The Chopping Block Cooking & Wine Blog

Explore the World of Wine in our New Tasting Series

Back when I shifted my career from sommelier to educator and marketer, my first project was to create a database of every wine product sold in Chicagoland. When I reached 10,000 entries, the client ...

Explore Your Primal Culinary Urge with Wine and Cheese

In all the years I’ve taught wine and food seminars, a guest may have told me “I don’t like halibut,” or maybe “I’m not fond of Thai food.” But I’ve never heard anyone say “I don’t like cheese.”

Where to Go for Affordable Bubbles and Rosé

In my last blog, I suggested some white and red wines to seek out when you want to lower your wine cost and still drink well. But what about sparkling and rosé? Can you find these wines in an ...

Wines to Discover in Confinement

As I write this, I am sipping one my favorite discoveries of this confinement. On day 14 (aka yesterday, whatever day of the week that was), I opened a bottle that is light and carefree and wants to ...

Learn Your Wine Likes at a Retail Wine Tasting

Are you a wine drinker who says, “I don’t know much about wine, but I know what I like.”? If so, you can increase your likes by attending retail wine tastings that bring wine power to the people.

New Wines for Warm-Weather Classes

The Chopping Block’s wine team has been hard at work – tasting, tasting, tasting – to find new wines for you to pair with food, whether at home, during Happy Hour or while you’re hard at work - ...