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... More

Photograph by Robyn Lee Via Jason Kottke, here's Nelson Minar's take on sourdough bread: It's sour because in the US, particularly in San Francisco, it's hard to buy good bread. About 75% of the decent bread in my grocery store, both fresh baked and industrial, is sourdough. Consumers think sourdough is shorthand for quality. It's not. In fact, sourdough is seldom the appropriate bread for a meal. It makes lousy sandwiches, lousy breakfast, it clashes with cheese. It's good with creamy soups, and it's good plain with butter. But the premium bakeries all push sourdough, and so sourdough becomes synonymous with "good", when it's not. So, serious eaters: What do you think of sourdough? Personally, I side with Minar.... More