• Exploring wine if you've never really tried wine before and have no idea where to start.
• Choosing great wines for specific occasions from Gary's very cleverly organized and insightful lists for any event.
• Finding the best wine for that flavor profile you really like (best dry Reisling, best "fruit bomb" red, etc.).
• Learning how you can become better at recognizing what you like about wine and what wines you're passionate about (hint: drink more wine!).
• Understanding that wine can be fun, and that it doesn't have to be serious or snobby.

• Cheap wine picks for Dad, if you don't have the extra cash for $225 Dom Perignon.
• The perks of dining at Dustin Gallagher's Grace on College Street -- just on the cusp of Toronto's Little Italy.
• Epic foodie effort: There's a new cookbook bibliography called Culinary Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks hitting shelves -- one that chronicles all the texts of the past and retro recipes ranging from lemon pudding to, believe it or not, frozen beef tea.
  

I had a chance to sit down with Stephen this week to find out exactly what he has been up to since the show ended and what he is planning for the future. Currently, he has two projects approaching completion, one on each coast. The first is called Tastevin and it is a concept wine boutique aimed at 20-somethings who are increasingly developing a taste for wines, but are put off from seeking out high-quality ones by the old fashioned, pretentious way wine is usually presented. Corks, dusty bottles and wooden crates are not selling points to the under-30 crowd. Stephen is doing away with all the stuffy formality of wine buying and keeping his venture sexy and ultra-modern, with Philippe Starck furniture and beautiful displays of the bottles, appealing to his age group by improving the presentation and accessibility of one of his favorite things: wine.

The study was conducted by the International Wine and Spirit Record (IWSR) for VINEXPO, the world's leading wine exhibition held annually in France. It looked at wine trends from 2001-2005, calculating trends from that period and making projections based on them, in addition to considering economic and political factors that might play a roll in the next three years. Worldwide, wine consumption will be up everywhere, with consumer spending expected to be up almost $2 billion more than a decade ago. China and Russia will enter the top ten list of wine-consuming markets and per-capita wine consumption will be up, as well.

The theory is that the pleasurable effects of drinking, or the perceived pleasure that triggers the orexin system, are what drive the cravings and taking that away eliminates the reason for the craving to exist. Presumably, the drinker would still feel the effects of the alcohol, but there would no longer be any type of "high." Scientists also think that a similar treatment could be developed to treat other addictions, such as binge eating.

Obviously, it still has a long way to go before something like this will be available to the public, but it certainly sounds like it could help some people eliminate a step or two if they have a drinking problem.

Champagne is a term that applies to sparkling wines that are from the Champagne region of France. This name is protected, in Europe, by Protected Designation of Origin status and in France by Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée, both of which state that to use the name "champagne," the wine must be produced in France, in the Champagne region and in a traditional manner to produce a specific product. Everything else is just a sparkling wine, not champagne.

This standard is followed throughout Europe and many other countries, although the US, for example, does not follow it and any sparkling wine can use the word champagne, which is considered to be a generic term. In France, the word carries a premium image and a premium price, so there is an incentive for sellers to use it instead of other descriptors. Just last week, the police arrested a number of people for passing off "tens of thousands of bottles of low-priced bubbly wine" as champagne, selling it for 5 to 10 times the original price after replacing the bottles' labels with false champagne labels. Most of these wines were sold "via associations or in door-to-door sales," which goes to show that if you want a premium product, you are better off going to a reputable source.

The holidays can get pretty expensive, with gifts, food and entertaining expenses piling on until after the New Year (especially if you want to hit one or two after-Christmas sales), so it is always great to find a way to save some money without loosing out on quality. Food is one area where it is difficult to cut back, since price and quality are often closely linked. Paying more will usually get you better meats, cheeses and chocolates, for example. When it comes to wine, however, price are quality are not necessarily as closely inked - not unless you're talking about $100+ bottles of wine, anyway. Since AOL Food has a much larger staff than we do, they went through many bottles of wine to find five great ones that are $5.99 a bottle or less, perfect for serving with holiday dinners or bringing along as a hostess gift to a party because they are guaranteed to taste good without breaking the bank.

1. Trader Joe's Coastal Cabernet ($4.99)
2. Amaicha Torrontes ($4.99)
3. Banrock Station Shiraz ($5.99)
4. Barefoot California Merlot ($5.99)
5. Barefoot California Chardonnay ($5.99)

Admit it: every time you read another study about how one food or another has been shown to have a direct link to cancer, heart disease, good health, long life or intelligence, you roll your eyes a little. It's interesting to read the studies to find out what scientists are working on, and, even if you take the study with a grain of salt, it's not a bad idea to stay on top of what foods have been shown to have health benefits. The sheer number of studies may cause you to wonder whether or not anyone really takes them all seriously. We can't follow up every single study to see whether people are buying into them, but we do know that the at least one industry is enjoying some benefits of the well-promoted health benefits of their product: the wine industry. Red wine is enjoying a huge boost in sales, a boost the benefits producers and retailers. From October to November of this year, sales were up more than 8% over the same period last year, and the holidays are expected to boost sales even further.

Consumers say that the health benefits are just another plus for drinking something they already enjoy, but they also admit that it gives them an excuse. A Harvard Medical School researcher behind the study that said a chemical in red wine could increase life expectancy said that "wine drinkers were going overboard."

I must confess that I don't think too much about aerating wines before I drink them other than giving a red a couple of swirls around an oversized glass and letting it set for a few minutes before drinking. Of course, I'm not generally drinking wines that really need to be decanted either. If I was given one of these neat Pewter Octopus Wine Aerators for the holidays, possibly along with a nice bottle of red, I would rethink my position since the cool looking gadget makes aeration a snap. The octopus is set into the mouth of a decanter and the wine is poured over it, aerating as it flows. The way the stream of wine is interrupted by the twisting of the octopus is far more efficient than simply pouring the wine into a glass or straight into the decanter. If an octopus doesn't float your boat, the aerators are available in sea horse and puffer fish designs as well and all are visually intriguing, although there is some irony to the fact that only ocean-dwelling creatures were chosen to help wines breathe. Each is about $30.