Posted by Emily Koh, July 19, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Wine snobs—you can spot 'em a mile away: that look of deep concentration as they swirl their glass for a good measure, that thoughtful gaze that crosses their face as they take a sip, and then the look of concentration as they purse their lips, grasping to create flowy phrases using words like "acidic," "rustic," and "full-bodied." Well, the rest of us common folk can join in this elite league too—check out this guide on how to be an alcohol snob. Among the things to keep in mind:
Smell the drink: "If someone ventures their own review as to what it smells like, frown as though you're too busy concentrating on this intense bouquet to interrupt it with stupid words. This automatically gives you the edge, since as a conneisseur you know enough not to discuss anything until the full tasting is over. "
Drink the drink: "Freeze as though your entire body is concentrated upon analyzing this taste in your mouth. Narrow your eyes and look upwards as you pretend to process this beverage, taking your time as you give every impression of savoring the flavor."
Sound advice on faking it it till you make it.
Posted by Deb Harkness, July 18, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Last week, Eric Asimov’s weekly column in the New York Times and corresponding blog post on The Pour extolled the greatness of one of the most underappreciated wines in the U.S.: sherry.
Not only do Americans not drink much sherry, they don’t know much about how it’s made, either. I certainly didn’t until a few months ago, when I was a guest of Bodegas Osborne in Spain and had the chance to visit their vineyards and cellars in El Puerto de Santa Maria south of Seville. After I saw the indigenous yeast at work fermenting the grape juice and the solera system of blending wines from different vintages, I realized that sherry, like a good loaf of sourdough bread, is the product of unique yeasts and the mixing of old and new to produce something that can never be replicated in any other place or at any other time.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, July 17, 2008 at 11:00 AM
There's already a brand of wine in a can, but this wine can prototype designed by Jens Andersson and Jonas Forsman stands out from other canned beverages with its elegant contoured shape and black matte finish. The Wine-can won first prize for the 2005 Swedish Aluminium Packaging Design Award and prizes for Best Environmentally-Adapted and Best Design Student. Investors, get in on this!
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Posted by Emily Koh, July 1, 2008 at 2:30 PM
It's a little more of an upscale DIY project than, say, baking your bread or growing your own garden, but wine enthusiasts too can turn their love into a full-fledged hands-on hobby by making wine at home:
"The growth and interest in wine generally over the last decade has really fueled an interest in winemaking as a hobby," says Brad Ring, publisher of Winemaker magazine. "With the greater availability of grapes, equipment and information, it’s come on strong as a hobby."
[...] All of which means that you don’t need to buy a vineyard in Tuscany or the Loire Valley to create your own label of succulent red or crisp white. In fact, all you need these days is a few hundreds dollars, some space in your garage or basement, and a little spare time.
Winemaking may sound intimidating, but the way Ring describes the process, it sounds quite simple: make juice from grapes, ferment it, ferment it again, strain it, store it, and bottle it. Grapes are available year-round, and winemaking supply stores even settle bottled grape juice made specially for the task. Check out the many home winemaking websites for more information.
Should you end up feeling particularly pleased and ambitious about your finished product, you can even enter it in amateur winemaking competitions, like the annual Winemaker International Amateur Wine Competition.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, June 24, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Editor's note: We're pleased to bring you a new voice here on Serious Eats—Deb Harkness. You might already be familiar with Deb's work on Good Wine Under $20. If not, now's a great time to clink glasses with her and get to know her. She'll be joining us every other week with some insight on the vino in a column we call Serious Grape. Welcome to Serious Eats, Deb. Cheers! —Adam
My dad is an unlikely candidate for the label “wine snob.”
He has never taken a single wine course, reads no wine books and only occasionally purchases a wine magazine, keeps no more than a handful of bottles in the house for immediate drinking, and never spends more than $25 on a bottle of wine. He does not wear a cravat, smoke a pipe, or eschew the simple pleasure of a hot dog and a beer at a Dodgers game. Yet he loves sticking his nose into a glass of wine and calling out what he smells at the dinner table. “I smell blackberry!” he cries triumphantly. “And cloves, cinnamon, and chocolate, too!” The enthusiastic descriptions keep flowing after he’s sipped, and continue into the second glass and beyond.
Today, such enthusiasm for what's in the glass is enough for you to be branded a wine snob. In a recent Los Angeles Times article, columnist Joel Stein mocked the pretentiousness of people like my dad. Stein wrote that all he detected was “a whole lot of jackass” when reading wine critics who use fruity and flowery descriptors to tell you about a wine. After the disarming confession that he actually has a weak sense of smell, Stein went on to explain what he wants in a wine review instead: “Personally, I want to know if a wine is rough, balanced, acidic, sweet, simple, tannic, soft, hot with alcohol, mineraly, watery or has a long finish. I want to know that a Zinfandel, our greatest native grape, tastes like America: big, bold, unsubtle and ready to fight.”
Huh?
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A new bill passed by New York lawmakers will regulate the sale of ice-cream and sorbet containing wine, prohibiting sale to anyone under age 21 (although ice cream makers do not need a liquor license). Alcohol content must also be limited to 5 percent by volume, and warning labels must be placed on the product. If you're looking to get pleasantly buzzed, just know that you're gonna have to eat a lot: two gallons of wine ice-cream or one pint of wine sorbet are the equivalent to one glass. [via Gothamist]
Posted by Paul Clarke, June 19, 2008 at 5:45 PM
In last week’s Washington Post, Jason Wilson dipped into a slowly growing trend in the bar world: wine-based cocktails. But as Wilson points out, the pleasure to be found in these drinks isn’t entirely culinary: he writes, “Using wine in cocktails is a surefire way to scandalize the serious wine aficionados in your life. Which is always fun.”
Mostly ignored until recently, wine-based cocktails date back to the earliest days of mixology: drinks historian David Wondrich writes that the sherry cobbler—made with dry sherry, sugar and fresh fruit—enjoyed great popularity in the mid-19th century, as did relatives made with sauternes, and with French and German wines then grouped under the now-archaic labels claret and hock. Mixing drinks with champagne as a base ingredient has been perennially popular, and fortified wines such as port and vermouth have lent flavorful touches to drinks for more than a century.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, June 17, 2008 at 12:15 PM
How do you sell wine to young 20-somethings with a zest for life? The same way you sell beer: pools, parties, and babes. ...And an endorsement from the NFL. Watch the commercial after the jump and you too may replace your beer with Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Posted by Sarah Wolf, June 15, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Everyone knows that wine tends to loosen inhibitions. But this set of wine glasses from Hamilton Design takes it to the next level—each glass represents one of the Seven Deadly Sins. According to designer Kacper Hamilton's description, "The ‘7 Deadly Glasses’ are about celebrating passion and encouraging the user to be sinful in a theatrical fashion." If that's the goal, then these cleverly designed glasses are the ideal props, artistically rendering each vice while providing a vehicle for the alcohol that fuels them. Let the drunken revelries begin.
[via NOTCOT]
Posted by Dr. Vino, June 13, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Would he prefer a tie or red wine? For this dad, the best Father's Day gift is not a tough call. Here's a short list of wine and wine-related gifts for dads who went long oil futures—and those who didn't.
Read Like a Billionaire
The fantastic book Billionaire's Vinegar reads like page-turning fiction. This inside view of the world of fine wine collecting derives dramatic force from the intrigue surrounding the auction of some 18th-century bottles of wine from the collection of Thomas Jefferson—or not. For those of us who haven't had a 1921 Petrus from magnum recently, we can rejoice in the fact that many of the remaining ones are likely fakes. $14.97, from Amazon.com
Uncork Like a Billionaire
Chateau Laguiole makes the ne plus ultra corkscrew that will last a lifetime (providing the TSA doesn't confiscate it). Try here with a horn handle or even a handle from a yew tree planted in Marie Antoinette's day at Chateau de Versailles. $129.95, from Amazon.com
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Posted by Leah Greenstein, June 12, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Photograph from Paul Goyette on Flickr
Ah, dad. He taught you how to ride a bike and then how to drive a car. (What was that you said, Dad, about driving offensively?) He even enjoyed your homemade cards well past the point where Crayola was cute. So now that you've got a little spare change, why not treat dear old dad to something special? Skip the traditional ties and grilling gear and try a bottle of wine this Father's Day. These selections are sure to please even the most discriminating palates; they're food-friendly and, fortunately, are priced so you won't have to hit mom up for a loan to buy one.
For the 'Old School' Dad
Try the 1999 Château Labegorce from the Left Bank Margaux appellation. Labegorce is the great château you've never heard of, situated next to the famed Château Margaux. You're dad will pat himself on the back for teaching you to be so savvy. This is old school Bordeaux from a sorely underrated vintage; the tannins, acidity and fruit are singing like the Mamas and & the Papas. Dad will love it for its round, black cherry and plum fruit and spicy, mineral underpinning. And the best part? It's Bordeaux that's drinkable right now! $34.99, from K&L Wine Merchants
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Posted by Paul Clarke, June 11, 2008 at 5:30 PM
In January, I vented about the difficulty of finding and purchasing various types of spirits, thanks in no small part to the bewildering system of state liquor laws that govern the trade in alcoholic beverages. Now, just as you’re trying to find that great bourbon you’ve been searching for in time for Father’s Day, Eric Felten at the Wall Street Journal is letting loose, too.
After running a recipe that called for the somewhat hard-to-find maraschino liqueur, Felten writes of the experiences his readers encountered, epitomized by the liquor store owner who insisted that the complex Italian or Croatian liqueur was the same thing as the sweet, neon-red syrup that cocktail cherries are packed in. A simple mistake for a rookie, but for someone in the industry, a dumb—and all too familiar—move.
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Posted by Sarah Wolf, June 10, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Tired of wine's bullshit, webcomic artist Natalie Dee tells it how it really is: "It Pairs Well With Bad Fish Tacos and Spam." The label here also reads "Horrible Room-Temperature Rancid Grape Juice."
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Posted by Hannah Howard, June 4, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Editor's note: Who knew what Christopher Hitchens would stir up last week when he wrote on Slate about servers pouring wine. Our awesomely talented intern Hannah, who works at a wine bar, has a response.
I work at a wine bar. I pour a lot of wine. It goes with the job.
When Christopher Hitchens posted his rant last week on Slate, I couldn't help but feel personally attacked. Hitchens abhors the intrusion of waiters who pour wine into diners' glasses. "How did such a barbaric custom get itself established," he asks, "and why on earth do we put up with it?"
I worry about being awkward, sometimes, or clumsy. But I doubt a guest at my restaurant has ever accused me, even in the deepest recesses of their secret thoughts, of barbarism. I believe it is my job to refill your glass when it is nearing empty. I know my boss certainly believes that this is my job, as do most of the people whose glasses I top off. And when I'm in the diner's seat, it's a shame to have to pour my own wine. When I go out to eat, I want to be served, not be left to serve myself.
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Why is food more appealing when it's cheap, while wine is more appealing when it's expensive? Finance blogger Felix Salmon shares his opinion at Portfolio.com. [via kottke.org]
Slate's Christopher Hitchens tells his readers to "Fight back against restaurants' cruel abuse of wine drinkers," the abuse being the act of abruptly refilling your wine glass during your meal, thus interrupting the conversation of the table and conveying the message, "Hurry up and order another bottle."
The winemaking patriarch died peacefully at his home in Yountville, California. "Mondavi traveled the world into his 90s promoting the cultural, social and health benefits of wine—of California wine in particular."
Slate finds 10 wines worth drinking under $15 and available at Total Wine & More. "Generally speaking, the foreign shelves will have much more to offer. . . One usually surefire method of finding interesting foreign wines: Let the importer be your guide. The United States is blessed with a small army of superb importers, who bring in excellent wines at all price points."
Posted by Lucy Baker, May 12, 2008 at 2:15 PM
When it comes paring food with wine, cheese is just the beginning. All over Europe, in cities like Seville, Barcelona, Lisbon, and Athens, wine bars match native grapes with small dishes made from local ingredients. Perfect for afternoon or after-work, these plates are straightforward, robust, and meant to be shared.
In Wine Bar Food, this week's Cook the Book selection, Cathy Mantuano and Tony Mantuano, award-winning chef of Chicago's Spiaggia, show you how to recreate these rustic Mediterranean dishes in your own kitchen, and offer tips on choosing interesting, affordable bottles. Don't worry if your supermarket's international aisle leaves much to be desired—these recipes are more about fun and flavor than exacting authenticity.
Pour yourself a glass and get cooking!
Win 'Wine Bar Food'
We'll be excerpting a recipe every day this week from Wine Bar Food. In addition, you can enter to win one of five copies of the book. Just tell us in the comment section below: what is your favorite thing to eat while drinking a glass of Champagne?
Comments will close Monday, May 19 at noon ET. The standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.
Posted by Lucy Baker, April 16, 2008 at 10:00 AM
He has his own cereal, his own salsa, and his own steak sauce, and now Paul Newman also has his own wine. Last month, the philanthropic foodie introduced a 2006 Chardonnay and a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, each priced at around $16, in partnership with the Rebel Wine Co. Like all Newman's products, all the profits and royalties after taxes are donated to charity.
I was curious. Producing a decent jar of marinara is one thing; a bottle of wine is another. Would Newman's be any good?
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Once seen a novelty, wine bars are now "proliferating like latter-day Starbucks" in New York, becoming less of a fancy ordeal where patrons got an earful of wine knowledge and more of a relaxing atmosphere to wind down with a glass of red or white. The New York Times takes a look at the changing faces of wine bars as they try to differentiate themselves from among the crowd, with many offering inspired nibbles going beyond the usual cheese platter, and others merging "genres" of tapas and wine bar together.
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 2, 2008 at 12:15 PM
"Round, bold, little bit of a tease. Sharp, open, plausible, very plausible. Trucky, sleuth-like, mysterious. The wine is a mystery novel and I know who done it." Who describes wine this way? Aside from The Connoisseur in this wine snob-targeted skit from sketch comedy group A Week of Kindness, hopefully no one you know. The Connoisseur can't help but taste everything out of a wine glass (whether or not it's edible) and suggest pairings. But in the end, all he really wants is to find out who will best pair with himself.
Watch the skit, after the jump.
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Enjoy your favorite wine now; in 50 years it might not be here anymore. The Observer explains how global warming is affecting wine production. Grape-growing may be rendered impossible in some areas (southern Italy, Australia, California) while other areas where wine production was previously rare or impossible (Denmark, Sweden, Finland) may be able to grow grapes.
Posted by Brian Halweil, March 14, 2008 at 10:15 AM
It was a coming out party of sorts at The Modern on Monday night. Food and wine writers, restaurateurs and sommeliers, and wine dealers from Amagansett, New York, to Manhattan all gathered to see and taste the ambitious blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot that has been in the making—with great secrecy and drama—for the last three years at Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue on Long Island’s North Fork.
Emblazoned with a Chuck Close daguerreotype of a cluster of grapes, Musée aspires to hold rank with grand crus from Europe, South America, and other internationally recognized wine regions&mdas;and not just because of its superstar label, a recurring symbiosis for Michael Lynne, Bedell’s owner, a modern art collector, and a film producer credited with such titles as The Lord of the Rings, whose aesthetic ranges from Freddy Kreuger to Barbara Kruger, and who has seamlessly melded art and wine. Musée hopes to inspire, particularly the laggards of the wine world who haven’t seriously considered Long Island yet. Beaming like a proud parent while swirling a glass of the silky and slightly spicy drink evoking black plum and currant and pomegranate, Lynne declared, “Musée is only the beginning. This is the message.”
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Posted by Robyn Lee, February 8, 2008 at 12:15 PM
The diverse flavors that wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk aims to teach late night talk show host Conan O'Brien aren't necessarily strange in the context of wine, but outside of it? ...Just a bit.
Watch Gary and Conan chew grass, lick rocks, and eat dirt after the jump. [via Laughing Squid]
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Posted by Emily Stone, February 6, 2008 at 11:00 AM
The first time I saw a Guittard's Nocturne 91% Cacao Extra Dark Chocolate Bar (which quietly crept onto the market last July) was at the New York Chocolate Show. Guittard's director of sales Mark Spini handed one to me. And, just as quickly, he snatched it away. "You can't eat this now," he said. You see, I was hanging around the Guittard booth with Andrew Shotts of Garrison Confections (Guittard's former pastry chef) and Amy Rosenfield of the Mon Aimee Chocolat boutique in Pittsburgh (which keeps both Guittard and Garrison products in stock). And we were drinking a bottle of Zinfandel. Mark explained that I couldn't possibly taste his super-dark, super-complex bar with a wine as heavy as a Zin. He told me to pop a milk chocolate in my mouth instead. The Zin was not for the Nocturne.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, January 30, 2008 at 5:15 PM
In today’s New York Times, Eric Asimov steps into the bizarre and confusing world of U.S. liquor laws.
This topic’s been setting parts of the online wine world ablaze in the aftermath of a recent operation in which representatives of Wine.com gathered evidence of rival wine retailers illegally shipping wines to certain states (including New York), and reported those retailers to state authorities. While Wine.com representatives say they’re out to change these rules, the event has turned attention to the Byzantine tangle of state laws that came out of the repeal of Prohibition, more than 75 years ago.
Asimov writes: “The attention illuminates the tensions inherent in an Internet economy bound by post-Prohibition laws that created the three-tier system of producers, distributors and retailers, regulated on a state-by-state basis.”
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Posted by Dr. Vino, December 14, 2007 at 3:30 PM
What better time for some celebratory sipping than the holidays? Our gift guide for the wine lover will brighten the spirits of oenophiles or those struggling with what to give them. Prices don't include shipping unless otherwise noted.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, December 3, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Salon.com ran a fascinating article over the weekend about organic wines, and how the USDA prohibition against using sulfites in those wines can lead to instability and unpredictable flavor changes during aging. Some wine-makers get around this rule by labeling their product as "made with organic grapes," a designation that guarantees that at least 70 percent of the grapes in the wine are organic, but one that also allows for the addition of sulfites to help preserve flavor.
Sulfites are a naturally occurring byproduct in wine-making, and are additionally added as a preservative to prevent oxidation. According to the article, wine-makers have been adding sulfites for hundreds of years to help slow the gradual transition into vinegar that all wines undergo. Hence some experts are wary of wines produced without sulfites. There's something about the directness of this statement that I find really refreshing:
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Posted by Harold Check, November 12, 2007 at 5:00 PM
It's that time of year again—casks of Beaujolais Nouveau are wending their way towards eager drinkers. Fans of the youthful French vintage might want to check out a new book on the subject, I'll Drink to That: Beaujolais and the French Peasant Who Made It the World's Most Popular Wine.
Author Rudolph Chelminski will be in Bay Area today and tomorrow, signing copies and discussing the upcoming release.
Monday, November 12, 7 p.m.
What: Talk and wine-tasting
Where: Rakestraw, 409 Railroad Avenue, Danville CA 94526 (map)
Tuesday, November 13th, 7:30 pm
What: Reading and book signing
Where: Books Inc., 2215 Chestnut Street, San Francisco CA 94123 (map)
Posted by Dr. Vino, November 9, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Editor's note: This marks the debut column on Serious Eats from Beard Award–winning wine blogger Tyler Colman (aka Dr. Vino). The good doctor will appear every other Friday with his always entertaining and enlightening take on wine. Today, his picks for Thanksgiving. —Adam
Cleaning the Augean stables in a day. Capturing a Cretan bull. Slaying a hydra.
I'm thinking of a few Herculean tasks easier than making wine suggestions for Thanksgiving. Consider the challenges:
1. Side dishes: Turkey is innocuous enough to pair with wine. It's the side dishes that throw a wrench in the gravy. Sweet potatoes and marshmallows? Sounds like an impossible food-wine pairing to me!
2. People, lots of them: The celebration almost always sees a large crowd, which, for many a host, might be cause enough for hitting the bottle. But the wide array of guests bring different expectations for and diverse appreciation of wine.
3. Budget: With all the expenditure on food and so many guests, there can be little juice left for wine.
Of course there are many ways to spin the wine bottle for Thanksgiving. The winning combination for you might be just to have a wine you like with food you like. My own preferences favor avoiding tannins and high alcohol wines with the meal. What I suggest here is an array of wines, easy on the palate and easy on the wallet. Mix and match. Have fun. With good food and friends around, it's hard to go wrong. And if your relatives start to really annoy you, just keep tasting. My picks, after the jump.
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Posted by Joe Campanale, September 28, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Once a month, on a Wednesday, a group of wine bloggers "meet" (in the virtual sense) to share their tasting notes and insights and post around a central theme. They call this, WBW, or Wine Blogging Wednesday, and some really solid, witty wine writing has come out of it, such as this post from the Second Glass.
The group was started by Lenn Thomspson of Lenndevours and here's how it works:
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Posted by Joe Campanale, September 21, 2007 at 1:15 PM
My main problem with most wine critics like Robert Parker Jr., and magazines like Wine Spectator is that they have specific tastes that don’t always correspond to my own. Another problem I have, even as a wine professional, is remembering all the wines I’ve tasted, what they tasted like, and whether I liked them.
Two new relatively new websites, Snooth and Cork'd solve these problems and do a bit more. On these sites, you can create a profile, which allows you to record your tasting notes and review and rate wines, find wine ratings from other users, see what your drinking buddies think, and receive recommendations and buy wines from a retailer. They also both act as online communities that unite oenophiles across the world.
After tooling around on them for a morning I found them to be quite similar to one another, and your choice should be based on personal preference. However each does have strengths and weaknesses:
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Posted by Joe Campanale, September 14, 2007 at 11:50 AM
- "The Virtue of Old Age": In this post, the Riesling enthusiasts over at Derkellermeister stage a tasting of the same wine of a recent vintage and one that is much, much older. The kick? All of the wines are white and some are aged over 40 years. Especially interesting is the section entitled, "Why are some wines age-worthy and others are not?"
- The beauty of reading it from the beginning: Aaron Epstein, a quad-lingual, mid-twenties, and handsome wine expert, has left his job "toting the bag" (industry speak for working for a wholesaler and carrying a case of wines from client to client for tastings) so that he can "work" the grape harvest in Provence then try to assimilate to life in Argentina's wine industry. In this new blog, he sometimes rambles off on wine jargon but then brings readers back to reality with great advice like, "Those of you not in the wine business may be asking yourself why any of this matters. The short answer is it doesn't, really — if you like a wine, drink it."
- There's so much to love about good wine. Not least of it all is the vineyards. This dramatic photo gives you the perspective of one single vineyard row. Images like this are enough to make a city mouse move to the country.
- And a nod to Eric Asimov, who continues to shine more brightly in his blog than his column in the New York Times. This week Asimov writes of a rare bottle of 1985 Barolo that he comes across on a rainy day. Even more alluring than his descriptions of the wine is the way he is able to convey the sense that the enjoyment of a wine is highlighted by so many factors, the people you are drinking it with, the environment, even the weather. The aged Barolo was great on that rainy day for him and with our last bought of heat, I drank a Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Blancs 2003 that was so refreshing that it seemed not only to quench my thirst but refresh the entire day.
Posted by Joe Campanale, September 7, 2007 at 12:00 PM
I'll never forget the feeling of disappointment. On my twenty-first birthday, my uncle had chosen a wine from his cellar harvested in the year of my birth for us to enjoy. After careful decanting, he served it only to realize that the wine was not in good condition. In fact, it was awful. It tasted of oxidation and decay. Years of moving it from one makeshift cellar to another (one damp basement to another) had taken its toll on the wine. All that build-up and years of waiting had culminated in something that was more vinegar than vino.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 5, 2007 at 6:30 PM
Brendan I. Koerner, who writes "The Goods," an underappreciated but often hilarious column in the Sunday New York Times business section, says that Bluw, a London design firm, has finally come up with a cheap, space-saving alternative to the wine rack. It's called the Wedge. And according to Koerner, it actually works:
...Though the package copy recommends that each two-piece set be used to hold a maximum of six wine bottles, I was able to create a very stable 10-bottle pyramid.
Even after downing several glasses of pinot noir, in order to affect a partygoer’s clumsiness, my jostlings of the pyramid caused almost no discernible movement.
The Wedge, $9.95 a pair, at Firebox.com
Posted by Joe Campanale, August 31, 2007 at 4:30 PM
When people speak of traditional Italian wines (as opposed to modern ones), they mean wines that are produced more or less the way they were about 100 years ago. The turn of the twentieth century was a time before the widespread introduction of French barriques, single vineyard bottlings, and temperature-controlled fermentations in stainless steel tanks. All of these inventions (combined with lower yields, global warming, and a shorter aging period) has combined to make wines that are now more concentrated, fruit-forward, and oaky than in times past. In short, more modern.
Josko Gravner, an off-the-wall winemaker in the northeastern region of Friuli Venezia-Giulia, makes a very different type of "traditional" Italian wine. Instead of using methods from 100 years ago, he makes wines as they did in ancient Greek and Roman times.
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Posted by Joe Campanale, August 24, 2007 at 2:30 PM
Eric Asimov's recent blog post on drinking beer with "wine people" reminded me of my first night on the floor as a sommelier at Babbo. Any time someone wanted a bottle from the cellar, I had to run down a flight of stairs, make sure not to bump into anyone running food, squeeze my way through the people crowding the maître d' (always brandishing a sweet, comforting smile even though I was freaking out on the inside), run down another flight of stairs, and search for the bottle in the enormous space. Then I would repeat the whole process on the way up. I broke a sweat in my first 30 minutes on the job, and this went on for the next seven hours.
At the end of the night, I pulled up to the bar to get my manager's drink, and Ken, the veteran bartender, asked this sage question: "So do you want a bionda [a light beer from the Chelsea Brewing Company] or a bruna [a darker beer from the same place]?"
"How did you know I wanted beer?" I asked naively.
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Posted by Joe Campanale, August 17, 2007 at 4:00 PM
The Judgment of Paris is the Greek myth detailing Paris's selection of the most beautiful Greek goddess. His choice of Aphrodite eventually led to the Trojan War. It is also the name of a historic wine tasting that took place in Paris in 1976 and has been restaged many times since. The 1976 event pitted the top French white and red wines against the best of the fledgling California industry. The judges: the most respected French palates of the time. The outcome: an equally epic war between the victorious American and the defeated French.
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Posted by Joe Campanale, August 2, 2007 at 5:30 PM
Gary Vaynerchuk in Episode #285 of Wine Library TV.
Two nights ago, a top television exec dined at Babbo and I was his sommelier. As I masterfully executed a long-pour across the table, I hinted at my desire to host my own prime-time wine television show. He said, “I think you’re right. I was speaking with the president of the Food Network over lunch yesterday, trying to convince him that this was a good idea. America is ready for it."
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Posted by Joe Campanale, July 27, 2007 at 3:30 PM
In a recent Decanter blog post, Oliver Styles asked whether the wine industry should be thinking more about global warming or was it doing enough? And, should we as consumers be more aware of the impact we have? Silly questions for such a serious publication. Because of travel, waste, and agricultural byproducts, wine is a product that can have serious effects on the environment and leave a Sasquatch-sized carbon footprint. It can contribute to global warming and be affected by it.
If you're a wine lover, all of these issues should be on your mind, at least because, as weather changes—and wine is directly affected by weather—the wines we know and love may no longer exist. (That and the whole save-the-planet thing.) But what can we as wine drinkers do about it?
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Posted by Joe Campanale, July 20, 2007 at 11:30 AM
If Chianti can overcome the image of a dripping wax candle stuck into a fiasco (the traditional straw covered Chianti bottle with low-quality connotations) then why can’t Lambrusco? In a recent article by Eric Asimov, he points out that Lambrusco is worth drinking and mentions the struggle it has had in overcoming an image as a commercial, low-quality product.
And so Lambrusco became a joke among serious wine-lovers, who had little use for it other than comparing memories, as with Boone’s Farm or Lancer’s rosé, of their introductions to the pleasures of hangovers. The time has come to consign this unfortunate impression of Lambrusco to the same locked attic trunk that holds the '70s disco wear.
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Posted by Joe Campanale, July 13, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Today we add yet another new voice to the Serious Eats mix—Joe Campanale. Joe will be joining us on Fridays to touch on topics from the world of wine. Cheers! —The Serious Eats Team
By Joe Campanale | Is there anything the iPhone can’t do? Well the whole winemaking thing is up in the air. But you can now make wine from your home computer using a new invention called the WinePod ($3,500). Just dump in (er, carefully place) 15 gallons of grapes (about seventy-five 750ml bottles), and use the interactive software to control the whole process, from pressing to aging.
But make sure you don’t use Thompson seedless or Concord grapes. These are part of an American vine variety known as Vitis labrusca and have a distinctly foxy taste that exists somewhere between Welch’s grape juice and an off-vintage Manischewitz. Instead, hunt down your favorite Vitis vinifera variety such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, or Kadarka, then plug in your WinePod and wait a year to enjoy your Main Street Cuvee!
Posted by Joe Campanale, July 6, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Disney’s consumer products division has to easily double the size of its creative department. In accordance with the studio's aim to squeeze every possible dollar out of a film, it will release wines based on the movie Ratatouille: "For the first time, Disney will offer red and white wines to complement the film's backdrop, a five-star Parisian restaurant, as well as cheese platters, both from Costco Wholesale Corp."
Wine blogger Dr. Vino speculates that the whites will be Chardonnays from the Burgundy region of France. Something tells me that Thomas Keller’s palate (in use as consultant for the film) will not go into these mass-market wines.
I may breach my no-Disney movie policy for this one, but I still don’t recommend buying any wine with cute, fuzzy animals on the label.
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 21, 2007 at 11:05 AM
Prompted by a debate over "supertaster" oenophiles last summer, wine critic Mike Steinberger sticks out his tongue and says argghhh:
As a result, when Wysocki gave me my PROP test, I was actually quite pleased when I felt that nauseating wave of bitterness wash across my tongue. It seemed to indicate that I too might be a supertaster, which sounded like a nice credential for a wine writer. But extreme PROP sensitivity is just one part of the supertaster equation, and I was curious to find out how I measured up in the fungiform papillae department.
Posted by Alaina Browne, June 18, 2007 at 2:40 PM
The French wine industry as a whole is suffering from massive over-production and foreign competition, leading to violent threats from CRAV (Comité Régional d'Action Viticole or regional winegrowers' action committee) a month ago delivered via a video tape sent anonymously to French TV, threatening violent action if new President Nicolas Sarkozy did not take measures to help economically desperate wine growers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Authorities are taking the threat seriously. The group has "killed people in the past" and several supermarkets selling foreign wines have been attacked with small explosive devices. More coverage at the BBC including the original video threat.
Posted by Alaina Browne, May 24, 2007 at 2:00 PM
A great tip from the Wine Spectator blog: Can't finish an open bottle? Freeze it. Just make sure there's enough room in the bottle for the wine to expand and it should keep for up to a week.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 18, 2007 at 4:26 PM
I like Josh Wesson and the rest of the folks at Best Cellars because they are the pioneers in unsnobby winespeak. I found this cool quiz they have people take on their website to help them figure out what kind of wine they would like. You don't have to study for this test. Everyone passes with flying colors.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 16, 2007 at 3:15 PM
Facing stiff competition from grocery stores, big-box retailers, and online stores, local wine shops have had to step it up a notch to gain and retain customers. The Chicago Tribune reports on a handful of Windy City retailers that are offering wine tastings, classes, and some seemingly out-there events:
"We wanted to do more than sell wine," said Tara Nemeth, co-owner with Neb Mrvaljevic of HouseRed in Forest Park. Their small store, located on a lively stretch of Madison Street, opened last fall but has hosted an astonishing assortment of tastings, food and wine classes, an art exhibit, jazz performances and, yes, belly dancing lessons.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 15, 2007 at 9:11 AM
Coming to a restaurant near you: "Would you like the Brazilian Red, the Calcutta White, or the Shanghai Rose? According to the New York Times, wine "producers are investing in developing countries, where a growing middle class is creating more wine lovers. In doing so, these companies are challenging the centuries-old dogma that vitaculture is about terroir, the belief that a wine reflects the area where its grapes were produced, and temperate climes."
Says well-known British wine expert Jancis Robinson: "For years we have drawn two bands around the globe, roughtly between 30 and 50, to denote those parts of it deemed suitable for viticulture. But all this is changing fast. Advances in refrigeration and irrigation techniques, not to mention greater control over how and when vines grow, have opened up to the grapevine vast tracts of the world previously thought unsuitable for viticulture."
Has anyone ever tried any of these wines?
Posted by Lia Bulaong, May 4, 2007 at 5:30 PM
I'm a carnivore who doesn't drink very much wine so it never really occurred to me that wine could be vegetarian or vegan, but it turns out that the majority of wines are fined (clarified, softened or stabilised) with clay, milk or egg products like casein or albumen, which are vegetarian but not vegan; some wines are fined with gelatin or products made from fish and shellfish and are not vegetarian at all. The Observer's Tim Atkins picks out twelve solid vegetarian wines so you can stick to your diet without compromising your tastebuds, and if you can't find them at your local shops the Vegan Wine Guide lists where to best order wines online in the US and UK.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 25, 2007 at 6:15 PM
Gourmet's Dara Moskowitz Grundahl was on a long family road trip, stopped randomly at an apple-themed souvenir store just to get out of the car with her baby, and ended up making her wine discovery of 2007. She describes ÆppelTreow Winery's Pommeaux dessert wine as having "the fragrance of a hundred apple trees in bloom, and more," and ended up buying every last bottle they had in stock!
They apparently only produce 2,000 cases total of all their products a year, and only sell in a limited amount of stores in the Kenosha, Milwaukee, and Chicago areas, so you'll have to drop them a line about buying it direct from the source, like I'm about to do.
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 11, 2007 at 12:30 PM
In today's New York Times, wine columnist Eric Asimov gives simple advice for wine newbies:
People ask me, more often than any other question by far, where to go to learn about wine.
Usually I tell them to go home.
No kidding. The best place to learn about wine is at home, particularly if you stop off at a good wine shop on the way.
Asimov recommends going to a good wine shop and having an agreeable employee there assemble you a mixed case of wines—six reds, six whites. It's not an unusual request at all, he assures. Asimov gave a $250 limit, plus or minus $50.
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 10, 2007 at 2:15 PM
I had an old issue of Food & Wine on my desk, and, leafing through it, I came upon a story about wine shops serving cheese and tapas. As a confirmed nondrinker and serious cheese lover, I applaud this trend.
Here are the shops they wrote about:
Smith & Vine
Address: 268 Smith Street, Brooklyn NY 11231
Phone: 718-243-2864
Stinky Brooklyn
Address: 261 Smith Street, Brooklyn NY 11231
Phone: 718-522-7425
Silverlake Wine
Address: 2395 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90039
Phone: 323-662-9024
Cesar
Address: 4039 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland CA 94611
Phone: 510-985-1200
Portalis
Address: 5205 Ballard Avenue, Seattle WA 98107
Phone: 206-783-2007
We've got both coasts covered. Any Serious Eaters know of any others?
Photograph from iStockphoto.com
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 9, 2007 at 4:15 PM
This weekend on NPR's All Things Considered, host Debbie Elliott and their food guy John T. Edge talked to wine expert Mannie Berk about Madeira, A Wine for the Ages.
A fortified wine made in the Portuguese islands of the same name, Madeira when sealed properly is one of the longest lasting of wines. According to Wikipedia, "Madeiras have been known to survive over 150 years in excellent condition. It is not uncommon to see Madeiras pushing the century mark for sale at stores that specialize in rare wine. As of January 19, 2007, rarewineco.com was offering an 1834 Malvasia."
Madeira's stability and longevity are what made it the wine of choice in the New World, where quality wine grapes could not be grown, and it was imported by the "pipe"—a casket containing between 110-120 gallons. A favorite of Thomas Jefferson, Madeira was used to toast the Declaration of Independence in 1776. I've never had any myself, but I've always been curious about it because it pops up so much in books like Robinson Crusoe!
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 6, 2007 at 2:28 PM
BusinessWeek's Kerry Miller discusses an upcoming lower-priced wine brand that "classifies its wines not by how they're made, but by what foods to pair them with":
The bottle's label doesn't list the wines' primary grape or vintage—details most buyers are accustomed to looking for, even if it doesn't mean much to them. Instead, the back label is a mini wine-pairing lesson in grid form, with simple descriptions explaining the intensity, acidity, tannin, and flavor of the wine. The aim: to win over foodies without alienating newer drinkers who might be scared off by more esoteric tasting-notes.
"Wine That Loves Pizza," for example, reads, "Pizza crust can create a dry mouth feel, so the right wine needs to be low in tannin," and "Because of the tomato sauce, pizza demands a wine that is red-fruit dominant." Gardner says the descriptions were designed to answer the big question most people have when they're buying a bottle of wine—"What is this going to taste like?
The San Francisco-based Amazing Food Wine Company is still looking for distributors for its Wine That Loves brand, but plan to start selling it from their website by the end of the month. Besides pizza, the other foods Wine That Loves loves are Pasta with Tomato Sauce, Roasted Chicken, Grilled Steak and Grilled Salmon; bottles should retail for about $12.
Posted by The Paupered Chef, April 4, 2007 at 7:08 AM
Some grapes go by different names across different languages, countries, and regions. Pinot Noir, for example, is known as Pinot Nero in Italy, Spatburgunder in Germany, and Blauburgunder in Austria. If people are paying $60 a bottle for Barolo while the humble Spanna is sitting on the same shelf, what other regional secrets exist?
Photograph by Nick Kindelsperger
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet." —William Shakespeare
When we lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on York Avenue, a location with all the no-subway pain of Alphabet City with none of the cool, there was this wine shop called In Vino Veritas. Nobody really knows about it; the place doesn't even have a website.
It was run by a father with a penchant for getting very excited (“this wine is so tight!”) and his two indistinguishable sons (it took us a couple awkward exchanges before we realized there were two and not just one). The shop specializes in Italian wines from little-known varietals and regions, which meant that many of them were under $20 and none were familiar. After walking around like idiots for a couple minutes, shuffling around labels that meant nothing, we’d ask for a little help. And thus began a long strange relationship in which we asked the most inane questions imaginable, and they answered every single one of them.
“Do you have a big tannic wine for $10?”
“What wine goes best with blueberry pancakes?”
“What goes best with beef stroganoff?”
And no matter how ridiculous the question, one of the brothers would simply say, “There’s this region of Italy that eats a lot of cream-based beef dishes. This will go well.” Because we never asked for a specific kind of wine—just one that went well with the dish—we were given some very unusual bottles.
The moment when this all sunk in was when we asked for a Barolo to cook some short ribs because that’s what Mario Batali had called for in his recipe (Though he lied!). It is nearly impossible to find a Barolo for less than $50, and then it would probably be too young to drink, and would need, say, another 10 years of aging before it became palatable.
Without batting an eye, one of the brothers immediately informed us that there are lesser-known areas in Piedmont that use Barolo's famed Nebbiola grape but which have taken to calling it something else—Spanna. "This wine is just as good as Barolo but a fraction of the price," he said. "Literally, it's the same grape. You'll love it." We took it home and loved it.
It got us thinking—people are paying $60 a bottle for Barolo while the humble Spanna is sitting on the same shelf. What other regional secrets exist? In a rapidly globalizing wine world, can we find other incredible deals?
Some grapes go by different names across different languages, countries, and even regions. Pinot Noir, for example, is also known as Pinot Nero in Italy, Spatburgunder in Germany, and Blauburgunder in Austria. But it’s doubtful anyone will care that the Italian Trebbiano is French Ugni Blanc. Or that Vernaccia can mean any number of different grapes because the root of the word is “vernacular” or “indigenous,” so the wine could mean whatever local grape was around.
But a great place to start is with Oregon’s Pinot Gris. Most people have heard of the wine because of the tongue rolling Italian variation: Pinot Grigio. It is often made into clean, crisp, gently fruity white that goes with everything. It's very refreshing, a nice counterpoint to that other American white obsession, big, heavy Chardonnay. But in France, where the grape is called Pinot Gris, they make a wine of more complexity and balance. It's also pretty darn pricey.
In California, they're calling wine made from this grape Pinot Grigio, because that makes eyes light up in recognition of the Italian name, and sells well. But up in Oregon's cooler climate, more similar to the Alsatian region of France, they're making Pinot Gris. Like in France, it has more body, longer finish, and real personality. And its quality is still ahead of its price.
A lesser-known secret is Italy's Primitivo, a wine made from the genetic twin of California’s favorite Zinfandel. Rarely do grape histories get any sexier than that about where Zinfandel came from. As recently as last year, wine makers in that state have attempted to make it the official grape of California, not because they don’t make other great wines, but because Zinfandel was seen as wholly American. Part of the hubris was due to the fact that no one could figure out where the grape had come from. It didn’t taste like many other European wines.
Meanwhile, poor Primitivo was languishing relatively unknown in Puglia, in Italy’s boot heel, used mainly in blends and losing ground to more well-known grapes. But thanks to some intense research and DNA testing, it was shown to be the identical grape. They both apparently came from the Croatian tongue-tangler Crljenak Kastelanski, which we’ve never seen on a shelf—and hopefully will never have to pronounce. But we do like Primitivo. The examples we’ve sampled lacked Zinfandel's rich oak and pepperiness but made up for it in spice and funkiness. Best of all, they’ve all been much cheaper, hovering around the $10 mark. And it’s almost as much fun to say.
Serious Eaters (and drinkers)—what are your secret wine deals?
Oregon Pinot Gris
Adelsheim Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2005
We found this wine for a respectable $17. After the first sip, it's clear it has far more to say than your basic Pinot Grigio, which is best enjoyed ice cold and crisp as a quick, pleasant tongue wash, with lighter fare like shellfish or salmon. Our Oregon Pinot Gris could do the same, but had a far deeper, almost meatier complexity bolstered with acidity to keep it fresh, and a long finish. A wine you could almost, but not quite, sip alone like a bottle of interesting red.
Italian Primitivo
Terra e Sole Primitivo di Manduria 2003
You could tell someone to smell this with their eyes closed, tell them it was a stinky cheese, and they'd believe you. Funky, funky red with an unmistakeable whiff of blue cheese that opens into a sweet, almost maraschino cherry scent. It's quite thin in the mouth, a little on the spicier side, and very fun. You'd probably get tired of it without a food that was dominant enough to compete.
About the authors: Collectively, Nick Kindelsperger and Blake Royer are the Paupered Chef. For more on frugal but flavorful dining, visit their blog, thepauperedchef.com.
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, March 26, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Available only on Serious Eats, our Sommelier To Go, Joshua Wesson, sits down with us and gives suggestions for three kinds of wine to drink with a classic bagel-based brunch. Many people don't think of wine at brunch beyond sparkling wine or mimosas, Wesson says, but a nice Cava, Riesling, or rosé can pair beautifully with bagels, smoked salmon, cream cheese, and tomato.
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Posted by Ed Levine, March 22, 2007 at 3:00 PM
I spoke to Josh Wesson, grapehead supreme and founder of Best Cellars, about the Three Thieves Bandit Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc he carries in juice boxes (Tetra Paks). I figured if the real wine snobs are crazed about screw caps they must be more than a little annoyed about the juice boxes. But Wesson, ever the democratizing force in the wine business, loves them.
"The boxes are completely inert (same innards as milk containers), so there's no reaction with the juice inside," Wesson says. "It's also airtight (until the seal is lifted or broken), so no oxidation is possible. I like them because they're lightweight and less fragile than half or quarter glass bottles. They also chill quickly—as the coated paper from which they're constructed is a relatively poor insulator. Picnics—toss them in a cooler or bucket of ice. By the by, the Three Thieves Cab tastes almost as good chilled as it d
