions in France: Alsace, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Chateauneuf du Pape, Gascon, Languedoc-Roussillon, Loire, and Rhône are great starting points. These regions are so diverse themselves that you could easily choose a few wines from within each region and make an incredible package. An “Around the World” package could include a bottle from different countries: Riesling from Germany, Barbera from Italy, Tempranillo from Spain, Cabernet Sauvignon from South Africa, Malbec from Argentina or a Carmenere from Chile, for example. Domestic sets …

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The holiday season is upon us once again. Thanksgiving is a week filled with sights, scents, and memories that take us back in time. Grandma’s traditional stuffing and sweet candied yams, your Auntie’s addictive pistachio-marshmallow salad, wondering which family member will be caught tearing a piece of crispy buttery skin off the turkey before dinner and hoping someone remembered Dad’s mustard. New dishes infiltrate the tradition like warm Brie with herbed cranberry sauce and cheesy shredded potatoes. Getting hungry yet?

It is truly a meal focused on everyone’s favorite flavors while at the same time having little focus at all. What I mean by that, solely from a culinary standpoint, is that the dishes run the gamut of palate emotions, usually all at the same time: sweet, salty, rich, creamy, light, heavy, briny, herby, tangy and so forth. The most common …

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First of all I would like to thank everyone that made the Fall Tasting a huge success. Seventy wines from around the world were enjoyed while raising support for the Central Area Senior Center. Several volunteers donated their time to help set up, pour wines, and replenish snacks. I always enjoy catching up with customers as well as meeting new ones. A fun time was had by all. Thank you again for all of your help in making this event one of the best of the year.

Last year around this time we examined the age old questions heard commonly in the wine aisle: “Why is this so significantly reduced in price?” “What’s the catch?” and “What’s wrong with it?” and most importantly: “Is it any good?” With Halloween around the corner, I thought it would be a great time to …

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Now that summer has finally arrived, how do you plan to keep cool? Barbecues, picnics, and lazy weeknights at home all call for something crisply chilled, right? The regular standbys are there and will continue to be there. Over the next month or so, I challenge readers to venture outside the box and try different varietals. More off the beaten path and more obscure, these are sure to please. Trust me, it can be quite rewarding to show up with a chilled bottle of “how do you pronounce that?” when it becomes the hit of the evening! If nothing else, it’s a great icebreaker and definite conversation piece.

How do you define refreshing? Over time, in terms of wine, I have found the perfect combo residing in higher acidity levels and lower alcohol content. The higher acidity lends itself to that …