U.S. wine master says trust your own palate

By Leslie Gevirtz

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - The first American woman to earn the Masters of Wine honor from Britain's Wine & Spirit Education Trust has one piece of advice: own your own palate.

"It is your mouth after all. No one can tell you what you like. No critics, no wine experts. Drinking wine is a very personal experience," said Mary Ewing-Mulligan, the proprietor of New York's International Wine Center.

Personally, she stays away from those "over-fruited, over-oaked, overly high-alcohol" Chardonnays that sell for $10 a bottle and whose flavor quits halfway through your mouth and all you're left with is the burn in the back of your mouth.

"You don't have to settle for that. But to get more will require you to experiment a bit," says Ewing-Mulligan, who has written seven books including "Wine for Dummies" and her latest "Wine Style" with her husband, Ed McCarthy.

The last was written to help people find wines they genuinely enjoy whether those are popular, best-sellers or not.

"If all you drink is that $10 Chardonnay, than you're missing so much of the world. It would be like eating Big Macs all the time," she said.

She offers a few alternatives in the $10 to $20 price range such as Spain's Segura Viudas "Creu de Lavit" Xarel-lo, Italy's Bottega Vinaia Pinot Grigio, or perhaps Colonnara Verdichhio also from Italy or L'Ecole No. 41 Semillon from Washington State.

The last four fall into what Ewing-Mulligan describes as earthy, wine whites that have fairly subtle flavor intensity.

They are lighter bodied, leaner, and because earthy whites are not the most popular style at the moment, a good value.

"But if you don't try them, discover whether you like them, you'll never know."

Ewing-Mulligan began as an assistant to the Italian Trade Commission in New York after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in philosophy and no knowledge of Italian, or wine.

"I speak it now, " she grins. "But I realized while working there that wine was something that no matter how much you knew about it, there was always something more to learn and that was what I found, and continue to find, so fascinating."

The International Wine Center offers courses for everyone from casual drinkers, who want to learn more, to professionals in the industry. The growing interest in the subject in the United States has caused her to expand and add classes.

"We don't really have a wine culture here, yet. It's not like France or England or Italy. California comes closest, but the culture is beginning to take hold," she said.

The Wine Institute, an industry group, estimated that domestic wines contributed more than $162 billion annually to the U.S. economy in a report released in January. Wine sales have grown by mid-single digits since 1991.