Posted by Deb Harkness, July 3, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Editor's note: On Fridays Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 joins us to talk some Serious Grape. Today, some advice for entertaining this weekend. Take it away, Deb!
"If you can't be bothered washing stemware or are worried about fragile stems breaking outside, get yourself some stemless wine glasses."
This weekend, at cookouts all over America, people will be drinking wine out of plastic cups.
Sometimes, you just have to. Between the breakage issues and the cleanup issues, we can all be forgiven for occasionally serving Chardonnay in plastic tumblers.
But the wine will suffer for it. It will have barely any taste, no discernible aromas, and seem tart and slightly vinegary. At a backyard cookout that may matter less than someone stepping on broken glass or facing a sink full of dishes. But before you pour your cult Cabernet into a plastic cup, here's what I found out about the importance of good stemware at a seminar led by Georg Riedel, the founder of the wineglass company Riedel.
I knew in a vague way that serving wine in proper glasses mattered. But I had no idea how much until Georg Riedel led more than a hundred of us through a tasting this spring at the Hospice du Rhône event in Paso Robles. We tasted some pretty superb wine in everything from plastic cups to handblown lead crystal. The results were convincing: what you put your wine into matters as much as the wine itself.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, July 1, 2009 at 7:15 PM
Welcome to the Weekend Cook and Tell round up. Last week we asked you to play sommelier by picking a bottle of wine for under $12 and making a meal that would pair well with it. Wine pairing isn't always easy, but as usual we've gotten some inspired responses.
Cold beer and barbecue are a match made in heaven, but have you tried a hearty Spanish red with barbecued pork ribs? Great combo, pksmash.
Cassaendra and her husband aren't big drinkers, but she delved into her stash to come up with this combination of sake and sukiyaki for this week's challenge.
Kalajo had all of the ingredients for this pork top loin roast with asparagus, spring onion, and butter lettuce in the CSA box. Paired with a white blend from Washington's Maryhill Winery, this sounds like a wonderful summer dinner.
A Finger Lakes Merlot from Fox Run Vineyards was an ingredient in the sauce for patoo's homemade pizzas. I hope the rest of the bottle made it to the dinner table.
My friend samueltobin took this challenge to the park and grilled up some clams with lemon and parsley and paired it with a Portuguese vinho verde. Vinho verde is the most wonderful summer wine, light, slightly sparkling, and incredibly inexpensive.
I was at my local wine shop over the weekend and spotted a box (yes, a box) of rosé from on of my favorite importers, Jenny & François Selections. It's a fantastic light rosé from Provence that is only $32 for three liters (or about $8 a bottle). Needless to say there were very few meals this weekend that weren't paired with it!
Thank you to everyone who participated in this week's Weekend Cook and Tell. We love to hear about what all of you are eating (and drinking) at home. Be sure to head over to Talk to read about this week's challenge: burgers!
Posted by Laren Spirer, July 1, 2009 at 1:45 PM
"The thing to think about, most importantly, is to match the weight of your wine with the weight of your food."
This week we chat with Matt Skinner, an Australian wine writer and enthusiast, most recently the author of Heard It Through The Grapevine: The Things You Should Know to Enjoy Wine.
Name: Matt Skinner
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Occupation: Wine writer, consultant, and educator
How did you become involved in the wine industry at such a young age?
I didn’t know at age 17 what I wanted to do with my life. I got a job in a bottle shop, like a liquor store, in Australia. They specialized in selling cases of beer and boxes of wine, nothing glamorous. We were in a pretty seedy area so we had a rough clientele.
I wasn’t a model employee. I got caught on CCTV kind of doing nothing by my boss, and he gave me an ultimatum—either I could leave or I could stay and try to learn something about what we’re trying to do. He taught me how to taste, which I found intriguing and frustrating at the same time. He also encouraged me to go into a wine course at night. I wasn’t overly enthusiastic, but found it fascinating. I learned that wine was more than liquid in a glass—it was a little bit of art, a little bit of science—history, geography, and Mother Nature colliding.
I finished that course and then worked at a wine specialist, my first real job in wine. I had the chance to visit a vineyard for the first time, talk to the winemaker. That’s how it started. I've never considered doing anything else.
Why do you think many people are so intimidated by wine and what advice do you have for those folks?
In a lot of ways it's a subject with its own culture, its own language, its own stereotypes. People have a lot of misconceptions about wine because they see it as a sort of tradition, bound and elitist. Knowing what you like is great, but knowing why you like it will help you to understand wine so much better, and to get to that point doesn’t require that you learn a huge amount. What I’d encourage people to do is use the resources they have—the sommeliers, the person behind the counter—it's like an insurance policy against getting bad bottles.
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Posted by Carey Jones, June 30, 2009 at 12:45 PM
Plum wine a-steepin'. Photograph from Umamimart
Fermentation is no easy feat, and at-home alcohol projects tend to be pretty tricky. But since these fruit liqueurs start with an alcoholic base such as vodka or soju, they’re a cinch to make yourself. Learn how to make umeshu (plum wine) at Delicious Coma, or try your hand at biwashu (loquat liqueur) with these instructions from Umamimart.
Posted by Deb Harkness, June 19, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness (Good Wine Under $20) joins us to talk wine. Take it away, Deb!
This weekend, it's officially summer. How do I celebrate the longest day of the year? I drink pink.
I'm not talking about the White Zinfandels of the 70s. I'm talking about serious rosé wine that is dry or barely off-dry, fruity, and has lots of character. What's more, it is refreshing, pairs well with grilled foods (especially grilled tuna or other meaty fish), and is the perfect partner for hot dogs.
You can get some excellent rosés for under $20, too. They're made from all sorts of grapes, and come from all over the world. If you are a rosé skeptic, cast your doubts aside this summer and check out my recommendations for some of the best bottlings available. Whether from Spain, France, the United States, or some other region, rosé wines will surprise and delight you with their winning taste and affordable prices.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 16, 2009 at 6:30 PM
If you've followed the rise of box wine over recent years, you've read the arguments that it's just as good as glass-bottle wine. And, indeed, there are a number of reputable, good-quality wines being packaged in cartons. But, now, an interesting story in The Economist says that, in some cases, the lined cardboard packaging may actually help produce better wine.
It all starts with ladybugs. They eat grapes. Sometimes they get mixed in with the fruit as it's processed and their bodies produce chemicals that give the wine an off flavor. But researchers in Canada have found that the carton appears to absorb these chemicals. The cartons may therefore be best, The Economist says, for wines from regions with large numbers of ladybugs and that will be consumed relatively soon after packaging—as too long in the carton can lead to oxidation. [via teenagefoodie]
Posted by Deb Harkness, June 5, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness (Good Wine Under $20) joins us to talk wine. Take it away, Deb!
Gewürztraminer is one of those grapes that’s hard to spell. Because of this, it's often overshadowed by wines like Riesling that are so much easier to pronounce.
Despite its tongue-twisting name, it's easy to fall in love with Gewürztraminer because the grape produces wines that are aromatic, spicy, and pair brilliantly with spicy food—especially Asian food. I love Gewürztraminer with Thai cuisine, seafood (especially oysters), and grilled chicken or fish.
If you're interested in trying a Gewürztraminer, remember that the grape is grown all over the world. The wines made from the grape range from fruit-forward treats to more austere, restrained beauties. It flourishes in cool climates, where the grape's naturally high levels of sugar don't rise to undrinkable levels. In spite of the cool temperatures, most Gewürztraminers are still a bit sweet (or "off-dry" as they are technically called), though it is possible to find dryer bottlings.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, May 27, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Virtually everything in the world of spirits is an acquired taste, but some tastes take longer to acquire than others. In today’s Washington Post, Jason Wilson tackles a tipple that can be a particularly rough one to get accustomed to: grappa.
Wilson doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to the way most people view this spirit (which is made from the grape pomace left over from pressing wine), asking rhetorically right at the outset, "You’re afraid of grappa, right?" Wilson writes that Italian winemakers looking to jump on the grappa bandwagon in the 1980s and 1990s bear a lot of responsibility for the spirit’s shabby reputation; by viewing grappa as a marketing tool for their wines, many wineries contracted out production to distilleries that didn’t have the expertise, the access to quality pomace, or the attention to detail that the making of a good grappa requires.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, May 22, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 joins us to talk some Serious Grape. Take it away, Deb! —AK
Summer cookout season starts in earnest this weekend with Memorial Day picnics and entertaining.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started if you are in the market for some wine to go with your chicken, burgers, or barbecue, with an easy-to-remember acronym to help you make selections in the store.
All you need to know when you're looking for cookout wines is this: ZEST. It stands for Zinfandel, Easy on the Oak, South America, and Tempranillo. And in my recommendations below, not a single bottle has a suggested retail price of more than $20.
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Deb Harkness suggests some food and wallet-friendly Spanish wines to go along with whatever you're grilling this weekend.
Posted by Paul Clarke, May 20, 2009 at 4:00 PM
When attending a party at someone's home, the drink options are usually right out in front of you: A beer? Glass of wine? Or maybe a cocktail or some punch? While many people have their standard go-to drink that they choose, there are also the indecisive guests who may want a cocktail but don’t want to deal with the alcohol payload in a martini, or who want to enjoy the flavor of a glass of wine but want something a little more exciting to get into the party mood.
Wine cocktails have been making a bit of a comeback at bars and restaurants in recent years, and now Seattle writer A.J. Rathbun has a guide to wine cocktails for home enthusiasts. As Rathbun writes in the introduction to Wine Cocktails, "The classic cocktailians of history, who set down the earliest tomes of cocktail lore, were as a rule well versed in wine, and they stirred and shook combinations that can only be called wine cocktails."
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Posted by Deb Harkness, May 8, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 joins us to talk some Serious Grape. Take it away, Deb!
Last weekend, I was a guest at the 2009 Hospice du Rhône event in Paso Robles, California. Each year, organizers draw together some of the finest winemakers in the world who all have one thing in common: They are passionate about Rhône grape varieties such as Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Viognier, Roussanne, and Marsanne. These are the grapes that go into famed French red blends (like Chateauneuf du Pape and Cotes du Rhone) and coveted white blends (like Condrieu). During two days of seminars and tastings, they share their passion—and their wine—with participants.
Today, Rhône varieties are grown all around the world, making them easy to find in your local wine shop. I like to think of Rhône varieties as grapes that will appeal to people who like to "adapt" recipes, color outside the lines, and think outside the box. Anybody can drink Cabernet and Chardonnay. After the jump, discover some reasons why you should be adventurous and get to know Rhône varieties better.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, May 1, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Editor's note: On Fridays Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 joins us to talk some Serious Grape. Take it away, Deb!
Photograph from allaboutgeorge on Flickr
When it comes to wine and food, it can sometimes feel like the more you learn the less you know. Each new bottle, each new grape, and each new food reminds us just how vast and complex the world of taste is.
Every now and then it is worth putting yourself—and your taste buds—in the hands of professionals to take your knowledge to the next level. Whether you head to a wine store to taste a flight of new wines, go to a restaurant and let a knowledgeable sommelier pick the wines, or attend a cooking and wine class, there are plenty of opportunities for the curious oenophile.
Here, after the jump, are some hints on where to find local resources to help you out with your continuing wine and food education.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, April 14, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Somewhere in between alky and non-drinker, there's a community of social sippers that could have another but typically knows when to say nah. Nina Caplan, part of this group, decided to give up wine for a month and write about it for Intelligent Life, a quarterly magazine by The Economist.
It’s not difficult. Just dull. I felt unsociable. I missed the glow of self-satisfaction that alcohol brings, and the clear division it offers between work and recreation. I would cook dinner for a friend, watch her down half a bottle of wine and feel guilty for not joining her.
Her conclusion: stone-cold sobriety is overrated. She was still tired, lazy, and guilty of overeating carbs. She didn't spend any less. Plus, without alcohol to transport her a bit mentally, she had to hang out, so to speak, with herself more. And "nobody wants to spend that much time with me—not even me." [via Coldmud]
Posted by Deb Harkness, April 10, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Now that spring is here, most of us are starting to make the switch from the heavier, richer, comforting tastes of winter and onto the lighter, brighter flavors of spring.
Take a trip to the wine store and pick up a mixed case of affordable red and white wines that will see you through all of the season's meals and special occasions between now and summer.
I'm recommending buying two bottles of each of the varieties here. And be sure to ask your merchant if they give an extra 10 percent discount on a case of wine. Most do.
For Salads, Fish, and Tuning Up Your Taste Buds
Spring's lighter, greener foods pair perfectly with Sauvignon Blanc. Depending on your taste preferences, go for a citrusy/melony Sauvignon Blanc (like the 2007 Dancing Bull, with its flavors of pink grapefruit and canteloupe, find this wine), one full of zingy lime notes (like the 2008 Matua from New Zealand, find this wine), or a stony crisp French version from Sancerre or the Touraine (like the 2007 Clos Roche Blanche, find this wine).
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Posted by Deb Harkness, April 3, 2009 at 11:15 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape.
Photograph from rolands.lakis on Flickr
An international study of more than 4,300 wine-drinking women has revealed the following: Women buy wine because they like how it tastes and it goes well with food.
Shocking, isn't it?
Apparently the wine pundits thought we bought wine because it was fashionable and good for our health. Instead, they discovered that in the United Kingdom women buy eight out of ten bottles of wine purchased—and what they care about is taste and price. Robert Beynat, a spokesman for the world's largest wine exhibition and one of the partners involved in the research, VinExpo, commented as following on the study's results: "The message for wine marketers is clear: cherchez la femme if you want to sell."
Cherchez la femme? You've got to be kidding.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, March 27, 2009 at 11:15 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape.
Now that it's spring I can't go by the fish counter at the local market without wanting some salmon. I don't know if it's the color, the freshness of its flesh, or the fact that it goes so well with spring vegetables like peas and asparagus.
No matter the reason, salmon is finding its way onto my dinner table regularly. If this is happening to you too, you might be wondering what wine makes a perfect partner for this rich fish.
Once upon a time, the rule was "white wine with fish." That rule doesn't hold anymore. To prove it, I made a tasty salmon dish and paired it with both a full-bodied white and a flavorful red. Both were delicious, as you'll see after the jump.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 24, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Sometimes a date goes so well—up until the very last moments of the evening. Factor in wine fanaticism, and there you go.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, March 20, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape.
Joshua Klapper, the founder and winemaker of Timeless Palates Wine, and part of the Family Winemakers of California.
This Tuesday, I spent some time with the Family Winemakers of California.
What's a Family Winemaker, you might ask?
Good question. In California, a Family Winemaker is a member of a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting small, independent winemakers and preserving the diversity of California's wine production. At a time when many small businesses are going under and corporate giants dominate much of the wine culture in this county, it's nice to be reminded that there are still small producers out there.
The Family Winemakers of California have more than 740 members, and the membership is dominated by makers who produce less than 5,000 cases of wine a year. To put this in perspective, the wine biz defines a "small wine producer" as someone who produces less than 50,000 cases a year.
These producers are much smaller than that.
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Posted by BrianYarvin, March 16, 2009 at 10:45 AM
I've always had a fascination with the way some people obsess with the notion of matching wine with food. During one memorable discussion long ago, I was told that lobster and wine don't really go together because the claws and tail call for different wines. Not everybody thinks this way and several recent meals in Italy's Piedmont region seemed to prove the point.
Cooking bollito misto.
As so often happens in places where there's a long and historic wine tradition, the Piemontese don't really bother with wine matching at all. Instead, they choose a bottle—often one that brings up fond memories—and drink it with everything. This attitude was on proud display at a food festival in the small Alpine resort of Entracque. On a Saturday night, they held a dinner called "Bollito in Mercato." It was simple enough; several hundred people—a mix of locals and tourists (mostly weekenders from Turin and Genoa)—gathered in the market square for a meal of bollito misto, the classic Piemontese feast of boiled meats and sauces.
If the American wine gurus I knew had been there, the varied courses of salty, sweet, unctuous, and lean—not to mention the closing course of a soup made from the broth the meats were boiled in—would each require a different wine. No such luck. There was one wine, a Barbera from nearby Langhe, and it went with everything. In fact, it went really well with everything, even the piece of fruit that finished the evening. I became convinced that the wine had magical powers, what some commentators call "food friendliness."
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Posted by Deb Harkness, March 13, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape.
Photograph from neeta_lind on Flickr
I love going out to eat, but do not love the high cost of mediocre wine service that often accompanies it.
Warm red wine, insipid wine list selections, and astronomical markups have finally convinced me that the time has come, wine lovers, to bring wine to restaurants. That means it's time to stop complaining and start embracing corkage fees.
Corkage fees are charges that restaurants assess on diners who bring their own wine to dinner. There is usually a flat fee (on average $5 to $20 per bottle), and it's meant to soften the blow to the restaurant's bottom line that would result if we all stopped buying their overpriced wine selections. And though you may grumble about paying $15 for someone to open your wine bottle, you are still probably paying less than you would ordering off the wine list.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, March 6, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, the best of affordable Cabernets.
Photograph from hahnfamilywines on Flickr
California produces many different wines, but the state's iconic grape is arguably Cabernet Sauvignon.
California Cabernet is a tricky thing to purchase, however—or at least I've found it tricky. Top-level wines from Napa can be very expensive, highly limited, or both. Widely-available wines can be bland and lack the distinctive varietal characteristics that make Cabernet so popular. The result can often be a wine with mushy flavors that makes you say "Hey, this wine tastes red!"
If you want more from your Cabernet than "red," here are my recommendations for wines that stand out at prices that range from $10 to $25.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, February 27, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape.
Tomorrow night (Saturday, February 28) is the 10th annual Open That Bottle Night.
If you've never heard of it before, Open That Bottle Night was started by two distinguished Wall Street Journal wine writers/critics, Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher. Once a year, they encourage all of us to dig out that bottle of wine we've been holding onto for a special occasion and open it up.
February 28, they argue, is the special occasion you've been waiting for.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, February 20, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, a scrapbook for your wine experiences.
In January, I received an unexpected gift in the mail from my beloved aunt and godmother: a wine book, full of labels and notes, that she had kept during the1970s when she and my uncle were living in Germany.
My godparents were responsible for many important developments in my childhood. They enrolled me in book clubs and fostered my love of reading. They introduced me to curry and the concept of a gourmet pizza (my Aunt Fran's pizza was nothing short of miraculous). I learned there was nothing in life more splendid than a picnic—if you did it right and served amazing food. They also drank a lot of German wine, so I grew up knowing Riesling was a good thing.
Turns out they drank lots of other wine, too, while I was running around and not paying attention. But I get to share those bottles with them now, thanks to this record of a decade's enjoyment of wine.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, February 13, 2009 at 11:15 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape.
Photograph from Rob Qld on Flickr
In 1925, a South African professor named A. I. Perold created a new grape variety by crossing Pinot Noir, everybody's favorite silky red, with Cinsault, a hearty grape variety that was known locally as Hermitage.
The result is a grape called Pinotage.
Pinotage is an acquired taste. Some people are turned off by its strong flavors. But what I've found is that if you absolutely adore coffee—thick, black, dark roasted—you will probably love Pinotage, too. It's the red wine for coffee addicts who can't go for more than a few hours without a taste of their favorite bitter brew.
The reason why? It tastes (to me, at least) like a combination of rich, dark berries and aromatic, bitter chocolate and coffee.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, February 6, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, what to swill on Valentine's Day.
Admit it.
You're already trying to figure out what you're going to give your sweetie for Valentine's Day.
Most of us reach for Champagne or some other sparkling wine, and that's a wonderful, traditional choice.
But if it's romance you're looking for, why not consider a bottle of dessert wine instead? They come in white, red, and rosé versions, and one will pair perfectly with your plans for dessert.
Dessert wines are some of the least understood wines on the market. In part that stems from the mystery of how they're made. Dessert wines can be produced in a number of ways: by letting the grapes hang on the vines until they develop a fungus known as "noble rot"; by harvesting the grapes late, so that the sugar builds in the flesh and juice; by permitting the grapes to freeze, thus concentrating their sugars; and even by picking the grapes and letting them dry in the sun to concentrate their flavors.
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The Telegraph: "The California State Fair wine competition, tested judges' consistency by giving them repeat samples of the same wine during large blind tasting sessions. It discovered that 90 percent of the judges failed to give identical samples poured from the same bottle matching or close scores at repeated tastings. One panel of judges even rejected a particular vintage twice only to award it a double-gold medal the third time they sampled it."
Posted by Deb Harkness, January 30, 2009 at 11:15 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, your local wine scene.
Last week I ran an informal poll on Twitter, the social networking site. I asked those who followed me—wine bloggers, wine professionals, and consumers—about their picks for up-and-coming wine regions in the United States.
I was stunned by the range of responses. Every part of North America has an emerging wine region—and their wine often represents excellent value, too.
Everybody had a different pick. And the Canadians popped up to point out that Canada, too, has its up-and-coming regions. The pattern that emerged made it clear that the next big wine region just may be the one outside your own front door.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, January 23, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, why serious eaters have the skills to become serious drinkers.
Wine tasting notes are funny things. Some people read them and wonder if the folks writing them have lost their minds.
Elderflowers? Acacia? Litchi? Gooseberries? Leather? Can anybody really taste those flavors in wine?
The answer is yes.
But you have to be able to identify the flavors and aromas outside the bottle before you can taste them in your next Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc. That's why Serious Eaters are more likely to be serious wine tasters than folks who dine on nothing but peanut butter sandwiches and Rice Krispies.
Ann C. Noble, the UC Davis professor who came up with the Wine Aroma Wheel, contends that most of us have extraordinary taste abilities. What we lack is the ability to link what we taste with a specific word. When someone like me tries to tell you about a wine, we have to make analogies between the flavors in the glass and other easily identifiable smells and tastes that you might be familiar with in another context.
But I find there's more to it than that.
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Add this to the list of Obama food and drink puns: 2005 Yes We Cab! Cabernet Sauvignon: "Earthy and spicy Cabernet...a classic Cabernet, elegant and stately, just like Obama himself." Only 56 cases were produced, and each bottle goes for $18. Related: 'Palin Syrah' Wine Drops in Sales After Sarah Palin Veep Pick
Posted by Deb Harkness, January 16, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, red wines for the chilly weather.
With much of the country in a deep freeze, it seemed like the perfect time to talk about red blends.
Here in the United States, we are used to seeing wines with a single, particular grape listed proudly on the label, such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Some think these single-grape bottlings indicate higher quality, and feel that if you have to blend your juice, then there's something wrong with it.
Not true. Red blends have been made for centuries all over the world, most notably in Bordeaux, France, where the famous red wines are traditionally blended from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and other permitted red grapes. Many red blends represent excellent value, as well.
If you're looking for a hearty red to warm up your cold winter nights, give one listed after the jump a try. All of these wines will pair perfectly with soups, stews, roasts, and pasta dishes—in other words, with the foods we're eating right now.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, January 9, 2009 at 11:30 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she suggests some resolutions to expand your wine repertoire in 2009.
It's 2009. With the new year we make all kinds of resolutions—to lose weight, balance our checkbooks, spend more quality time with friends. Some of these resolutions we keep. Most we forget before the end of January.
I make a new set of wine resolutions every January to help lift me out of any wine ruts I've fallen into over the past year. If you're interested in making some wine resolutions of your own, I've got three suggestions to help you think your way to a whole new experience of wine in 2009.
Explore New Regions
It's easy to find yourself drinking wine from one or two regions. Maybe it's because your favorite store specializes in that region. Maybe it's because you don't know much about wine and are afraid to branch out. If this sounds like you, pick a wine region—any region—that is unfamiliar to you and make a point of trying wine from that region when you get a chance. It can be as easy as making your next wine-by-the-glass pick not your familiar California Merlot, but an Argentinian Malbec. If you love Pinot Noir, for instance, why not explore the red wines of Austria? If you love big, bold reds why not give the reds of Chile and Argentina a try? In 2008 I tried to learn more about Italian wines, and have been particularly impressed by the whites, so if you are a white wine drinker head to Italy or Spain for zesty, aromatic whites that will blow all the cobwebs off your taste buds.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, December 19, 2008 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, the best in bubbles.
I can't seem to get my fill of bubbles this time of year.
The holidays seem a bit more special with some sparkle in them.
Just in time for pre-dinner sipping, post-shopping relaxing, holiday brunch mixing—and of course toasting the New Year—I've got my buying guide for the very best, affordable bubbles in the market. None of these sparklers should be hard to find, and they will add a festive note to whatever you're doing, even if it's just wrapping gifts.
NV Soligo Prosecco Brut (find this wine for $11-$18) Really well made with a superb balance between toast and citrus notes. No harsh or bitter elements, and lots of creamy froth with a medium size bubble. Many steps up from most prosecco, and a bargain at around $15.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, December 12, 2008 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, Super Tuscans, the superhero of wines.
It's a bird.
It's a plane.
It's a Super Tuscan.
What's a Super Tuscan?
Some people love their big, bold flavors. Some people hate them, and find them too modern and fruity. But what are they? And how can you recognize this wine superhero when you see it?
The history of Super Tuscans goes back to the 1970s, when Italy's notoriously strict wine regulations made it impossible for winemakers in Tuscany to make wines that deviated from the following recipe: no more than 70% Sangiovese and at least 10% juice from local white grapes. The penalty if you made your wine with 80% Sangiovese? Or if you made it without white grape juice? You were forbidden from putting the highly marketable "Chianti" name on your wine and were instead required to label your wine "vino de tavola" (table wine) which was reserved for simple wines at the bottom of the Italian wine hierarchy.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, December 11, 2008 at 1:45 PM
You could just give a bottle of wine to a wine lover as a gift, but that's a little too expected. Here are some useful and fun, non-drinkable gift ideas for the wine lover in your life, each one costing $25 or less.
The Wine Soirée
This glass bubble that you stick in a wine bottle decants while you pour. It's attractive, easy to clean, and it works. The benefits? Smoother wine and no decanter to wash and dry. $25 from Wine Soirée
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Jason's Wine Blog does a regular "Best of Trader Joe's Wine" feature. This reminds me of a boozy Christmas project I undertook with my sister where we rated TJ's 2005 red wine offerings under $4. The quality really jumps if you opt to spend $6.
Posted by Deb Harkness, December 5, 2008 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, the wines to have in reserve for winter entertaining.
As running to the store for "last minute" items becomes more and more stressful, wouldn't it be nice to know that you had the right wine on hand this holiday?
Here's a shopping list for a mixed case of wine that will satisfy most needs for things that sparkle, refresh, warm you, and tickle your sweet tooth. What's even better is that only two bottles in the case will cost you more than $20, and most will cost you under $15. Hopefully, this means there's one less list you have to make, and you'll be able to stay within your budget this year.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, December 4, 2008 at 5:00 PM
From the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board comes Cheese Cupid, a site to help you pair wines, beers, and spirits with cheese. [via AdFreak]
Related
Sommelier To Go: Pairing Wine with Cheese
Classic Wine and Cheese Combos
Posted by Kerry Saretsky, December 3, 2008 at 10:15 AM
The winter holidays are about a lot of things. Not unimportant among these many meaningful sentiments are two predominant aspects of the holiday season: staying warm and getting drunk. Ursula of Jane Spice, Mulled Wine combines the garnet Christmas red of Burgundy wine with the tart spike of Thanksgiving's cranberry juice, dressed up with the spices of the season. It looks, and must smell, like December in a glass. Plus, it delivers the warm and drunk part with a single punch. Just be sure not to serve Santa—he may be old enough, but a reindeer DUI would seriously interfere with presents.
Posted by Deb Harkness, November 28, 2008 at 1:00 PM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape.
I've got so much tryptophan in my blood stream and chaos in my house that all I can manage this week is to scrape myself off the couch long enough to tell you where you can go to do some Friday-morning wine quarterbacking.
If the site traffic here on Serious Eats and on my own blog was any indication, Americans were seriously concerned about what wine to serve with Thanksgiving. Despite my own best efforts to keep it low-key and relaxed, people worried.
You all did great--at least that's what the data on CellarTracker!, my preferred online cellar management program, tells me.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, November 21, 2008 at 11:15 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, serving wine 101.
A lot of wine will be served at dinners all over America in the next week. There will be family dinners, pre-family dinners, Turkey Day dinners, and “We Survived!” dinners.
Naturally, a lot of people are wondering how to serve wine to maximize its flavor.
Here's a handy primer on how to serve wine, including how to chill wine quickly, proper serving temperatures for a range of popular wines, and whether or not you should let red wine breathe. You can use this advice all year around—but it's especially nice during the holidays to cross one worry off your list.
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Posted by Linnea Covington, November 20, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Every year on the third Thursday in November, corks pop at midnight in celebration of the arrival of the year's Beaujolais Nouveau, a light, fruity red wine from the Beaujolais region in France. While the wine's debut is a celebration for its home country, in the United States this wine symbolizes Thanksgiving. It's also cheap, easy to find, and very drinkable.
Gary Vaynerchuk, author of 101 Great Wines, described the wine as having, "Aromas of fresh rhubarb pie and little hints of black pepper." The flavor, he wrote, is, "Full of beautiful, complex fruit, with a slight soapy quality. It's like Mr. Bubbles meets Smucker's jam." Even with that slightly off putting description, Vaynerchuk actually loves Beaujolais Nouveau.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 8, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Lazarus Wine is made by people who are blind and uses the Braille alphabet. Madrid-based agency Baud designed the beautiful, innovative label, which comes in black or bright yellow. [via Swissmiss]
Related: Braille on Beer Cans in Japan
Posted by Deb Harkness, November 7, 2008 at 12:45 PM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she stands up for cheapo wines.
Photograph from filtran on Flickr
In today's Wall Street Journal Tastings column, two of the country's most distinguished and level-headed wine journalists (Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher) announced their annual wine gift pick for the holidays.
Usually, this wine is expensive, hard to find, or both.
This year, it's a case of Gamay from the Beaujolais—one of the world's best wine bargains.
Gaiter and Brecher explain why they made this unorthodox choice: "a single, very expensive bottle of wine seems as dated as bloated executive bonuses." Is America ready to put aside its love affair with $100-plus bottles of wine with 95-plus ratings from the major critics? I think so. I think 2009 might be the year of the budget wine.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, October 31, 2008 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she "drinks" the words of historic wines.
My new wine addiction isn't about drinking—it's about reading.
These days, my favorite glass each day is the wine I'm drinking vicariously through the reviews of Michael Broadbent, quite possibly the world's most distinguished and experienced taster.
You may know of Robert Parker, founder of The Wine Advocate. You also may recognize the name Marvin Shanken, who founded The Wine Spectator. But you've probably never heard of Broadbent.
That's because he tastes and reviews wine that will never touch the lips of most people on this planet. The old stuff. The rare stuff. The stuff of legends and fraud. The stuff that's sold at auction for six figures.
Why should you read about wine you'll never drink? I read about it because it combines history, mystery, people-watching, and all the glamour associated with things that are priceless—or nearly so.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, October 24, 2008 at 11:30 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she explores Chardonnays.
Chardonnay is one of the world's most popular grapes. If you love Chardonnay, you love it a lot. But many people are tired of drinking white wine that tastes like a) buttered popcorn b) toothpicks c) licking a piece of firewood. They're the ones who have joined the "ABC" Club (Anything But Chardonnay), and refuse to touch the stuff.
I think that's a bit extreme. But I understand why the variety of winemaking styles, the overproduction, and the bewildering range of options might make you wary.
Because of its popularity there is a lot—and I mean a lot—of Chardonnay in the market. Some of it is buttery, some citrusy, and some oaky. As a consumer, how can you tell what's inside the bottle based on what's outside the bottle? More importantly, how can you find a bottle of Chardonnay that suits your taste buds given how much is sitting on the shelves?
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Posted by Deb Harkness, October 17, 2008 at 11:45 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she explores Halloween wines.
Two weeks from tonight, all the young ghosties and ghoulies will be out in full force, donning costumes and collecting candy.
If you're over the age of twenty—one, you might have a different plan for the evening—one that maybe involves costumes, but certainly involves wine.
When it comes to Halloween wine, of course it's as important as ever that the wine is good value and tastes great. That's the treats part of trick-or-treat. But how about the wine's costume? For me, the trick to Halloween wine is to find one that is not only affordable and tasty—it has to have a label that's perfect for the Witching Hour, too.
Here are my recommendations for six terrific, eye-catching Halloween wines that are perfect for any party you may be attending or hosting.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 13, 2008 at 3:00 PM
At desert's edge in southern Namibia, Allan Walkden-Davis produces "rustic" wines:
He works on the edge of the Namib Desert where it only rains between February and April, and the average fall can be less than an inch. Yet he produces annually 3,000 to 3,500 bottles of shiraz, as well as a shiraz-merlot blend....
Walkden-Davis seems to have a sense of humor about the affair: "One fellow could not understand why I couldn't go bankrupt farming sheep or cattle the same as everyone else."
Posted by Deb Harkness, October 10, 2008 at 11:30 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she discusses the scenario of drinking wine alone while traveling for business—minus the hotel room's plastic tumblers.
The McCormick & Shmick's bar at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. Photograph from Paul Keleher on Flickr
If you are a business traveler like me, dining alone on the road can be more than a bit depressing. This is especially true if, like me, you drink a glass of wine with dinner each night. Room service might be able to produce competent hamburgers and fries, but I can't face an industrial-strength "wine glass" full of warm red wine with a piece of plastic wrap on top and a paper "coaster" keeping it all in place.
Buying a bottle of wine and drinking it over several days in the hotel's plastic water tumblers while sitting on the bed and watching CNN doesn't cut it, either.
So what's a wine-and-food-loving business traveler to do?
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Posted by Deb Harkness, October 3, 2008 at 11:15 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she rethinks how we should make, package, and ship wine.
Photograph from brewrat on Flickr
Picture yourself walking into your favorite market. You've got your reusable grocery bags and a few wine bottles with screw caps.
You do your shopping, you head to the wine section before checking out, and a nice person in the wine section takes your wine bottles. He or she either fills them with wine or cleans them and gives you replacements, filling the new bottles with wine and screwing on the cap.
In a time when everyone is thinking about alternative packaging and the environment, why isn't anyone talking about going back to the days of buying wine straight from the barrels?
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Don't like overpaying for wine when you eat out? Wine critic Robert Parker has an idea: boycott the restaurants. "The consumer should rebel and avoid exorbitant wine prices, no matter how sublime the cuisine. This is nothing more or less than a legitimized mugging."
The Kitchn demystifies German wine labels by explaining the terms used to describe the wine's sugar content, quality, and vineyard origins.
Posted by Deb Harkness, September 26, 2008 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, why you should buy Beaujolais.
There's nothing like fall—and a falling stock market—to make me feel bullish about Beaujolais.
I'm not talking about the "nouveau" stuff—although I have to confess that I drink that too. But that is released later in fall, just before Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the air is getting crisper, we've still got our grills out on the decks and balconies, and most of us are seriously worried about the economy.
It's during transition times, and difficult times, that I always turn to Beaujolais. At times like this, highly affordable wines from Burgundy's Beaujolais region are at their most welcome—and their most delicious.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, September 22, 2008 at 8:45 AM
Editor's note: This dispatch comes to us from wine guru Amy Monroe. She works in the grape business in the Bay Area, and literally stumbled across the "Palin Syrah" this month at a San Francisco wine bar. "How can you not write something about it?" she thought. The Palin label is inexpensive (about $13 a bottle), organic, and Chilean—attributes that don't necessarily make it a cult wine—plus it's relatively invisible on a Google search. Thanks, Amy, for enlightening us on the Palin Syrah! —Erin
Words by Amy Monroe | Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin might not be fond of San Francisco, but one San Francisco wine bar is fond of Palin Syrah. Or rather, it was.
"It was our best selling wine before (the V.P. announcement),” said Chris Tavelli, owner of Yield Wine Bar, which has offered Palin Syrah, a certified organic wine from Chile, by the glass since July. But after Sen. John McCain tagged Sarah Palin as his running mate, sales of the wine with the conservative's inverted name plummeted—not surprising in famously liberal San Francisco.
As with the GOP ticket, the Palin falls second in the lineup. The wine’s tasting note reads as it did when Tavelli wrote it months ago: white pepper, madrone, dry. Incidentally, a madrone is an evergreen found primarily in the Pacific Northwest that bears red berries in the fall. When the berries dry up, they are replaced by hooked barbs that latch onto large animals for migration.
Even though sales are down, the wine—like Palin the politician—draws lots of attention and comments. One Yield regular suggested that Tavelli amend the wine’s tasting note to read: moosemeat, salmon, hint of gunpowder.
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Posted by Deb Harkness, September 12, 2008 at 11:00 AM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, how to preserve a bottle of bubbly.
A glass of Segura Viudas Cava Brut Rosado.
If you open my fridge and there isn't a half-empty bottle of wine in it, then it's a sure sign I'm out of the country.
Most often, the half-empty bottle contains sparkling wine. When I come home after work, I love a chilled glass of bubbles while I'm making dinner. I open a bottle and then I drink one perfect glass a night over the next five nights.
Since I'm the only one who drinks in my house, a normal-sized bottle of bubbly lasts quite a while. Though I know a lot of people who would never, ever consider opening a bottle of wine just for themselves for fear it will go "bad" before they drink it up, this has never struck me as a good plan.
And sparkling wine, with its love of cold temperatures, is one of the easiest wines to drink one glass at a time.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, September 11, 2008 at 6:45 PM
Amazon.com will add wine to their online superstore by the beginning of October. Due to interstate regulations the wine will initially only be available to residents of about 26 states, but they're working on increasing distribution.
Posted by Deb Harkness, September 5, 2008 at 1:30 PM
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, great wine books for your library or that of your grapehead friend or family member.
If you are an avid cook, you can probably rattle off the titles of the five cookbooks that you absolutely, positively could not live without. They are the books with the crusty pages, the singed covers, and the broken spines that you turn to again and again when looking for culinary inspiration.
So what are the five wine books that I can't live without? My list includes a reference book, a tasting guide, an annual report, a catalogue of grape varieties, and an indispensable guide to food and wine pairing.
The Reference Book
The Oxford Companion to Wine edited by Jancis Robinson ($65) may look and feel like an encyclopedia with its alphabetical arrangement of topics and hefty size, but it's packed with information on wine science, wine terminology, wine regions, and wine history. Robinson, one of the world's foremost authorities on wine, assembled a team of experts to help her compile this authoritative and wide-ranging book. No matter what your question is—from what is cellar temperature to what is the chemistry of malolactic fermentation—you will find the answer here.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, September 2, 2008 at 1:15 PM
In the U.S., the term road food has less-than-appetizing connotations: soggy drive-thru burgers, chicken nuggets made from meat with questionable origins, and corn syrup-infused coffee beverages.
Not so in Italy, where the Autostrada Sedici (Highway Sixteen) runs between Naples and Canosa in Puglia and is studded with rustic trattorias and local wineries. While conducting research for a new San Francisco restaurant, Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren found themselves cruising back and forth along the A16, which gave them "a sense of direction in the unfamiliar surroundings." So it's no surprise that they chose it as both the name of their highly acclaimed restaurant and their cookbook, A16 Food + Wine.
A16 Food + Wine begins with an exhaustive overview of Italian wines, from Campania to Sardinia, Aglianico to Vernaccia. The second half of this coffee table–worthy tome is devoted to classic recipes for rustic, approachable dishes made from fresh produce, silken cheeses, and top-quality pastas, breads, and meats. Each recipe also includes a special wine suggestion. I can't wait to try the Braised Halibut with Pistachios, Preserved Meyer Lemon, and Capers; the Pizza Pomodoro with Ricotta; or the Pork Loin Spiedino with Pine Nut, Garlic, and Currant Soffritto.
Win 'A16 Food + Wine'
In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week we're giving away five (5) copies of A16 Food + Wine. To enter for a chance to win, simply tell us in the comments section below: What is the most memorable glass of wine you have ever had?
Five (5) people will be chosen at random from among eligible comments below. Comments will close Monday, September 8 at noon ET. The standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.
Mike Steinberger at Slate reports on quality French winemakers who have been rejected by the disorganized government-run AOC system: "More and more, the market is treating AOC status as simply a geographic indication—a wine's birth certificate. French officialdom should do likewise."
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 22, 2008 at 11:45 AM
In response to Tyler "Dr. Vino" Colman's essay on boxed wine, Joseph J. Cattaneo says:
Without a doubt, glass bottles are greener than wine boxes.
Calculating a carbon footprint based solely on trucking capacity is myopic and fails to consider the carbon costs for extraction and manufacturing.
Just envision the various elements that have to go into creating a wine box. It involves many more steps, materials and energy inputs than are required for making a glass bottle.
As for recycling, most communities can handle glass, which is 100 percent recyclable. Good luck finding programs that handle wine boxes.
The choice is clear: glass is greener.
Setting aside the biases of the messenger (Cattaneo is from the Glass Packaging Institute), does this message ring true to you, serious eaters? Have you had trouble recycling wine boxes?
Photograph ©iStockPhoto.com/trigga
Related: Boxed Wine Now Eco-Friendly, Less of a Joke
Osteria L’Intrepido doesn't exist, but still won Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence in the August 2008 issue. As part of his research for an academic paper, Robin Goldstein duped the magazine by submitting the required fee ($250), cover letter, wine list, and menu ("a fun amalgamation of somewhat bumbling nouvelle-Italian recipes"). [via Eater]
Posted by Erin Zimmer, August 18, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Boxed wine usually comes in the scoffable Franzia or Gallo forms, but the quality may improve and shed its tacky taboo. In lieu of heavy glass bottles, the lighter packaging (oftentimes nicknamed the "bladder pack") is more environmentally and economically friendly. According to Tyler "Dr. Vino" Colman in a New York Times op-ed piece yesterday: a standard wine bottle (holding 750 milliliters) that travels from a California vineyard to a New York store generates about 5.2 pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions, while a three-liter box generates only half the emissions per 750 milliliters.
Perks of boxed wine: the box is good for table wines that don’t need to age (which includes all but a handful of top global wines); saving leftovers is much easier (a box preserves wine for about four weeks compared to a bottle: just a day or two); and long term, the box is better for the American economy.
America will soon become the largest wine market in the world (in recent years we overtook Italy and France is next), but more than 90 percent of domestic production occurs on the West Coast, while the majority of consumers live east of the Mississippi. That's a lot of truck rides across country, so American vintners better start embracing the global trend—one that really doesn't bode well for the corkscrew industry.
Related
Boxed Wine Revolution in Italy
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Drinking Good Wines During Rough Economic Times
Posted by Deb Harkness, August 15, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Every other week, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 joins us to talk some Serious Grape. Here's the latest.
Before Sideways, did you buy lots of Pinot Noir? Or did it take the film and its famous line about Merlot to get you off the ubiquitous red wine of the 1990s in favor of something a bit lighter on its feet?
Wine grapes have as many promising upswings and dismal downward trends as your stock portfolio. Whenever two or more wine enthusiasts are gathered in a room, sometime after the second glass of wine the conversation inevitably turns to crystal ball gazing and trying to figure out what the next big grape will be. Which grape will capture the public imagination like Pinot Noir?
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Spanish scientists have developed a portable "electric tongue" that can identify wine characteristics. "The device could be used to detect frauds committed regarding the vintage year of the wine, or the grape varieties used," says inventor Cecilia Jimenez-Jorquera. [via Engadget]
Posted by Hannah Howard, August 6, 2008 at 12:45 PM
The New York Times reports that some fine government-approved Italian wine will, for the first time, be sold in boxes instead of bottles. Italy’s Agriculture Ministry is now offering its D.O.C. designation, which verifies the product’s origin, for some boxed wines. Worry not—the more rarefied D.O.C.G. seal is still reserved for bottles.
Boxed wine has been around for several decades and over the years has gotten better and earned more respect. According to a related article in the New York Times, opening up a nice box with dinner is a bit more embraced in Australia and in Europe than on our own shores. Still, wine from a cardboard spout hasn't been able to shake its cheap and crappy stigma.
Might an Italian seal of approval inspire you to pick up a box of wine? If the quality was acceptable and the price was low, could you get past its packaging?
Posted by Deb Harkness, August 5, 2008 at 10:25 AM
With the media full of advice on how to “recession proof” your wine drinking habits, entering “recession proofing wines” into a search engine yields pages and pages of tips. People keep asking me if the recession has changed what I am drinking or how often I am drinking it.
But the answer is no.
I drink like it’s a recession all the time.
The Three Golden Rules
Tightening your belt and cutting back on your wine budget during economic hard times doesn’t have to be a curse or an unpleasant chore—it can be a blessing and an adventure. There are three golden rules for drinking good wine regardless of the economy: don’t get sucked into the lemming-like hysteria surrounding wines awarded 90 points or more by big wine magazines; think twice before you buy wine from pricey appellations with big reputations; and look for grapes less traveled.
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Honor the ancient honey wine tomorrow with meadmakers across the country celebrating at registered sites. First described in the ancient Rigveda hymns, later in Beowulf, and beloved by ancient Celtic and Germanic tribes across centuries, mead has even inspired its own comprehensive book: The Compleat Meadmaker. Bees everywhere would want you to get your mead on.
Posted by Emily Koh, July 29, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Some of us just aren't well-versed in wine, but at least we can admit it with a bit more style and less sheepishness. Just hang one of these pretty letter-pressed wine tags by Popptags on the bottle neck, or customize your own. Hey, it's better than pretending to be a wine expert. [via New York magazine]
Posted by Emily Koh, July 26, 2008 at 4:00 PM
If Sideways didn't quench your thirst for a wine flick, look out for Bottle Shock. Based on the "Judgment of Paris" in 1976, a British wine merchant (played by Alan Rickman) travels to Napa Valley—not yet synonymous with good wine—to check out the small wine scene and is left so impressed that he decides to conduct a blind taste test between California and French wine.
The movie premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and will be released in theaters August 6, 2008. Check out the trailer after the jump.
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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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FIT Grads Design Funky Food Labels
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Pretty Food Packaging from Switzerland
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.
Related
The WinePod
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."
Related
Calling Out Molecular Gastronomy
Let's Face It, Wine Is Pretty Weird
Hot Dog Burrito
Confession: I've Never Had a Cinnabon
What Do You Expect from Olive Loaf?
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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There's now anecdotal evidence from at least one restaurant in San Francisco that reducing corkage fees (the charge a restaurant applies when you bring your own wine in) benefits not only diners but restaurateurs. Frank Klein at Fish & Farm charges $5 instead of the average $20 and has reported that about 40 percent of the tables taking advantage of the new policy also buy a bottle from the restaurant. Plus, they're bringing in some really interesting wines, Klein says.
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)
