by Ivan Loyola
For the average wine consumer, Italy, with its twenty wine regions and scores of commercially grown grapes –most little known and with hard to remember names- can be plain down befuddling. Even for those who have tasted Chianti, Valpolicella or Sangiovese, these are seldom first picks when they go wine shopping. Like in every other sphere of thought and culture, wine is full of stereotypes and myths, and –unfortunately- Italian wine is plagued with them. “They are too acidic”, say some. “I can’t stand the strong tannins”, complain others. “Only good with food”, is what most say.The reality is that, even myself, used to be in one of the groups above, or in all of them. It takes tasting more than a few Italian wines to realize that the myths above are not only false; they c...
by Ivan Loyola
I had the fortune to have my real Paella in the place where it was born: Valencia, on Spain’s Mediterranean coast. As a first timer, I was intrigued and also slightly weary. You never know if you are going to like a new food, especially, when everyone who told you about it seems to love it. I had had spurious versions in Vancouver’s Hispanic restaurants and I couldn’t say I was too impressed. My hosts were a nice young couple who had visited me in Vancouver years before. They fell in love with our city (how could they not?) and were more than eager to show me their town and its best expressions. I am not the kind of person who can hide his dislike of a dish or wine. So, I was a bit worried I might pull a face when tasting the Paella Valenciana they were so excited to share with me. B...
by Cinzia Rascazzo
When a dish is made with very fresh and seasonal ingredients, it only needs a very simple preparation to be tasty, delicious and elegant.This certainly applies to any food but most of all to seafood!I come from a region, Puglia, in Southern Italy, where there is an abundance of sea bass. Every day local fishermen sell their freshly caught sea bass, straight from the boats or at the nearby fishmarket. This sea bass has a totally different taste than what you may find in the supermarket, which most of the times was farmed.My favorite way to prepare this super fresh sea bass is to bake it in sea salt crust. I don't add any flavor: no garlic, no parsley and most of all no lemon or olive oil (if you wanted olive oil please use the delicate one). The only ingredients I use are: sea bass and coar...
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...
