jZepp

BiB means Summer

8 pm, somewhere in Provence, the aperitif begins...

by Bertrand Celce, France

Summer is BiB time . Warm and sunny days . Long evenings with friends and family . Preferably outside . Right time for aperitif, summer's N° 1 rosé wine festivity in Provence, is, say, 7.30 pm . I mean, the start of it : From then on, 2 hours at least of talk, jokes, and enjoying the cooler air as the sun slowly goes down . These lines are dedicated to the BiBs, our summer best friends . Here, direct from the refrigerator to the table outside, a 5 liter BiB of Rosé from the Chateau de L'Escarelle,
a 120 hectare Coteaux Varois estate located in La Celle, near Brignoles . Good value at about 13 Euro at the Domaine .
With the home made tapenade and the good company, what else do you need ?...

Heurigen

Mittwoch.  Brought to you by the letter H; as in Heurigen

H - Heurigen  The Austrian term for Viennese wineries with attached taverns.  Vienna is one of the only cities with vineyards right inside its limits.  If you ever find yourself in Austria, head to Vienna, find a few Heurigen, and enjoy a fabulous wine sipping experience.

--Beau, Utah

Wine Blogging Wednesday #12 Roundup -- Drink Local. Real Local.

By Lenn, New York

I love Wine Blogging Wednesday, the virtual wine tasting event that brings people from around the globe 'together' for a day of wine tasting. I love the people I meet and new friends I make each and every month. I love learning about wine regions I'll most likely never visit. And, I love bringing new wine lovers into the fold and showing them that wine need not be scary.

This month, our little tasting group swelled to an all-time high of 43 entries as we filled our glasses with the most local wines possible.

Rather than break the roundup into regions or varietals or anything of that sort, I'm going to just list them as I received them. That way, you'll get to enjoy the posts the way I did...traveling from region to region and getting a little taste of each.

Sushi/Gewurz/Neurotoxin

By Beau, Utah

Saturday night is often sushi night.  This past sushi night will forever be remembered as, "great Alsatian Gewurztraminer followed by pufferfish fin in sake" -sushi night.

When my foxy lady and I arrived at the sushi bar, we both looked around and immediately felt as if we were in a Left Behind novel.  The bar was almost completely empty - at 8:30pm.  Eerie. Ok; granted we're talking Salt Lake City here; and New York it aint. Still, an empty sushi bar on a Saturday night was indeed odd.  We strode over to the bar and plopped down across from the executive sushi chef. 

After enjoying an exceedingly fine bottle of Domaine Weinbach Cuvee Laurence Gewurztraminer (details below), we got to speaking with the chef.  We bantered on about sushi grades, fish freshness, Japanese culture, and sake.  Once the topic turned to sake (of which I am a complete novice) he told us about a unique sake cocktail:  Dried, grilled pufferfish fin in warm sake.

We were intrigued, and, as luck would have it, the chef had some dried fins.  He grilled them, warmed the sake and handed us a couple of ceramic cups.  I must admit, aside from the sake flavors, I detected only fishiness and saltwater.  Yet about 15 minutes later something odd began to happen.  My extremities began to feel as if I had slept on them all night - causing that buzzy/sleeping/numb sensation.  It was subtle, yet a little disconcerting. 

Dear Little Vodka

  U.S. consumers spent $9.5 billion (US) on vodka in 2003. $950 million of this was spent on ultra-premium vodka, such as Grey Goose, Ciroc and Ketel One.  This begs the question:  What’s the big friggin deal with vodka?

Vodka originated in either Russia or Poland, depending on whom you ask, a Pole or a Russian.  Vodka is the diminutive form of the word voda, which means water.  So vodka can be roughly translated as, “dear little water.”  Dear little water indeed.  Vodka, by definition, is a neutral distilled spirit.  It’s basically colorless, odorless and tasteless. Of course ‘tasteless’ doesn’t refer to the effect that vodka’s 40 or 50 percent alcohol content has on your tongue.  Contrary to what many of us have heard, vodka isn’t distilled from potatoes.  Most vodka is distilled from grain; including wheat, rye, barley and corn.  Again a question:  How does this relatively humble, yet powerful liquid generate $9.5 billion in sales?  My best guess: Marketing. The next time you leaf through a magazine notice how many vodka advertisements there are.  Most vodka ads convey sophistication, sexiness, and style.  Stroll through the liquor store and take a look at the premium vodkas.  Some look as though they have been bottled in priceless crystal decanters. Others look as though a Swedish minimalist designed ultra-chic aluminum bottles to hold the stuff.  With vodka, it’s all about appearance.

To prove (or disprove) my point, I purchased five different brands of vodka; two luxury vodkas, two mid-range vodkas and one bottle of ‘rotgut’ vodka.  My intent was to compare all of them in a blind tasting – a sort of Pepsi Challenge with vodka.

 

Pray for Seagulls

By Beau, Utah

Both Spittoon and Vinography have brought the biblical plague of locusts threatening Italian vineyards to our attention.  I suppose the viticulturati are beseeching the heavens for protection against this ravenous swarm.  Perhaps a miracle is in order?

Coincidentally, recently the state of Utah celebrated Pioneer Day.  And one legend in Utah’s history is the seagull miracle. It goes like this:  Newly arrived pioneers in the Salt Lake valley race to plant crops so as to harvest all sorts of agri-goodies in the fall with which to sustain themselves during food-scarce winter months.  In a potentially disastrous turn of events, clouds of crickets (AKA Mormon crickets) appear and begin devouring the precious crops.  Said pioneers pray and pray and pray.  Out of the blue, thousands of seagulls appear to feast on the ransacking cricket horde.  These miracle birds are so dedicated to cricket eradication that they eat to the point of, umm, uhhh hurling partially-digested crickets, and then come back for seconds, thirds, and eighths.  Glory be!  The crops are saved and the pioneers get grain for the winter.

Perhaps an encore of this bird-insect miracle will play out in Italy?  Let us hope.

As an aside, the seagull became Utah’s state bird.  Yet the heroic seagull is actually the California Gull.  Ironic, no? - the state bird named after another state..

Speaking of wine, birds, and California; Oeil de Perdrix (which in French means eye of the partridge) is this summer’s best pink wine.  Find it.  Sip it.  Love it.

Österreichischer Wein ist kein Witz

By Beau, Utah

Wow, what a great audience.  Has anyone heard the one about the Austrians and their stalled car? OK.  What do you call four Austrians gathered around a broken down car with the hood up?  A wine tasting!!  Ha!  <tap, tap, tap> Is this thing on?

Yummy Yellow Tail?

By Beau, Utah

I worked in a wine store during last year’s holiday season.  I took the job as something of a wine/social experiment.  I was curious to see what people bought for parties, gifts and themselves.  I met serious bargain hunters:  “Which is better - the four dollar Chardonnay or the three dollar White Zinfandel?”  I also met very generous gift givers: “Help me find the very best bottle of wine in the store.”  Yet the holiday refrain I heard most often (seemingly every five minutes) went like this:  “Where is the Yellow Tail Shiraz?”  Somewhat less often I heard the same question with the words ‘Chardonnay,’ ‘Merlot,’ or ‘Cabernet’ substituted for ‘Shiraz.’  In fact I heard these words so often; I began to think my name was, “Sir Where-is-the-yellowtail.”  In case you’ve been living on the International Space Station, Yellow Tail is an Australian line of wines that are selling like Wham-O boomerangs of the 1970’s.  I carried out entire ‘Tail cases for customers.  I had to restock the shelf every 30 minutes!  I got really tired.  I wondered what all the fuss was about?  On the surface, Yellow Tail seems to be like many other budget wines from Oz.  It has a catchy name (though not as catchy as my favorite Aussie name, Woop Woop). It has a fun label - which, come to think of it, is bolder in color than many other wine labels.  It costs between eight and ten dollars - just like dozens of other Aussie wines.  So, what gives?  For three weeks, I watched a river of Yellow Tail flow out the wine shop’s doors.  I was getting curious. I began experiencing the urge to try Yellow Tail.  I tried to resist, but resistance was futile.  One night as I was leaving the store, I noticed a single, lonely bottle of ‘Tail Shiraz sitting on the shelf.  I walked by the bottle, and, as inconspicuously as I could, grabbed it, paid for it, and made a b-line for home.

The Odeon, NYC

By Kori W, New York City

Picture this: You ask for the wine list at a fine restaurant, and the waiter returns with a leather-bound novel, sometimes containing multiple volumes, detailing the overwhelming selection. You flip through the multiple pages of Bordeaux vintages and Chianti producers while trying to decide what you’re ordering for dinner. Ten stares from the waiter and twenty minutes later, you finally digest the list, but by this time, you’re hungry, cranky, and unable to make a rational decision. You end up picking a crappy-smelling red Burgundy that sets you back $90, but you drink the bottle to ease the pain of financial loss, and you go home a poor, unhappy camper. Why must choosing a wine be so difficult?

Sometimes simple is best - a simple wine list, but with more options than just California Chardonnay and Australian Shiraz. This is where The Odeon, one of my favorite New York City restaurants, gets a gold star. Located in Tribeca, far from the tourist traps of midtown, this funky French bistro has been around for 25 years and is clearly doing something right! The place has a cool retro vibe, a trendy yet unpretentious crowd, and simply fantastic food. But the true prize is the wine list: relatively short and sweet, yet most diverse, you can find everything you need and more. Unique selections by both the glass and bottle are strong in French origin, but also hail from different regions around the globe. You can experiment with 21 still wines and 4 bubblies by the glass, with such interesting choices as an Irsai Oliver from Hungary and a Chenin Blanc from Chinon...