Posted 09/30/2008 at 05:39 PM by Cathy
Drawing above by local artist Sandy McDermott of BirchtreeStudioArt.comWe thought of it as a scavenger hunt. Except what we were looking for was wine.Every day since January 1, 2008 the team at 365daysofwine.com has written about enjoying wine somewhere in the Boston area.Let's just say we've got our ear to the ground when it comes to wine..From our ears, with 365, to your computer with RedWhiteBoston.com.RedWhiteBoston.com is a spin-off of 365daysofwine.com™, which has been called "the best and ...
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Posted 09/29/2008 at 02:46 PM by Cathy
Malbec, with its dark skin and color, does best in very hot, very dry climates.Like Argentina. And like vineyards in Agrelo in Argentina specifically, where Eral Bravo produces wines that are, in my opinion, a very clear demonstration of why Malbec is THE grape of Argentina.The name Eral Bravo translates, roughly, to "young brave bull" and that is exactly how the Sánchez Nieto family wants their wines to be known. More or less.Youthful, even though the family has been making wines for more than ...
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Posted 09/28/2008 at 10:23 AM by Cathy
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Posted 09/27/2008 at 11:49 AM by Cathy
By Grace GuTo say that Martignetti Companies held a grand tasting last week is a bit of an understatement. The event was enormous, and the interior of the Wang Theater, stunning. Three floors crammed with 75 tables of wine to visit... amounting to several hundred different wines from around the world.In short, it was more vino than some people ever see in one place. Good thing I came with a few goals already in mind. Taste a few premium French, German, and Italian wines. Say hello to any producers ...
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Posted 09/25/2008 at 10:59 PM by Cathy
By Tracy Kim(A friend of 365 who recently relocated to Napa, Tracy Kim describes her first realization that it's crush season in California wine country.)This morning as I was getting ready for work, I smelled something funny. I figured it was probably my garbage since I was getting ready to take it out and it included some food. But then the smell followed me into my car. I got a little paranoid that something might have spilled on me. So, even though it was only 50 degrees outside, I drove to ...
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Posted 09/24/2008 at 11:05 PM by Cathy
This week-end I hosted a panel called Taste! Taste! Taste! Future Opportunities for Women in Wine. Held at the national conference of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs (WCR) in New Orleans, content of the session included a hand-out of advice from practitioners in fields across the wine industry.Some take-aways:? Focus, focus, focus. Typically, you have limited budgets but fortunately a fairly targeted audience. 20% of people still purchase 80% of wine, so it's efficient to "fish where the fish ar ...
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Posted 09/23/2008 at 11:05 PM by Cathy
If I were ever to open a wine shop, I'd want it feel very much like Swirl Wines in New Orleans.Why?Because it feels like co-owners Beth Ribblett and Kerry Tully's living room must feel. It's casual, and there's room to wander, and there's local art on the walls, and there are plenty of wine bottles along the shelves.Why else?Because Swirl is a gathering place, a place with frequent visitors who stop in, talk for a while, pick up some nourishment for dinner that evening (they also sell cheeses an ...
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Posted 09/22/2008 at 11:04 PM by Cathy
They say that New Orleans is the birthplace of the cocktail in America.There's lots of evidence for this, including the omnipresence around town of traditional drinks like the Sazerac and Café Brulot to more current concoctions like the Bayou Bash and the Southern Orleans. New Orleans is also the only city in America with a cocktail – the Sazerac – as its official drink. (Does Boston even have an official drink?)And, if you need a little historical proof, just make your way to the Museum of the ...
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Posted 09/21/2008 at 01:28 PM by Cathy
Think New Orleans, and you think jazz. But what do the regulars drink as they sway to the music? What's in their glass as the band warms up? As it hits its stride? And, later, as they all cool down? In this video we talk to folks at the famed Bombay Club to find out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrU-oN4BeJQVideo produced in partnership with Red Clay Productions. ...
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Posted 09/20/2008 at 10:19 PM by Cathy
Newsflash! Vineyard Update on the Harvest at Turtle Creek Winery, LincolnBy Mike CurleyHow do you tell when grapes are ready to harvest?That's what we wanted to know today from Kip Kumler, winemaker at Turtle Creek Winery in Lincoln, as we gathered for the harvest session of his Winemaker's Cycle series.One method for gauging a grape's readiness is the Institute Cooperatif du Vin's Berry Sensory Analysis. (Analyzing a "berry" means the same as analyzing a "grape.") The analysis worked like this. ...
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Posted 09/19/2008 at 10:19 PM by Cathy
Newsflash! Vineyard Update on the Harvest at Turtle Creek Winery, LincolnBy Mike CurleyHow do you tell when grapes are ready to harvest?That's what we wanted to know today from Kip Kumler, winemaker at Turtle Creek Winery in Lincoln, as we gathered for the harvest session of his Winemaker's Cycle series.One method for gauging a grape's readiness is the Institute Cooperatif du Vin's Berry Sensory Analysis. (Analyzing a "berry" means the same as analyzing a "grape.") The analysis worked like this. ...
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Posted 09/18/2008 at 10:20 PM by Cathy
By Brian ShenThe approach to Mantra—a jarring sight in the drab surroundings near Downtown Crossing—was impressive. The sleek exterior, massive cement pillars and lone bouncer distinguish this chic hotel-esque bar apart from its neighbors.In no uncertain terms. Enter through a large door to find a dark sultry interior with mood lighting. But don't think "sleezy bar in the redlight district." Reminiscent of Buddha Bar, this bar-cum-restaurant is filled with a massive Buddha above the stairs and a ...
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Posted 09/17/2008 at 10:28 AM by Cathy
Note: This column ran in today's Gloucester Daily Times. Photo by Cheryl Corneau.Back in March, I visited Zoës tapas and bar in Beverly Farms when it first opened. Every wine, every single wine, on the list was available by the bottle and by the glass.My exact response at the time? Hallelujah!On a more recent visit, just last week, I eagerly looked for the wine list again. The server handed me the list, I glanced at it, then I asked where the rest of it was. The server nodded sympathetically. Sh ...
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Posted 09/16/2008 at 06:04 AM by Cathy
By Brian ShenEvery August, London's Beefeater Twisted Cocktail Challenge draws thousands of fans to bars across the city to judge, as they say, "the most delicious cocktail that best characterizes London's character." Some people went for the gin. I went for the wine. What I found was gin. And wine. Together.Hide Bar, near London Bridge, used a light, fruity, and aromatic Pinot Grigio to give a new twist on the wet martini, giving the drink a pale golden yellow hue and a very distinct taste. The ...
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Posted 09/15/2008 at 01:07 PM by Cathy
I don't know how many book clubs out there are dedicated to wine, but I'd wager a bottle of Loire Valley red that 90% of them at some point read Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France.Any why not? Lynch's writing is irreverent in style, but his standards for judging wine are uncompromising as he searches France's highs and lows for quality bottles to add to his portfolio. It's a quick and easy read – my own wine book club can attest to that – that leaves you w ...
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Posted 09/13/2008 at 10:16 AM by Cathy
Close your eyes and listen to him speak, and you would think that Roberto Rubino is a winemaker rather than the cheesemaker that he is.Rubino, a celebrated Slow Food award recipient, was the guest of honor today in New Gloucester, Maine today at Pineland Farms' Centennial Celebration. He talks about cheese the same way vintners and wine lovers around the world talk about wine.Sometimes he talks romantically, and he talks about tradition and heritage. Sometimes he talks chemically, and he talks a ...
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Posted 09/12/2008 at 06:18 AM by Cathy
365daysofwine.com hosted an event this evening – Wine and Literature – at the Salem Literature Festival. Held in the Old Town Hall, which for me always has a whiff of rigidity and all that is upright, a group of us talked of hedonism, delight, and the often-fuzzy beauty that is wine.If you were to label us politically, the best descriptor may be that we're Pro-Wine. And you might say that we follow the writings of Julian Street. In Table Topics (1959) Street pointed out:Blot out every book in wh ...
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Posted 09/11/2008 at 10:59 PM by Cathy
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Posted 09/10/2008 at 07:41 PM by Cathy
The line-up of wines for an Israeli wine tasting, held this week at the bulthaup kitchen living space on Boylston Street, read like the headlines of all the latest news from the Israeli wine world.The next generation of Israeli winemakers train around the globe, from Australia to Italy to California and back.Wineries have been established as recently as 2002, in locations as diverse as the Golan Heights and the Judean Hills.Other wineries find their footing between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, next t ...
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Posted 09/09/2008 at 02:27 PM by Cathy
September is tasting season in Boston.From visiting winemakers to distributors' grand tastings, from wine dinners at restaurants to retailers' clearance sales, September is your month of opportunities to taste, taste, taste.Which is exactly what we've been doing. And we're bringing you, here, a round-up of some of the highlights and some of the things this week that made us go, "Really...? I didn't know that."Check it out, then go out and build your own list!? The 2007 Frog's Leap Chardonnay is, a ...
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Posted 09/08/2008 at 02:47 PM by Cathy
Sometimes the best way to get the attention of your audience is to turn the regular routine on its head.Like serving red first at a three-course tasting dinner. Then the white. Then the sparkling.And sometimes the best way to get the attention of your audience is to teach them something.Like saying the Gamay grape is actually a derivative of Pinot Noir.On both counts, Kelly Coggins at Rialto had my attention.Serving red wine with the first course – this would be the part where the regular routin ...
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Posted 09/07/2008 at 02:21 PM by Cathy
What makes your wine special to people in Boston?That was my question to the folks from Frog's Leap and Duckhorn wineries, who held a special vertical tasting this week at the Lenox Back Bay hotel.The Frog's Leap folks said it's the minerality, especially in their whites. Their dry farming method, where they use non-irrigated grapevines, means the grapes don't get overripe or too lush, so they maintain a high amount of acid and minerality. Higher-acid wines are exceptionally food-friendly wines, ...
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Posted 09/06/2008 at 01:52 PM by Cathy
Lincoln, Massachusetts received four inches of rain today.Sounds like a lot, and it is. To deal with the downpour most of us pull on our raincoats, open our umbrellas, and go about our business. But it isn't quite so easy for Kip Kumler, owner and winemaker of Turtle Creek Winery in Lincoln. It's even less easy for his vines.Kumler plants only vinis vinifera on his property – think Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel – which are particularly susceptible to fungal disease caused by large amounts of ...
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Posted 09/05/2008 at 10:05 AM by Cathy
Back in June we ran a photo essay of Turtle Creek winery at bud break. This week's photo essay, of those same vines at Turtle Creek, shows you the passage of time in a Massachusetts vineyard.In June insects like lady bugs were welcome visitors to the vines. In September the nets are laid over the vines to protect them from other in-flight visitors -- birds -- from plucking too many grapes too soon.In June the grapes were small and tight and just getting started. In September they're full and lus ...
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Posted 09/04/2008 at 06:34 PM by Cathy
Classic Wine Imports of Boston held their 2008 Grand Tasting yesterday at the Park Plaza Castle. I went with mixed emotions.Classic carries an admirable portfolio of wines, and if there's a place to go to taste many high-quality wines one after the other, it's a Classic tasting.On the other hand, at grand tastings you do in fact taste one wine after the other after the other ad infinitum. Many people would jump at this chance. I would too, if I and my palate weren't already suffering fatigue jus ...
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Posted 09/03/2008 at 12:36 PM by Cathy
Note: This column ran in today's Gloucester Daily Times.It's counter-intuitive.Peer into the cases of fish shops around the North Shore, whose waters are renowned for lobster, cod, pollock and haddock, and you're likely to see tilapia from Costa Rica, salmon from Norway, and cod and haddock from Iceland.Local fish, and the fishermen who catch them, are caught up in a complicated net of circumstances that's scattering much of the fish caught in local waters far afield, from across the country to ...
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Posted 09/02/2008 at 11:07 AM by Cathy
It didn't take much to realize that growers and wineries in Mendocino had something to say at Slow Food Nation this year in San Francisco: they're green, they're proud, and they want you to know it.They also want to educate others about it, and that's where I came in.The mission of the Mendocino Pinot Noir panel on Sunday afternoon in Fort Mason was to discuss growing grapes for the next thousand years. In other words, they were out to showcase sustainable agriculture efforts already underway in ...
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Posted 09/01/2008 at 09:46 AM by Cathy
As I walked the rows of vines, camera in hand, I knew this photo essay would be something special.What I didn't know, once I'd looked at the photographs I shot last week-end, was how accurately the film captured the impossibly perfect grapes, spider webs, and patterns of Sonoma's vineyards this time of year.I feel compelled to say that the photographs in this essay have not been manipulated in any way. The vineyards really are that beautiful.To view the photos, just click on Photo Essays at the ...
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