Month of Wine by Women Recap

Posted 03/31/2008 at 06:48 AM by Cathy

Was it worth it to spend this past month focusing on wine made by women? Yes, it was. Unequivocally. Here's why: I drank some great wine!  
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Elisabetta Foradori from Pamplemousse, Salem

Posted 03/30/2008 at 06:58 AM by Cathy

Elisabetta Foradori is perhaps best known for her revival of the Teroldego grape on the plain of Campo Rotaliano, nestled in the Dolomite Mountains of Italy between Trentino and Tyrol. The Campo Rotaliano has a rocky subsoil with gravel and alluvial deposits from the nearby Noce river. It's a warm climate but not a hot one, thanks to the shelter of the looming Dolomites.  
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Australian Tasting Dinner

Posted 03/29/2008 at 06:48 AM by Cathy

Once a month or so Kurt Reming of the Beverly Wine & Beer Co. teams up with The Exchange at the Wenham Tea House to offer a wine tasting dinner. Australia was the theme tonight and I went, admittedly, with some reservations.  
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Peju, Part Two

Posted 03/28/2008 at 06:37 AM by Cathy

Blending, as I wrote yesterday, is Peju winemaker Sara Fowler's thing. Today I've opened two examples of Peju blends: a 2005 Fifty/Fifty that is 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, and something called Provence, which is made from half white grapes and half red grapes.  
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Sara Fowler at Peju, Part One

Posted 03/27/2008 at 03:55 AM by Cathy

Sara Fowler, winemaker at Peju in Napa, blends wines the way Jackson Pollack blended liquid paint – methodically, intimately, organically – with an end result that leaves you grateful for the brave artistic souls among us.  
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Zoes and a Zeta Blend, Beverly Farms

Posted 03/26/2008 at 06:28 AM by Cathy

Every wine, every single wine, on the list at the brand-new Zoes tapas + bar in Beverly Farms is available by the bottle and by the glass. Can anyone say... Hallelujah?  
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Carpe Diem at Stir, Boston's South End

Posted 03/25/2008 at 08:20 AM by Cathy

Tonight at Stir, Barbara Lynch's demonstration kitchen in the South End, a renaissance man named Check Draghi led ten very privileged guests through his version of a mini rare and unusual wine list. It was an exercise in carpe diem: enjoy these wines because you'll probably never drink them again. All the wines were Italian in origin (like Draghi himself), all were completely unknown to me before tonight, and all had histories that are deeply obscure and convoluted.  
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Aquitaine and the Bordeaux Tradition, Boston's South End

Posted 03/24/2008 at 05:01 AM by Cathy

Aquitaine Bar a Vin Bistrot, in Boston's trendy South End, manages to be both sleek and bistrot-traditional at the same time. Peek through the oversized windows facing the street and what you see are globe lights suspended from the ceiling, hand-written soupe du jour chalkboards on the wall, white tablecloths, and lots of mirrors in the style of Edouard Manet's Bar at the Folies-Bergeres.  
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Naked in Snoqualmie: Riesling and Chard at the Beverly Wine and Beer Co

Posted 03/23/2008 at 08:42 AM by Cathy

Two of the four wines featured at the Beverly Wine and Beer Co. tasting yesterday were made by Joy Anderson of Snoqualmie Vineyard, in Washington state's Columbia Valley. Both were from the 2006 vintage, both were white wines, and both were Naked.  
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Global Warming, and Sophie Autran, Come to Gordon's, Waltham

Posted 03/22/2008 at 08:34 AM by Cathy

We've all heard the rumors of global warming's impact on the grape growing. Champagne grapes to be planted in southern England! Bordeaux's climate now more similar to Australia's Riverland district! Alsatian harvest bumped up from October 1 to September! Like all good rumors, there's just enough truth in these to make them tenable. There's also just enough generality to make them amorphous and, therefore, a little hard to get our heads around.  
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Mount Veeder

Posted 03/21/2008 at 11:48 AM by Cathy

Mount Veeder and Franciscan wines are, fortunately, available all over the Boston area. Retailers from Gordon's in Waltham to Kappy's in Sudbury, and restaurants like Mistral and the Capital Grille in Boston are all on the official list of carriers. I'm curious about the retailers and restaurants I've visited recently who are not on the official list but carry Mount Veeder wines anyway, like the Cork 'n Cask in Beverly Farms, Mooo Restaurant on Beacon Hill, and Lobby Bar and Kitchen on Broad Street in Boston.  
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Martilde at Mare in Boston's North End

Posted 03/17/2008 at 11:44 AM by Cathy

For the servers, hosts, bussers and cooks of participating restaurants, Restaurant Week in Boston is a nightmare.  
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Sakonnet Vidal Blanc: Rhode Island Special at Om, Cambridge

Posted 03/10/2008 at 11:41 AM by Cathy

Restaurant Week started in Boston today and Om on Winthrop Street in Cambridge was my first stop. But it wasn't going well. The bartender had no idea which wines on the list were made by women, and the sommelier or anyone else who'd know either weren't working tonight or weren't available.  
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A Month of Women in Wine, and Sophie Chardon

Posted 03/01/2008 at 11:37 AM by Cathy

Last December I worked the holiday rush at the Beverly Wine and Beer Co., which meant I did very glamorous things like price bottles, restock shelves, and rotate inventory. But I was also on the sales floor for hours at a time, which meant I fielded questions from typical customers and got to know what people were thinking about when they were thinking about buying wine.  
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