wine in the news
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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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New Food and Wine Pairings: Sweet Wines + Chocolate
I'm a person of strong opinions, which I frequently take pleasure in expressing. But when it comes to wine, I try to exercise caution with that tendency, because I feel that the appreciation and enjoyment of wine is a very personal experience that should only be sparingly pre-empted or tainted by 'expert' advice. However, very much like art and design, even among variations of tastes, styles, and approaches, there are still some universal, often fundamental, 'rules,' if you will, about which elements work together and which ones frankly do not. Red Wine and Chocolate do not work together.
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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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Recent Reviews+Interviews
An Interview of Coterie Cellars, an Urban Winery
There was a time when the term "urban winery" would have been considered an oxymoron. But for wine producers who source their fruit from growers, the lack of attachment to any particular vineyard allows for a great degree of choice regarding winery location. An increasing number of them are opting to set up shop in areas that may be a distance from the nearest grapevines, but which are conveniently located, both for themselves as well as potential customers living in more urban areas. One such winery is Coterie Cellars, a newly established micro-production facility located amidst the quasi-urban sprawl of San Jose. Though I'd briefly met the proprietors, Kyle and Shala Loudon, during the 2008 Pinot Days tasting event in San Francisco, I followed up with the domestic garagistes more recently during a visit to their rather compact winery, where I learned more about the evolution of their urban endeavor.
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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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Winemaking Owner Furthers Legacy on Napa's Spring Mountain — An Interview with Michael Keenan of Robert Keenan Winery —
It was by virtue of his hillside Napa Merlot that Robert Keenan planted his eponymous winery squarely on the world's wine map twenty years ago. Since then, a new generation of ownership under his son has resulted in significant changes in vineyard practices, varietal choices, and overall business philosophy that have propelled the producer well into the modern era of premium winemaking. Although bolstering its reputation in recent years through the crafting of fine wines from Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc, Keenan Winery continues to produce Merlot of superb quality, threatening to help bring the varietal back into vogue following its recent fall from market popularity. I spoke with proprietor Michael Keenan on the evolution of his winery's production, the virtues of raising vines on Spring Mountain, and the lessons learned from the daunting task of furthering his father's legacy.
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wine in the news
Please make the Cache directory writable.
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