by Gabrio Tosti
One of the most common questions I’ve been asked so far is; “what is your favorite?” Whatever the subject is wine, food, movies, color, or clothing my answer is always the same: I really don’t have favorites, but I do have options. On a personal level I don't like limiting my self to just a few choices. I love to choose considering as much information as I can. In the case of wine, the info can came from weather (you might not want to drink a cold Pinot Grigio at the North Pole in December), food, occasion, number of people and so on. Also, I usually never think about my taste because I tend to like or at least to appreciate a wide range of styles. Sometimes the style that I prefer less is the right one with the food that I’m about to eat. For example, I don’t really care f...
by Marisa Dvari
“Irasshaimase!" This traditional Japanese greeting welcomes you to the hip, trendy Pan Asian restaurant of the moment. You are dressed to the nines to fit in with the glam crowd, and at your side is the date or client you’re eager to impress. All is well until your guest suggests ordering sake instead of the wines you know so well. Glancing at the list of unfamiliar names, you begin to panic. Which one? How are they different? And when you do take that first sip, what are some of the characteristics you should be looking for? Just as fine wine is all about the grapes, sake is all about the rice. Premium sake is created from superior sake rice grown in specific regions that give the sake a distinctive fragrance and taste. What differentiates one sake from another and explains oft...
by Jennifer Rosen
The latest study on how we get to be us claims our biggest influence is neither parents not peers, but our siblings. I believe it. When I was growing up, my sister Robin, one year older, was God. My sun, my playmate, my critic and my arbiter of taste, from the moment she first pried the safety cover off my bassinet, removed her diaper, and crapped on my stomach. Naturally, I took her judgments to heart. How often would I get excited about a new song or toy, only to find my enthusiasm crushed beneath the bulldozer of her contempt –“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, you moron!” she’d pronounce. And, oh! the shame! How could I have opened my heart to something so dopey? After a while, you learn to keep it shut. So I sympathize with people afrai...
by Jennifer Rosen
Hey, You! Look in the door of your fridge, or on that cracked tray you call your bar. See that bottle of vermouth? Remember when you opened it? I didn’t think so. Well, it’s time to throw it out. It is not kryptonite, you know, only fortified wine with herbs added. They did this originally to make awful wine palatable. Then, for a while, they decided it was medicinal (The flu, sure, that's what I'm taking it for...) Then the martini was born and for the next eighty-seven years people bought vermouth, opened it and ignored it. But vermouth is not just for leaving out of martinis. Dubonnet straight up may leave me cold, but at a co-op in Spain, I tasted vermouth that blew my socks off. It was a thick, concentrated red wine; tannic, a little sweet and perfumed...
by Jennifer Rosen
Katherine Hepburn was a family friend when I was growing up and now that I’m too big to get in trouble I can say it: I never got her appeal. She’d gab on endlessly about the trials of being a famous actress and I’d think, “Famous, yes. Actress…I don’t know.” Certainly a riveting performer, yet she never stepped out of herself and into another personality, which is what I think of as acting. There are grapes like that. Whether fresh and young or old and delicate, they shout out their unmistakable personality. Riesling and Muscat come to mind. Then there are actors. Craftsmen who bury their egos and disappear into a role for the greater good of the story. You leave the movie thinking, “No way that was her! She’s twenty pounds lighter and has a Ger...
by Jennifer Rosen
With all the issues surrounding wine—from prices to grapes to food pairing—there's one question people ask me more than all the others combined. Practically daily someone will say, “Remember that grape stomping episode from ‘I Love Lucy?’” No, I don’t remember it. I never saw it. I can’t sit through five minutes of that show. Let me be frank: I hate Lucy. Oh, yes, she was a brilliant comedienne as well as business woman. Yet I find the sitcom irritating and screechy. Besides, my two marriages supplied all the raucous bickering I wanted without the annoying laugh track. Yet the world loves Lucy. Especially the time she and Fatso put on their kerchiefs and stomped grapes, an event hilarious enough to have inspired commemorative items ranging from lithographs...
by Jennifer Rosen
Remember Rhine wine, Mountain Chablis and Hearty Burgundy? When all fizz was Champagne, and Sherry and Madeira could be found in the cooking aisle? That was then. A recent World Trade Organization agreement cracked down our use of those names, along with Burgundy, Chianti, Claret, Haut-Sauterne, Hock, Marsala, Malaga, Moselle, Port, Retsina, Sauternes, and Tokay. We conceded, in return for the privilege of selling our wine freely in Europe, an idea vigorously protested by EU farmers’ organizations. "It cannot be that American artificial wine ends up on the German market," howled Farm Minister Horst Seehofer, "German quality will be drowned by cheap laboratory wines!" But in the end, keeping their traditional names was more important than banning our pha...
by Jennifer Rosen
Most avalanches happen on slopes ranging from twenty-five to forty-five degrees. Cars can’t climb a grade steeper than thirty. Thirty-five degrees is a double black diamond, forty is the low end of extreme mountaineering and a fall off a sixty-degree slope, I’m told, means sure and sudden death. Yet here on Germany’s Mosel River, vineyards cant up to a vertiginous sixty-seven degrees. My heart plays the congas as I clamber up through sliding slabs of slate, grasping at trellis stakes too fragile to hold me. No wonder local vineyard workers wear harnesses and climbing gear. I’m on a hunt; for that crucial element in great German wine: terroir. No one quite agrees on the definition, but think of it this way: some people speak in the bland cadence of the evening news, whi...
by Kim Tyndall
Pairing food and wine: it may be easier than you think! Pairing food and wine is as normal as putting salt and pepper together or having a soprano and alto sing in harmony. In order to make the duet harmonious, however, aren’t some ground rules needed? According to Greg Maurer, Executive Vice President & General Manager for Heidelberg Distributing Company, and Richard Blondin, Executive Chef at The Refectory restaurant, maybe and maybe not. Both will be on hand at the Columbus Food & Wine Affair, set for 7 to 10 p.m., Friday, September 29 at the Franklin Park Conservatory. Maurer says if you have a much-loved recipe and you serve it with your favorite glass of cabernet, enjoy! While there are some good matches of food and wine, ultimately, the best match is whatever your palate fi...
by Kim Tyndall
Whether you consider yourself a novel wine taster or knowledgeable enthusiast with a discerning palette, you are sure to find more than a little something to enjoy—and learn—at this year’s Columbus Food & Wine Affair, set for 7 to 10 p.m., Friday, September 29 at the Franklin Park Conservatory, Columbus, Ohio. Now in its fourth year, the event is drawing praise as a Mecca for culinary industry professionals as well for wine lovers. The event showcases some of the world’s most recognized vintners. But are you wondering if you can hold your own at such a function? Never fear. Matt Citriglia is here. Citriglia has 22 years of experience in the wine industry including retail ownership and restaurant and wholesale management. Currently, he is General Sales Manager for a local wine wh...
