Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from STBNY. (That’s our dog/unofficial Spin the Bottle mascot Nutleigh taking a well-deserved break after making that snowman all by herself. She’s quite gifted.) I hope your holidays have been …

So in my last post I alluded to some exciting news at STBNY. Well, here it is: I’m now a contributor at Food52, a great project brought to you by the very talented team of Amanda Hesser, Merrill Stubbs, and a host of incredible home cooks.

My thoughts on some mid-priced Bordeaux…and a really bad marketing campaign.

I try to avoid the “here’s what I drank last night” approach to wine blogging, just because I don’t think it’s that useful or that interesting. However, I do make exceptions if I think the wine is particularly notable. Last night was one of those exceptions.

I’m officially jumping on the holiday bandwagon here with a STBNY festive gift giving guide. In keeping with my “teach a man to fish” approach, I’m not going to suggest specific wines, but instead offer some general guidelines and a little inspiration.

Yesterday I went to the Uncork New York event at City Winery, an event space/restaurant/bar/winery in Manhattan. Kind of a mistake.

One of the most common questions I get is: is it ever OK to buy a wine because of its label? The right answer, of course, is no. But.

Made primarily from the rare Pineau d’Aunis grape, this wine is packed with peppery, herbal, olive and earthy notes that were incredibly refreshing after a few days of Thanksgiving-induced indulgence.

With the holidays officially upon us, we are in prime entertaining/dining out/party hopping mode. That means we’re also at the height of wine giving and receiving, a time of no small anxiety for many of us. One thing that legitimately stresses me out though is the fear of giving someone a bottle of corked wine.

100% without irony, I have always loved “very special” holiday-themed television programming, so here’s my addition to the canon with a brief list of what I’m thankful for, STBNY-style.