wine in the news
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Classic Food and Wine Pairings: Sauvignon Blanc + Goat Cheese
For years, I have been aware of several classic food and wine parings and have used them to my advantage on many occasions ("we have to open this syrah — we're eating lamb!"). I have also had some terrific experiences with amazing food and wine pairings in the past. This is something that restaurants can do very well, but at home, most great pairings were almost accidental — the result of a very successful guess or stroke of luck as opposed to premeditation and comprehensive knowledge. So I set out to my favorite wine shop to talk shop (well, wine) with the experts.
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New Food and Wine Pairings: Taste Harmony
Try something. Try having a glass of lemonade with a chocolate chip cookie. Did you hesistate at the very idea? Now, I'm guessing you probably don't even have to go through this charade to wonder how this could even remotely be considered a good idea. And if you don't have that reaction, then by all means, try it. Now once you're past that little exercise (either virtually or in real life), push aside the glass of lemonade, and pour yourself a glass of milk and drink that with your chocolate chip cookie. Ahhhh… a little more appetizing? A bit more palatable? Of course, but you knew that, already. Okay, long story short: lemonade and chocolate (or cookies) do not go together. Why? Well, I could probably go on and on, pontificating on the reasons, touching on principles of food chemistry and taste physiology, but honestly, none of that is necessary and might even be considered overkill. Quite simply, certain tastes together are just not compatible in our mouths.
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Classic Food and Wine Pairings: Pinot Noir + Duck Breast
I love duck. It has long been one of my very favorite things. I love duck breast cooked just under medium with a nice crisp layer on that wonderful fat. I love duck confit, duck stock, Chinese duck and scallion pancakes, and duck skin cracklins — it's all fantastic! And while I'm professing love for things, how about pinot noir: I love the sweet and musty Carneros pinots, I love the amazing pinots coming from Oregon (I went to Willamette a few years back), and I have had my share of amazing earthy burgundy as well. Though I don't consider myself a wine expert, I know enough to know how little I know, and this makes me eager to learn and appreciate. So when I embarked on this exploration of classic food and wine pairings, I jumped on the duck and Pinot Noir idea and never looked back.
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Recent Reviews+Interviews
Boutique Wine Brand Delivers Charm & Appeal from its Nook on Spring Mountain — Spotlight on Guilliams Vineyards —
Shawn Guilliams is the exactly the type of woman any urban-dwelling 30-something would want to have as a 'cool aunt' — whether because she can easily kick back with you like a buddy, yet on occasion offer pearls of mature sagacity that come from her experience as a mother; or because she can spend the better part of her time tucked away in the secluded recesses of her hillside hideaway overlooking the Napa valley, yet enthusiastically break out of its provinciality to pop into the city bustle when the situation calls for it; or still because she's completely devoid of the pomp and pretense that seem to run rampant among many of the valley's other wine industry notables. Regardless of the reason, she is without doubt an effervescent and engaging personality who makes up half of the team that is Guilliams Vineyards. Her husband, John — a talented renaissance man with a penchant for designing and building his own homes — sustainably farms their 7 acre vineyard along the steep slopes of their hillside property on Napa's Spring Mountain, a district with an elevation of 2,000 ft. It was here that I spent an afternoon with my partner Bill, sitting down to lunch with Shawn, to learn about what life is like for a micro-producer of premium Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Napa Trailblazer Continues to Reshape New Identity with Mountain Cabernets — An Interview with the Winemaker of Atlas Peak Winery —
Throughout the 1990s, Atlas Peak Winery built and enjoyed renown in the marketplace for the Sangiovese varietal wine it produced from the elevation after which it was named. But with the new Millennium came broad changes to Napa's wine industry, not the least of which was an upsurge in the production of super-premium Cabernet Sauvignon. This, combined with the vision of new ownership that recognized the producer's untapped potential, led to the reevaluation and overhaul of its entire marketing thrust in an effort to shift the focus and increase the quality of its production. Nearly seven years since Atlas Peak's rebirth as a brand has seen the crafting of a portfolio featuring Cabernet grown in each of Napa Valley's elevated sub-appellations: Howell Mountain, Mount Veeder, Spring Mountain, and of course, Atlas Peak itself. After having sampled his wines at the California Cabernet Society annual tasting event, I met with winemaker Darren Procsal, along with PR Director Tony Lombardi, to learn more of the winery's new mission "to create wines that showcase their lofty origins."
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Keeping a Finger on the Pulse of the Finger Lakes — A Visit to Wineries along the Seneca Lake Wine Trail —
A lot can happen in five and half years. And that goes even for wine, medical an industry much of whose progress hinges on the oscillation of the seasons and whose development is slow and steady. It was the winter of 2008 when I last wrote about the Finger Lakes region, patient and my sense is that the winemaking there has definitely evolved. Much of what I’d learned about the area at the time came from my interview with New York wine publicist, find Melissa Dobson. Both exciting and enlightening, our conversation painted a picture of a region long involved in the production of wine from indigenous grapes, but which only recently has garnered attention for its work with European varieties. More relevantly, the interview planted a seed of curiosity that inspired me to take advantage of a recent trip there to visit some local wineries.
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wine in the news
Please make the Cache directory writable.
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