All Blog Posts Tagged 'wines' (7)

Operator - Chef Don't W(h)ine About Organic Grapes

The term organic can be confusing especially when it comes to wine. The laws and perception can be mis-leading. For example does a wine made from organic grapes contain added sulfites? Or is the wine even organic because the grapes were grown organically.

Here is some basics to follow:

1. Lots of vineyards practice organic but are not certified.

2. Using organic grapes in wine does NOT make the wine organic.

3. If the wine is certified organic it still may contain… Continue

Added by Marcus Guiliano on March 13, 2010 at 7:24am — No Comments

Is Lodi Making California's Best Zinfandels?

I suppose that before I go making bold-faced statements like Lodi is making the best Zinfandels in California today, I should at least qualify it. So if you will,

1. In recent years I simply have not found Zinfandels from anywhere else in the state that have been as consistently good, i.e. Zinfandel-ish, in the $12-$19 retail price range as those from Lodi. In the restaurant business, where I’m coming from, this means wines I can sell for $6-$9 a glass, which is where most… Continue

Added by Randy Caparoso on June 12, 2008 at 2:11pm — 1 Comment

ReMARKable Palate #143: Finger Lakes Wine Region

ReMARKable Palate #143: Finger Lakes Wine Region

This week, it's all about the food and wine of the Finger Lakes Wine Country, just a few hours north of New York City. I attended a tasting at New York's Astor Center, the state of the art tasting room above… Continue

Added by Chef Mark Tafoya on May 28, 2008 at 12:57pm — No Comments

Everything is Coming Up Rosés

It’s spring, and everything should be coming up rosés. Oh, I know times are toughening up again. You aren’t seeing your regulars quite as often, and the rising cost of oil (and I mean, cooking oil) and everything else is making your P&Ls go haywire.

So maybe it’s time to start thinking radically rather laterally… something “new” to chill your rising ire and tickle your guests’ increasingly fickle fancy. Re this recent report in Wines & Vines: sales of rosés selling for… Continue

Added by Randy Caparoso on April 21, 2008 at 5:22pm — 4 Comments

How Is Your Wine Grape IQ?

How is your contemporary wine grape IQ? Are you up on the latest “alternative” varieties? Should you even care?

If a grape makes perfectly delicious wine, I would think yes to the last question. But for me, personally, I think a wine made from an alternative grape becomes significant the moment I have a perfectly matched dish for it. I like reasons for my wines.

And besides, the way I look at it: forty years ago Chardonnay wasn’t on anybody’s lexicon (most people… Continue

Added by Randy Caparoso on April 11, 2008 at 2:08pm — 5 Comments

Dreams of Velvety Reds

I have this recurring dream. It's almost mid-day. We wake up late, and haven't yet eaten. So after stopping at a tiny charcuterie for some sausages, marinated olives, a round of local bread – tasting of freshly risen dough, not salt or chemicals, crusted on the outside, silky on the inside – and a bottle of wine, we follow a winding brook outside the village in search of a restaurant in the sky.

The vestiges of morning chill are still in the air as our shoes crunch over some loose,… Continue

Added by Randy Caparoso on April 7, 2008 at 9:53am — 5 Comments

Wine, Cheese & Culinary Debauchery

They say that cheesemaking goes back as long ago as 9000 BC, when animals were first domesticated for their milk. Milk is turned into cheese by an enzyme known as rennet, originally found in the lining of calves’ stomachs. Seems some ancient dude decided to carry his milk in such a skin, checked it out a little later and I’ll-be-a-bull-bucker, he “discovered” cheese.

Like cheese, wine is the product of a natural fermentation, and at which point in history the first wine and cheese… Continue

Added by Randy Caparoso on March 21, 2008 at 4:15pm — 2 Comments