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Hot Wine, Cool Conditions
Wow swirlingnotions, your post was great! Thanks for sharing!
Joe
Wine or Beer: The Eternal Question
Thanks for sharing that great story! Please keep them coming!
-Joe
Where to eat in Italy? Can anyone recommend good trattorias?
I had a seriously disappointing experience at Aqua al 2. Blueberry steak? I think I'll pass. Also I'll take my 5 courses of pasta without the American tourists, please.
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Wine’s Not-So-Secret Society
Posted by Joe Campanale, September 28, 2007 at 1:00 PM
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Recent Comments | Response to Comments
Be Your Own Wine Critic
A quick correction: The kind people at Snooth pointed out that I am at least partially incompetent. If you search using the button "wines in stock" you are presented with a very helpful site that lists a variety of retailers and their pricing for that particular wine. For me, Corkd was intuitive but once you figure out Snooth's wine-purchasing system, you see they have pricing comparisons for over 200 retailers and it is quite easy to use.
Joe
Hot Wine, Cool Conditions
Wow swirlingnotions, your post was great! Thanks for sharing!
Joe
Wine or Beer: The Eternal Question
Thanks for sharing that great story! Please keep them coming!
-Joe
Where to eat in Italy? Can anyone recommend good trattorias?
I had a seriously disappointing experience at Aqua al 2. Blueberry steak? I think I'll pass. Also I'll take my 5 courses of pasta without the American tourists, please.
Where to eat in Italy? Can anyone recommend good trattorias?
Check out:
Osteria Santo Spirito (Florence on Piazza Santo Spirito)
Trattoria Martio (Florence) only open for lunch on the days that the Mercato Centrale is open
The Judgment of Paris
"Who makes the best wine?" Exactly the question they were trying to answer in the movie.
My answer; try as many wines as you possibly can and the wines you like the most are the best wines.
If its a wine I've never tried before I always look for the importer (which must be listed on every imported bottle) because there are some importers who have taste very close mine. Some of my favorites: Neal Rosenthal, Kermit Lynch, Robert Chadderdon and Terry Theisse.
Cheers,
Joe
Wine TV
Here's a link to the Conan episode:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/djsteen/videos/69/
Wine TV
I agree. With his whole "Vaynernation" and "Vayniacs" it seems like he's trying to build a TV persona. The Jim Cramer of wine?
Wines and Global Warming
That's a great point Ben. Something I always found to be peculiar is that when a peach is grown organically (in the U.S.) it is advertised as such but most organic wine makes no note anywhere on the bottle. Why do you think this is?
Wines and Global Warming
Hey Tyler,
Thanks for responding. By "travel" I mean that many of our favorite wines must travel great distances from the winery to our table. This wine "travel" has an environmental cost due to fuel use during transportation. If we purchase local or organic wines and recycle the bottles, we can try to offset some of this impact.
Although I don't doubt that bovine waste has a greater contribution to global warming - and I wouldn't get between anyone and the juicy bovine goodness that is a perfectly grilled hamburger - if we make informed purchasing decisions, whether it be wine or meat, we can ensure that bigfoot treads lightly and leaves shallow footprints.
You're right, this is a very complex topic and until New York starts making wine as good as the best of Europe I won't switch over to all local wine. I just hope to preserve some of my favorite wines by doing my part to slow global warming so that Champagne, France never becomes a red wine region.
Drink well,
Joe
Be Your Own Wine Critic
Check out Vinquire.com - I'm part of this great new wine site. Has a great wine review feature (you can share and store your own) plus a where to buy feature. And our where to buy is not owned by a retailer, like cork'd is!
Be Your Own Wine Critic
I've used both Corkd and Snooth, and I find Corkd easier to use, although I think the 100 point rating is not intuitive for most people. I've seen a few people rave about a wine and then give it 75 points. There's also Winelog, which is more comprehensive.
Where to eat in Italy? Can anyone recommend good trattorias?
In florence don't miss the greatest focaccia and pizza: Pugi ..right near the Accademia.
Where to eat in Italy? Can anyone recommend good trattorias?
Oops--look what happens when you don't preview your post--should read
DO NOT MISS going to Vivoli for gelato
Where to eat in Italy? Can anyone recommend good trattorias?
Sounds like a number of great places to eat--but please while in Florence do miss going to Vivoli for gelato. The best of the best--the melon, strawberry, lemon and pistachio are out of this world--just ask my 14 year old son who dropped a lot of Euro there during our trip last summer.
Where to eat in Italy? Can anyone recommend good trattorias?
siena: osteria del gato.... very good!
Where to eat in Italy? Can anyone recommend good trattorias?
I agree, I will be in Florence and Siena in September also and love The Food Lover's Guide to Florence. She also has a blog now and there are some updates to the book on it. It's worth getting if you will be in the Florence area for a bit.
Where to eat in Italy? Can anyone recommend good trattorias?
Check out Emily Wise Miller's The Food Lover's Guide to Florence. It's availabe at amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Food-Lovers-Guide-Florence-Excursions/dp/1580088252/). Great suggestions and a good read!
The Judgment of Paris
I'm working on it (trying as many as possible)
:-)
Tonight I tried French wine for the first time and Loved it! There are so many different kinds and I look forward to trying the next one. I'll look for the names you mentioned ..
Thanks!
Elizabeth
Wine TV
I really like Simply Wine with Andrea Immer, though I wish it were on a channel more accessible like Food Network instead of Fine Living. Other than that, one of the few television chefs that consistently mentions food and wine pairing is Ming Tsai, who I applaud for moving to PBS but am sad because my local affiliate doesn't carry his new show.
Wine TV
Thanks for the link to the actual show, Joe. I'm not a huge wine guy (I'm one of those lame people who get severe headaches from it), but I love watching Gary's videos.
Wines and Global Warming
Added sulfites is the legal reason. But philosophy also plays a part
Wines and Global Warming
I think it probably comes down to marketing techniques - adding the organic label to a peach is about the only way to add a story to a piece of fruit while a fancy label, heavy bottle and lots of classifications and ratings help make wine sexy. So, you might say that if a wine has to advertise itself as organic it's probably not that good in the first place. Obviously that's on par with thinking, well Parker only gave this 83 points, it's not worth buying. Somehow I can't picture a USDA seal looking like it belongs on a bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir. The Wine Spectator article I mentioned explained some of the markings winemakers DO use though - which seems like it's mostly a logo-fied world. Think the black roosters of Chianti but for Salmon Safe wine.
If you were making organic wine would you feature the USDA seal on it and if not, how do people know it's not just some fake claim? Especially if you made the wine in Australia or something? I think what we're talking about here is also not so much organic but sustainable. If you pipe in gallons of water to grow vines on a desert, does it matter much if it's organic?
You might check into the Demeter Association, they seem to have some of the toughest certification requirements and I think they take those things into account.
Wines and Global Warming
It's hard to make excuses for this, mostly because I'm not sure I can bring myself to imbibe Texan "wine".
I'd like to think of buying wine as supporting a different kind of agriculture but it's hard to look past the vast irrigated fields of Australia or the massive doses of pesticide required to keep all the birds, insects, rots, and other diseases away from vines. Still, the recent spread on "Green Wine" in Wine Spectator from June 30th of this year shows that many winemakers are aware of their affect on the environment and working to neutralize it as best they can by powering vehicles with bio-diesel, reclaiming lost marshlands, and practicing the organic and biodynamic practices you mentioned in your post. Nicolas Joly is a legend in Savenierres and was immensely influential in getting other vineyards to change their ways.
I'm optimistic that winemakers want to be stewards of the land and are moving in a responsible direction - just stay away from Yellow Tail (as if we needed another reason)! You might say that winemakers are just about the only farmers that have a hope of being fairly compensated which gives them the reasources to change thier ways. If only we'd pay as much for a perfect and concentrated peach or tomato.
- Ben
Recent Posts
Wine’s Not-So-Secret Society
Posted by Joe Campanale, September 28, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Wine or Beer: The Eternal Question
Posted by Joe Campanale, August 24, 2007 at 2:30 PM
Lambrusco: If Sweetness Is Wrong, I Don’t Want to Be Right
Posted by Joe Campanale, July 20, 2007 at 11:30 AM
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About Joe Campanale
Website: http://www.dellanima.com
Location: New York
About: I own a restaurant in the West Village of Manhattan called dell'anima. I'm a former sommelier at Babbo. I freelance for Beverage Media, Inked, debonairmag.com and worksnw.com. I'll finish my masters in Food Studies at NYU in May 2008. I'm 23 years old.
Favorite foods: Nebbiolo, Aglianico, Ribolla Gialla, Tocai Friulano, Refosco, Sangiovese and black and white cookies.
Last bite on earth: Handmade pappardelle al cinghiale washed down with a simple Chianti.
A quick correction: The kind people at Snooth pointed out that I am at least partially incompetent. If you search using the button "wines in stock" you are presented with a very helpful site that lists a variety of retailers and their pricing for that particular wine. For me, Corkd was intuitive but once you figure out Snooth's wine-purchasing system, you see they have pricing comparisons for over 200 retailers and it is quite easy to use.
Joe