Loews Hotels Wine Help

Lowes Hotel in Orlando, Florida is providing guests and regular folks alike with an invaluable service. The hotel has pledged to provide you with expert advice with choosing the perfect wine to pair with your meal or to gift to someone like your VIP clients. Very cool. As a girl who likes a glass of wine but is just as likely to buy a bottle of Smoking Loon Shiraz because it has a cool name, I really value this type of service.

The hotel will advise you on the right wine to pair with Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas rib roast (or in my family’s case – smoked ham) or even the best type of bubbly to ring in the new year. Wine and Champagne is a stellar gift for your clients and business associates, but you need to know what you’re doing.

Yes, this is a shameless way to promote the hotel, but who cares? It’s sound advice from expert sommeliers, which is much better than just asking the guy working at the liquor store.

Lowes is calling this resource the “Wine Line.” You can reach the Wine Line by sending an email to wineline@loewshotel.com or calling (407) 503-WINE.

The hotel promises “Knowledgeable, warm and yes, unpretentious wine experts will help guide you through your wine pairing or wine gift giving dilemmas, no matter your budget.” Good stuff.

“For years, our loyal guests from across the country and local residents in the Orlando area have been contacting our hotels during the holiday season, and asking questions of our chefs and sommeliers,” says David King, regional vice president of operations. “We have always answered those questions with great detail and expert advice, so the Loews Hotels ‘Wine Line’ is our way of sharing the vast wine and food knowledge among our sommeliers and chefs with everyone. We are delighted to take some of the stress out of the holiday season whether you’re planning a special meal or looking to give a gift of wine.”

What can they say? They’re givers.

Want to know about their street cred? In its most recent graduating class of wine experts, a restaurant manager at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel scored the highest out of more than 100 Central Florida hospitality employees who took the certified sommelier exam through the Court of Master Sommeliers. You can’t argue with that.

“That is just one example of our commitment to wine knowledge, appreciation and understanding,” says Sommelier Mostafa Tayouri of Loews Portofino Bay Hotel. “Our experts offer masterful recommendations to the wine aficionado or simple tips to the novice wine drinker.”

The press release provides a little preview of the advice you can expect from the wine line with this little tidbit:

While everyone knows that white wines go well with turkey, you may also want to consider a pinot noir, which has a bit fuller flavor than white wines. Because it has very few tannins (which give me and a lot of other people migraine headaches), it will not overwhelm the meal. Also, keep in mind that salty or smoked foods are best served with sweet white wines such as a riesling or gewurztraminer. That’s why I call riesling “turkey wine.”

Here’s a piece of advice from me: If you can possibly get your hands on a bottle of Semillon from Kurrajong Downs (a boutique winery in Tenterfield, Australia), it may be the best thing that ever happened to you. I happened upon the place last winter and that was THE BEST bottle of white wine I’ve ever tasted in my life. I’m not sure they export, but have your wine guy hunt it down.

Finally, thanks in advance to Lowes Hotels who will surely help me with some holiday gift selections this year.