by Ivan Loyola
Not very traditional, I know, but long ago I renounced eating turkey out of ethical and health considerations. Plus, grilled squid tastes a lot better than turkey. The slippery creatures live free in the oceans and with increasing water temperatures, there is a bonanza of the cephalopods all over the world. In fact, in some areas, like off the coast of California, the large Humboldt squid are becoming a problem due to their abundance. My recipe is a mix of what I tasted in Piran, a lovely town on the Adriatic shores of Slovenia and my father’s own, which he borrowed -and bettered- from Japanese immigrants in the Peruvian port of El Callao. It is very simple and simply delicious.Grab a 2 pound pack of frozen squid tubes and tentacles, thaw, wash with fresh water, rinse and pat dry. Marina...
by Lisa Magnuson
Rhode Island’s liquor control board issued a bulletin stating that a “retail liquor store licensee cannot jointly promote or advertise a wine tasting or sampling event with a . . . restaurant.”For years, Rhode Island liquor retailers have aided in the promotion of wine and provided the consumer with a wine education at restaurant wine dinners and tasting events. Under the board's new interpretation of the law, this practice will now cease.Although the control board puts conditions in place to protect the public, this decision significantly limits the consumers’ ability to try new wines, including higher-end wines and limited production wines that are not available for glass pour at restaurants. Additionally, the partnership with retailers and restaurants is an incentive for distrib...
by David Boyer
In other words, does good wine cost more to make than bad wine? This seems to be a recurring question for nearly everyone but at the end of the day there is no precise and easy answer. And of course to even broach the subject requires that we define what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ wine, which can be exponentially more difficult, if we attempt to apply those definitions to anyone other than ourselves. Many things must culminate at the right times to make good wine and even more things must happen to make great wine. As the saying goes, ‘the fruit makes the wine’; everything begins in the vineyard and with poor fruit, human intervention can only do so much to make it better.Every vineyard has not only its own terroir (a sense of place defined by soil type, macroclimate mesoclimate and m...
by Tom Lewis
There are two things I particularly like when buying wine - firstly, getting a bargain and secondly, trying something local; whilst it's not always true that the locals keep the good stuff for themselves and export the dross, there is certainly some merit in buying wine close to where it is produced - and the smaller the quantities and more obscure the area, the truer this becomes.Alsace has around 15,000 hectares of vineyards - just over a tenth of the amount in Bordeaux, for example. In practice, this means that there is just not a huge amount of Alsace wine to go around. So, whilst reliable, everyday (and often rather good) examples of Bordeaux can be found in almost any French supermarket, their Alsace selections tend to be more limited and somewhat disappointing. To get the best wines...
by Tom Lewis
I'm not sure whether the Pas-de-Calais region actually produces any wine and if it does, it's unlikely to be much good, but it is still a very good part of France in which to buy wine for the simple reason that it full of hypermarkets and can be done as a day trip from Cambridge.Calais is a pretty soulless place at the best of times - flat, bleak, mostly destroyed during the war, it is a working port with the refugee centre of Sangatte just up the road. Bill Bryson describes it in his Notes from a Small Island as "an interesting place that exists for solely for the purpose of giving English people in shell suits somewhere to go for the day" and its buildings as examples of "1950s planners smitten with the novel possibilities of concrete".Hardly an idyllic day-trip then, but Calais' main at...
by Peter Richardsson
My dear friend and fellow oenophile, Jorg, recently took a job in Geneva with Essent NV, trading energy futures. As many Europeans do, he made a quick sojourn to NYC before Christmas to stock up on few supplies that are both not in ready supply and taxed heavily in Switzerland. We were excited to see each other for a great wine and gastronomic weekend, and having grown up just outside of New York City I was able to also score some brownie points by driving my Mom to the airport for her winter in Florida, prior to taking the train into town.Morrell Wine Bar & CafeWe met at Morrell's which has been the launching spot for several of our previous wine exploits. I realized that the Rockefeller Center tree had just gone up, but Jorg and I were wondering, “what economic crisis?” as we had to ...
by Lisa Magnuson
Despite economic woes, “Black Friday” specials are luring customers to spend, and more than ever, retailers are hoping that this holiday season will pull them out of the red. However, it would be wise for turkey-stuffed shoppers to watch their wallet-waistlines. To help shoppers pick the right thoughtful gift for the various types of wine lovers on their list, here are some wine and accessory gift ideas for $25 or less: For the connoisseur who has everything, including discriminating taste:Choose a wine from the 2009 Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list. Coming in at number 29 and 57, the 2007 Chalone Chardonnay ($25) and Vina Santa Rita Cabernet Sauvignon ($20) are both classics. Connoisseur accessory: Soiree bottle-top decanter ($20)For the enthusiast who is open to trying new things:Go f...
by Lisa Magnuson
In the 1970s the famous Antinori family took to bending the Chianti winemaking rules and created what has been dubbed the Super Tuscan. However, Tuscany is not the only wine region that the Antinori family decided to blend tradition with innovation. In 1998, the Antinori family moved beyond Tuscany and invested in Southern Italy’s up-and-coming region, Puglia (Apulia). Situated in the heel of Italy’s boot, Puglia has two major viticultural areas. The northern terrain above Brindisi and Taranto is hilly with a moderate temperature that produces mostly dry wines from native grapes such as Uva di Troia and Bombino Nero. Wines from this area tend to have good acidity, flavorful fruit, and aromatic bouquets. Salento, the southern peninsula of Puglia, has warm sea breezes and low hills. The ...
by Tom Lewis
Terroir is a uniquely French concept, meaning the combination of soil, altitude, aspect, rainfall and just about eveything which makes the local climate suitable or otherwise for growing vines. Indeed, the whole French system of wine classification is based on the concept of terroir - Pauillac and the Côte d'Or are places, not grape varieties.The New World, by contrast, tends to focus as much, if not more, on grape variety and for that reason, one tends to speak of Aussie Shiraz or Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. However, it was only a matter of time before more forward-thinking winemakers from the New World began to look more closely at the area where the grapes are grown and start to delineate growing areas more precisely, identifying those which produce better wines.Such a man is Rafael Urrej...
by Melinda Yee
* Have you ever wondered how wine professionals can smell and taste a wine and then name the aromas and flavors?* Why does anyone need to know the aromas and flavors in a wine anyway?* How can a person learn how to detect aromas and flavors in wine?These were definitely questions I had prior to my training, and I’m sure others have these questions too. I hope the tips I’ve given here will help those of you who want to learn more about how to pick aromas and flavors out of the wine.After going through the rigorous training to become a Certified Sommelier at the Professional Culinary Institute & Court of Master Sommeliers, I now realize and believe that everyone can learn to detect aromas and flavors in wine. However, it does take lots and lots of practice and repetition. Believe me, I w...
