Mary Ross is an internationally-recognized wine and food professional, educator and journalist. Read more about Mary at http://www.thechoppingblock.com/meet-our-sommelier.
Recent Posts
A Primer on Champagne and Sparkling Wine
If you want to hear that there are lots of sparkling wines just as good as Champagne but cheaper, you need to ask someone else. Given the choice, I always recommend true Champagne, especially when ...
Wine & Cheese: Culinary Heaven or Eden? You Decide
You say you adore sea salt caramels and suppose it’s because they’re just so darn delicious! Sort of. In fact, we’re hard wired to crave the nutritional necessities of salt, sugar and fat in modern ...
Rosè wine sales are down, and that’s fine by me. Don’t get me wrong: I love a rosè and a nosh at the end of a day, a rich Spanish rosado to wash down barbeque, an elegant rosè Champagne to enhance a ...
Here’s one of my aha! moments with wine: I’m a young sommelier, tasting a Gewurztraminer for placement on my wine list. With my nose deep in the glass, I sniff - and poof! In an instant, I’m ...
A wine tasting at home is a fun and unique way to entertain. It requires some organization and some ground rules, but you may be surprised by the benefits!
White Burgundy Added to Stellar Class and Wine List
You may hear it in the air: birds chirping, breeze in the trees, and wine pros everywhere slurping, spitting and scratching in their notebooks. Because if it’s Spring, it’s time for wine list ...
There were all of three sommeliers in Chicago back in the 1980’s, but we were a feisty bunch and took on the challenge of getting our customers to enjoy dry Rosè with the gusto of their European ...