Uncorked - Stories, Secrets, Sensations

The Best Bachelorette Party Wine Gifts (That Aren't Champagne)

Champagne is the automatic bachelorette gift — which is exactly why it does almost nothing to make the weekend feel specific to the group holding the glasses. Here's what to give instead. Why the s...

What to Pour When You Pop the Question: Engagement Wine Ideas

Most proposal plans get the ring, the location, and even the photographer sorted weeks in advance — and then default to "whatever bottle's cold" for the moment right after the answer. That's the on...

Wedding Favors Your Guests Will Actually Keep: Mini Wine Bottles, Done Right

Most wedding favors share the same fate: a small trinket, a personalized matchbook, a succulent that dies within a month, all quietly binned or forgotten in a junk drawer by the following weekend. ...

Something Blue Ideas for Your Wedding (That Aren't a Garter)

The "something blue" line of the old rhyme gets outsourced to a garter more often than any other line in it — mostly because nobody's told brides there's a longer, more interesting list to choose f...

The Best Sparkling Wine for a Wedding Toast (And How to Pick One)

A wedding toast is one of the only moments at a reception where literally every glass in the room gets raised at once. That's a lot of pressure to put on a bottle most couples pick last, after the ...

How to Taste Wine Without Sounding Like You're Trying

There's a version of "wine tasting" that involves swirling, sniffing theatrically, and reaching for words like "unctuous" — and there's the version that's actually useful, which is just paying atte...

Chianti and Chocolate: An Argument For

Somewhere along the way, "red wine and chocolate" became a pairing people apologize for liking, as if it's a shortcut instead of a real choice. It isn't. Done right, Chianti and chocolate is a genu...

Three Ways to Serve Blumond Beyond the Glass

A chilled glass, poured straight, is still the best way to meet Blumond for the first time — the color needs no help, and neither does the taste. But once you're past that first pour, there's more ...

The Cheese Board That Makes Any Bottle Look Smarter

Nobody needs a cheese course education to host well — they need one board, built with a little logic, that makes whatever's open on the table look intentional. Here's the version that works almost ...