In recent years, the wine clubs of Vinesse have featured a number of wines from California’s Lodi growing district.
Why? Because they’re good!
For many of those years, however, there was no “there” there when it came to Lodi. There was lots of vineyard land — as far as the eye could see in some places — but only a handful of wineries.
Have you figured out what you’ll be serving during the “big game” next Sunday?
We speak, of course, of the NFL Super Bowl, pitting the New York Giants against the New England Patriots. It’s likely to be the most-watched television program of the year, and even those who are not into football will tune in to catch the creative commercials that the sponsors come up with.
If you’re in charge of preparing the “big spread” for the big game, make your life a little easier and prepare this Pasta Pie. It serves four, and you can bake more if you’re expecting more people.
My first taste of international travel, other than a couple of long weekends in western Canada, came on a trip to Portugal’s capital city of Lisbon.
I loved how a centuries-old downtown area had been preserved by designating most of the new construction to Lisbon’s outskirts and along the riverfront.
I have two vivid memories of that trip. Both have to do with food.
The first involved finishing a wonderful meal — some kind of fresh seafood, accompanied by a bottle of Vinho Verde — at a riverfront restaurant around 10 p.m. on a Wednesday night. We had arrived at 8, and dined in near-privacy the entire two hours. But just as we were leaving, the “dinner crowd” arrived en masse.
Criticizing the critic has become great sport in the Internet age, when anyone with an opinion — educated or otherwise — can share it with pretty much the whole world.
Human nature motivates many to go after the “big dogs” with their criticism — people like Roger Ebert, among movie critics; Rolling Stone magazine, among music critics; and Wine Spectator magazine, among wine critics.
Is there anything better on a cold winter day than a grilled cheese sandwich?
I think not!
My Mom made a great grilled cheese — sometimes with plain white bread, and sometimes with buttermilk bread made at my folks’ bakery.
(As one who grew up in a family-owned bakery, I’m very picky about bread. I can’t eat the mass-produced stuff you find in supermarkets. I’ve been eating “artisan” bread my entire life, long before anyone even used the term “artisan” in conjunction with bread.)
Ah, the wine list.
For many years, fine-dining restaurants that took wine seriously would publish their wine lists in leather-bound books. It was a very classy presentation... not to mention a sure sign that you’d be paying a lot of money for whatever bottle you ultimately selected.
The lists usually were divided into three sections: Champagne (or sparkling), Red and White. The Red and White sections would be sub-divided either by wine region or wine type. Ethnic restaurants typically embraced the former, as it made sense for a French restaurant to showcase French wines, or an Italian restaurant to shine the spotlight on Italian bottlings.
“Green” grape growing takes place under a number of names — including sustainable farming, biodynamic farming and so on.
But the movement toward more Earth-friendly practices really got its start during the 1970s, when “organic wine” became all the rage.
Charles L. Sullivan recalls that time in his book, A Companion to California Wine:
Trying to follow Joe Heitz in the wine business is a bit like trying to follow Babe Ruth in the Yankees’ lineup. Lou Gehrig managed to pull it off, but there aren’t many Lou Gehrigs out there.
For many years, the Heitz Cellar Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon bottling known far and wide as “Martha’s Vineyard” was among the top-ranked Cabs in the country. It was a big, bold, easily identifiable wine with a unique personality and, because of the demand for it, an ever-rising price tag.
It was a “cult wine” long before that phrase came into widespread use.
Between 2010 and 2015, worldwide wine consumption is expected to increase by 2 billion bottles.
Even in an age of trillion-dollar government debt, 2 billion is still a big number.
The forecast, made by International Wine & Spirit Research, assumes an annual consumption increase of 6.17 percent. If that happens, by 2015, consumption will reach 2.844 billion cases (with a dozen 750-ml. bottles per case).
Welcome, class, to Steak 101. Those who pass this course will advance immediately to Steak-and-Wine 102.
Unless you’re a vegetarian, you probably like steak. But you’ve probably never thought much about it — that is, what makes a steak a steak. (Pay attention; there may be a quiz later...)
In very basic terms, a steak is a slice from a larger piece of meat, typically beef. Various red meats and fish are cut into steaks, but for the purposes of this blog post, we’ll stick with beef.
Most steaks are cut perpendicular to the muscle fibers, which improves the perceived tenderness of the meat. In the United States, restaurant steaks typically are grilled, often cooked over wood chips such as oak.
Vinesse specializes in helping wine lovers discover interesting wines. By sharing limited-production gems that generally don’t appear on the shelves of local stores, Vinesse has grown to become one of the largest and most respected wine club companies in the U.S.
From our base in Southern California, Vinesse cultivates relationships with some of the most respected winemakers in the world. These relationships are critical to supplying each of our ten wine clubs with exceptional wines from amazing boutique wineries.
In addition to sharing exceptional wine gems with our dedicated circle of members, Vinesse also offers wine collections, wine accessories and individual wine sales to wine lovers across the U.S.
