by Joann Actis-grande
Positively Piedmont, written by JoAnn Actis-GrandeMany serious wine enthusiasts I know prefer drinking red wine all year, so when temperatures start dipping, there’s no doubt that they are looking for a real powerhouse. A fine place to begin your search is the Piedmont region of Italy. Here you will find many powerful and tasty reds.Piedmont is the largest region on the Italian mainland, but produces the least amount of wine. What is produced is amazing; excellent for collectors as many of them prefer wines that require aging. My favorite, and much loved by everyone, is Barolo. Barolo is known as the “wine of kings and king of wine.” They are truly some of the finest red wines in Italy, perhaps even the world. Barolo is as a Classified DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controll...
by Sandy Irving
They’re called the “summertime wines” for good reason. Imagine sitting by the pool, the salmon grilling with garlic and peppers. You need a glass of wine; something to evaporate the heat, and still stand up to the salmon. White is too light for the salmon, red is too heavy for the weather, but aaah! Rosé …..it’s just right!Wine snobs beware because those of us who enjoy rosé are in good company. Robert Parker believes that a wine collection is not complete without rosé. Many wine enthusiasts toss rosé into the same category as white zinfandel, but that is a disservice to this traditionally made pink delight.The best rosé is made in France and is produced by removing the skins of the grape just before the liquid turns deep red. With a bouquet of wildflowers, red berries and f...
by Sandy Irving
Have you been to the farmer’s market lately? If you have, you know the distinctive aroma of ripe, local peaches. The smell wafts into the air from the peach stall and draws you in. Go ahead; buy a bag, a basket, as many as you can carry. These are the real deal; they smell like peaches, they feel like peaches and best of all, they really taste like peaches. Juice running down your chin, can’t be beat, farm fresh peaches. Most people think of Georgia as the land of the peach, but South Carolina has its claim on the fruit. Inman, South Carolina is the fresh peach capital of the world!What could this possibly have to do with wine? Well if you slice those juicy peaches into a bowl with some freshly whipped cream and pour yourself a glass of Italian moscato, you have a small piece of heaven...
by Ron Kapon
Travel and Leisure Magazine's Bruce Schoenfeld proclaimed Virginia one of five up-and-coming wine regions (along with areas of Chile, Italy, Spain and New Zealand) that should be on the must-visit list of any adventurous wine traveler. And in The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, a reviewer wrote that Virginia is making Cabernet Franc and Viognier wines that are world-beaters. There was a Saveur article in which wine critic Paul Luckas named two Virginia Viogniers among the best available. Also getting national recognition are Virginia Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Virginia's native Norton.Virginians have made wine for more than four centuries. The Jamestown settlers had such hopes that Virginia would become a major source of wine for the British Empire that in 1619 they signed into law...
by Jennifer Jordan
When we think of wine, we often think of Napa Valley, the vineyards of Italy, perhaps even certain regions of Chile. Most of us, however, don’t think of Colorado. A state that is well known for beer, Colorado is one place where wine can easily be overlooked. However, unbeknownst to many, Colorado isn’t merely a place for a brewery or two (hundred), it is also a place for many a vineyard. That’s right, butt out Bud, and cool it Coors, it’s time for Colorado wine to shine. There is really no place in Colorado better suited for wine production than the Western Slope, specifically the city of Grand Junction. Wine in Grand Junction might not have the prestige of, say, wine from Spain (or the accent), but it certainly has its own uniqueness to offer the wine industry. Grand Junctio...
by Jennifer Jordan
As summer begins, it almost seems that the town of Aspen should go into seclusion for the next several months, with a sign reading “Closed for Season” hanging from their city limit signs. When it comes to Aspen, people are attracted to three main things: skiing, skiing, and - wait for it - skiing. While skiing may be an integral part of Aspen’s economy, and appeal, it is certainly not the only thing this town has to offer. Once the snow has melted and the temperatures have risen, a new scene moves into this Colorado territory: the wine scene. Move over ski boots, take a seat snow pants, wine in Aspen has the floor. The wine scene in Aspen is no better showcased than at the Food and Wine Classic. Held in the town of Aspen on June 19th through the 21st of this year, this is the per...
by Nancy Yos
It started out well enough, and I had such good intentions. My aim for the evening was to make, finally, really, successfully, coq au vin. It is a classic French dish of course, chicken in red wine, the very name of which reminds me of my high school French class. I seem to remember we planned an authentic French dinner as a kind of celebratory good bye to senior year and all that, and one of the items some brave soul was going to prepare was coq au vin. Somebody else volunteered to make buche de Noel. I daresay she is still at it. I aimed to make le coq now, despite previous, downright routine, unhappy experiences with the entire point of the dish and the evil nemesis of my kitchen career, braised chicken pieces. Why shouldn't I try one more time, since I had as my guide the superb Made...
by Nancy Yos
And as Groucho would say, "there's not a thing you can do about it, I've had three of the best doctors in the East!" All wine books summarize the famed 1855 classification nicely. In that year, Emperor Napoleon III, himself an interesting fellow -- the product of a marriage wherein the first Napoleon had joined his brother to his stepdaughter -- asked the authorities in Bordeaux to draw up a short list of the district's finest wines in preparation for an Exposition in Paris. Different wine authors today give slightly different details. His imperial highness may have asked the winegrowing chateau owners themselves for the list, and they for fear of creating mutual jealousies may have fobbed the job off on the local Chamber of Commerce; or he may have asked the Chamber of Commerce first, wh...
by Nancy Yos
Sylvia Windle Humphrey deserves inclusion in my little hall of fame simply because of her charming name. Can't you just picture her in long Edwardian skirts, writing elegant cookery books by gaslight, and then moving sedately off to a charity function on the arm of the distinguished Mr. Humphrey? In fact, we must move her forward in time, closer to our own era. She was the author of A Matter of Taste, published by Macmillan in 1965. My copy of this book is yet another of my library-book-sale, cast-off, jacket-less, one dollar treasures. It is a cookbook, filled with unusual recipes whose sources she thanks gracefully in her brief acknowledgements (why were authors so much briefer about acknowledging people then?) -- brief but tantalizing. Who was Mimi Ouei, and does the Artistic Cooking S...
by Nancy Yos
We may as well begin, more's the pity, with the lovely legend that is apparently not true. Syrah, the grape, is so named because it came originally from Shiraz, in Persia. The vine was brought back from the Near East by a Crusader in the thirteenth century, one Gaspard de Sterimberg. He became a hermit and lived in a hut on a hillside in the Rhone valley in France, where syrah grows at its best. In fact syrah's most famous (and deeply expensive) wine is called L'Hermitage, after the recluse's home. Sigh. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Wouldn't it be positively delicious if it turned out all this is true? It's possible, you know. Even though it seems we are forever learning that the grand things of the past really didn't happen, still each new cohort of professional historians has to earn its vario...
