by Alvin Starkman
The southern Mexico state of Oaxaca is currently known for its production of mezcal, the iconic agave based Mexican spirit. For decades it has also been known tourism, because of its beaches, craft villages, pre-Hispanic ruins, cuisine and colonial architecture Oaxaca had three hotels ranked in the tripadvisor.com 2016 Travelers Choice Awards in the category of top 25 bargain hotels in the country. However, for a state which relies almost entirely on tourism for its very existence, Oaxaca badly trailing in other categories does not bode well. And but for the beach resort towns of Mazunte and Huatulco, the state would have been almost shut out entirely. Tulum, by contrast, has come out of nowhere to rank first of the top 25 world destinations on the rise. Can mezcal turn Oaxaca’s to...
by Catherine E. Fallis Master Sommelier-planet Grape
I love former West End actor Oz Clarke’s description of New Zealand’s brash, pungent Sauvignon Blanc, an iconic style created by Cloudy Bay winemaker Kevin Judd. He calls it a“cloudburst, thrilling, shocking, lime zest, capsicum, love me or leave me” style of Sauvignon Blanc.Kevin Judd, who produced the winery’s first 25 vintages and who now has his own winery, Greywacke, had no idea this blend of green and tropical flavors would take the world by storm. He had the idea of blending in the green, tart early picked wine his crew loved so much to with fruit picked just ripe as well as some that was overripe and tropical.Now some winemakers are dialing back on these opulent flavors, both the thiols, tropical passion fruit and pineapple, and methoxypyrazines, Sauvignon Blancs’s sign...
by Dean Morretta
Take my wine, I’ll survive. Take my olive oil, I’ll get by. Take them both… I don’t even want to go on.Fortunately, there was no shortage of either at Tarry Market last weekend in an olive oil class with Nicholas Coleman, Chief Oleologist at Eataly. Oleologist? Think Master Sommelier of olive oil. In fact, I related most of what I learned during the class about olive oil to wine, discovering some serious parallels between the two essential delicacies.Coleman stated the main contrast: wine must be made, while olive oil is simply waiting in the olive to come out. Otherwise, you could easily have substituted ‘wine’ for ‘olive oil’ in the class conversation and had it all still make perfect sense.Olive oil and wine are agricultural buddies, today and in history. Both origi...
by Dean Morretta
Estate-bottled. Terroir. In the wine world these have long been terms that evoke respect for certain bottles and fetch higher prices. It’s significantly less typical to see an estate bottled spirit, where all the variables of production occur in the same location... until recently! Thanks to the reemergence of the farm distillery, gazing out from the distillery tasting room on a field of grains is now a more common experience for the spirits lover.The movement goes by many names: grain to bottle, farm to glass, field to bottle. Whichever the term, distilleries are now embracing farming and producing real land-based products.Every bottle starts at the beginning: the base ingredient. If you are a distiller in the United States or a famous whiskey producing country like Scotland and I...
by Dean Morretta
A field in upstate New York is waiting to release a prize. Six shipping containers sit on grass, bearing the weight of the entirety of Taconic Distillery’s barrels. They contain Bourbons and Ryes that have aged slowly and exposed to the volatile New York seasons. What will soon be released is guaranteed to taste great, but these containers can't even begin to hold what Taconic Distillery has planned for the future...I walked through that field on a ferociously windy day with Matt Frohman, avid outdoorsman, former Westchester County science teacher, and one of Taconic's passionate team members. In all directions we viewed the rollings hills that are home to Taconic Distillery in Stanfordville, NY. Founder Paul Coughlin purchased the 113 acres, formerly devoted to beef and corn, in 20...
by Jim Curtis
Have you come by the Heritage Oak Winery in Lodi, California lately? Well if you haven’t, and you can, you should. Following the warmth of February and the rains of March, the beautiful grounds surrounding the winery are awaking from their winter slumber, shouting out “SPRINGTIME IS HERE, SPRINGTIME IS HERE!” The mulberry trees on the patio are all leafing out, pushing out a delicate green and creating the wonderful shade over the patio area. Under and around the trees are violets with their delicate light purple flowers that lie as a colorful carpet around the paved areas. And the roses and the agapanthus were all pruned back during the dreary winter days and now are pushing out new growth that will bring us colorful flowers in the blink of an eye. The venerable old fig tree...
by Susanna Gaertner
Egg-based dishes present a problem from a wine-pairing standpoint; Rieslings, even dry ones, are too citrus-forward and acid-edged, and any other white will overpower the delicate fluffy-flavored egg-cheese balance. So I’m happy to say that I’ve found a wine that works: Grenache Blanc to the rescue!While it is now the fourth or fifth most planted white variety in France, Grenache Blanc is still relatively unknown in this country, and then only as one of the Rhône white components: rousanne, clairette, bourboulenc, and viognier. But the California climate of hot days and cool nights seems to be perfect for the varietal and encourages its two prime qualities: richness with crisp acids. And that is exactly what is needed for quiches and savory cheese pies.Winemaker Jeff Emery of Santa Cr...
by Liz Bates
Who would have thought that in 1971 it was both creative ingenuity and a bit of reverse psychology that inspired Alice Waters to open her tiny unknown restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. Through her open-heartedness in feeding for free her closest friends because she simply loved to cook and dreamed of having a place to nourish them, an empire and national movement was born. Little did she know that in feeding those she cherished and possessing the dream to “build it and they will come” mentality, would actually work out so brilliantly. And gather together to dine they all certainly did - who in their right mind would’ve missed a meal at Alice’s table even back then? She had a hunch that one day all her friends (and their friends) would not only come to gather aro...
by Jess Andrenelli
Many people do not associate Vietnamese food with wine but think again. First what makes Vietnamese food special? It's those fragrant elements which play an important role in just about every dish in the Vietnamese cuisine canon. Each dish could really have its own bottled fragrance. L'eau de Pho would be redolent of mint, cilantro, lemongrass, garlic, star anise, and ginger, with long-simmered beef bones, tear-inducing chilies, and the essential drops of fish sauce. If you are thinking of Vietnamese food for dinner be adventurous and order at least half a dozen different dishes and share with friends over a selection of wine. Now what would be the perfect wine to pair with these fragrant dishes? The range of flavors from spicy to sweet, to salty then sour variations within each bite can m...
by Dean Morretta
You are sipping dry Riesling in the summer sun, perched high on the inclined shore of Seneca Lake, on a winery porch cooled by lake breezes. Hard to imagine 22,000 years ago you’d be covered by a mile of glacier ice!New York State is home to the only prominent American wine regions to be gripped by glacial tentacles in the last major ice age. The Finger Lakes and Long Island American Viticultural Areas can forever thank the large ice sheet that once covered North America. What was 'left behind’ makes for a magic formula: unique geologies plus ideal climates equal world class wines.The Final Icy AdvanceWith 70 degree days this winter it’s difficult to picture a New York ice age. Yet, a massive swath called the Laurentine Ice Sheet covered millions of North American square miles st...
