White Wine

Whether you're attending an inaugural ball in D.C. or simply catching the celebration on TV, these diverse yet inspired selections will help you toast this pivotal moment in history in style.

Take a small sip of your wine, swish it around, and pretend to spit it out in your cup. Do not actually spit it out. You will not be able to make it through an entire evening with oenophiles otherwise.

However, if you want a marvelous bottle of Sauvignon Blanc that will not remind you of an incontinent feline, look for Santa Rita Sauv Blanc. It has aromas and flavors of tropical fruit.

Zinfandel, with its flavors of chocolate-covered black cherries and blackberry jam, is a real crowd-pleaser and it's a natural with spicy-sweet foods like barbecued ribs in raspberry-chipotle sauce.

Think of Viognier's flavors as the love child of Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscat (so what if it was a threesome?) It makes a marvelous aperitif wine to sip on its own, and it kicks butt with spicy Asian food.

Lately here has been a great deal of bitching and moaning about restaurant waitstaff and wine service. Having been on both ends of the wine bottle, I can tell you that the feeling is often mutual.