My Website

I’ve been writing monthly articles with recipes for a “$30 Dinner Party” over at LifeStylerMag.com, and this month’s dinner party article includes wine pairings… BUT for the sake of parralellism and length,  I included a different wine pairing for every dish. Really though I would have paired the same wine for the appetizer, main course, and dessert: Nutty, crunchy, unctuous Arneis grapes from northern Italy.

“But there’s RED MEAT ON THE MENU!” you say? I say in the reply that the reason for the “red with meat and white with fish” rule only works if you’re assuming that the red you’re buying actually tastes like red wine, i.e., has some acidity and tannin (i.e., sharpness, grittiness, or - in the GQ/Vogue vernacular - balls). Of course, most of the red wine consumed in the US has no acidity or tannin.. and most assuredly has far fewer of these qualities than almost any northern Italian Arneis. This makes Arneis a gutsy, old world white wine like Arneis more of a natural choice for red meat than the watery, plum-scented Malbec that most people would automatically go for when presented with a beef dish.

Arneis, Italy, Old World, White Wine Rocks, Wine Pairings | No Comments

Ok, so it’s only halfway through January, but nonetheless Mocali’s Brunello di Montalcino might is the best wine I’ve had all year. I split it with three friends, and that makes it $10 a piece with the discount I give myself… for a full price bottle, it would be $11 a glass for someone else to do the same.

Why are we paying  $10, $12, and $15 for a glass of “pretty good” wine at restaurants all over town, when you can split a bottle of UNBELIEVABLY GOOD wine with a couple friends for the same price at home…Why do people not do this more often? Is it that our apartments are too tiny to fit four people in them? Is it that we just love the 2am train ride home? Is it that we just love ordering waitstaff/bartenders around being served?

The last Chianti I had in a restaurant was $10 for glass, and it tasted like sour cherries and cedar. Mocali’s Brunello though (Brunello is basically Chianti on steroids), tastes like sour cherries, strawberry sherbert, wet cedar, cinnamon, peppercorns, and a stick you caught on fire in a fireplace but just ran under cold water and is still steaming.

Next time when you’re meeting people at a bar suggest that you just pick up a $40 bottle of wine and head to the nearest living room available… you’ll have the same conversation, taste amazing wine together, and save $100.

Brunello di Montalcino, Italy, Old World, Sangiovese, Wine Reviews | No Comments

Some people may know I’m in a fight with myself to figure out if I should become an Alsatian, South African, or New Zealand expert. Right now, New Zealand is winning. I’ve spent $30 this week on tasting New Zealand wine, and it has delivered more in flavor than any other area. Yes, Alsace pairs with the cool “fusion” foods of the moment. Yes, South Africa is obvious in blind tastings (do you like smoke? then you like South Africa!). Yet, New Zealand is making wine taste new again.

Other than a few select areas I can’t afford to pop just for “education,” (Condrieu, I’m looking at YOU), New Zealand wines give me more terroir driven notes than any other place… AND it’s small enough overall that I might one day taste every wine made there.

How do you say no to that?

ps. Specifically, their Riesling and Pinot is amazing in the $14 range… Their cab is tops in the $25. Please, don’t buy Sauvignon Blanc from them though… it’s just too awesome to be interesting there right now (oxymoron much?)!

Uncategorized | No Comments

White wine that tastes like smoke!

Actually, you’re breaking my palate lately…so, please, excuse what I’m about to say in this next wine tasting…

… it’s all true, and it’s shockingly ridiculous:

Di Giovanna Grecanico 2006, Sicily… $15… Freshly fired buckshot and dragon fruit preserves on the nose, burnt grapefruits and rotten green apples on the palate, and the sandy suction cups of uncooked octopus tentacles covered in fresh lemon juice on the finish.

I’m usually a reductionist when it comes to white wine… usually to me there’s only crisp or buttery, but Di Giovanna’s Grecanico has an entirely different feeling altogether- instead of tasting like any particular fruit, it tastes like it’s enveloping your mouth with smoke made from that fruit- almost like drinking incense sticks. So wonderfully odd!

I will research this more, but my assumption is that this wine tastes like this because it was grown on some really volcanic soil (it’s not unheard of for Mt. Etna to have a strong influence on Sicilian wine aromas). I’m excited for people to try this.

Grecanico, Gushing about Wine, Italy, Sicily, Wine Reviews | No Comments

Our good friend, Sam L., for ordering the most occasion-appropriate selection of wine imaginable! He had three occasions that called for wine, and he hit it out of the park on his choices for every occasion.

• Wine to bring to a party: Gruner Veltliner 1 liter bottle (yes, a bottle and a third of a bottle) of a dry Austrian white that tastes like white pepper and citrus zests.  There’s almost never any reason to spend more than $12 on a bottle for a party because you go to parties for the people, not for the wine! Of course, he gets bonus points for choosing probably the most consistently refreshing and complex white wine out there, too.
• Cheese Pizza and DVD Night: Again, no reason to spend $50 on a bottle just to watch The Departed for the ninth time… you really just need something that will make it easier on the other people there who have to listen you do your slightly strained totally awesome Jack Nicholson impersonation.  So again, the people matter more than the wine here. He asked not “what wine do I want?” Instead he asked “What wine would my lovely wife want?” so he put back his tart, sunshine-driven Pinot Noir, and instead he got her a velvety Chilean Syrah that tastes like roasted black berries and dried plums.
• Dinner Party with family friends: Sometimes, one dollar says a lot. The dinner party was being hosted by a really amazing family full of topnotch cooks and adventurous, warm-hearted storytellers, and so Sam asked “How much more could we blow their minds if we DOUBLED the budget on this bottle?!” I replied, that he didn’t have to… I had a case of South African Shiraz in the shop that no one wanted to take a chance on even I describe the bottle as “possibly the most impressive bottle we sell“- maybe because the description sounded like too much flavor (”Crushed cloves, charred walnuts, dried red berries, and the scent of a bonfire in the distance“) or maybe because people first think to spend twice as much “to be safe” rather than a dollar more for a bottle that expresses a unique, complex, and adventurous aroma and sense of place.

So let’s all raise a glass to Sam!

Uncategorized | No Comments