Can You Lose Weight While Drinking Wine?

Do we have to give up wine if we want to shed a few pounds? No! Click on the arrow above to watch the video … On CTV’s The Social, we put this notion to the test with a fun quiz show format on calories and wine. How many answers can you get right? Three of the wines we’ll taste are marketed as “diet wines” with just 70-80 calories: SkinnyGrape, SkinnyGirl and one other, plus two ringers.     Two wines are not diet wines, but are naturally low in calories. The names of two wines give them away, but […]

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Does Wine Make You Fat? Looking Through a Glass Thinly

  My dieting heroine is Bridget Jones from the movie of the same name—not because she was that successful in losing weight, but because she never abandoned her glass of chardonnay (and still managed to snag Colin Firth). For me, dieting is unbearable if I have to give up all the sweets and my wine. (And if I stopped drinking, I’d be out of a job.) The good news is that you can drink wine without getting fat. When it comes to both calories and carbohydrates, moderate wine drinking won’t ruin your diet. Wine has no cholesterol, sodium or fat, […]

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Can You Drink Wine on a Diet? Are Dry Wines Better Than Sweet?

  Continued from Part 1 Wine Calories Alcohol contributes more calories than sugar. For example, a six ounce glass of slightly sweet German riesling, with just 7% alcohol, will still have fewer calories (about 110) than a dry, robust Australian shiraz with 15% at about 175 calories. Over the past five years, the level of alcohol in many wines has been increasing steadily. This is particularly true for wines from warm climates such as Australia, Chile and California. Grapes are being picked later in the season when they’re riper and laden with sugar, and consequently get fermented into higher-alcohol wines. […]

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Bridget Jones Chardonnay Diet: Pairs Well With Neuroses

  Continued from Part 2 Wine Diet Within two weeks of announcing their new low-carb wines, Brown-Forman received orders for more than 200,000 cases. The beer market has had similar success: since Michelob Ultra low-carb beer was launched in 2002, it has become Anheuser-Busch’s fastest-growing brand ever. Low calorie light beers comprise about 40% of the U.S. beer market. Is it even worth trying to save a couple of carbohydrates by drinking these wines? While every carb may count for some dieters, carbs from wine represent a small fraction of the total 50 to 60 carbs recommended in the Atkins […]

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What Being a Winemaker is Really Like with Inside Winemaking’s Jim Duane

Introduction Have you ever dreamed of becoming a winemaker and wondered what it takes? What’s it like to work a wine harvest without power? What makes Riesling the most difficult grape to ferment? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with Jim Duane, winemaker and host of the Inside Winemaking Podcast. You can find the wines we discussed here.   Join me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Live Video Join the live-stream video of this conversation on Wednesday at 7 pm eastern on Instagram Live Video, Facebook Live Video or YouTube Live Video. I’ll be jumping […]

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Sherry, Rioja, Cava and Other Spanish Wine Gems with Interpreting Wine’s Lawrence Francis

Introduction Why is Sherry one of the most complex wines on the planet and also one of the most misunderstood? What’s it like to visit the underground caves in Spain where the sparkling wine Cava is aged? How can you choose between Cava, Prosecco and Champagne for different occasions? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with Lawrence Francis, host of the Interpreting Wine podcast. You can find the wines we discussed here.   Join me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Live Video Join the live-stream video of this conversation on Wednesday at 7 pm eastern on Instagram […]

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Tech is Transforming Wine with the Wine School Dropout’s Tanisha Townsend

Introduction What makes wine and technology such a perfect pairing? Why should you try online wine classes? How is technology empowering wine consumers? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m being interviewed by Tanisha Townsend on her podcast, Wine School Dropout. You can find the wines we discussed here.   Join me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Live Video Want to know when we go live? Add this to your calendar:     Highlights How did I go from high tech to wine writing? Why do I find the pairing of wine and tech to be fascinating? What has […]

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Longshot Wines Bet Big on Market Launch with Winemaker Beth Liston

Introduction Are you curious about how a wine brand breaks through in a new market? Why is the wine category one of the most difficult to offer a great price/quality ratio? What unique challenges do women winemakers face in the industry? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with Beth Liston, a rebel winemaker from California who’s just launched a new wine called Longshot. You can find the wines we discussed here.   Join me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Live Video Join the live-stream video of this conversation on Wednesday at 7 pm eastern on […]

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Cosmo’s Sex & the City, Champagne, Whisky Women in Mallory O’Meara’s Girly Drinks

Introduction How did the Cosmopolitan become an iconic cocktail on the TV show Sex and the City? Did you know an illegal shipment of Champagne revolutionized the entire industry? Which women are responsible for America’s increase in scotch and bourbon consumption after Prohibition? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with Mallory O’Meara, the author of the just-published Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol. You can find the wines we discussed here.   Join me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Live Video Join the live-stream video of this conversation on Wednesday at 7 pm eastern […]

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Girly Drinks with Mallory O’Meara on the History of Women and Alcohol

Introduction Did you know that the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra has her own, private wine club and that it was used against her to bring down her empire? Are you curious about the first people to make beer? They were women called alewives, but the church didn’t like that. Did you know that the first bars were created for women? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with Mallory O’Meara, the author of the just-published Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol. You can find the wines we discussed here.   Join me on Instagram, Facebook […]

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