With the holidays nearing, we are flooded with emails and phone calls from parents asking us which wine rack to buy for their kids.  We remind all parents that wine racks are not good gifts for anyone under 21.  With that said, if you are buying for someone over 21, shackblog recommends the wine tote, pictured above.  It is about 16 inches tall and has a nice circular design at the top which is makes it easy to carry your wine.  This wine rack is perfect to give as a Christmas gift because you can fill it with 3 bottles and hand deliver it with some wrapping paper around the body of the wine rack.  It is only 54.99 and we'll even ship it for free.  Check this link out, The Wine Tote.

There are many variations to hosting and throwing a Wine Tasting Party.  Here are some vital tips to ensuring your party goes off without a hitch.

• Choose a type of wine for your party... ie Italian Wines? Australian? California only? Are you including Whites? Hey, wait a second, everyone should be welcome.  Oh, I'm sorry, I was talking about white wines.  Maybe to be safe, you should allow reds and whites.  Ok, lets get back on track.
• Tell your guests a price point to stay within.  I usually do under $25, but you are the boss.
• Make sure you get your ipod ready with your Chill Play List.  Try throwing some Gypsy Kings on there too, you'll thank me later.
• The night before the party get your lighting ready, try dim with some accent lights in the corners.
• Make sure you have table cloths wherever the wine is being served, there will be spills.
• Don't forget to buy some crackers or bread so your guests can clean their palattes.
• Now, most people will tell you to have cards ready to go so your guests can jot down the tastes and their deepest secrets, but who are we kidding.  That sounds like a fun idea the night before, but the best wine parties are where people can mingle, try some different wines, and talk politics.  Ok, just to be safe and in case your one pretentious friend asks, have some cards ready to go.  If he or she wants to write their feelings about the wine, then so be it.
• OK, so I've given this tip out before - Go to Costco and and buy a couple different cheeses.  They really do have a great selection and good prices.  Also, you might want to grab an extra case of wine glasses.
• After you get some cheese, go to your local natural food store and buy some marinated olives, oh you will surely thank me later.
• Don't forget to pick up a six pack of Michelob or Sam Adams, surely there will be someone who is forced to tag along and isn't a wine fan.
• Wear black my friend, you are going to spill on yourself.
• Have fun, be safe, and no drinking and driving.

Friday, September 26th, will be the first in a series of presidential debates.  The first one will be moderated by Jim Lehrer and is supposed to stick to foreign policy and national security.  The Shack has a great idea of throwing a Wine / Debate party.  Print off a couple of these electoral maps and place them on your coffee table.  These make for great conversation.  Have each of your friends bring a bottle of wine with one hor'orderve.  This is a great way to celebrate our nations democracy, watch entertaining TV, learn about the candidates, and most importantly drink wine and eat.  The shackblog will be posting pics of our party, so you can see how fun we are up close and personal.  Remember not to let anyone drink and drive, so make sure you have options for rides. 

The wine bonsai from delia is a nice modern design for a table top wine rack.  Its creates the illusion that wine bottles are growing out of your table.  It's actually quite amazing.  It's also not bulky, so it blends in nicely to many decors.  We offer it for only $69.99 and we also throw in the shipping for free.  Christmas is right around the corner, so remember how great it would feel to give a beautiful wine rack to that special someone's parents, so you can continue to try to buy their love... actually with delia wine racks, it might work.  For the Christmas season you can make it spin for the same price, then you can make it clap for free.

Football season is here, so I made a trip to Costco to get some wine and cheese.  I have a tradition of drinking a bot, excuse me a glass of wine on the first Sunday of football season.  I also love picking out and trying a new interesting cheese from Costco. They have a great selection of different cheeses and the prices won't break the bank like some stores.  If you are into flavored cheeses, there is usually a good selection from horseradish to jalapeño.  Today, I bought some Sole brand Gran Queso (no seriously, I can show you the receipt (Costco Joke)).  It's a mild cheese that was really good. Ok, so I confess that I am not good at cheese lingo.  I figured that out about two sentences ago, but don't really want to erase all my words just because of that.  So, I'm going to try to do this cheese review anyways.  Ok, so as I said before, the cheese was good and mild... Ok, I'm not actaully even sure when to use the mild term when talking about cheese... so, I'm not sure if the cheese is technically called mild, but the damn cheese was good.  So, buy it if you go to Costco and see it.  However, most likely you won't see it because there are so many types of cheese it's always hard if you are looking for something specific and not to mention they are always switching up the selection.  Conclusion: You should buy Sole Gran Queso cheese, cut it into a football related pattern, serve it up with some red wine, and sit back and enjoy the games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  The Wine Sequoia has quickly become one of our favorite wine racks.  It has modern appeal and holds 17 bottles.  It is handmade in the United States, so you'll be supporting the economy and getting a well crafted piece of steel.  The Wine Sequoia is timeless and will always be a great coversation piece, while remaining very useful.

 We currently offer it on WineRackShack.com for only $184.99 plus free shipping.  We have one the best deals on this rack in the entire world!

 Delia wine racks are all handcrafted in the USA.  They are very skilled artists.  If you are buying for yourself or someone else, you can be very confident you will be recieving a top notch product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine Tasting Party Tip:  Here's an idea for your next wine tasting party.  Log into your gmail account and click documents.  Then click New Document from template.  In the templates you will find  "Wine Tasting Notes".  Personalize the note cards with your guests names and hand out when the official tasting begins.  This way everyone can easily remember what they thought about each bottle.  Comparing notes after all is said and drank can be fun.  Oh, and if you don't have gmail yet, you now have a reason.   Cheers Amigos.

  Have you ever thought of joining a wine club? Mingling with wine is a great way to meet new people, wink wink.  Maybe you should stroll over to our new    section called The Wine Guide.  We have links to some of our favorite wine related sites, including wine clubs.  I actually met my first and second wife at a  wine club, same woman long story.

 

The Guide to the Calimocho:  "If the Calimocho was food, Spain would be world famous for its cuisine" -Anonymous

Wine is great by itself, but it is also great as an ingredient, which I found out while living in Spain.  We came across the famous Calimocho while looking for a new hangout in Madrid.  The hot spot we found is a bar cleverly named "Bar Dos".  If you plan to go to Madrid, make sure you go to this bar.  They serve up healthy portions of the illustrious drink for around 3 euros (I'm sure nowadays it is a lot more).  After leaving Madrid, I found I had an anxious feeling that felt as though I missed the city, however I soon realized I was missing the Calimocho.  So, for the next few years, I attempted to reconstruct the Calimocho from the ground up.  It wasn't easy and after many trial and errors, I feel strongly that I finalized the perfect Calimocho recipe.   The drink itself has few ingredients, however the appropriate mix job is very important.  The Calimocho is one of the only drinks that contains ingredients that the average person may not like, but when combined, they create a blend that is hard to dissect by taste and very difficult to turn away.  Often times, I will knowingly serve someone who doesn't like red wine a Calimocho, the result has been 100% positive. With that said, I present to you...

Wine Rack Shack's Recipe for The Calimocho: (Low Calorie Version)

Ingredients

20 to 24oz glass, Ice, red wine, cold can of Diet Coke, Cranberry/Raspberry Juice Light ( I prefer Ocean Spray)

1. Fill the cup about half way with ice.
2. Now fill the cup with 60% Red Wine. (any kind you prefer)
3. In one hand pick up a cold can of Diet Coke
4. In your other hand, pick up the bottle of Cranberry Raspberry Light (Ocean Spray Juice)
5. Now, carefully pour both into the cup at the same time.  Get a little height, so the gravity stirs for you.  Concentrate on pouring both equally.
6. You are done.  You don't need to stir because the pouring should have naturally stirred for you.
7. Serve and take in the compliments.

 

This recipe is for people over 21.

Wine Rack Shack is pleased to announce a new line of wine racks on our site.  We have teamed up with a company called Wine Cellar Innovations and have begun adding their wine racks to our site.  They have many fine wine racks that we know our customers will love.  They make a wide variety of wine related products and they even design wine cellars.  They have been making wine racks and designing wine cellars for about 21 years.

The product to the left is called the Black Metal Lattice Wine Rack.  It holds 152 wine bottles.  It is specifically designed for burgundy and bordeaux bottles up to 3 1/4 inches in diameter.  Personally, I really like this rack because it has straight lines and is black so it can match just about any decor.  It is rougly 65in by 28in, so it can be a great focal point in your house or even in a restaurant or cafe.  I like this wine rack because you have the ability to adjust the color pattern of your wine bottles any way you like.

So all in all, Wine Rack Shack is very pleased to have begun selling Wine Cellar Innovations' product line.  We will be adding in more products very soon.  We are committed to only selling wine racks that we are 100% certain are top of the line and Wine Cellar Innovations is one of the industry leaders in quality.

If you have any questions about any of our products, email or call us anytime!