It has been a busy month for Food and Wine Gazette. We ended up missing Megavino, the largest wine event in Brussels because we opted to go to Chef Sache in Cologne on the same weekend. At the start of the month, we tasted some great wines from Tuscany at Saveurs de Toscanes. This always proves to be a very interesting event and one where you meet some small producers which you would not normally otherwise come across. So here is a list of wines which I particularly enjoyed last month. White Wine Rietsch Entre Chien et Loup Auxerrois 2013 (Alsace): A very approachable white wine from Alsace. Very low in sulphites and a biodynamic wine, this surprised for its freshness and balance. Great on the nose with citrus aromas it is a highly recommended wine. Red Wine Giovanni Chiappini Felciano 2013 (Bolgheri, Tuscany): A great value Red wine from Bolgheri. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese, this is still young but already approachable. It has an intense … [Read more...]
What we’ve been drinking last month (September)
September is the month of new beginnings. Autumn is fast approaching and a look at my twitter feed indicates that winemakers are incredibly busy with their harvests as they start work on their new vintages. The signs of autumn are visible everywhere as the leaves start to fall off trees, the mornings become crisper and on some days a thin fog greets you as soon as you look out of the window or exit the front door. But still winter seems far away, the day is still relatively long and while we have had our fair share of white wines over the summer months, we still have the time to drink some whites particularly on the weekends as we pair them with fish dishes. In September, I also had the opportunity to go for a tasting of 2004 Barolo. Now 2004 is considered to be an excellent year for the 'king' of Italian wines. We tried eight bottles during the tasting, all of which were excellent. As in every wine tasting, there were some wines which shone. What was however surprising was … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #3
Creativity was the theme of our post yesterday and if you have missed it, we recommend that you read it. For this week's round-up we would like to start with another chef that epitomises the word creativity. No one has had an impact on today's cuisine as much as el Bulli, the iconic Spanish restaurant which closed its doors a few years ago. His brother Albert Adria, who was also heavily involved in el Bulli is interviewed here about creativity. This is a really interesting interview. He says what really motivates people is fear. And he has a very interesting perspective about meetings, which seem to be the greatest problem of the corporate world today. "At el Bulli we only had the winter to create the menu for next season. That’s why we were very pragmatic and efficient when it came to deciding on new crockery, products… We never had long meetings. Whatever you say after half an hour or 40 minutes is unnecessary." Bruges is one of the most picturesque Belgian cities and sometimes … [Read more...]
Three women turn their passion for wine into successful professional lives
Elisabetta Tosi - Guest Post From time to time, we bring you content which we particularly like from elsewhere. In this case, you will find this story by Elisabetta Tosi which featured on Palate Press particularly interesting. It features three Italian women in the wine world and their story. When we talk about Italian wines, we usually talk about the men behind them, but in doing so we forget that the Italian wine world is made up of both men and women. This time, let me speak about three young women who were able to turn their passions for wine into successful professional lives; I know each one of them personally, and I would like to relate their individual adventures. Each one has a different approach, yet each is always a positive force in this world.Laura Albertini produces Valpolicella wines from her 4.5 hectares (11 acres) of vineyards at Tierra de Pietra. Originally she studied accounting but she was unhappy amidst papers and documents. Since her childhood, part of … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine
You will have seen if you followed this website earlier this week that food waste was one of the major themes at Chefs Revolution in Zwolle with two of the world's best chefs Rene Redzepi and Massimo Bottura making it a point to highlight the problem in their separate presentations. Now, we are not great fans of the very large supermarkets which have over the years made us forget about crooked carrots or not perfectly shaped apples. But at the same time, this initiative to turn fruit and vegetables that is too ugly to sell into something edible should be lauded. A new concept in retailing is being tested in Germany. In this article in the Guardian we find a Berlin duo that has launched a supermarket with no packaging. You take your own containers and have them weighed. You shop, you take them to the till and the weight of your containers is subtracted and you pay for the net weight of your groceries. Supermarkets in many parts of the world have killed many small stores, … [Read more...]
Book review: The Road to Burgundy: The Unlikely Story of an American Making Wine and a New Life in France
Many people think of giving everything up to follow their dream. Very few, however, end up taking the plunge. This is the story of Ray Walker who had a secure career in finance until he took a wine-tasting vacation which ignited a passion for wine that he couldn't stifle. Now the interesting part of the story is that unlike most wine lovers who develop their passion over many years, Ray Walker could not be bothered about wine and actually could not really see the point or stand snobbish behaviour related to wine. But once the wine bug hit during a tasting of Burgundy wines, he could not get away from it and pursued his dream taking huge risks and sacrificing family life. Not speaking French, he took the plunge by watching TV or reading old books trying to learn the techniques of wine making and the language and daydreaming about what it would be like to create his own wine. He quits his job and gets his hands dirty with some winemakers in California before heading to France … [Read more...]
Book review: Palmento – A Sicilian Wine Odyssey (At table)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvw_KkmVFWU#t=24 As the holiday season in Europe slowly starts to come to an end, one starts to think of the cooler months but also about what books to read to remind oneself of the summer. Palmento, A Sicilian Wine Odyssey has been earmarked as one of my summer reads after I read Corkscrewed by Robert V. Camuto about wines in France (I will review the book later). But I can imagine myself reading this book on a cold winter evening, with the rain knocking on the windows maybe with a glass of wine to accompany the reading. In fact, I am sure that this coming winter, I will come back to read this book given I have rarely read a book so beautifully written about the subject of wine, the region and its people. Now, I may be biased because as you may have seen, my interest in wine more than 15 years ago came from the discovery of Sicilian wine and its many facets. As the author itself wrote, Goethe wrote in the eighteenth century "To have seen … [Read more...]
What I enjoyed reading this week (8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1UDS2kgqY8 A week without internet last week relaxing on the island of Gozo was an excellent way of winding down but meant that the 'What I enjoyed reading this week" series of articles got interrupted. You can therefore find a few interesting finds from last week as well as some from this week here. Michel Roux Jr is no longer the presenter for the next series of Masterchef on BBC. This is a pity because he was an integral part of the show. Nevertheless, renowned British chef Marcus Wareing, who has been featured many times during past Masterchef editions and who is known for seeking perfection takes over. Here he is interviewed by the Financial Times. An interesting read about wine pairing rules which no longer seem to work and where therefore versatile wines are key. Foodiva is the sister of a very good friend of ours with a great food blog on the Dubai scene. Being Cypriot, her culinary guide to Cyprus is not only mouthwatering but it … [Read more...]
Book review: Shadows in the vineyard – the true story of the plot to poison the world’s greatest wine
What kind of man the cellarer of the Monastery should be 1) As cellarer of the monastery should be chosen from the community, one who is sound in judgement, mature in character, sober, not a great eater, not self-important, not turbulent, not harshly spoken, not an off-putter, not wasteful. 2) but a God-fearing man, who will be a father to the whole community 3) He is to have charge of all affairs 10) He must regard the chattels of the monastery and its whole property as if they were sacred vessels of the altar (Chapter 31 of the Benedictine Rules, as posted in English inside the Burgundy's Abbey Notre Dame de Citeaux) So starts the book, Shadows in the Vineyard, the true story of the plot to poison the world's greatest wine. The author Maximillian Potter admits at the end of the book that when he came to write this story for a magazine and later turned it into a book, he knew very little about wine. This is all the more amazing because the book reads very well, has … [Read more...]
What I enjoyed reading this week (6)
Here is a list of interesting articles I have come across this week. Enjoy your Sunday with these nice reads. You will find a great article about wine fraud and counterfeiting from wine searcher here which is food for thought especially for the risk it involves of buying expensive wines. For those in the know, drinking wines from Fleurie or Morgon may no longer be considered as inferior pleasures. Have you ever wondered in awe about wine sommeliers and their incredible depth of knowledge about wines. Here you will find what it takes to become a master sommelier. Chablis is a fantastic wine region and wine that is excellent with seafood. Here you will find a great lesson about Chablis. Fast food has a very bad reputation for health. However, eating in restaurants might not be any better according to a study. If you are heading to Amsterdam any time soon here is a list of 10 pop-up restaurants or food hotspots you can find in this Dutch city. … [Read more...]