Posted 11/30/2008 at 06:06 AM by Cathy
It isn't that we were surprised, exactly, to find a red wine from Sancerre on the wine list at the new Craigie on Main near Kendall Square.It's just that when you think wine and then you think Sancerre, your next thought is more likely to be white. As in Sauvignon Blanc. But Pinot Noir is the other grape of Sancerre, the way Nutella is the other peanut butter. They share some commonalities – spreadability, say – but for the most part their personalities are fully distinct.Yet the Sancerre Rouge ...
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Posted 11/29/2008 at 11:51 AM by Cathy
Compared to the friendly welcoming aura of Sicily's vineyards, vegetable markets, hill towns, and fishing villages, Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian) seems remote, even austere. -- Karen MacNeil, The Wine BibleWine-lovers can only regret that this island [Sardinia] with so many ancient bushvines of fashionable and potentially interesting local varieties and an ideal Mediterranean grape-growing climate produces such a tiny proportion of exciting wine. -- Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, The World A ...
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Posted 11/27/2008 at 11:51 AM by Cathy
Compared to the friendly welcoming aura of Sicily's vineyards, vegetable markets, hill towns, and fishing villages, Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian) seems remote, even austere. -- Karen MacNeil, The Wine BibleWine-lovers can only regret that this island [Sardinia] with so many ancient bushvines of fashionable and potentially interesting local varieties and an ideal Mediterranean grape-growing climate produces such a tiny proportion of exciting wine. -- Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, The World A ...
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Posted 11/26/2008 at 07:31 PM by Cathy
(This article also ran in today's Gloucester Daily Times.)Wine at Thanksgiving usually means just-released Beaujolais Nouveau, or an earthy Pinot Noir, or a fuller-bodied white like Chardonnay, or an aromatic, food-friendly white like Gewurztraminer or Riesling.But this year we're seeing the price of Beaujolais Nouveau skyrocking and demand tanking, so much so that several local wine shops I consulted won't even be carrying this most popular vin de primeur of all. This year too, with a budget ho ...
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Posted 11/25/2008 at 08:43 PM by Cathy
This week, on a visit to a local Legal Seafoods, I was surprised to find one of the best values I've seen lately on a wine list.It didn't have to do with a Thanksgiving-week special.And it wasn't because Legal somehow overlooks the notoriously sky-high upcharge on alcohol that restaurants normally pass onto their customers.It was because of Legal's take on a long-used technique called the wine flight. Three glasses, 2-ounce pours each. Four different choices of flights.How much? Eight dollars an ...
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Posted 11/24/2008 at 06:39 PM by Cathy
By Beth O'BrienThe Lower Falls Wine Company of Newton hosted Giuseppe Vajra, of the Vajra family-owned and operated winery in Piedmont, in its tasting room Wednesday evening. The tasting room is dominated by blond wood and nearly floor-to-ceiling mullioned windows that overlook busy Route 16, but the pace and appeal of the Vajra wines turned all eyes indoors.Vajra poured samples of his winery's renowned Dolcetto, then two Barberas, two Barolos, and a Moscato. Sampling each wine in turn allowed g ...
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Posted 11/23/2008 at 09:52 PM by Cathy
Anyone tracking the wine scene in Boston lately will have noticed two trends.The first: free wine and cocktails at anniversary parties around town. Ivy Restaurant's Cellar Clearing event, for example, and Radius restaurant's tenth anniversary fête. Wine. Cocktails. Food. Happy, happy crowds.The second: St. Germain cocktails, in iterations far afield of its signature recipe of two shots Champagne, one and a half shots St. Germain liqueur, and two shots sparkling water.At Radius' anniversary party ...
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Posted 11/20/2008 at 09:32 PM by Cathy
T.W. Food has, rightly, received much critical acclaim in the 18 months or so that they've been opened, even though they're up against some significant odds.Odds like a tiny, tiny space to house their kitchen. Maximum capacity is three people, including the executive chef.And a similarly limited dining area as well, though the white walls and high ceilings make it feel loft-ish rather than cramped.But the odds are stacked highest when it comes to the chef's expectations. Tim Wiechmann, clearly, ...
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Posted 11/19/2008 at 06:45 AM by Cathy
The Problem:Residents of Massachusetts were prohibited from purchasing and receiving shipments of wine from out-of-state wineries, if the winery was represented by an in-state wholesaler.The Magic Number:30,000. Any out-of-state winery producing 30,000 gallons of wine or more, who were also represented by a MA wholesaler, could not ship to consumers in Massachusetts. 95% of all out-of-state wineries produce more than 30,000 gallons of wine. The remaining 5%, who produce less than 30,000 gallons, ...
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Posted 11/18/2008 at 10:21 AM by Cathy
By Julia Timakhovich??Champagne has an underrated reputation, really. This festive bubbly conjures up images of celebrations like New Year's Eve, weddings, graduations, and birthday parties. But it is more than that. It is a noteworthy wine that takes tremendous effort to make, and it deserves credit for the right reasons.??Tonight I visited a place (the place?) in Boston that pays it its due attention. ??The Beehive, an artsy venue on Tremont Street in the South End, is the largest buyer of cha ...
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Posted 11/17/2008 at 10:18 PM by Cathy
When Beaujolais Nouveau is released this week – the third Thursday in November, according to French law – it will be an opportunity to sample the most famous vin de primeur, and an opportunity to catch up on some trends you may not already know about this Gamay-based wine:? In an effort to reduce shipping weight (and the wine's carbon footprint), several labels are bottling their Beaujolais Nouveau in recyclable plastic.? This year Georges Duboeuf produced a private label blend of Beaujolais Nou ...
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Posted 11/15/2008 at 09:32 AM by Cathy
By Beth O'BrienThe Spirited Gourmet in Belmont billed its Grand Tasting as featuring "Over 50 Wines from Around the World."It's nice to know that there is still truth in advertising.Although the usual suspects – California, Italy and Germany – were well represented, there were also wines from Tasmania, Austria and Oregon. But perhaps the wine with the most notable lineage was a sparkling Brut NV from Gruet: the winery was started by a French winemaking family, the grapes are grown in the mountai ...
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Posted 11/13/2008 at 10:45 AM by Cathy
By Jill SheminLast night the cold, Boston-in-November wind swept across the Common and right by the door of Ivy Restaurant on Temple Place. On a normal night Bostonians would take it in stride, then they'd stride right into the nearest building. But last night, many Bostonians braved the wind and waited in line outside Ivy, for their turn to enter the restaurant's hyper-crowded second-annual Cellar Clearing event.Inside was a chic, cosmopolitan crowd packed into a chic interior of three levels: ...
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Posted 11/12/2008 at 08:50 PM by Cathy
By Ada BrunsteinOn November 7, during a historic election week, in a historic city, amid the lingering threat of another depression, 13 people sat in what used to be the manager's quarters of the U.S. Trust Bank and drank a historic wine. The Seafood Room of the Oceanaire restaurant at 40 Court Street is an intimate room in what is otherwise a grand building. The high ceilings, pillars, and oversized ceramic vases would evoke opulence even without this building's impressive pedigree. But the car ...
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Posted 11/11/2008 at 08:50 PM by Cathy
By Ada BrunsteinOn November 7, during a historic election week, in a historic city, amid the lingering threat of another depression, 13 people sat in what used to be the manager's quarters of the U.S. Trust Bank and drank a historic wine. The Seafood Room of the Oceanaire restaurant at 40 Court Street is an intimate room in what is otherwise a grand building. The high ceilings, pillars, and oversized ceramic vases would evoke opulence even without this building's impressive pedigree. But the car ...
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Posted 11/10/2008 at 10:06 PM by Cathy
'Tis the season.For Grand Tastings, that is.Retailers all around the greater Boston area, knowing full well that more wine is sold during Oct-Nov-Dec than any other time of the year, are rearranging their floor space right now to accommodate tasting tables full of the latest wines to hit their shelves.Why?Because they want you to taste. And taste some more. And, hopefully, you'll find that new special bottle (or two or three or four) that you just cannot make it through the holidays without.Here ...
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Posted 11/09/2008 at 06:57 PM by Cathy
By Ada Brunstein ? ?The world of wine has two faces. ? ?There's the exotic face of wine which evokes the distant plains of France or Italy or Spain, where vines are tended by speakers of languages whose vowels dance on the tongue. ? ?Then there's the local face of wine – the people in your neighborhood who bring these wines to the wine shop around the corner, or to your favorite restaurant down the block. ? ?On October 28, at the Rialto restaurant in Harvard Square's Charles Hotel, five of these ...
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Posted 11/08/2008 at 10:32 AM by Cathy
By Liz RosenbaumThe day before Halloween, both BRIX wine shop locations in Boston welcomed Hirsch Vineyards for a tasting of two of their finest 2006 Pinot Noirs. At BRIX on Broad, owner David Hirsch poured while his daughter, Jasmine, did the same at BRIX in the South End. Jasmine Hirsh, who heads the sales and marketing side of the business, breezily asked customers entering the shop if they would like to try some wine. (As if this were just any wine!) Not everyone was familiar with Hirsch, a ...
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Posted 11/07/2008 at 07:17 PM by Cathy
By Richard HuhnAs you exit the State Street Orange Line T station, you might notice a small, unassuming wine shop across the plaza from the Old State House. Or maybe you won't.Federal Wine and Spirits isn't the flashiest place in town. There are bills posted in the street-facing windows that brag of an 8000 bottle cellar, but you're as likely as not to walk right on past. That would be too bad, because here's what you'd miss:? A wine and spirits shop located in the first floor and basement of th ...
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Posted 11/06/2008 at 10:21 PM by Cathy
By Ewen CallawayThere are those of us who exalt raw oysters as heaven in a half-shell. And then there are those who wonder what desperation drove the first oyster-eaters to consume a gelatinous, armored saltlick.I'd spent most of my life in ignorance of which group I called home. Then, thanks to an ill-advised bet against the Patriots with an oyster-loving friend, I found myself at East Coast Grill and Raw Bar in Inman Square with six oysters and three wines in front of me.In Consider the Oyster ...
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Posted 11/05/2008 at 10:01 PM by Cathy
By Amy McCoyWhich of these wines goes with ricotta gnocchi in rabbit ragu?One with great body, mellowness, plums, cherries, and blackberries? (Calabrian Cabernet)Or one with ripe cherries, tar, cinnamon and fresh rose petals? (Nebbiolo)Or one that's full-bodied, with fresh raspberries, cherries, and a smooth texture? (Rosso Piceno Superiore)We went with the Rosso Piceno Superiore, from Le Torri in the region of Le Marche, which had just been added to the menu two weeks before at Trattoria della ...
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Posted 11/04/2008 at 10:21 AM by Cathy
By Julia TimakhovichBoston, an international city, hosts many ethnic restaurants. But only a few are exceptional representations of a country's cuisine. ? ?Where in the city would you go to taste an almost extinct native grape variety in a restaurant with an all-Spanish wine list? ? ?You would fall in love with Taberna de Haro. Although this small restaurant is located on a quintessential urban street in Brookline (Beacon Street, right across St. Mary's green line stop), it looks and feels as if ...
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Posted 11/03/2008 at 09:58 AM by Cathy
By Cindy RiedeVeeVee's does not make it easy to just pop in for a glass of wine.Not with their warm salad of chicory, escarole, roasted pears, blue cheese, radicchio, and pomegranate. Not with their fresh ricotta dumplings, herbed spaghetti squash, tomato sauce, and shaved fennel. No, not easy at all.But they do not make it hard, either, to sidle up for a glass or two. That cozy Lilliputian bar squeezed between spiced pumpkin walls. Those ebony wood-framed mirrors reflecting the light of flicker ...
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Posted 11/02/2008 at 09:49 AM by Cathy
By Nancy EnglishThe right combination of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, and Alfrocheiro can cast a spell, as I discovered at Atasca, the Portuguese restaurant at 50 Hampshire Street in Cambridge.With its heavy brocade of tannins and deep dark fruit, the first sip of 2003 Casa De Santar Reserva, from the Dão region of Portugal, drew all of my attention. The thick wine nudged me sweetly down to earth, settling over my shoulders with the weight of a lead x-ray blanket at the dentist's office. I'd f ...
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Posted 11/01/2008 at 09:01 AM by Cathy
By Heather DellertCinnamon walls. Modern-cozy décor. Mahogany bar. Spiced pecan and seasonal apple aromas.This is Tryst. It's in Arlington Center. And it's worth seeking out.Owner Paul Turano defines tryst as "a love affair with food and wine." What Turano loves, apparently, is an eclectic menu that you would expect from a trendy Boston restaurant rather than a suburban venue surrounded family style restaurants, shops, and plenty of parking.What Turano also loves, if the wine list is any indicat ...
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