More from Taste

• Restaurants are making their markdowns
  Restaurants are finally starting to look at ways to make the wine experience more palatable -- in terms of money, not mouthfeel -- for their customers.
  
• Advice for tough times: Buy more wine
  Something to consider: Purchasing wine by the case can save money two ways.
  
• It's all about roots - family and homeland
  Naming his vineyard in Argentina was easy, Miguel Azar said. "We call it Silvia's Vineyard because I bought it with money from my wife," Azar quipped over lunch at Café Barbette.
  
• There's nothing 'pure' about most wines
  Here's a little-known fact: Most wines are cocktails. With a few notable exceptions, the reds and whites -- but not the pinks -- that we drink are blends of more than one type of grape.
  
• Put a cork in those who gripe about closures
  After he had poured all the wines, winemaker Matt Koch lined up six bottles of Rosemount, ranging from $10 to $45, on a shelf at Crave restaurant in Edina. Something was amiss, I thought, before tumbling to what it was: The only bottle with a cork was the cheapest of the bunch, the wildly popular Rosemount Shiraz. What's up with that? I asked Koch.
  
• Stillwater runs deep - in swell wine bars
  Stillwater's two wine bars share more than a hometown. Both Marx and Cesare's have perhaps the most essential attribute for a wine bar circa 2008.
  
• Wine generally breaches the political divide
  Even in these most partisan of political times, people of divergent beliefs can socialize over wine and almost be guaranteed that it will not devolve into a shouting match about welfare or war or whatnot.
  
• Liquid assets: Moderately speaking, wine has health benefits
  The usual caveats apply. Excessive consumption is not advised.
  
• Traveling the wine country at home
  A new book looks at the emerging local winery scene, and the hardy souls making it happen.
  
• No shortage of options to get fired up about
  When many of us are confronted with the quandary of which wine to match with barbecue, there's one easy call.
  
• Vines and wines change the Minnesota landscape
  It takes a lot of villagers -- including a lifelong horticulturist, his business-savvy wife and a winemaker from Colombia -- to make good wine down Cannon River way.