WE TAKE CARE OF THE TRADE! Do you make your living in a wine-pouring capacity--as a server, banquet manager, or within the wine distribution chain? If so, we have preferential pricing on all of our events & courses for YOU! Please contact us and state your professional affiliation for a promotional code you can use anytime.

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Jane's Monthly Dozen Tasting: Australia
Tuesday, May 20th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Hosted by: Jane Garvey

Eight 90+ point wines are chosen (along with food pairings) to show the diversity of Australia. These wines were chosen from the April Wine Review.

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World of Reds!
Thursday, May 22nd (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Speaker: Kelly Wheeler

World of Reds takes guests through nine (9) wines, all RED, spanning the globe. These classes are great for gaining familarity with new wines, as well as understanding how wine styles and selections are impacted by region and climate. The wines selected average around $25/bottle retail, thus a little higher than most people's "everynight" wine choice.

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Certified Specialist of Wine Training Program
Sunday, June 1st (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructor: Michael Bryan

Get the confidence that comes with having a "wine expert" credential. Includes 18 hours of training sessions, 250-page Study Guide, online study modules, quizzes, and exam. >>>> More Info (Discounts for Trade Personnel)

For Beginners ONLY
Wednesday, June 11th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructor: Michael Bryan or Kelly Wheeler

Sure you can drink it, but can you pair it? Can you speak it? Come to terms with it in a special tasting that helps you express yourself in the world of wines. Don't be left standing there holding the bottle--get more confidence and find more pleasure in every sip.

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School Nights @ Park Tavern: Margarita Madness
Monday, June 16th (The Piedmont Room @ Park Tavern)
Instructor: Lauren DeLuca & Kara Eads

The summer drink to keep you cool in more ways than one. You'll be hands-on in the process of making incredible Margaritas!

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Wines & Cheeses
Thursday, June 19th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructor: Michael Bryan

Artisanal cheeses are no less labors of love than their wine counterparts. Location of pastureland, seasonality of milks, and aging all weigh heavily on the final taste experience. Join us for 8 pairings of wine & cheese. For this class we are shipping in 100% of our cheeses from small American Farms! >>>> More Info

Introduction to Wine, Level I (Now an 8-week program)
Monday, June 23rd (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructors: Jane Garvey, Paul Kelly Wheeler, Michael Bryan

We've received rave reviews on our new format AND we've dropped the price $100. This is the least expensive Introduction to Wine course we have offered in our 4-hear history! >>>> More Info

For Beginners ONLY
Wednesday, June 25th (AWS Wine Room, Roswell)
Instructor: Michael Bryan

Sure you can drink it, but can you pair it? Can you speak it? Come to terms with it in a special tasting that helps you express yourself in the world of wines. Don't be left standing there holding the bottle--get more confidence and find more pleasure in every sip.

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Jane's Monthly Dozen: Wines with Slammin Salmon
by Jane Garvey

This month starts the amazing salmon season, which lasts typically through October. Salmon have been controversial through time. In 19th century England, domestic servants' contracts limited how many times a week you could oblige your servants to eat salmon. And somewhere in Dickens's opus, he laments "Oh, when will the poor have anything but salmon to eat?" My grandfather, who had a great eye for perfect produce, good art, and a fine ear for music, considered it fit only for cat food.

Right up there with lobster, which was fed to prisoners and cattle back in Colonial times, salmon was not highly regarded in the 19th century. Oh, how the times change!!! We've been profligate with salmon, especially on the Atlantic coast, where Salmo salar has been negatively affected by fishing habits and pollution from North America to Europe. Invited to dine at the original Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Ulysses S. Grant enjoyed a meal that featured “lake salmon.” What lake? Who knows. But I have read that New York’s Finger Lakes are being “re-stocked” with salmon.

Today, most Atlantic salmon--Salmo salar--is farm raised, a condition that raises hot debate among environmentalists and fish lovers alike. (For more on this subject, see the March/April 2008 issue of Eating Well magazine for an article by David Dobbs, , that lays out the nuts and bolts of the whole farmed vs. wild salmon fuss.)

Atlanta's seafood guru Joel Knox of Inland Seafood prefers wild-caught salmon to farm-raised, although he sells both. A fan of steelhead trout, which he points out is a salmonoid, as is rainbow trout, Knox fears that King salmon will be "few and far between" this season, especially the troll-caught variety because of ocean conditions. What there will be in the market, he says, will cost retail "north of $20 per pound."

Atlanta restaurateur Michael Tuohy paid $16 a pound wholesale recently for a delivery of beautiful Colombia River salmon, which he breaks down himself for his Woodfire Grill restaurant customers. It will be served as an appetizer in "Salmon Three Ways"--cured, tartare, and sashimi--and presented in a main dish with spring vegetables. I met with him recently to pair wines with this dish and get his thoughts on salmon in general.
"I like it best raw," he says, or at least cooked just to medium rare. Of the half dozen or so wines we tasted, the best with the dish was Georgia's own Persimmon Creek Seyval Blanc.



Pairing wine with salmon can be tricky, as the oils of salmon and its distinctive flavor can be fabulous with one wine and mawkishly awful with another, even similar wine. Then the method of preparation is a major variable. Raw? Baked? Broiled? Grilled? Poached and chilled? So a number of selections wound up on the cutting room floor. In recent years, Pinot Noir has become almost "de rigueur" with salmon, but there's a catch: For that pairing to work, the salmon should be grilled. The grilling adds a flavor component that provides the linkage to the wine.

Here's what's key in choosing a red wine with salmon: Tannins must be soft and fruit-derived (rather than from oak). While fruit should be generous, the red cherry fruit bombe style of Pinot Noir is not salmon friendly. Instead, the choice should be more savory than sweet. Pinot Noir from New Zealand particularly fits this bill.
When it comes to white wines with salmon, Knox favors Pinot Blanc. While that's a great choice, others were quite useful as well. One grape, Tocai Friulano, did particularly well; one that may soon be available soon in this market is the San Simone Tocai Friulano 2005, and it is fabulous with salmon..

Dry rose' is another great choice with salmon. It's best to choose one that's rather full-bodied, and one that has generous fruit and some spice. Syrah makes rose' that fills the bill for this purpose. Grenache and Mourvedre likely would work as well. Surprisingly, one we tried made from Pinot Noir did not make the grade.
But the all-around winner with what wine to pair with salmon might just be sparkling. None of the wines did as well with such a wide variety of preparations and cuisine traditions as did sparkling wine. Brut rose' or a blanc de noirs might be the ideal form of sparkling wine to secure for this purpose, although the Chardonnay-based one we chose was outstanding from many perspectives.

Serve the sparkling wine at about 45F (7C); the whites and the rose' moderately chilled, about 50F (10F), in tulip-shaped glasses, and the reds at 60F (21C) to 65F (18C).