Food & Wine Pairing

I realized that I was in a red wine rut a few years ago and made a practice to try unfamiliar white wines at tastings. I quickly discovered Viognier, a medium bodied white wine, perfumed with apricots, peaches and white flowers. This stuff is amazing - delicate, yet heady; I can sit for hours just enjoying the aroma. The taste is a revelation – the silky smooth texture hits first, then the fruit and flowers explode. It’s quite wonderful.

A 24 Hour Diary: Feb 20, 2008, 11:35 am, Porto Alegre Airport, Brazil I’m shopping at the duty free store in the Porto Alegre airport as I wait for my twice-delayed flight to Montevideo. Luckily I now have enough time to pick out the most useful things one could have during a hot and sweaty South American summer... a pair of Brazilian Havaenna flip-flops...35 spf face cream... and some over-priced designer deodorant ( no sense in layering on perfume over my sun-block and insect-repellent).

NAPA’S NEW WHOLE FOODS STORE WITH ARTISAN CHEESES AND AMPLE WINE SELECTION – THE TALK OF THE TOWN! I heard it from my hairdresser – everyone’s buzzing about Napa’s new Whole Foods store. I visited just after my appointment, and the place was swarming with people, having just opened on January 16th. I made my way from section to section, mouth wide open, as I marveled over the stunning meat and fish cases, welcoming wine tasting station and astonishing lineup of ready-to-eat deli soups, including Bouillabaisse and Cioppino!

A perfectly-balanced dessert wine menu does not just happen: much thoughtfulness and love goes into it before its vibrant siren song emerges at your table, beckoning you to sample a naughty sip. I had the good fortune to sit down with Andrew Bresnik, Wine Director of Bricco della Regina Anna and learn how a well-rounded dessert wine menu is born and how you can work your way through it. Bricco is a delightful neighborhood wine bar and bistro tucked

Budgeting for a meal out entails a lot more than just scouting prices for a nice bone-in ribeye. If you plan to add pre-meal cocktails and a nice bottle (or two) of wine, your liquid expenses could dwarf your food bill. Some restaurants are notorious for sticking it to consumers when it comes to wine, and it isn’t unusual in Las Vegas or New York to pay 300-400%+ of retail prices per bottle. There seems to be a direct correlation between the “status” perception of the restaurant and the pain you will feel at the wine pump.

In the region of Campania, a wine is made that is a very nice every day wine that sells for a fair price and, in the hands of a few wineries, presents a very good buy. The really fun thing about this wine, however, is the name. I am speaking about Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio. Long before winemakers started putting cute animals on their labels or giving their wines fanciful names in order to market them to the general public, Lacryma Christi wines were flourishing.

THREE PRICE POINTS SUITED FOR ANY POCKETBOOK

Zillah, Washington State, 1994. I was completely disoriented. It was hot. I was standing in a dry, semi – desert terrain, but looking west, I saw glacier capped Mt. Rainier. The roads weren’t paved, the wineries badly marked. Tasting rooms consisted of folding tables in the corners of barrel rooms, or in the family rec room with 1970’s shag carpeting. Often, I had to ring an outdoor bell to bring someone in from the fields to pour tastes.

Valencia Vas (Click Image to Enlarge) Rich. Bold. Nuanced. Delicate. Subtle. Words such as these are used constantly to describe the finer points of a great......... piece of music? Well of course they are. But they are also used just as commonly to describe a great wine. Given that wine and music can share so many of the same descriptive characteristics, it would seem logical that drinking a delicate and crisp Sauvignon Blanc while listening to a delicate and crisp piano sonata would enrich the experience of tasting the wine AND hearing the music. With this wine and music pairing theory in mind, Pop-Classical vocalist Valencia Vas has done something that is both innovative and yet obvious. She created an album of material and matched the characteristics of each song to a wine that shared those very same characteristics. I recently chatted with Valencia Vas about the project.

AND THE ACCOUTREMENTS: CAVIAR, CIGARS AND CHOCOLATES You have now entered the holiday zone. My condolences to you bah-humbugs out there, but look on the bright side! You can turn your attention to “hmm, what will I drink?” Maybe think about wines you don’t allow yourself most of the year. Indulge yourself. Now that you’ve gone that far in your thinking, why not taste a little caviar, light up a cigar and pop a truffle? Whether you’re throwing a party, attending a soirée or hosting your family’s get-together on the key days, following are guidelines for making selections of these luxury libations on varying budgets. SPARKLING WINES Within the sparkling group, try to provide different sweetness levels for differing palates: at least one brut or ultra brut, one sec (sweet) or demi sec (very sweet). Consider a bubbly rosé, as well. Suggestions from different price ranges: Schramsberg Sparkling Wine , $30-$100/bottle. Serve in the style to which presidents and royalty have become accustomed when you offer the Schramsberg line to your guests.