The summer season stirs memories of fire pits, charcoal grills and outdoor parties which almost always include barbeque in some fashion. Of course a refreshing beer is often a great partner to grilled fare but many prefer the perfect wine. When it comes to uncommon wine pairings Natalie MacLean, and her website NatDecants.com, offers simple solutions to food and wine conundrums.

Here are Natalie's top choices to pair with your summer barbeque:

1. Canadian or Oregonian Pinot Noir with Planked Salmon
2. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with Grilled Portabello Mushrooms
3. Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon with Shish-kabob Lamb
4. Provençal Rosé with Skewered Chicken
5. Italian Chianti with Marinated Pork Chops
6. Australian Shiraz with Barbequed Spare Ribs
7. Rhðne Valley Syrah with Grilled Pepper Steak
8. Argentine Malbec with Herb-Rubbed Chicken
9. Californian Zinfandel with Grilled Hamburgers
10. German Late Harvest Riesling (or Spätlese Riesling) with Roasted Marshmallows

The gallery below offers a single selection for each pairing most often highlighting wines with scores of 90 or above. Enjoy!

We've been seeing more and more wine companies considering plastic wine bottles as a greener alternative to glass. The bottles are lighter and 100 percent recyclable. One Australian producer, Wolf Blass creates a line called "Green Label" that uses these lighter bottles. But a new study which was commissioned by the plastic bottle manufacturer Portavin shows that while the bottles might be better for the environment they are not so good for wine over the long haul. While wine stored in plastic or glass taste similar at first, after eight to 12 months the taste changes. The PET bottles let air in, oxidizing the wine. The cheaper, lighter bottles should be used for more inexpensive wine which will be consumed quickly.

These days finding a great wine is as easy as heading to your iPhone or Blackberry. There are apps that offer wine information, ways of tracking your cellar and finding out what wine to drink with what food.

One of the most interesting wine pairing apps comes from noted wine author Natalie MacLean. Her Drinks Matcher from Nat Decants doesn't just tell you whether you should choose white or red wine. Her app is far deeper and lets you either start with the food or with the wine. You've got to love an app that includes pairings for over 200 cheeses and over 100 desserts. Ever wonder what goes best with roasted marshmallows? The answer is a German Late Harvest Riesling.

The app also includes pairings for other drinks including beer, coffee and tea. It also links to the mobile version of her website so you can access wine reviews and other information. Overall there are over 380,000 pairings, with new ones added daily. The app sells for $2.99 for iPhone or BlackBerry.

Two things we love, motorcycles and wine, are together at last.

Famed motorcycle connoisseur Arun Sharma (GM of MotoCorsa) used to describe himself as "not much of a drinker," but repeated trips to Italy on bike business converted him.

CorsaVino is the name of Sharma's new company, which bottles wine from Pacific Northwest vintner Rich Cushman's acclaimed selections (Sharma lives in Oregon). Cushman and Sharma share a passion for motorcycles, and each bottle has a motorcycle theme. They've released four wines, two Columbia Valley Cabernets, a Viognier, and a Syrah, in extremely limited quantities -- one of the cabernets is already sold out. The bottles are a highly reasonable $25-$30, and make a great Father's Day gift for a motorcycle-loving dad.

Visit CorsaVino's to order, and as they say on the website, "Enjoy the fine things in life."

Vinfolio Marketplace is set to go live on July 1, 2009, solving a problem with which many wine collectors struggle. This online platform was designed to make it easier for collectors to put their bottles up for sale, creating a more fluid marketplace for this, um, fluid. Founder Aaron DeMello believes it could become the world's primary spot market for wine.

Currently, the wine sales platform has a virtual inventory – thanks to participants – of nearly 12 million bottles, with a value of approximately $2 billion. Most participants are located in North America. The market inventory will be supplied by more than 53,000 private wine cellars.

DeMello's goal is to create a place where buyers and sellers can come together easily to complete their transactions. The ancillary effect, of course, would be the real-time valuation of different wines, as you see in securities and commodities markets.

Va de Vi is the latest wine from the Gloria Ferrer winery in Sonoma. The new méthode champenoise sparkling wine is a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with a trace of Muscat. The wine has aromas of ripe apple, Asian pear and Bing cherries with flavors of peach, Meyer lemon, fresh berries and vanilla. The cuvée ferments in stainless steel tanks and the spends a year and a half aging on the yeast. It sells for $22.

Nothing says summer like a nice cool glass of something sparkly. Well, now you can make anything bubbly!

The SodaStream is a DIY home carbonating machine with no electrical parts, nothing too tricky or messy, and a small splurge price of around $100. The Fountain Jet Start-Up Kit, with which I had the pleasure of experimenting, is currently on sale for $89.99 (normally $139.99) -- and it's perfect for both you and your dad for Father's Day.

How it works: You get the lightweight Fountain Jet, two BPA-free bottles, and a 110-liter Carbonator which makes approximately 110 liters of seltzer. You can select from a number of flavors for sparkling water, or buy their syrups in all kinds of varieties: cola, diet cola, root beer, orange soda, diet grapefruit, tonic, and more.

You put cold water in the bottle, then the bottle and the Carbonator in the Fountain Jet, and press the button on the top to infuse the water with seltzer. Like sparkling water? You're done. If you want soda pop, you add syrup -- which I can honestly recommend; it truly tastes like root beer, cola, or whatever it says -- and you have soda pop!

Not only is it fun to make yourself, but their syrups have no high-fructose corn syrup or aspartame, and you're also doing the planet a favor by not adding cans and bottles to landfills -- and the servings come out to pennies-per-glass.

So what's luxurious about this? You can use it on anything -- turn your whites and even reds to sparkling cocktails or make the most alcoholic gin and tonic ever (by mixing a little tonic syrup into sparkling gin). Look through the gallery to see, and click here to shop for a SodaStream.

The Santa Rosa Democrat reports from the Auction Napa Valley wine auction this weekend and reveals that the news isn't good. As expected the recession took a chunk out of the charity giving for this annual event. The big live auction event on Saturday night only brought in $4.3 million, less than half of the $10.4 million raised last year, a result that is similar to the Naples auction earlier this year. During the four-day event, Napa Valley Vintners raised $5.7 million for a variety of local charities.

The Santa Rosa Democrat article quotes several bidders who said that they were bidding more conservatively because they had either lost money in the past year or had serious concerns about their ongoing financial health. Bids were also lower because competition was less intense and some may have been concerned about appearing too showy. All of the Auction Napa Valley events were sold out, indicating that people still have interest in this event. Even though they did't spend like they did last year and it sounds like a good time was still had by all.

The Napa Valley Vintners pledged back in 2007 that for the next five years the the auction would distribute a minimum of $5 million a year to the charities including Community Health Clinic Ole, Boys & Girls Clubs and Napa Valley Community Housing.

Think that the ZAP Festival is San Francisco's only varietal fest? There is also the Pinot Days event held in the same place, Fort Mason. The event, which takes place from June 24 to June 28 includes winemaker dinners, focus tastings and more. The big event is the Grand Festival on June 28th which hosts over 220 Producers from California, Oregon, New Zealand and Australia and like the Zinfandel festival offers the chance to compare the different expressions of pinot from a variety of places and producers. The tagline for the event is Serious Wines, Serious Fun, a phrase that embodies the spirit of the food-friendly and sophisticated pinot noir. The main tasting is $50.

Stubbs Winery in Petaluma, California, one of Marin's first organic vineyards, is hosting the Schools for Kabul Second Annual Midsummer Party on June 20. The event includes great food, wine, dancing and an auction to benefit for Schools for Kabul, a student-run fundraising group supporting educational development projects in Afghanistan. The rustic diinner will include a spit-roasted pig and local wines from Stubbs Vineyard, Turley Wine Cellars, Messina Vineyards. The auction lots include wines, classes and gift certificates to great restaurants. Tickets are $60 in advance for the outdoor event.

This year's Auction Napa Valley takes place this weekend and some are wondering what effect the recession will have on the lavish affair. After all, this year's Naples Winter Wine Auction in Naples, Florida over the winter brought in just over $5 million compared around $14 million last year. The 29th annual Auction Napa Valley takes place on the lawn at the beautiful Meadowood Napa Valley and features the usual assortment of fine barrel lots, travel adventures and winemaker dinners but one thing missing will be the celebrity auctioneer. Last year Jay Leno did the duty as host and past emcees included Ryan Seacrest and Dana Carvey. Instead, the Santa Rosa Democrat reports that the event will be "loosely emceed" by wine educator Kevin Zraly.

Auction Napa Valley benefits local health, children's and housing organizations, including Community Health Clinic Ole, Boys & Girls Clubs and Napa Valley Community Housing. Last year it brought in $10.4 million but likely won't hit a number quite that high this year as most people have cut back on both their philanthropy and their pleasure spending.

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With the news today that New Vine Logistics, a Napa, California wine-shipping service has closed up shop, it looks like my long-held dream of having Amazon.com deliver my wine as well as my books may be just a little further away. New Vine Logistics has suspended operations after multiple attempts to raise new financing. Wine Business reports that the eight-year-old company stopped processing new orders last week. The company handled fulfillment for direct orders for around 200 wineries and merchants including some big names such as Beringer and Chateau St. Jean helping them navigate the various state laws regarding alcohol shipments. Because wine shipping policies are determined by the state this is often no easy task. New Vine Logistics had a contract with Amazon.com to work on a way to bring wine shipments to Amazon.com

The Santa Rosa Democrat says that one of the company's creditors, Silicon Valley Bank, arrived at the Napa offices Friday and sent around 100 employees home without pay. Wine is being returned to the vintners who now have to find a new way to get their wines to the customers. The company was one of the biggest in the wine shipping business and as the Wall Street Journal mentions, this does cast doubts on the viability of businesses that provide direct shipping of wine to customers. The Journal says that direct shipping is just a small part of total U.S. wine sales.

UPDATE: Wine Business reports that Inertia Beverage Group is working on a deal with Silicon Valley Bank to acquire its debt position in New Vine and to take over the company's responsibilities.

Unlike the west coast which could host a different wine event everyday, the east coast doesn't have as many opportunities to showcase such a variety of wines without having to fly in cases and cases. Sure, the Finger Lakes region in upstate New York has wonderful wines to taste but the breadth of options is far overshadowed by the large tastings that can easily take place in California. All of that is to say if you live in NYC you don't want to miss this tasting event, The Top of the List Tasting, featuring honored wines from the annual Restaurant Awards conducted by Wine & Spirits Magazine.

On June 2nd at City Winery over 100 vintners will pour wine to expand and please your palate accompanied by food offerings from such restaurants as Milos, The River Cafe, and Convivo along with an oyster bar. Tickets can be purchased in advance online for $75 and there are separate retrospective tastings that you can express your interest for on the event's website...the cost of those isn't clearly stated. The Top of the List Tasting is a great excuse to introduce someone to the wonder of wine or just enjoy an evening out with a great purpose. Who doesn't need to sniff, swirl and savor a little wine on a Tuesday night?

[via Vinography]

If you've got vintage wine to sell your best customers just might be a half a world away. Xinhua reveals in Beijing an auction of fine French wine did very well this week. The auction sold around 1,000 bottles of Bordeaux from famous chateaux ranging from Lafite to Margaux and Mouton. The wines were shipped directly from chateaux in France and are currently stored in Hong Kong. Around 94 percent of all bottles listed were sold with the bulk of the buyers planning to sample them themselves rather than sell or cellar them for investment purposes.

The wines were chosen by French wine expert Claude Maratier and all were given more than 90 points by Robert Parker. After the auction, Maratier told Xinhua that he was "very satisfied" with the result. Given that Bordeaux first growth Chateau Lafite is working on a vineyard in China, the Chinese may be soon producing greater quality wine but for now, their growing appetite for fine wine is Bordeaux's blessing.

France's esteemed Chateau Cheval Blanc is auctioning off rare vintages right from the cellar through Sotheby's next month. On June 17 at Sotheby's London, collectors can get their hands on over 1,000 bottles from nearly a century of vintages including the 1921, 1928, 1947 and 1949 being sold by the chateau. Each comes in an original wooden case. Older vintages (1900 to 1976 )were recently re-labelled and re-capsuled at Cheval Blanc. Some of the older bottles have been recorked and sometimes topped up with a wine of the same vintage over the past few decades. Serena Sutcliffe MW, International Head of Wine at Sotheby's, is quoted in the press release as sayiing: "We are honoured to be offering this unique collection of Cheval Blanc that has never before left the cellars at the Château. Cheval Blanc is a wine like no other. It has opulence, finesse and enormous originality."

The various lots includes a number of verticals including one of over 30 bottles covering 60 years from 1905
that is estimated at £15,000 – 20,000. Château Cheval Blanc dates from 1832 when the first part of what is now the Cheval Blanc estate was acquired from the Figeac estate. The won medals in the London and Paris International Exhibitions in 1862 and 1867 that are still displayed on the labels today. Château Cheval Blanc is one of only two St Emilion Châteaux to be awarded the top Class A classification. No matter what the economy may be doing, I suspect wine collectors will be coming out of the woodwork for this one.