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Something went wrong? went wrong? Posted on February 19th, 2008 by admin Read more » Filed under: Funny, PPS | No Comments » Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ...82 83 84 Next Page » Archives February 2008 January 2008
Firstly I'm having further problems with my blog which go back to the previous problems I had. Up until this morning everything was working, then Typepad went down and when Typepad came back up my blog decided to be silly. So you may have problems assessing a page and you will have a problem leaving a comment. If you remove the words "my weblog/" from the browser bar comments will work.
I hope to sort it out soon. It couldn't have happened at a worse time.
We have one more participant to A Taste Of Yellow.....and that brings us to a nice round number of 180. From Chuck in San Francisco at Sunday Nite Dinner the 180th entry is Spicy Corn Salad. Sorry no photo at this point.
On Thursday night 03/13/08, international womens charity organization Spark and the Napa Valley Vintners lit up the Rotunda and accompanying floors of San Francisco City Hall and provided quite a night of charity, wine and beats. "Nightlife Napa Valley," hosted by the Napa Valley Vintners to benefit Spark was ...
While often referred to as a single "place" when it comes to wine, Napa is hardly a single monolithic growing region. Each of its 14 established AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) lays claim to a separate identity, characterized by geology, microclimate, and different histories of production.
The Oakville AVA has one of the most storied of such histories. It is home to the famed To Kalon Vineyard, purchased by H.W. Crabb in 1868, shortly after the installation of a railroad stop made the tiny village of Oakville spring to life. In 1876 Crabb's neighbor John Benson bottled his inaugural vintage of Far Niente wine just down the road.
By the year 1880 the Oakville area had 430 acres under production, and these would nearly triple to more than 1000 acres in the next 10 years and continue to grow until Prohibition turned off the spigot in the 1920's.
In 1965 Heitz Vineyards made the first vintage of Martha's Vineyard Cabernet, a wine that Robert Mondavi probably tasted around about the time he established his own winery a year later. Over the next thirty years, Oakville would gradually become home to some of the best wines on the planet. Acre for acre, the Oakville appellation may be the heaviest hitting single wine region in the western hemisphere. It is home to many of the highest scoring and highest priced wines in America, including Harlan Estate, Screaming Eagle, and Dalla Valle, to name just a few.
Oakville is ground zero for Napa Cabernet, and with good reason. Year over year it produces some of the most tremendous wines in the valley. It's hard to say that one particular area of Napa truly produces the best Cabernet, but it's also hard to find someplace that has more claim to that title than the Oakville AVA.
Last week the Oakville Winegrowers Association put on its annual Taste of Oakville event, which gives members of the wine trade and the press an opportunity to sample wines from its members. This meant an opportunity to taste through a lot of excellent 2004 and 2005 Cabernets (as well as a few other reds and a few random whites), most of which I enjoyed greatly. There were a few wines at the tasting which I didn't get a chance to taste, as they had run out of wine by the time I got there, but the list below represents all but a few of the wines poured. The tasting took place on the upper level catwalks of the Robert Mondavi Winery surrounding their large oak fermentation tanks, which you can see in the photo.
WHITE WINES 2006 Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards Soliloquy White Blend. Score: 9. Cost: $25 2006 Cosentino Signature Winery Oakville Chardonnay. Score: 9. Cost: $30 2005 Kelham Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. Score: 9. Cost: $30 2006 Oakville Ranch Chardonnay. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $48 2007 Swanson Rosato. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $18 2004 Teaderman Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $28 2007 Saddleback Cellars Pinot Blanc. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $24 2006 Robert Mondavi Winery Fume Blanc Reserve, "To Kalon Vineyard." Score: between 8 and 8.5. Cost:$20
Now that we've gotten those out of the way, let's move on to the main event, shall we?
RED WINES WITH A SCORE BETWEEN 9.5 and 10 2005 FUTO Red Blend. $250 2004 Harlan Estate Red Wine. $450?
RED WINES SCORING AROUND 9.5 2004 BOND "Vecina". $400? 2004 BOND "St. Eden". $400? 2004 Dalla Valle Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. $150 2004 Sophie's Rows Bordeaux Blend. $75 2005 Rudd Winery Oakville Estate Proprietary Red. $105
RED WINES WITH A SCORE BETWEEN 9 and 9.5 2004 Enzo Wines "Saunders Vineyard" Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon . $75 2002 Atalon "Beckstoffer Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon. $80 2006 Casa Nuestra Winery & Vineyards Tinto Classico - Old Vines Red Blend. $40 2005 Detert Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. $75 2004 Emilio's Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon. $50 2005 Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards "Holy Smoke" Cabernet Sauvignon. $85 2005 Gargiulo Vineyards 575 OVX Cabernet Sauvignon . $?? 2005 Gargiulo Vineyards 575 OVX G Major 7 Cabernet Sauvignon. $?? 2005 Nickel & Nickel "Martin Stelling Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon. $135 2004 Opus One Red Blend. $165 2005 Showket Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. $85 2005 Swanson Merlot. $38 2005 Tierra Roja Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. $110
It's a pleasure to try a well-made wine at such an affordable price. The 2005 Veramonte Primus is from the Casablanca Valley of Chile. Great blend of 17% Carménère, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 51% Merlot. 14.5% abv, $20. I'm glad to see Carménère in there, the famous "lost grape of Bordeaux" that's worked so well in Chile. I love trying these grapes that France mostly orphaned but that have found success in South America. The story of Argentine Malbec is well known, but I'm still waiting for Uruguayan Tannat to become the next breakout star.
This is the 10th anniversary vintage of Primus, developed by noted Chilean winemaker Agustin Huneeus. Glancing over the reviews it appears to have steadily improved over the years.
I decanted the wine for an hour before serving. I don't always do this but at times it adds a nice touch to the ceremony of wine consumption. Lovely green bell pepper and tomato leaf aroma. On the palate, spicy, good fruit, touches of plums and cherries. Closer to a French Bordeaux than a California Meritage.
Tasted by TashNYC. Jen liked this wine and thought it drank the best of the 3 reds. At Bob Tarjan's 60th birthday party, in Princeton, NJ (88 pts.) - Tasted 5/9/2008. [FIND IT!]
100 points Parker: "Rivaling the 1994 and 1997, the 2001 Harlan Estate is a perfect wine for my palate. Tasted on four separate occasions, this offering, which spent 28 months in oak before being bottled unfined and unfiltered, is an extraordinary effort that comes across as a hypothetical blend of Mouton-Rothschild, La Mission-Haut-Brion, and Montrose. A synthesis in style between the more elegant, delineated, structured 1994, and the port-like, over-the-top, viscous 1997, this extraordinary 2001 was the ?wine of my trip,? even though I had already had it from bottle several months earlier. An inky/purple color is accompanied by a stupendous bouquet of lead pencil shavings interwoven with coffee, new saddle leather, melted licorice, cedarwood, black currant liqueur, and violets. Explosive richness, a marvelous, full-bodied texture, and fabulous purity, concentration, complexity, and nobleness are the stuff of legends. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2028+."
96-100 points Parker: "The 2005 Chardonnay Kistler Vineyard Cuvee Cathleen is a selection of the finest lots from all the vineyards, but most of it comes from the Kistler Vineyard. Full-bodied, firm, and backward, it is behaving more like a red wine than a Chardonnay. It boasts fabulous concentration, superb ripeness, plenty of honeysuckle, orange rind, and tropical fruit characteristics, copious minerality, and enormous length as well as richness. This beauty is as good as any Chardonnay made in either the New or Old World."
In January, for those of you who weren’t following our play by play of the II International Conference on Climate and Wine, Catavino spent three days cornering wine celebrities, in order to get a better sense as to how wine is being affected both now and in the future by the fluctuating climate conditions. Stubborn and wonderfully determined people such as Richard Smart, Bruno Prats, Miguel Torres, Pancho Campo, Carlos de Jesus of Amorim, Dr. Gregory Jones, and of course, Al Gore, all vented their fears and frustrations with the current lackadaisical attitude held throughout the wine world regarding the impact of climate on wine. Each passionate in their own right, but there was one in particular that I had been pining to interview for months.
Having been previously introduced to Oz Clarke through his books and articles, it wasn’t until I saw his charismatic nature in Oz and James’s Big Wine Adventure that I was hooked. This BBC television program, first aired in 2006, and was undoubtedly one of my favorite wine programs, if only to see Oz flirt with yet another woman. His coy and passionate nature was fun and made learning about Bordeaux and Languedoc-Roussillon entertaining, rather than intimidating. Therefore, to have the opportunity to not only see him in person, but to interview him, albeit a little daunting, was great fun. Add a camera and question that impassions him, and Oz will keep going for hours, interweaving personal stories and jokes with highly specific wine facts that will eventually leave your head spinning.
That said, we would like to thank Richard Gillespie for filming and producing our interview, and hope you enjoy the clip! Next up a special interview, but will share that one with you later!
Yes…and no. So beware over-fancification of your martini basic and don’t get too cute. Concerning the Olive in this issue of the Seattle Weekly Can’t blame a girl for trying.
Big Bottles Fetch $35,500 for Make-A-Wish Foundation
Four custom-etched bottles, each containing 27 liters of 2005 Charles Krug Vintage Selection Cabernet Sauvignon from Charles Krug Winery-Peter Mondavi Family, raised a total of $35,500 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Pinot Gris is a grape varietal that is a mutation of the Pinot Noir grape. The Pinot Gris vine appears similar to the Pinot Noir, but it produces a grape that is coppery gray instead of the dark violet of Pinot Noir. In fact, the only certain method of differentiating the vines is by the fruit that they produce. Researchers have found that the DNA structure of Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir are virtually identical.
The Pinot Gris grape produces a delicious white wine with a rosy platinum color. This wine captures a perfect balance of acidity, fruit flavor and sweetness.
Quickly, about last night. I got home about 6pm, unpacked, ate the ritual return dinner of a turkey club and potato salad, and after enduring a couple of TV shows that Ken had recorded ("CSI Miami" and, God help us, that thing with Sally Field), I fortified myself with iPod and Charlie Christian's elegant guitar work and sped downtown on the beauteous 6 train to Il Buco. Sorry, that sentence was almost Italianate. Sorry, too, that this that is another of those dumb Twitter-like blog posts. Oh, who cares. It's...
Thu Feb 24th, 2005, New York City Italian Wine & Food Gala Thursday, Februrary 24, 2005 New York City The Italian Wine & Food Gala, to be held from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m., will showcase more than 60 producers and over 400 of Italy's premium wines and will offer a panoramic view of Italy's diverse wine regions and a rare opportunity to discuss wines with the experts who produce them.
Do readers really care about active yeasts and secondary fermentation? Or do they long to understand wine's seductions, and its otherworldly sense of place? Do they care about a region's production, or would they rather hear how a glass of juice resembles a curvy redhead, and why it makes them feel the way it does? You know, drunk.
This is among Natalie MacLean's first points in Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. A descendent of Celtic alcohol-lovers and livers, MacLean, a sommelier, writes first and foremost from a sensual place, dispelling many commonly held myths about wine writers: she doesn't spit a whole lot, and she loves the buzz just as much as she loves obsessing over the grape. The book is entertaining, informative and ideally suited for someone who has a working knowledge of wine.
From her first visits to Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Domaine Leflaive to her honest appraisal of biodynamics in Burgundy - she's on the fence - MacLean's observations are cerebral and spot-on, and her language both beguiling and accessible: "Some wines will always taste like a lost argument or a long embrace." The book lacks an index, but is part-travelogue, part-memoir. You learn as she learns.
From Burgundy, MacLean leads us to the cellars of Champagne, winning points with readers who might not be familiar with the grande dames who have kept that region running. We meet Gerard Liger-Belair, a professor of bubby at the University of Liger-Belair before taking off for the land of Zinfandel, and MacLean's internship with Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyards.
It's hard to decide if it's MacLean's colorful prose, pop wine sensibility or portraitures of winerati that make her book so readable. The latter is definitely the case when it comes to Grahm, who, through MacLean's eyes, comes across very much like one of the wild-eyed Ralph Steadman drawings that grace his bottles. In other words, spot-on.
The book quiets down a bit when MacLean gets practical. She pulls a nine to five at two wine stores - The Jug Shop in San Francisco and Discovery Wines in New York City - and even does sommelier duty at Le Baccara in Quebec (yes, she drips). She shows you how to throw a tasting party.
She takes on Georg Riedel and Robert Parker and devotes too much of the book's denouement, sacrificing her flow, in my opinion, to wine auction number-crunching, but makes up for it by ending on a lavish dinner with Jay McInerney, the 1980s cocaine-novelist-turned wine writer, who tells her: "Wine makes me more thoughtful. I always want to taste the next thing so it slows me down; I pace myself. Wine saved me from rehab."
And MacLean saved us from another predictable wine book.
Natalie MacLean, Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass, Bloomsbury 2007, $10.17 (Paperback).
Jessica Yadegaran is a wine writer for the Bay Area News Group and wine educator. Read her blog at www.ibabuzz.com/corkheads or visit her Web site at theswirlgirl.com.
Many's the time someone has said or written to me, "You need some kind of rating system." Because ecstatic babblings and lots of exclamation points and CAPITALIZED words aren't precise enough. OK, I succumb. When I review or just write extensively about a wine, I will henceforth and forthwith tack on a rating at the end. The reasons for the delay are many. The main one is that no system I've ever come across suits me as a person. The way I taste, what I taste, what the wine tells...
I’m trying to find out how the term “racking” originated. The French term for racking is “soutirage“, but in the sources I’ve looked at, I’ve gotten no indication of where or how this term came about. “The Rack”, of course, was a medieval torture device (thus, “racking my brain” translates as a form of torture for one’s brain in retrieving information from it—very applicable to me, I’m afraid), but racking wine isn’t tortuous. If anyone know the answer to this question, please let me know…..
Anyway, here is racking, VISUALIZED. I think this a somewhat opaque term to someone who actually hasn’t done it, so when I was racking some tank-fermented sauvignon blanc the other days from it’s primary lees, I remembered to take my camera along. So the first photo was taken when I had mostly emptied the tank. Two things to take note of here: the tartrates lining mostly the back of the tank, and the color of the wine. Potassium bitartrate can be formed in a liquid of alcohol, water, potassium and tartaric acid, the main acid in grapes, grape juice and wine. It tends to form and fall out of solution in it’s solid, crystalline form usually when the solution is chilled. General winery practice when making white wine is to chill the wine at pretty low temperatures (as low or slightly lower, even, than 32 degrees F) to make the tartrates “drop out” of solution, thus preventing any cloudiness, flakes, or crystalline chunks from forming in the bottle. This tank has four squared sides, and only the back side is refrigerated, so the tartrates formed there mostly as it is the coldest area and also because the texture of the stainless steel encourages crystal formation. These tartrates are actually very hard and I will need to steam this tank quite a bit to “melt” the tartrates and clean the tank. Also, potassium bitartrate is what “cream of tartar” is made from—a tidbit for all of you baking fans out there. Now, regarding the color—it looks pretty brown, but that’s mostly because we are also seeing the color of the lees at the bottom of the tank. The wine is actually a nice, true light yellow—no browning and a very fresh, pretty color.
The next photo shows the primary lees left on the bottom of the tank after I have taken the wine from the top. This stuff is goopy and thick. It looks like silly putty and acts like mud.
The last picture shows the wine that I have blended with the barrel-fermented portion in a second tank. See the difference in color?
It was like a freaky safari. There we were, winemaker Neil Collins and me, stalking chickens running loose on the property. No, not for dinner. Collins wanted to show me the benefits of using the feathery flock in the vineyard.
I expected them to scatter. But as we got closer they paid no attention to us. They were too busy chomping away at the green stuff planted between the vineyard rows: gourmet grasses, wild flowers and their favorite treat - the spiky Yellow Star Thistle.
Collins explained the idea behind using chickens is based on the concept of biodiversity. The chickens eat the natural material, process it, then put it back as a rich type of, well, specialized manure. Eventually the manure and cover crops are softly tilled into the ground and serve as a natural soil fertilizer. In springtime, packed with powerful nutrients, the mixture acts like a sort of alarm clock, waking the vines and energizing them from their dormant winter snooze.
Believe it or not, the chickens are an upgrade to how vineyard farming has been done for the past 50 years. Since World War II, most growers have gone the easy route - purchasing synthetic chemical fertilizers packaged in commercialized plastic bags. But things are changing now as more natural, eco-friendly farming techniques have come back in style.
"For quality wine, grapes should be an expression of the soil and the vineyards where they?re grown," Collins says. "Using synthetic chemicals means there?s something missing from the wine as far as authenticity or natural personality is concerned."
Certified as organic in January 2003, Tablas Creek Vineyards is a member of a new wave of premium U.S. wine producers recognizing the benefits of using old-fashioned farming methods. The concept is simple: work closely with nature instead of against it.
What Does Organic Mean?
By definition, organic agriculture refers to fruit, vegetable and other food products cultivated without the use of toxic pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers. Like a touch of TLC from Mother Nature, the main goal is to build healthy soil and healthy plants, and to protect the surrounding environment and workers in the most natural way possible.
Over the past decade, more than 15,000 vineyard acres in the U.S. have been farmed organically, an amazing increase from only 200 acres in 1989. California is a hotspot for this movement. There are nearly 7,000 acres of certified vineyards planted by 113 producers in the state. Many others do it without applying for certification. "No compromise!" is the shared bravado.
For a vineyard to become certified, the land must be farmed for three years without the use of chemicals. The vineyard is inspected twice within that period by the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), the state?s regulatory certification organization. Monitoring is yearly after certification.
Gettin? Down With Nature
Okay, let?s set things straight. The general problem with synthetic chemicals is that they eat the natural nutrients and minerals in the soil. Conversely, the organic approach adds natural resiliency to the soil, thus strengthening the plants.
To make this happen, organic soils are nourished with a variety of natural ingredients, like cover crops, manure and powerful compost made with recycled materials such as pomace (grape skins), straw and other landscape debris. The idea is to have as much commotion - otherwise known as energy from microorganisms - moving around in the soil as possible. Near the vineyards, flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruit trees are planted to create additional activity that?ll benefit the native flora and fauna. In other words, it?s all about raw material, baby!
John Williams, winemaker at Frog?s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa Valley, is a true believer in the power of organic farming. All vineyards comprising the Frog Farm property have been certified organic since 1999.
Williams offers this analogy, which addresses use of conventional chemicals as a "quick fix" in the old days: "It?s like if your kids are on a soda and candy bar diet: response is impressive, sustainability is not. Our goal is to make sure that our soil has a balanced diet at all times. Financially and as far as quality is concerned, it?s a very viable situation."
While sustainable farming practices have quickly caught on with many grape growers, controlling pesky weeds remains a main obstacle that keeps many from taking the organic plunge. As a result, most grape growers still rely on annihilating the green material with toxic products.
Organic producers, however, have found ways of getting around this. Techniques include mulching vineyard rows to suppress weeds; using the pyrotechnical alternative ("fire, fire!" as Beavis once said) to burn them with propane torches; or employing small tractors with soft rubber bumpers to cut the weeds without harming the vines.
Another difficult matter has been the ongoing battle with insects that can cause serious vine damage. However, instead of using harmful conventional sprays, organic converts focus on creating unique insectaries that feature a variety of flowers, shrubs and trees. The idea is to attract beneficial insects that?ll eat the problematic vine pests.
Mendocino and Beyond
The birthplace of this organic wine movement was California?s Mendocino County. Today, more than 3,000 acres of grapes grown in the county are farmed organically.
Charlie Barra, whose family owns the Barra and Girasole brands of organic wine, has been working with grapes in Redwood Valley since he was just nine years old. "Most of us were farming organically for as long as I can remember," said Barra, 78. "We couldn?t afford chemicals back then, and we still don?t need them today. There just wasn?t a name to call this practice until the last 25 years."
While Redwood Valley?s Frey Vineyards was one of the first to have certified vineyards in the U.S., it was the more recognizable brand - Fetzer Vineyards - that ultimately became the prototype for sustainable agriculture in the mid-1980s. In 1989, Fetzer began its eco-friendly commitment by converting 1,600 vineyard acres to organic.
Natural Flavors
Until recently, the concept of organic wines left a sour impression on critics and consumers. Most of this was due to bad winemaking or bottling techniques. But thanks to new, innovative farming methods, including reducing the amount of water used, minimizing crop load and hand harvesting, as well as new technology used in the winemaking process, the overall quality of wines - both organic and conventional - have improved significantly in the past decade. As a result, the lingering hippy cliche or "stigma" commonly associated with organic wines has started to fade, being replaced instead with images of more racy, premium style wine.
Moon Mountain Vineyards, located on the rugged Mayacamas mountain range overlooking Sonoma Valley, began its conversion to organic farming techniques in 1998. Winemaker Randall Watkins has been impressed with how much more concentrated the fruit flavors have become since chemicals are no longer used. "The vineyard now speaks for itself," Watkins says.
Granted, there are many producers like Moon Mountain that grow grapes organically but are very discreet about it, meaning they don?t say much about it on their labels. Those that do feature it fall into two general categories: "Organic Wine," for wines that contain no added sulfites; or "Made with Organic Grapes," for wines that contain a small percentage of sulfites.*
Signs of such producers? success are evident in the marketplace. For example, Whole Foods, Cost Plus and specialty wine shops now feature organic wine sections on their shelves that cater to a growing number of environmentally conscious consumers.
Want to know more? Read Nudist Camp Part II in the next issue.
* Sulfites are natural by-products of fermentation. It?s impossible to have no sulfites in wine. However, winemakers can choose not to add sulfur (which eventually turns into sulfites) to their wines during the winemaking process, thus minimizing the amount of sulfites in the finished product.
Eco-Friendly Ladybugs
Lolonis Winery, located in Mendocino?s Redwood Valley, farms 250 acres of organic vineyards, including a large number of old, gnarly vine plantings of zinfandel, petite sirah and carignane. The saving graces on the property have been ladybugs.
Each year, Lolonis purchases millions of these little critters and releases them in the vineyards to combat harmful pests. "We?re looking for consistent quality and not variability," says Philip Lolonis, a third-generation member of the Greek family that planted the original vines in the 1950s. "We?ve harnessed the power of the ladybug to help us get there. They?re not only cute, but very effective!"
The latest edition of Decanter (March) came out this week, and several articles caught my eye. The first was entitled Start Your Own Wine Cellar. As I’m often torn between buying bottles to drink and those I think I may like to keep for a special occasion, I was drawn to the profiles of the 3 different types of people for whom Decanter made recommendations. There was the couple who did not know much about wine, but wanted to learn and had £500 to get them going. At the other extreme was the couple who already drank a lot of good Bordeaux and had £5000 to spend. I found myself drawn to the example in the middle, someone who knows her grape varieties, but would not describe herself as a connoisseur. Decanter put together an interesting cellar at a cost of £1000 for her.
The one question I was left pondering with the suggestions was the distinction between wines for drinking 2008-2010+ and for 2010-2018. Why do a couple of decent Italian reds from 2004 fit in the first category, but a Portuguese 2005 and a Spanish 2003 fit in the second? I know it’s down to how it is made and matured, but how are you expected to know that for the slightly more unusual wines? Labels don’t always given enough information and certainly very few give how long to keep the wine for.
I always peruse the Wines of the Month to see what recommendations I can pick up. These wines are available from stockists in the UK so I feel sorry for foreign readers who may be unable to source them. However I’m always a bit frustrated to read other reviews elsewhere in the magazine and see the dreaded ?N/A? next to them. Although I figure what’s the point in reviewing them if they aren’t available in the UK I have to keep reminding myself how international Decanter is. In this month’s issue 4 of the 9 letters are from non UK readers. I am sure this helps the editorial team keep an international focus which is good for all us readers.
The panel tastings this month are both French, 2005 St Emilions and 2005 cru bourgeois. I was stunned to see a great value 2005 cru bourgeois at £7.35. I must seek it out.
Next month’s edition features Italy and is out, according to the ad in the magazine, on February 6. Oops ? I think they forgot to change the date from last month’s edition as I’m sure they mean March 6th!
Imagine a corner of Italy where rice is as commonplace as pasta. Where you can visit a university of gastronomy and a university for truffle-hunting dogs all in the same day. Windsurf a secluded lake, mountain bike old Roman trails, hot-air balloon above vineyards, or test the powder on an Olympic-quality ski run. And through it all, taste some of the flat-out finest food and wine anywhere.
Welcome to Piemonte. Meaning ?foot of the mountain,? and tucked in between the Italian Riviera and the Alps of France and Switzerland, Piemonte (pyeh-MOHN-teh) has aptly been called Italy?s ?green treasure chest.? Home of Barolo and Barbaresco wine, wild boar and venison, butter and cheese, and the ?Holy Grail of cuisine? ? the white truffle ? this prosperous province offers something for everyone, every month of the year.
The Truffle Shuffle They may look like mutant potatoes, but white truffles rank among the priciest and most sought-after foods on the planet. Finding them ? in the woods, underground, in the dead of night ? involves a keen-nosed mongrel dog and arcane lore (including moon phases) passed down from father to son. Every trifolau (truffle hunter, in Piemontese dialect) guards his best spots like secret fishing holes. No wonder ? the prize fungi fetch stratospheric prices (a 1.2-kilo giant recently brought more than $120K at auction, and even ordinary ones can cost hundreds).
Every fall, the world celebrates Tuber magnatum pico at the Truffle Market in the historic town of Alba. You enter below a larger-than-life poster of Sophia Loren holding a monster truffle, then thread your way past booth after booth of cheeses, sausages and other local specialties. Sample the truffled wild boar salami, the testun cheese with its crust of grape pressings, the breadstick dipped in chestnut honey, the dense hazelnut cake, and follow the heady aromas to the café bar in back.
For 25 euros you can taste what the fuss is all about. While you watch, one stately gentleman shaves tissue-thin truffle slices over a pair of sunny-side-up eggs; another pours you a big glass of Barolo from magnum. (This is Breakfast of Champions Piemonte style!)
Around the bend, past fragrant heaps of porcini mushrooms, the trifolai themselves display their finds. If you buy a truffle to bring home, keep it dry and cool (some suggest packing it in dry rice) and use it as soon as you can. (Oh, and it will perfume everything in your suitcase.) Or avoid the hassles by getting bottles of truffle oil instead ? it?s available year-round, it keeps for months, and a few drops go a long way. (Tartufi Morra, in Alba, is a great source for all things truffle.)
Drinks Move over Chianti, make way for the world-class reds, whites and sparklers of Piemonte. They?re varied, versatile, and supremely food-friendly, with a history that traces back to Etruscan times (~800 B.C.). From the castle-studded Langhe and Roero regions to the Alpine foothills, here are a few of the best.
Arneis: A dry, fragrant, food-friendly white with great acidity and clean flavors from stainless-steel aging. Great with freshwater perch from the lake district or trout from the mountain streams.
(Cortese di) Gavi: Dry and crisp; an ancient varietal with DOCG (Italy?s highest) status. Try it with a fritto misto (?mixed fry?) of freshwater fish.
Chardonnay: Piemonte?s cool hillsides make for a balanced, fruit-driven chard, usually with little or no oak. A natural with buttered tajerin (fresh, thin-sliced egg noodles) and local game birds such as quail and pheasant.
Moscato (muscat): Made dry, sweet or sparkling, the highly fragrant moscato shows ripe, honeyed fruit-and-floral aromas. Great with hard-to-pair foods, and as a lower-alcohol afternoon sipper. Moscato passito, a hyper-sweet version, is made by raisining the grapes, either on the vine or in the winery. And love it or loathe it, the muscat-based Asti Spumante is hard to beat with Piemontese hazelnut cake, or with cheese and cogna? fruit chutney.
Alta Langa, a fairly new DOC (regional appellation), produces metodo classico (Champagne-styled) dry sparklers, primarily from chardonnay and pinot noir grapes.
Dolcetto: Medium-bodied and dry despite its name. Soft tannins, forward fruit and reasonable price make it an easy-drinking intro to Piemontese reds. A good partner for a sampler plate of local cheeses.
Barbera: Piemonte?s most popular everday red; quality has vastly improved in recent years. Bring it on a vineyard picnic or team it with Piemonte?s garlicky staple, bagna caoda (see recipe).
Nebbiolo: When produced without much barrel aging, this varietal is fresh and lively, with medium body and berry-spice flavors. It?s easy
Tecnorati
What Does Organic Mean? 
The one question I was left pondering with the suggestions was the distinction between wines for drinking 2008-2010+ and for 2010-2018. Why do a couple of decent Italian reds from 2004 fit in the first category, but a Portuguese 2005 and a Spanish 2003 fit in the second? I know it’s down to how it is made and matured, but how are you expected to know that for the slightly more unusual wines? Labels don’t always given enough information and certainly very few give how long to keep the wine for.