by Rosie Carbo
The statewide Texas drought and wildfires didn’t stamp out the desire to savor premium Texas wines at the second annual Houston Wine Festival last weekend.The two-day event, including music and food booths, featured 21 Texas wineries and a host of international wines as well.The popular Texas Hill Country, bounded by Austin and San Antonio, was represented by Grape Creek Vineyards, Texas Legato and Flat Creek Estates. The rest of the Texas wines represented the Piney Woods Wine Trail-east of Dallas-and Houston area wineries.“You don’t have to be a wine connoisseur to enjoy wine,” said Barre Bernhardt of Bernhardt Winery while passing out generous-sized samples of his awesome 2010 Pinot Grigio.“This wine is light and fruity with pineapple notes. But what wine tastes like is what ...
by Diana Mccalla
By guest blogger Diana McCalla Though not traditionally thought of as a nutritious food, modern research is establishing cocoa as just that, surprisingly enough, when it is processed properly.Brian Buijsse, MSc, and colleagues report the news in the Archives of Internal Medicine. They studied 470 elderly men for 15 years, tracking the men's cocoa consumption, including chocolate.Cocoa intake was tied to lower blood pressure and reduced death risk, the study shows. Natural compounds in cocoa called flavanols may be the reason, write Buijsse and colleagues.Although there have been a few small intervention studies published, the amount of chocolate in these studies was huge -- in most cases 100 grams, or about 3 1/2 oz., per day.Flavanols are the main type of flavonoid found in cocoa and cho...
by Philip Green
Finding Great Pinot Noir in Central OtagoFinding great Pinot Noir is one of the Holy Grail’s for wine fans. Central Otago is a wine region that has proven it self capable of producing such wines. Tours in the wine region can be done by self driving, armed with the excellent local wine map. Alternatively join a local expert on one of Appellation Central’s Queenstown Wine Tours and discover some of the lesser known gems. Central Otago LocationCentral Otago is located in the southern half of the South Island of New Zealand. The 45th parallel south runs directly through the heart of the region. It is a stunningly beautiful region with rugged, snow capped mountains, clear blue rivers, deep gorges and picturesque alpine lakes. The nearest major towns are Queenstown, Wanaka, Crowell and Alexa...
by Guglielmo Rocchiccioli
A MODERN SCIENCE: FOOD-AND-WINE CONNOISSEURSHIPWhat is food-and-wine connoisseurship ?It is a modern science which is trying to establish real connection between food and wine. When you have to marry a recipe, you should get the right wine behind the wine in the sense that you need to build up the perfect pairing based on the modern parameters and not only by following the old, but still valid rule of matching meat to red wine and fish to white wine.What do you mean when you are referring to real connection between food and wine ?There are 2 types of wine-food combinations:1. CONTRAST: the principle is based on the fact that the characteristics of the wine chosen for the pairing should be in contrast with the characteristics of the recipe. For example, if a recipe presents a strong succule...
by Mike Bonheim
The Wine Novice's Guide to the Tasting NoteOnce, people were embarrassed to know little or nothing about wine.It was as if this knowledge was passed down via divine intervention to the debonaire and metropolitan, and anyone who was not inherently knowledgeable on the topic was an unsophisticated yokel who has no place in proper society.Well, have no shame. Today’s wine community is increasingly welcome to new members; the web is overflowing with resources for the connoisseur of tomorrow, and wine groups geared for the novice wine lover seem to be gathering in every street-corner café and BYO restaurant in town.What once seemed an elitist, exclusive, and intimidating world is quickly becoming a welcoming community of wine lovers. There is no fear in asking questions. No shame in having a...
by Joseph Mclaughlin
Veronica Picon is a sommelier, a wine educator, a mom, and a South American wine tour guide. I’ve taken a number of her wine classes and she has graciously agreed to be the first interviewee for my blog.Eat Drink Travel Write (EDTW): What got you first interested in wine?Veronica Picon (VP): I’m from Argentina originally, as you probably know already, and I had studied Hotel and Restaurant Management there. Obviously when you are in the restaurant business you are always in touch with the wine. I worked in several places in Argentina. Then when I came to Boston I worked mostly in restaurants and that really put me in constant contact with the wine. I was very lucky to work in places where they really paid attention to the wine selection. My first place to work was Tasca which i...
by Shoppersvineyard.com
If you are looking to get hitched and are tasked with supplying wine & champagne, for your guests at the wedding or even rehearsal dinner, chances are you have more questions than you do answers. Our handy guide below will help you in answering the most common questions: How much do I need and what should I budget? How much do you need? There is no magical formula. Only you know the drinking habits of your guests. For example, your college roomie is probably going to consume a bit more than your elderly Aunt Bertha. Here are a few tips to help you do the math:•Always buy extra. You never, ever want to run out. How embarrassing...•Bottles of wine (750ml) will typically pour 5 glasses, while bottles of champagne will pour 6 flutes.•Figure each guest will have a minimum of 2 glasses, ev...
by Stefanie Phillips
Keeping track of your wine collection in a wine cellar can be a daunting task. Here are some tips on how to organize your wine so you can easily locate your favorite bottle when you need it.Q: How can I manage my wine storage?A: Even if you have a small collection, it can be daunting to remember where every bottle is, and just what vintages you have in your collection. There are many software programs and even entire computer systems available that can help manage your wine collections. You can create a database of wines you own, and would like to own in the future. You can map where each bottle is in your wine cellar. You can even keep tasting notes and wine auction information all in one place. These programs are a must for the serious collector. They’ll help you keep your collection ...
by Rosie Carbo
South American Chef Michael Cordua’s Americas restaurant gained national attention when Esquire magazine voted his churrasco (signature-aged beef tenderloin) among its pick of the best top 20 steaks in America.But this accolade is not the reason I chose to indulge a “Last Supper” at Americas recently. It was my nostalgia for his original Galleria mall local, and my incurably romantic nature that prompted me to dine there.The five-course dinner, paired with Cousino-Macul wines from Chile, was a bargain at $65 each. The first glass of wine, a straw-colored Chardonnay, was paired with totopos de pez espada (grilled swordfish on Spanish idiazabal cheese sauce) on corn tortilla chips. We savored every sip while seated beneath dimly lighted caves and trees created by Chicago architect Jor...
by Rosie Carbo
The Italian Cultural and Community Center, the voice of the Italian-American community in Houston, hosted another Italian wine tasting session recently. This educational wine tasting focused on the extraordinary “Emerging Wines of Italy” and their developing popularity in the American market.“When you’ve got restaurants like the Olive Garden, coming to the table with a bottle of Moscato di Asti, that means something. We know from experience that restaurants often set the pace for wines that will be popular,” said Philip Cusimano, a 30-year veteran wine broker who led the discussion. Moscato de Asti, an elegant white table wine with notes of green apple and tropical fruits, was the first wine tasted by approximately 100 members and guests of the nonprofit, who gathered at the gr...
