Taste & Learn
We pride ourselves on providing our customers with not only a great variety of wines and beer but also a great variety of activities and special services. Anyone can sell wine but here at Cleveland Park Wines we strive to provide you with more than just a bottle of wine and we work hard to provide services you won't find anywhere else.
- An Education in Wine.
- Great variety and selection.
- Custom Ordering.
- Great Half Bottle Selection.
- Weekly Specials.
- Signed Bottles for Gifts.
- Meet The Winemaker/Owner in the Store.
- Free Wine Tasting's Every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
- Wine Dinners.
Browse our upcoming events by viewing the Event Calendar
Food tastes better with wine. Wine cleanses the palate of oils from the food and makes every bite a new taste sensation. Wine has been part of the dining tradition for centuries in Europe, but only in the last few decades has the enjoyment of wine with the meal become popular in our country.
When Serving More than One Wine:
- Serve young wines before old wines. Young wines should be simple and refreshing; they are served to prepare the palate for more complex, or robust, older wines.
- Serve white before red. White wines, usually more delicately flavored, are best served first.
- Because light-bodied wines are delicate and easy to drink, they should be served first so that full-bodied wines will not overshadow the subtle flavors of the lighter wines.
- Serve dry before sweet. Dry (meaning absence of sugar) usually connotes wines of higher acidity (more tartness). If you serve a sweet wine and follow it with a dry wine, the palate will be jolted. A dry wine, whose acidity level is noticeable, cannot compete with the lusciousness or fullness of a sweet wine, so it will seem sour or thin in comparison. Sweet wines tend to have a powerful influence on the palate and can cancel out the flavor of a light dry wine.
Wine and Food Guidelines
Shellfish: Light-bodied whites
Fish (light sauce): Medium-bodied whites
Fish (heavier sauce): Full-bodied whites
Veal: Medium-to full-bodied whites; medium-bodied reds
Pork: Medium-bodied whites; medium-bodied reds
Chicken: Medium-bodied whites; light-to medium-bodied reds
Ham: Medium-bodied whites; light-to medium-bodied reds
Goose/Duck: Full-bodied whites; medium-bodied reds
Lamb: Full-bodied whites; medium-bodied reds
Beef: Medium-bodied reds
Stew: Medium-to full-bodied reds
There’s nothing worse than having to pour delicious wine down the drain, except for perhaps the embarrassment of uncorking a fabulous bottle for friends only to find that its heralded complexity has gone flat.
In general, 9 out of 10 wines come to the market ready to drink and are intended to be drunk within 1 to 2 years. For wine to be stored longer than two weeks in the refrigerator or otherwise, it is best to store the bottle on its side so that the wine is in contact with the cork at all times. This keeps the cork from drying out and allowing extra oxygen into the bottle. Once a wine is uncorked, its quality deteriorates due to exposure to oxygen (oxidation). How quickly this happens depends on the strength of the wine. Re-seal an open bottle using wine savers (with reusable rubber caps and vacuum pumps) can keep the taste of wine at its best, and delay the oxidation process. For sparkling wines, there are also champagne savers that you can use.
For an open bottle, cork immediately and store in the refrigerator. Allow red wine about an hour to come back to room temperature or pour immediately into glasses and warm by hand. The ideal temperature for storing wine is at or around 55° F, with little variation. Extreme cold will retard the wine’s maturation, while extreme heat can ‘cook’ the wine and spoil it. Avoid direct sunlight, especially in the case of white wine, which is typically stored in clear bottles.
When in doubt, remember that your wine needs the same bedtime environment as you do—a dark room, consistent temperature, and minimum vibration.
