THOUGHTS ON CORKAGE
Several years ago I visited an old college friend Kevin Cronin in his home town Philadelphia and discovered a fascinating detail about life in that city which is entirely foreign to us Californians: all their restaurants were BYOB. Through some arcane quirk in their liquor laws, restaurants were not allowed to sell wine. So they did not have any wine lists. Customers who wished to consume wine with their meals had to bring their own. And we did. In fact we found another wine enthusiast couple in that restaurant with several interesting looking bottles, and we combined forces with them[...]
FAREWELL TO A FRIEND
Last night I said farewell to an old friend. It was the bottle you see in the photo to the left, a 1995 Chateauneuf du Pape, Vieux Telegraph. I brought it to my Friday night wine group where it was uniformly well received.1995 was a good year and last night the wine seemed at its prime. Classic nose for the region, smooth, well balanced, mellow, and yet characteristic smoky flavors and strong hints of mouvedre, which I recognize as an olive tapenade flavor. Without knowing what it was, everyone in the group exclaimed some pleasure as soon as they sipped[...]
VALPOLICELLA; FROM HATE TO LOVE
More than a decade ago I found myself in a then swank new restaurant in San Francisco for a business dinner. The occasion was a convention, and I was to meet a VIP CEO of a surgical implant company, who was hosting me, a valued client, at Farallon, still a trendy upscale seafood place near Union Square. It turned out that the Minnesota based CEO was a wine enthusiast, a typical Napa/Sonoma guy. His various lieutenants who accompanied us to the dinner informed him of my interest in wine and he handed me the wine list. After a diplomatic choice[...]
THE FRUITS OF APPELATION PROLIFERATION PART II: HOW DO WE BEST BENEFIT FROM IT
Last week I commented on the news that an appellation in Sonoma that makes no geographic sense is being targeted for revision, albeit with much resistance, for such designations, from the standpoint of wineries, amount to a revision of their trademark status. Some benefit from revisions, others don't. Hence the controversy. While wineries line up to arrange appellation borders to best suit their business needs, what are we, wine consumers are to make of the entire concept of appellations? Is there any use in this for us? How can we keep up with nearly 200 appellation designations in California alone,[...]
THE FRUITS OF APPELLATION PROLIFERATION; PART I
The San Francisco Chronicle just published a long article about efforts to break up the Sonoma Coast Appellation into regions that make more sense. The area designated as "Sonoma Coast" can be seen on the larger California map to the right. If you look within the various appellations of Sonoma itself (map on left), you'll notice that "Sonoma Coast" is by far the largest. Furthermore, even though it has the name "Coast" on its label, more of it is inland than coastal. Apparently some vintners want to create a new designation, "West Sonoma Coast" to break-off the truly coastal regions[...]
COQ AU VIN; WHAT WINE BEST SUITS IT?
Marital disputes are fortunately rare in my household. A recent one arose over an unusual subject: coq au vin.My wife Julie loves this dish and orders it whenever it's listed in a menu. Recently she decided to make it at home. This is a French Burgundian recipe of chicken, slow cooked with a bunch of vegetables in a broth. Like countless other recipes from Europe from ciappino to paella to goulash, this probably started as peasant food which has now been elevated to the staus of high cuisine. In this case however, the recipe calls for a whole bottle of[...]