Wine lovers rejoice. This Friday, Around the World in 80 Sips returns to New York, showcasing the finest offerings from top local wine shops. Brought to you by Bottlenotes, the Palo Alto based company bringing the best of wine to e-commerce, the online wine community unites enthusiasts with customized wine recommendations and exclusive information. (You must sign up on the site if simply to receive their daily e-mail wine tips.)

If you often find yourself wandering around the wine store, not sure of whether to pair that Spanish red or new Portugal white with your penne rigate, then this is the event for you. Sample your favorites and try new countries, as Around the World in 80 Sips presents the best flavors from both new and old world: Argentina, Chile, China, France, Italy, Lebanon, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa, and the U.S. It's a fun, informal setting where you can ask every question you ever wanted to know about wine, while enjoying the Friday night fare. Drink without a conscience, because a portion of ticket sales benefit Robin Hood, a New York non-profit which fights poverty daily.

Click here to purchase tickets for this not-to-be-missed wine gala. And now till Friday, just for our readers enter the code LUXIST to save $10 off tickets.

Friday, November 13 6:30-8:30 PM
583 Park Avenue
New York, NY

It's a question that's been tossed around for centuries, since the first cork was popped: How long does wine keep once it's been opened?

As with all things wine, it depends on many factors. Red wine, white wine, young wine, old wine, the list goes on. Oxidation is both a friend and an enemy. A freshly opened bottle often benefits from sitting open for a few minutes before serving in order to allow the oxygen to seep in and bring out the flavors and aromas in their full-bodied glory, but too much time exposed to the air and all those wonderful characteristics start to slowly turn unpleasant and eventually the wine will be dull, sour, and not nearly as fragrant. It's a slow process and it really comes down to personal taste, because no matter how long an opened bottle sits it won't become unsafe to drink -- just unpleasant.

The quick, very general answer on how long an opened bottle of wine keeps is 3 days. All wines will keep at least one day without changing for the worst, and many aged reds can last up to a week. Factors to keep in mind:

• The age of the wine The longer the wine was aged the longer it will retain its desirable characteristics after being opened. Young wine is more susceptible to the effects of oxidation.
• How much is left The fuller the bottle the longer the wine will last, due to less room for oxygen. Consider transferring leftovers into a smaller bottle
  
• Sugar and alcohol content Sugar and alcohol act as preservatives so dessert wines, ports, and sherries can keep much longer (up to a year in some cases).

When it doubt smell it and taste it. If you like it drink it! If you don't, either discard it or find another use for it. There are no hard and fast rules so make your own.

Wine, food and beautiful surroundings are the lures of the Taste Of The Beach Florida event. The four-day culinary and cultural celebration runs from November 5-8, 2009 on Northwest Florida's Gulf Coast and benefits children's charities. The festival is comprised of seven events ranging from wine tastings and film screenings to winemaker dinners and a charity auction all taking place in an area full of white sand beaches, boutiques and golf courses and other temptations. This stretch of Florida includes Escambia, Destin, Panama City Beach and many other towns an area that is often too warm in the summer months but very pleasant in the fall.

This year's events includes: Taste of The Harbor, Taste of Bay Wine & Food Experience, Al Fresco Reserve Tasting at Ruskin Place, Telluride MountainFilm on Tour, Seeing Red Wine Festival, a series of wine maker dinners at area restaurants, and the Taste of The Beach & Charity Auction. Various events range from $35 to $145. Tickets are available at the Taste of the Beach website.

Many of the finest restaurants have a "sommelier" on staff, which is the French term for cellar master or wine steward. A sommelier is a trained wine professional who can recommend wines that will well-accompany the food that is being served. A Master Sommelier is an expert who has passed four levels of examinations offered by the Court of Master Sommeliers, an international examining body. They can speak with authority the principal grape varieties used in wine making and the areas of the world where they are cultivated. A person holding a Master Sommelier Diploma is an expert not only in wines, but also spirits and other alcoholic beverages.

Tipping a sommelier directly is customary if you feel he or she spent a great deal of time discussing wine selections with you in addition to opening, pouring or decanting the wine. Keep in mind that at most restaurants, the gratuity (15% to 20% for good service; more than that for outstanding service) paid on the total bill (including the wine) is divided formulaically among the servers, sommelier, bartender and runners.

Maximilian Riedel of the famous Austrian Riedel wine glass family hosted a tasting this week which taught me more about wine than any wine tasting I've been to in years. How? Because it wasn't a wine tasting. It was a glassware tasting.

I knew the basics. I knew you're not supposed to drink white out of red glasses or red out of champagne flutes (or coffee mugs, but hey, we all went to college), but there was a lot I didn't know I didn't know about how much the shape of a glass can affect the taste and experience of a wine.

For example -- did you know that the basic near-spherical globe glass was designed for white? Chardonnay, to be specific. Also, according to Riedel, you should be drinking most champagnes out of the same glasses from which you should be drinking pinot noir. And wait till you see them.

Riedel Glas Austria's basic cabernet glass is the most highly produced and best selling wine glass in the world -- but, in fact, they recommend a much larger glass for cabernet, one they began making when they finally purchased their own machinery in 2004.

The big lesson I learned today? Grape specific glasses -- and they're not the ones you think they are. Click here to visit the Riedel website and shop by grape (even esoterics), but not before you click through the gallery below for more information and specifics.

Thomas Keller's Per Se restaurant in New York City is launching a new series of wine dinners called An American Table at Per Se. The series explores American winemaking through three different themes expressed with three different winemaker-hosted dinners one on May 28, the next on June 11 and the final one on June 22. Each dinner will consist of a standing reception followed by a seated dinner with a tasting menu paired with wine selections served in Per Se's private dining room. Chef de Cuisine Jonathan Benno will create each evening's special menu and Head Sommelier Roxane Shafee-Moghadam will join each winemaker to help with guest questions.

The series launches on May 28th with Wells Guthrie of Copain Wine Cellars who will discuss old world inspiration in American winemaking. He will share his own wines along with additional selections from some of his most beloved French winemakers and influencers including Jean-Louis Chave, Sylvain Cathiard and Thierry Allemand.

On June 11, Per Se hosts a discussion on the importance of the land with Greg Brewer of Brewer-Clifton, Melville Winery and Diatom Wines. The six-course tasting menu will be designed to bridge the regional reference points, from Japan to Chablis, reflected in Brewer's accompanying wine pairings.

The third dinner on June 22 looks at modern winemaking with Abe Schoener from Scholium Project. He will showcase a variety of wines from his portfolio including selections from his Southern France collection and a preview of wines from his latest project, Red Hook Winery, an urban winery in the Red Hook region of Brooklyn which produces wine from New York State grapes.

Each dinner costs $325 per person plus tax and reservations are limited.

Love wine and want to move to Sonoma County, California? Have we got a job for you. The Murphy-Goode Winery is offering a "Really Goode Job" for the right person. They will pay $10,000 a month for a six-month contract that includes private housing in Healdsburg, California. The winery is seeking a web-savvy communicator who wants to learn about viticulture, winemaking, Sonoma County and Murphy-Goode wines and share what they have learned through social media tools such as Facebook, blogs, internet videos and Twitter.

Those in San Francisco can get a jump on the application process on April 28 at 11:30 a.m. at 120 Market Street near the Hyatt Regency. Visitors who arrive at the "A Really Goode Job's" purple and white kiosk can meet the boss and get a 24-hour head start in the application process by being provided with a code that will give them immediate access to the www.areallygoodejob.com website which launches on April 29 to the public at large.

The website will have an employment application and will ask applicants to submit a one-minute video. Applications close on June 5, 2009. Murphy-Goode Winery will then select 50 candidates then narrow the list down to the top 10 who will be interviewed from June 27 to July 1. The person chosen for the job will be announced on July 9 and begin work on August 1. As you might expect, all applicants must be at least 21 years old.
[via WKYC]

When it comes to premier tasting events typically Aspen's Food & Wine Classic sits atop the list but another, young event is creeping up in status, easily challenging Aspen's offerings. The picturesque Del Monte Forest, also known as Pebble Beach, hosts the 2nd Annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine Experience from April 16-19 offering exclusive dining, tasting and educational opportunities. Learn and savor culinary excellence from world-renowned chefs, taste some of the most sought-after wines across the globe, and make your own schedule with a la carte choices or package deals. The culmination of 250 legendary wineries and 60 celebrity chefs is too good to miss. Prices start at just $100 for wine tastings and reach $4,750 for four days of VIP access to any of the weekend's festivities.

[via Vinography]

The Alessi Alberto's Vineyard tasting glass does away with the need to have a different glasses for different wines. The glass's asymmetrical shape serves an important purpose. The side that bends out is meant for tasting white wine, exposing it to the air and opening up the fragrance. The side that curves inward is for red wine, trapping and concentrating the aromas. Does it work? The folks at Unica Home say they noticed a difference but then again they're the ones selling the glasses for $97 a pair.

Oenophiles mark your calendars for October 23: wine mystic Robert Parker will host an exclusive tasting featuring Bordeaux wines from 2005, what Parker says is "the greatest vintage produced during my thirty year career." For $2,000 per person ($1,000 of which is a charitable donation toward Culinary Institute scholarships), tasters will sample 18 wines, including all five of the Premiers Grand Crus from the Left Bank, which are currently priced at $75,000 a case.

Check out Robert Parker's website to learn more about the wines he favors and to search over 100,000 tasting notes from Parker's extensive database.

If you've been waiting to get a taste of the much revered wine from Burgundy but through lack of opportunity or funding you have missed out, do not delay your registration for Le Paulée Grand Burgundy tasting taking place in San Francisco on March 1st. Although $300 to attend, the long list of current releases available that day will treat your passion for wine to an event it will never forget. If you have a penchant for vintage Burgundy, than by all means, sign up for the Gala Dinner following the evening tasting, but it will cost you more. Typically an event for New Yorkers, west coast oenophiles will be delighted by the return of the Burgundies and a most memorable event for its second year.

Another pairing of good wines and good causes, the Tour de Champagne has been a Washington D.C. annual event for eight years. Now the event has expanded to seven more cities: Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Miami. The Tour de Champagne is an evening of 70 champagnes from over 20 producers paired with fine foods from local chefs. The event also features a silent auction to benefit a local non-profit organization. General-admission tour tickets are $100 and VIP tickets, which are $135, include admission to a hospitality suite, a gift bag and food treats, as well as a tasting of cognacs. The event at the Hotel Derek in Houston is being held tonight.

[via Houston Chronicle]

It would seem that NASCAR isn't just for the Budweiser-drinking, pickup-truck-driving, blue collar folk the stereotypes would have you think.

It's a dream-come-true for any sports fan -- get picked up in a limo, shuttled to the venue by helicpter, led on tours before the event of the pit and garages, then maybe take a trip or two around the track yourself. Then you're rushed up to a private suite overlooking the track by some 80 feet, where you dine on professionally-catered food and drink, trying not to grin like an idiot as the rumble of the vehicles buzzes the floor beneath your feet. Only the best for those who can afford it.

And afford it they do. Not only are luxury boxes available, but several tracks have condominium suites, featuring 8' x 25' windows with a view of the track, complete with bedrooms and baths to the tune of just $23,000 per weekend. NASCAR teams and even drivers own a few of these condos, while corporations and well-to-do fans own the rest.

Even without the condo, life can be good for NASCAR fans depending on the location of the race. The Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, for example, offers up the perfect opportunity for a wine tour and spa package after the checkered flag falls.

[Source: MSNBC]

The Flagstaff House Restaurant which overlooks Boulder, Colorado is hosting a wine tasting dinner with Michael Silacci the winemaker for Opus One Winery on April 7. Executive Chef and Partner Mark Monette will prepare five courses from Flagstaff House menu matched with Opus One wines. The feast begins with hors d' oeuvres and Gosset "Grand Rose" Brut NV Champagne, then a salad of baby arugula and cured salmon with the Cakebread Sauvingon Blanc 2003, next up is a pheasant breast, crispy noodle wrapped with ragout of braised cabbage and pheasant with the 1984 and 1994 Opus One, followed by the chef's version of steak and eggs  with the1995 Opus One and finally a buffalo fillet and foie gras Wellington with black trumpet mushrooms and a sweet onion tart with a sauce of black truffles partnered with the 2002 Opus One. Leave room for dessert, it's a Valrohna chocolate strudel served with 1994 Dow Vintage Port. This impressive meal costs $175 and space is limited.

LifeTips has a great section dedicated to the storage of wine. Pretty much every topic is touched upon from building your own wine rack to wine cellar cooling tips. Some quick and important storing tips to keep in mind: keep bottles on their sides, store where there is little temperature fluctuation, high humidity is important for long term storage, and pay attention to the age worthiness of your wine before they go past their prime. Keep in mind wine cellars are not just meant to only be pleasing to the eye, but they must be just as functional as they are attractive. The need for a vapor barrier is commonly ignored when your designer doesn’t have the necessary knowledge of wine.