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TO: wine shop managers and their webmasters FROM: Dr. Vino RE: adding importer information to e-shops
I was surfing the sites of a few online wine retailers today looking for some specific imported wines when I should have been working. Some of the sites generated other imported wines suggestions that sounded good but I hadn’t heard of the producers. Since you already list tons of information about the wine including the producer, region, vintage, possibly grape variety, and a critic’s opinion, how hard would it be to add a field to list the importer as well? I, for one, would be more likely to throw a bottle in my virtual shopping cart if I knew it was from one of my favorite importers. If I am in a shop I can look at the back label, which provides that info, but not online…
I think this is rather important and pleasing news for the South African wine industry.
"The government has rejected an application from a South African-born scientist and his business partners to sell genetically modified yeast to local wine producers, saying it cannot risk jeopardizing the industry?s access to key European markets."
The modified yeasts may have made the winemaking process easier and perhaps resulted in more consistently good wine - but I applaud the decision and believe we should strive for more organic solutions and less preservatives in both wine and all that we consume on a day to day basis .
What do you think? Are you pro genetically modified yeasts in wine?
This lightly golden Bordeaux smells like a wonderful Riesling or Gewürztraminer on first sniff and then evolves quickly to a Sauvignon Blanc blend. Peaches and grassy notes are very nice on the swirl with flowery bouquet.
This wine is 40% S. Blanc 50% Semillion and 10% Muscadelle and it tastes precisely like what it is. This wine comes in at $7.50 and is food friendly, and okay as an aperitif. Raise a glass to be sure.
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.
Take your time, think a lot, pour yourself a glass and enjoy a dose of slow food cooking by our very own superchef Toby Puttock.
"Slow food to me is the whole deal; a morning's work just to eat lunch, shopping for the vital ingredient, long preparation times, perhaps a glass of wine and a chat whilst preparing the mise en place. Most importantly a whole lot of love goes into the making of the meal. With this, I consulted one of my best mates' Cordell Khoury, who also happens to be my partner in the kitchen at Termini. He suggested we make a day of it at his family's beach house. We packed up the car and hit the coast for an extensive cook'n'chat session. And this was the result. Three dishes, six hours of preparation, eating, drinking, going off, all peppered with a heap of fun. Enjoy."
This risotto is the signature risotto of Milan (hence the name). The main ingredient is saffron which belongs to the lily family and grows only to about 15cm high. True saffron, has purple flowers. The first reference to saffron cultivation dates back to 2300 BC. Its origins are most probably Greece or Asia Minor where forms of the spice are known in the wild state.
What you need (serves four)
350g of vialone nano rice 15g of onion 900g of stock 50g of white wine 1g of saffron 80g of butter 50g of parmesan cheese Salt and pepper
What to do In a large and low casserole pot, saute the onion in a little butter. When the onion starts to become transparent, add the rice, stirring constantly, until it too starts to become transparent. At this stage moisten with the sauvignon and boiling stock until the rice is covered. When necessary add some stock. After around 10 minutes (when the rice is al dente) remove the pot from the heat and stir in the parmesan, butter and season to taste. At this stage I always put a lid on the pot, which causes the rice to swell up with the steam trapped inside the pot. Serve immediately.
If you really want to get authentic, ask your butcher for some bone marrow. About 10 minutes before the rice is ready place the marrow on a metal tray and into the oven, where it'll turn brown. At this stage the marrow should pop out from the bone. Now just place the marrow on top of the finished risotto and serve.
This is a mish-mash of different dishes I've learnt in my different cooking experiences. The pork is a variation of a dish I once made in London at the River Cafe, the potatoes I learnt at school during my training and the sauce is the result of the whole dish. It's a classic roast -- Sunday lunch style.
What you need (serves four)
1kg of pork shoulder 20 slices of copa (or prosciutto) 250g of dried porcini (fresh if available, but then you will need closer to 400g) 1 lemon 1 bunch of thyme 100g of prosciutto fat 2 cloves of garlic 2 medium potatoes
What to do Place the dried porcini in a bowl covered with warm water. With a sharp knife, butterfly the shoulder of pork. Dice the whole lemon and prosciutto fat into small pieces and blitz along with 150g of the porcini. This should give you a creamy consistency. Using a palette knife smear this farce or stuffing over one side of the pork. Season well.
Lay out your copa (or prosciutto) in a large adjoining square and place the filled pork in the centre. Roll the pork in the copa so that it's totally encased. With some butcher's string truss the wrapped pork so that the copa doesn't fall off during cooking. Seal the encased pork in a frying pan with a little oil and then place on a baking tray covered with foil and cook in a pre-heated oven on 200 degrees celsius for around 40 minutes.
Meanwhile peel and slice each potato lengthways into four pieces. With a small knife turn each potato so it has seven sides and looks like a barrel. Place in a small pot with cold water and bring to the boil. Test if they're cooked by sticking a small knife in them and once they are, brown the potatoes in frying pan with a little butter. When the pork is ready, remove the string and slice about one centimetre thick. Serve immediately with the potatoes, the excess porcini and a little of the porcini juice.
Never underestimate the old bread and butter pudding. This dish is a regular at Termini, although Cordell always replaces the bread with croissant. It's addictive, simple and the perfect way to really bloat yourself after a huge meal.
What you need (serves four)
2 croissants 2 T of sultanas Strawberry jam Creme anglaise 50g of butter and extra for greasing the moulds
What to do Gently break the croissant in half and spread it with butter and strawberry jam. Butter a couple of souffle moulds and break the croissant into pieces that will fit into the moulds. Layer a piece of croissant with a sprinkling of sultanas. Repeat this process until the moulds are full. Finally, pour the creme anglaise over the top. Place the filled moulds on to a baking tray and into the oven at 200 degrees celsius until the tops are browned. Run a small knife around the outside of the moulds to remove the puddings. Serve in a bowl with more warm creme anglaise, or my favourite, vanilla ice-cream.
For a dose of Toby in the kitchen, book yourself a seat at Termini in Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, 03-9537-3465.
El Celler de Can Roca is one of my most memorable dining experiences, up there with Troisgros. At 279? for 2 people with 19 courses and 9 wines by the glass, one could also call it a bargain (the top menu is 100? per person). To read more about this experience, please visit Vinix, the wine social network site run by my friend Filippo Ronco. My complete article is there with some pictures taken on the cell phone.
Ever get one of those annoying scam emails asking you to accept stolen credit card numbers and send your product overseas? Who are these scam artists? Who are their victims? Can they be stopped? Dover Canyon Winery has just published a five-part series of articles called Inside a Wine Scam. The series has resulted in FBI subpoenas for the operators accepting money transfers at a remote location in Oklahoma. In a surprising twist, the 'front man' for the scam may herself be a victim of 'work from home' fraud. Part I: How the Wine Scam Works Part II: The 'John...
I did a search on Google Scholar for wine. A lot of articles were returned in the search result. At first glance, I could not figure out why these results had been returned. At closer inspection, the author of the first few articles had the last name of Wine.
RH Wine has written many articles in the field of biology. JJ Wine has authored many papers on Cystic fibrosis. RN Wine writes on topics in the field of toxicology. These are just three of the authors with results dominating my search for wine on Google Scholar.
I changed my search in Google Scholar from wine to red wine. The first scholarly article returned in my search for red wine was ?Inhibition of oxidation of human low-density lipoprotein by phenolic substances in red wine?. This article was published in 1993 in the British edition of Lancet.
An article entitled ?The red wine phenolics trans-resveratrol and quercetin block human platelet aggregation and eicosanoid synthesis: implications for protection against coronary heart disease? was published in Clinica Chimica Acta in 1995. There were five authors cited on this paper.
The American journal of clinical nutrition published ?Consumption of red wine with meals reduces the susceptibility of human plasma and low-density lipoprotein to lipid peroxidation? in 1995. This paper has been cited over two hundred times. The author credited with writing it is B Fuhrman.
There were over sixteen thousand results returned when I did my Google Scholar search for red wine. The article entitled ?Antiplatelet activity of synthetic and natural resveratrol in red wine? is another article that has been cited many times. The International journal of tissue reactions published this article in 1995 and now it has been cited 116 times.
The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published an article in 1980 entitled ?Wine aroma composition: identification of additional volatile constituents of red wine?. The article has been cited five times. The author, P Schreier, has also written an article entitled ?Flavor composition of wines: a review?.
The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization Author: Alice Feiring The font of the title is pleasantly wacky, and the title itself promises a dream-like escapade in which Feiring daydreams herself ?saving the world? and falling in love with a superhero winemaker. Not a bad concept. This is not a journalistic effort like other recently released wine books, To Cork or Not to Cork, The Billionaire?s Vinegar, First Big Crush, Wine and Philosophy. This is a personal essay on a personal point of view. The book is a small-format book?hardbound, 5 ½ ?...
Fri Feb 25th, 2005, Los Angeles Cocktail Cuisine - The Art of Appetizers Fri – 2/25/05 7:00pm-10:00pm Take your cocktail parties to a cosmopolitan level of food style and presentation!
The hunt for October red has turned up a whole lot of alternatives. Here are four to get the week off on the right track. I love them all and have repeated them in search of my favorite. I can't say which is best because they're all top notch, each perfect for the season, and each priced at about $15 or under per bottle. Two are from Spain, continuing on my October theme; one is French and one from Washington State. Perhaps the balance of the month will turn up something from California.
Eric Soloman's European Cellars is an importer many people trust. It's like a seal of approval for any Spanish wine in the eyes of many value conscious Americans. Eric brings us Capçanes Mas Donís Montsant Red 2004 ($15) and Mas Que Vinos Ercavio Tempranillo Roble 2005 ($13). Both are deep purple in the glass, but the Ercavio has more of an unfiltered appearance, showing some haziness under a halogen beam.
Mas Donís 2004 is mostly old-vine Grenache (80% Grenache with 20% Syrah) and has a perfumed black cherry nose with teaberry and hints of pencil lead. The body is medium, the flavor's tart and the mouth feel is moderately tannic. The cherry fruit along with some vanilla flavors come together nicely in the dusty dry finish. The only thing I don't like is the plastic cork. Why must anyone use that blasted plastic cork? Alcohol content: 14%.
Ercavio Tempranillo 2005 spent 5 months in French American oak and has a lovely aroma of black raspberry, loganberry and apple pie spice, plus the scent of a tobacco shop. Lush and fruit forward, this is what I would describe as a masculine comfort wine, and it would pair perfectly with a cheeseburger. The closure is a Nomacork*. Alcohol content: 13.5%.
Jean-Philippe Bourgeois was the General Manager for Eric Solomon for 6 years, and now he is bringing French values to the American market. Château Capion 1C Rouge 2005 (Vin de Pays de l'Hérault, $13) is a blend of 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Franc, 15% Merlot and was barrel aged for 14 months. That sounds like a recipe for a great Bordeaux but this gem of a red comes from further south. Still you get the deep purple color and aromas of black currants, dark berries and hints of vanilla. The rich blackberry cobbler flavors envelop the mouth in a far reaching luscious dry finish.
The Magnificent Wine Company is the mass-production wing of K Vintners of Walla Walla, Washington. KV is the project of Charles Smith who brings us such magnificent wines as "The Creator". You might walk right past House Wine 2005 ($11) due to the rather "in your face" and non-standard graphics on the label. You might mistake it for a generic red blend but it's anything but. The blend is 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 11% Syrah, 3% Malbec and 2% Cabernet Franc. Here's another ideal Bordeaux blend, and the latitiude is virtually the same as Bordeaux. The resulting aromas and flavors are much better than the average house wine, with dark berry flavors and aromas, resolving nicely in to a lush dry finish that echoes the virtues of barrel aging. The closure is a real cork. Alcohol content: 13.9%.
*The Nomacork is a composite resin artificial cork that is similar to the Neocork, but the Nomacork brand is much more popular in terms of units sold.
If you want to talk Pinot talk, you need to be versed in the language of Pinot Noir. Listed here are the most frequently used words and their definitions.
New Year?s and bubbles always seem to go together perfectly, and this season was no exception. So with a lazy Saturday between Christmas and New Year Eve, it was hardly a surprise to find sparkling wines featured at every in-house tasting on our re-stocking the liquor cabinet route. How could we refuse?
We?re both fans of Spanish Cavas for their ability to combine great taste with solid pricing, and the Lavit Brut Rosado we sampled first was no exception. Light strawberry in colour, this sparkler was summer in a glass ? raspberries, strawberries, and just a hint of peach. Even though it was slightly over chilled for this tasting we instantly agreed it would be one to that would help solve the ?what actually goes with turkey dinner? dilemma. Good for pre-dinner sipping too.
The Sigura ViudasBrut Reserva that was next up is pretty much one of our standard stocker for its flexible nature and crisp taste. It?s also, according to Ian Farmiloe, the International Cellars rep pouring, BC?s largest selling Cava. Good for parties ? especially potluck where anything is likely to show up. ?So, is this one, like ? you know ? real champagne?? To his credit, Ian managed to keep a semi-serious expression on his face as he explained the intricacies of the Champagne region to the rather portly lady wearing a combination of tartan plaid, plenty of zestful holiday bling, and sturdy black walking boots. We weren?t quite so diplomatic and had to suddenly develop an interest in the Italian wine section several rows over.
However, we did pop back for the Reserva Heredad. Perfect for when we want a bit more of a treat for less than $35, this Grand Reserve Cava has plenty of lemon-lime acidity and always makes a reliable, refreshing pour.
For a complete change of pace, we also checked out two offerings from Gray Monk?s Odyssey series. Even our Scottish wanna-be would probably have hesitated to inquire about the authenticity of this ?Champagne.? Neither of us got the yeasty nose that we would have expected after being left for 16 months on the yeast, although there was plenty of big time buttery texture from the Chardonnay. We settled for this one as an aperitif. The Rosé Brut had pleasing strawberry notes but didn?t hit either one of us as a ?rush out and buy? item. At $27 each, we took a pass on both these BC wines and headed back for a few more of the Cavas? with just a short detour through Champagne for some of ?the real stuff.?
One of our readers, Emily, asked a good question about 1, and I'm glad she did. I'm going to offer an extended reply, since this subject comes up periodically "Many people accuse you of only liking very young 'over blown,' very tannic styles of wines.
If there is a marketplace for cooked centipedes on a stick, it would have to be China. My dear and talented sister (who took this photo, whilst visiting Beijing) reports that they are quite crunchy and possibly the most disgusting thing she has ever eaten.
99-100 Parker: "Domaine de Pegau?s magical 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee da Capo is a magnificent offering. Tipping the scales at 16.1% alcohol, it boasts a blockbuster nose of dry vintage port intermixed with pepper, herbes de Provence, and roasted meats. Frightfully concentrated with layers of glycerin and fruit, it should prove to be one of the appellation?s greatest classics. More backward than either the 1998 or 2000 Capos, it is an enormously endowed, hugely concentrated, exhilarating effort that will last for three decades or more. It is a strong candidate for the ?wine of the vintage.? Anticipated maturity: 2010-2035+. When I asked Laurence how she would describe this beauty, she said, ?It consists of 80% of a great vintage of Chateauneuf du Pape, 20% a vintage port, and the rest some Syrah and other things we throw in for complexity.?
Inspired by a comment I received from Josh at Pinotblogger in response to my review of a BioD wine (found here). He raised the question, a very valid question, about whether I would enjoy the wine as much if I tasted it blind. He’s right. How much is my tasting the “vitality” in a BioD wine related to my own psychosomatic predisposition to being intrigued by BioD wines made with natural yeasts?
But, just as soon as you start to go down one path of mental resolution, you open up a $22 bottle of BR Cohn Silver Label Cab and a Trader Joe’s $5 bottle and you realize that the TJ’s wine is better. A normal predisposition would say the more expensive wine is better.
It’s all subjective; fortunately I’m a sales and marketing guy with a liberal arts degree so I don’t have to get bound up in quantifying the science in it all. This subjectiveness is illustrated as much by our desire to date to attractiveness (or, in my case, marry) demonstrated by eHarmony (it don’t mean a thing without the picture). Blind tastings and personalities matches are great, but, yeah, I guess the label does matter.
I mentioned on Sunday that I was in Ravello, wandering around and eating a very good meal on a spectacular terrace overlooking the sea, the vineyards and the lemon groves. The restaurant is part of the Hotel Villa Amore. The photos of the place and the food may tempt you to go there. From the terrace of the Villa Amore restaurant Again from the Villa Amore terrace. By the way, the hotel is not at all expensive. On the following page are some pix of Ravello and its immediate surroundings....
Tecnorati
TO: wine shop managers and their webmasters
What an absolutely gorgeous day. Enjoy this lovely orchid I stashed in a used Jurancon bottle, in celebration of a mellow March departure. On, April!
