Red, White and Drunk All Over
Media Interviews
December 2009
Sommelier Journal
By Ben Weinberg
To assist both professionals and novices in pairing food with wines and other beverages, Natalie MacLean, publisher of North America’s largest wine e-newsletter (as well as the website NatalieMacLean.com), now offers the Nat Decants Food & Drink Matcher widget. It’s compatible with multiple platforms, including computer desktops, websites, blogs, and social media such as Facebook, MySpace, and iGoogle; there’s also a smartphone application for iPhone, iPod Touch, or BlackBerry devices.
The software comes in two sizes to fit various Internet and mobile operating systems. Once installed, it can be quickly searched for drinks to pair with meats, pastas, seafood, vegetarian dishes, pizzas, take-out food, sauces, herbs, cheese, and desserts. Working from the other direction, a user can find dishes to go with wine, cocktails, liqueurs, beer, spirits, cider, coffee, tea, and even water.
Installation of the software was a three-click breeze, and I found it easy to use, with a clean, intuitive look and feel. The interface is entirely menu-driven, meaning I couldn’t input any choices other than those provided by MacLean. But the menu was highly inclusive, with literally thousands of places to start. I found the suggested pairings well written and concise; clicking on a match brought up a page from MacLean’s website that provided links to additional resources. My only quibble was that I wasn’t always able to return to the previous page or start a new search.
In addition to the software’s obvious relevance to restaurant wine service, it can be used by bloggers and wine clubs, retail stores, wineries, restaurants, and culinary schools. The widget is a free download available on MacLean’s website.
990 AM Radio New Orleans
November 26, 2007
By Tim McNally
Natalie MacLean, a real dynamite of a person, full of energy, enthusiasm, and solid viewpoints, graciously gave us some of her time and discussed food and wine pairings.
Such matters are only of casual importance to about 85% of the general population, but if you are near a wine person, then those decisions about what wine to have with what foods take on higher importance.
It is particularly difficult if you don’t really understand the difference between a fruit-driven Cabernet Sauvignon and a big, full-of-alcohol-and-fruit Zinfandel. Nor do you really care, but someone near you, whom you love very much and want to please, is well aware of the characteristics. Yet you may be the one who is choosing the Holiday Menu, and they will be guests in your home.
So, Natalie has created a really simple and straight-forward chart that takes a lot of the guesswork out of the right wine to have with the dinner. It’s really a blessing for good hosts and hostesses who want to make Holiday feasting a treat for all in attendance.
Simply head to www.nataliemaclean.com, and note the Food and Wine Pairings link in the right-hand margin. Then choose your menu item, and she will make numerous suggestions as to the wine that works.
While you are on the site, sign up for her free monthly newsletter. Even if you do not have a deep passion for wine, it’s a very entertaining missive and I think you will enjoy reading it.
Her book, Red, White, and Drunk All Over, can be obtained at Barnes & Noble and at www.amazon.com.
ABC News
November 13, 2009
By Michelle Locke
What you want: A holiday get-together with friends over a cheering glass of wine. What you don't want: A budget deeper in the red than an old vine zin.
The answer may be in the box.
Once the runt of the wine world, boxed wines have come a long way, says Natalie MacLean, author of the Internet wine newsletter Nat Decants.
"Get over your hang-ups about boxed wine being plonk. It's a great way to go with a large party," she says.
Today's boxed wines are mostly sold in 3-liter containers, the equivalent of four bottles. And while the quality's gone up, prices remain reasonable.
Fish Eye from The Wine Group in San Francisco, for instance, is $16 a box, which works out to $4 a bottle. How do they do that?
"We've put all of our money into the wine and not into the package," says Laurie Jones, Wine Group spokeswoman.
Of course, price isn't the only consideration when choosing wine. You also want something that will complement, rather than overwhelm your meal. And this time of year, everyone is looking for the right wine for the big bird.
Pinot noir is the classic accompaniment for Thanksgiving turkey — you want to stay away from heavy tannins, such as a hearty cabernet sauvignon, Sbrocco says. Herding Cats Merlot-Pinotage from South Africa is a fine choice. It comes in a 3-liter box from Underdog Wines and is about $16.
Also try French Rabbit pinot noir, from Boisset Family Estates, which comes in a 1-liter Tetra Pak (juice-box style packaging), for around $10.
Whites can be right, too, especially if you want a wine that not only does justice to the turkey, but also all the sweet and spicy trimmings that make up the traditional Thanksgiving feast.
Look for aromatic, dry whites, such as a pinot grigio or maybe a viognier, says Leslie Sbrocco, a frequent wine judge and author of "Wine for Women." Target's Wine Cube pinot grigio, available in a 3-liter box for $17.99, is a good choice here.
Though boxes have largely shed their rube cube image, it can't be denied that there's something just a bit inelegant about slapping a big box down on the buffet.
Sure, it says party, but it sounds more like "Part-tay."
To which we say one word: carafe.
The advantage of boxes is the plastic bag inside which contains the wine. The bag doesn't let in air, which means the wines can stay fresh for six weeks after opening without going in the fridge.
But just before drinking, a bit of a breather is a good thing for wines, boxed or otherwise. Decanting into a carafe or other reasonably attractive glass jug makes host and wine look a little better.
ABE Books
September 28, 2006
Wining and Writing
“People think I have the best job in the world,” laughs Natalie Maclean – one of North America’s leading wine writers and the author of Red, White and Drunk All Over. “They think I’m drunk all day.”
In the not-too-distant past, Natalie’s life revolved around the Internet industry and speaking at trade fairs across America as a “web evangelist” for a California-based computer firm but wine was always her passion.
“When I was working in California, I’d spend all day on the show floor and then I'd pack up and head off to Napa Valley to find the wines and visit vineyards,” she said. “I went on maternity leave in 1998 and in a sleep-deprived state I decided that I should give it all up and become a wine writer.
“Now I can’t imagine doing anything else. I have a job that involves sensory pleasure, and I engage my mind and my body when I’m writing about wine.”
Natalie started by writing freelance articles about wine for magazines but her knowledge of the Web was to prove extremely useful.
“I firmly believe in the Internet and after getting some articles published I e-mailed them to people whom I knew were interested in wine and what I was doing,” she said. “As you know, the Internet is very organic – at first I was e-mailing to 50 people and then it was 200 people and now I have an e-mail newsletter that goes to 53,000 people.”
The e-newsletter, called Nat Decants, is free and its wide distribution and popularity has helped to put her on the wine writing map – and drive countless paid writing assignments her way from magazines around the world. Anyone can sign up for Nat Decants by visiting www.nataliemaclean.com.
At the 2003 World Food Media Awards in Australia, Natalie was named the World's Best Drink Writer ahead of 1,000 other writers. Her articles have appeared in more than sixty newspapers and magazines, including the Chicago Tribune and BusinessWeek.
Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass recaps her adventures in the world of wine and is much more than a series of recommendations for wine lovers. It is a memoir of Natalie’s experiences and adventures as she dives head first into all aspects of wine – from picking grapes to marketing the wine to flogging bottles in a retail store to pouring it out as a sommelier in a fancy restaurant. Even her own dinner party is dissected as she frets over the wine to accompany each course and what her guests are thinking.
She bumps along in pickup trucks driving from vineyard to vineyard across California and explores the legendary vineyards of France – each time trying to get involved as much as possible.
“I love to participate – it makes for a more interesting story,” said Natalie, who shares a bottle of wine every night with her husband over dinner and has 800 bottles stored in her cellar. “If there’s an adventure to be had, I want to do it.
“The book is aimed at two kinds of people. Firstly, the people who watched the movie, Sideways, and loved it, and want to know more about wine and be entertained at the same time. Secondly, I want to reach the wine expert who is already confident and knowledgeable about wine, but wants to be entertained by learning more about the people and places in the world of wine that they already know.
“Wine writers and wine critics are quite different. I’m a wine writer and what I do is much more than recommendations. I use wine as an excuse to get into peoples’ lives. I use wine as a way of traveling and seeing people.
“My heart belongs to the Old World wines like pinot noir. I appreciate that the approach of winemakers in North America is different. The wine culture is much younger here. However, when I went to France I fell in love with the people, the countryside and the wine sent me to heaven.
“I use simple descriptions when writing about a wine – I think long colorful descriptions are not helpful. Some people are talking about all sorts of fruits and things – I just don’t get that from a glass. I try to be practical and look for interesting narrative that I can get behind. I want to reach out to people who share my passion for wine – after all wine is about a buzz and hedonism.”
Akron Beacon Journal
November 8, 2007
By Tricia Colianne
The Akron Beacon Journal published the same story as the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
Alibi
May 8, 2008
By Joseph Baca
For too long, oenology (een-ology, the study of wine) was considered off-limits to the average American consumer. Wine knowledge was a carefully guarded male stronghold of stuffy sommeliers, grumpy English professors with big, red noses and the wealthy. But in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the wine industry began selling its products in the United States with a more inclusive approach.
A methodical marketing scheme began with easily understood White Zinfandel. Wineries started selling people on Chardonnay and then Merlot, varietals that were easy to drink, whose names had a ring of sophistication. People took notice. It was a one-two punch, and consumers were knocked out by wine and its mystique.
The Internet picked up remaining slack in informing people in the U.S. what the rest of the world already knew—wine is for everyone. Wine sales and the pursuit of wine knowledge increased exponentially. Suddenly people from all walks of life were speaking authoritatively about wine.
During this foment over fermented grape juice, one group was particularly successful in getting its foot in the door and storming the wine industry: women. They've become an influential force in wine consumption and production (which, by the way, has surpassed beer in sales). Studies show that women purchase about 65 percent of the wine consumed in the U.S., but Elizabeth Thach, a PhD and professor of wine business and management at Sonoma State University, believes women in the U.S. purchase up to 80 percent of the market share. On the other end of the bottle, the restaurant business—particularly fine dining—has been transformed by the women in wine. Until the last two decades, female chefs or waitstaff were seldom seen, as were female wine buyers or salespeople. All that's out the window now.
This shift has occurred on multiple levels and on a global scale. Women in other countries have always been wine drinkers. But they've used the last few decades' market growth to carve out a niche for themselves as leaders in the business, as addressed by Ann B. Matasar in Women of Wine: The Rise of Women in the Global Wine Industry. Her book is an in-depth study of women’s role in the worldwide wine industry and the obstacles they've had to overcome. Today, women such as Helen Turley, Susana Balbo, Merry Edwards, Eileen Crane and Heidi Schröck are among the best winemakers in the world. These women produce truly stellar wines. They're the “rock stars” of the industry.
One of their arenas is Women in Wine, a yearly symposium hosted by Napa Valley's COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. Women are invited to join in panels and hear guest speakers that include the biggest females in the industry.
You might hear Jancis Robinson, Andrea Immer, Leslie Sbrocco, Natalie MacLean or Karen MacNeil speak, all highly regarded sommeliers, wine writers and educators. Women in Wine has become a huge and important event for women involved in the wine industry.
Bottling the Sexes
Biology may play a part in wine's affinity toward females. Linda Bartoshuk of the Yale Medical School conducted a study with findings that 25 percent of the population are "supertasters"—people with greater-than-average sensitivity for taste—and that the majority of those people are women. Furthermore, the study shows women may also have more highly developed olfactory systems, so they can better separate smells. Although Bartoshuk's study is controversial, it goes a long way in explaining women’s dominant role in the industry. Other experts differ greatly in their opinions and say women are simply more detail-oriented and better at vocalizing their thoughts about wine.
Differences in how men and women interact with wine don't stop there. According to Leslie Sbrocco in Wine for Women, producers have adopted completely new ways of selling their products because the sexes relate to wine in radically different ways. Men treat vintages like trophies, basing purchases on high scores and big names. Women are more practical. Taste and price weigh heavily on their decisions. Women also like the social aspects of wine, sharing it with friends and pairing it with food—and marketing language reflects that. Although it smacks of gimmickry to some, it seems to work. Sales have increased.
Megan Clemans, a representative of Boutique Wines of New Mexico, agrees with Sbrocco. She says since she was first exposed to wine, the focus has changed from affluent men to women of all types and social classes. If you enter a wine store today, Clemans notes, you'll find brands have been feminized in both appearance and flavor profile.
Jessie Griego of Fiasco Fine Wine has also witnessed sweeping change firsthand. "Having grown up in New Mexico and in the food and beverage industry, I have seen the transformation of what was once an almost exclusively male industry to one that embraces the talents and palates of women," she says. "In the past, many female salespersons were relegated to using 'sexiness' to sell … not so anymore. It is now recognized that women have discerning palates.”
New Mexico’s wine industry is bursting with knowledgeable women who've changed the landscape. Among them are Holly Penland of Quarters Wine Shops, a newcomer who has had a serious impact on the local industry; Patty Anderson of Anderson Valley Vineyards; Kathy Lovin of The Vineyard Express; Lori-Anne Castillo of Winemark; Mary Gronewold of Marcello’s Chop House; Carol Zonski of Jubilation Liquors; Melissa Olivas of Chama River Brewing Co.; Margaret Sheffield of Kelly Liquors; and Kelly Burton and Nellie Bauer of Chef du Jour and Jennifer James 101. No women have had as much effect on the local wine industry as Myra Gattas at Slate Street Café; Jennifer James, whose name stands alone; Nathalie Gruet; and Laura Mudd. The time, brains and muscle all these women have lent to promoting Albuquerque’s wine industry is beyond calculation. Like a great wine that's constantly evolving, the potential is boundless for these revolutionary women of wine.
Alive
September 2008
By Kate Zimmerman
September brings us the last days of summer and the year’s final opportunity for sun-drenched picnics. But how do we choose a suitable wine to ease us out of fancy-free summer and into the formality of fall?
Why not go regional or, at least, Canadian? You’ll cut down on the greenhouse gas emissions required to transport the wine, and you’ll support our growers and producers.
Local Pairings
“Three of my favourite picnic wines are Niagara Rieslings from Henry of Pelham, Strewn, and Vineland Estates,” says Ottawa wine expert Natalie MacLean, author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over and a free newsletter featuring thousands of wine and food pairings, available at nataliemaclean.com.
To complement picnic fare–from salads and paté to smoked salmon and chicken–try the Reisling from Niagra’s Konzelmann Estate Winery or from BC's Hillside Estate.
Sommelier, wine consultant, and educator Craig Pinhey (frogspad.ca)notes the cool climate in his home province of New Brunswick makes autumn picnics few and far between.
“In the fall I tend to start drinking more reds and bigger whites,” he says. For meals al fresco, Pinhey recommends Nova Scotia wines–the Reserve Marechal Foch or the Trilogy Blend from Jost, or the Lucie Kuhlmann or Vitis blend from Gaspereau Vineyards. “These are all balanced reds with a certain amount of oak aging–but definitely cool climate.”
Organic From Around the World
Maybe your bias is toward organics, no matter their country of origin. Vancouver wine consultant and judge DJ Kearney is certainly a fan. She recommends Domaine de L’Olivette Blanc 2006 as an ideal picnic accompaniment; it’s an organic Southern French white vins de pays that’s a blend of Grenache, Bourboulenc, and Marsanne.
“The beguiling flavours of dried mixed citrus peel and garrigue (Provençal) herbs are perfect for the change of seasons,” says Kearney, who is also a chef. “I’d plan a picnic with a warm Mediterranean muffuletta sandwich, oozing pesto, cheese, and prosciutto, for this savoury white, or maybe a piquant salad of marinated mussels and a crusty loaf.”
Kearney’s alternative for an organic red in late fall, as the temperature starts to drop, is the Finca Luzon Monastrell 2006 from Bodegas Luzon in Jumilla, Spain. “It’s a lusty Spanish red from old vine Monastrell with no end of exuberant, black, plummy fruit, but also a gentle mellowness that is essentially autumnal,” she explains. “A smoky, spicy pulled pork bun or a steaming flask of beef and barley soup would temper the crisp weather.”
For a picnic wine whose buzz is more than alcoholic, Kearney recommends South Africa’s organic Winds of Change Pinotage-Shiraz 2004, the first certified Fair Trade wine available in Canada. It’s a product of African Terroir Wine’s Tribal winery, a participant in South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment program.
“The wine is full-flavoured, mouth-coating, and rib-sticking,” she says. “I’d want some seriously smoky food with this fruit grenade–like a grilled chorizo in a bun or simply a selection of prime charcuterie, aged cheese, and chewy bread.”
Lusty food, curvy wine, and a bit of altruism sound just right for the season. Santé! Let the leaves fall where they may.
Andrew Zimmern
November 7, 2008
By Andrew Zimmern
When it comes to wine, Natalie MacLean is the First Lady. She writes for countless publications and offers up her wine knoweldge for the masses at www.natdecants.com. Her book, Red, White, and Durnk All Over has also won multiple awards in the culinary field.
Who better to get wine advice from than someone who has been named "World's Best Drink Writer?" (So named by the World Food Media Awards in Australia.)
Andrew Zimmern: As an award-winning wine writer, what are the challenges of translating a wine tasting experience to a readership?
Natalie MacLean: Wine is a sensual experience that involves sight, smell, taste and texture, so the challenge is to find words that convey this without dipping into purple prose or jargon. I like to focus on the pleasure of wine rather than get into the fruit salad school of description. Wine is as much about what goes on around the glass (food, friends, etc) as what’s in it.
AZ: As a judge, what is it that you look for when you taste a wine?
NM: I look for balance and expression of place. An Australian wine shouldn’t taste like Bordeaux or vice versa. Above all, the wine should dance with food rather than clobber the flavors in the dish with high alcohol or overly ripe fruit.
AZ: Why is champagne/sparkling wine a typical choice for a romantic evening? And other than this ubiquitous choice, what are your recommendations for a "date night" wine?
NM: Champagne is the drink of celebration, luxury and romance. The champagne producers are fabulous marketers and have connected this wine with all the high points in our lives, from births to weddings. Among the wines I recommend for Valentine’s Day at www.nataliemaclean.com/wine_picks are silky, seductive pinot noirs, such as those from Burgundy, California and New Zealand.
AZ: You have provided a great food and wine matcher on your site, Nat Decants, but in a pinch, what are some basic rules to follow?
NM: Try to marry the flavors, texture and weight of the wine with the dish. There’s a reason we don’t put ketchup on ice cream: the same goes for a light wine and a hearty meat dish.
AZ: What is the biggest trend in wine that you think is good for the industry and what is the worst?
NM: The biggest trend that’s great for the industry is the number of new producers and regions making wine: more choice, more competition, lower prices. The worst is the increasingly high levels of alcohol in wine. If you want alcohol, have a martini!
AZ: What is the next big thing in wine that consumers will see in 2008?
NM: More screwcaps, more organic wines, more rosés.
AZ: What’s in your fridge?
NM: Thanks for the reminder to throw out those wilting greens! Other than that: New Zealand sauvignon blanc and a rosé bubbly.
AskMen.com
May 29, 2008
By Shawn Loeffler
Natalie MacLean, editor of the award-winning wine newsletter at NatalieMacLean.com and author of Red, White and Drunk All Over helped AskMen.com learn about the extraordinary white wine Gewürztraminer.
Gewürztraminer has historically been unfairly treated and ignored. This dry white wine calls Alsace home and despite its distinctive character, its more popular big brother Riesling largely overshadows it -- “partly because Gewürztraminer is hard to say in a restaurant or liquor store,” says MacLean. Once you taste Gewürztraminer, however, you’ll either love it or hate it. Either way, there’s no way you can ignore this versatile wine or its lychee and rose aromas any longer.
About Gewürztraminer
Gewürztraminer is an honest and straightforward wine. According to Natalie MacLean, many oenophiles write off this incredible wine because “it has unusual aromas that are an acquired taste (or smell).”
Gewürztraminer is one of the few wines that has adopted the name of the grape from which it is produced. The grape itself has a pink to red colored skin and the etymology of its name offers an interesting story: The “traminer” part of its name is derived from a region in the Italian Alps known as Trentino-Alto Adige, while the “Gewürz” portion is distinctly German and means “spicy.” Adding to the international scope of this story is the fact that the Gewürztraminer varietal has had the most success in France.
Gewürztraminer isn’t an easy wine to produce, owing in large part to the early spring budding and is, therefore, susceptible to frost damage. The vine is reluctant to fight off viral infections and the grape clusters are typically small in the best of conditions. As a result, many producers fail to give it the care or time it deserves.
Where to find Gewürztraminer
If you were so inclined to take a wine tour to explore the regions from which Gewürztraminer hails, you’d be well-advised to pack a wool sweater, a warm hat and a pair of long pants. That’s because this grape thrives in cooler climates and though it does best in the Alsace region of France, its producers there still struggle with it. The vine must be closely monitored and an exacting harvest time is essential to producing a wine that maintains the proper acid and pH balance. If it’s picked too early, you’ll end up with an acidic wine and, conversely, if it's picked too late, you’ll miss out on Gewürztraminer’s distinctive qualities because it gets too ripe.
Your Gewürztraminer wine tour might also bring you to Canada, the U.S., Australia, Italy, Germany, and Israel. The good news is, however, that after years of static production acreage, Gewürztraminer is expanding, most notably in New Zealand and in Oregon and Washington states.
One of the main problems with Gewürztraminer producers is that they are not able to dedicate enough land to the grape; usually they give it five acres, but “some do more” according to MacLean. As a result, much of Gewürztraminer’s reputation is derived from the shipper and not the vineyard.
How to pair Gewürztraminer
Many consider Gewürztraminer a perfect wine to be paired with spicy Asian cuisine, such as Indian or Thai. It is true, but there are so many other possibilities owing to its bold flavors and aromas. Natalie MacLean says that Gewürztraminer is one of the most versatile wines to match with food because it's full-bodied and flavorful, so it stands up to heartier meat dishes than most whites. Its spicy and floral aromatics also means that it can handle curries and tangy sauces.”
"In fact, in the interactive wine-and-food matching tool on my website, I pair Gewürztraminer with beef bourguignonne, black pepper crusted cheeses, duck a l'orange, rack of lamb with rosemary seasoning, charcuterie, and onion tarts," says MacLean. She also points out that this delicious white wine isn’t always limited to being paired with main-course dishes or with hors d'oeuvres: “When Gewürztraminer is made in an off-dry or dessert style, it marries beautifully with fruit-based desserts, such as flans and cobblers, as well as various pastries.”
Try playing matchmaker with some of these suggestions:
• Sauerkraut and sausage
• Munster cheese
• Curry-based plates
• Chinese and Mexican
• Fresh fruit
• Fatty and oily game
• Smoked salmon
• Chicken
Gewürztraminer prices
Given the inherent difficulties with the production of Gewürztraminer, it is a relatively affordable wine. "As more and more wine lovers discover Gewürztraminer 's versatility and terrific taste, the market for it will grow. In the meantime, those of us who have discovered it now can drink this undiscovered gem at very reasonable prices in the range of $7 to $15," says MacLean.
Gewürztraminer can also extend into three-digit territory, but unless you’re trying to impress someone (and let’s face it, no one likes a wine snob) it’s a waste of your money. If, however, you’re looking for a bottle to bring to a dinner party or to give as a gift, excellent bottles of Gewürztraminer can be had for anywhere between $18 and $40.
If you’re a neophyte, you’ll be pleased with a mid-priced bottle of Gewürztraminer. A bottle in this range will contain all the typical Gewürztraminer characteristics you need to learn and develop your tasting skills. Also note that as more producers emerge in the United States, you won’t necessarily have to spend more than $20 for a quality bottle.
Gewürztraminer recommendations
2001 Hugel Gewürztraminer Vendange Tardive
AC Alsace, France
$69.95
This Gewürztraminer is a low-acidity wine with rich layers of sweet pears, lychee and spice. Pair it with pork and glazed ham with cloves.
Natalie MacLean’s score: 91/100
2005 Darting Gewürztraminer Kabinett, Qmp, Dürkheimer Nonnengarten
Germany, Pfalz Region
$16.95
Stunning! A white wine with exotic layers of rose petals, lychee and nuts. Closed with a screwcap.
Natalie MacLean’s score: 90/100
2005 Gewürztraminer Vendanges Tardives
Alsace, France
$34.00
The producer states that this bottle is made from late-harvest grapes, which creates a wine with subdued Gewürztraminer characteristics. Despite its subtleties, it’s still an intense glass with complexity and length in the mouth. The bottle should be served as an aperitif or with light desserts.
Gewürztraminer takeaway tips
• Gewürztraminer can be drunk as an aperitif or with nearly any meal.
• Gewürztraminer is often considered a dessert wine.
• Its color is typically straw yellow.
• A glass of Gewürztraminer will often have spritz.
Associated Press
December 17, 2008
By Michelle Locke
Trying to sate Champagne tastes when you're stuck with a beer budget can be a problem, but, say wine experts, there is frugal fizz to be had.
Champagne, to be precise, generally is considered only sparkling wine from the region of France of the same name. And quaffing bottles that bear that name comes at a premium.
But there are lower-priced options, including U.S. and Australian sparkling wines, Spanish cavas and Italian proseccos.
"As the years go on, they're getting better and better because the technology and the skill of making these products is increasing," says Wilfred Wong, cellar master for the Beverages & More chain with stores in California and Arizona.
So here are some sparklers generally available for around $10 (prices may vary by region).
Wong recommends:
-- Cristalino cava brut, "very fresh and it's good. It's been consistent for a long time, but every year they get better."
-- Domaine Ste. Michelle blanc de blanc, "elegant, tart and rich, but also wonderful flavors."
-- Freixenet cordon negro brut, "very consistent, a little drier. The black bottle's very sexy."
-- Yellow Tail sparkling white wine, "it's easy drinking."
-- Segura Viudas Aria, (this one may bust the budget, but discounted versions do go for under $10), "a little cleaner, crisper, it's very appealing."
-- Dolce Vita prosecco, (also sometimes found at above $10, but often available for less on promotion) "fresh and bright, a soft prosecco."
-- Barefoot Cellars, Barefoot Bubbly Chardonnay Champagne, "not overly complex, but a refreshing crowd-pleaser that pairs perfectly with party fare, such as popcorn or potato chips."
-- Crane Lake Brut, "fruity and straightforward but a good pick for making holiday cocktails with a splash of cranberry or pomegranate juice."
And from Natalie MacLean, of the Nat Decants wine Web site, two wines hovering around the $10 price point:
-- Ricossa Moscato D'Asti, "A lovely frizzante (slightly sparkling wine) with aromas of ripe peaches and limes. Drink as an aperitif or with mildly spiced Thai or Indian dishes, biscotti or fruit desserts."
-- Banrock Station Sparkling Chardonnay. "A generous, fruity bubbly with notes of green apples and white peach. I pair it with Chinese takeout, almonds, brie cheese, sushi and potato chips."
Associated Press
June 5, 2009
By Michelle Locke
Cal Dennison likes a nice cold glass of chardonnay. And he's man enough to admit it.
That's hardly surprising since Dennison is the winemaker at the Modesto-based Redwood Creek winery, but is he an exception?
Judging by some marketing campaigns, you might think so. Take the Super Bowl ad that ran a couple years back in which men invited to a wine and cheese party sneaked into the kitchen to unpack beer hidden in a fake wheel of cheese.
It was a stereotype played for laughs - in real life lots of men like wine - but maybe one with a crumb of cultural truth. The designator for "average dude" in political campaigning last fall was Joe Six-pack, not Peter Pinot Noir.
It's hard to say for sure exactly who's drinking what, but a Gallup Poll from last July found that among women who drink, 43 percent say wine is what they drink most often and 28 percent say beer. Among men who drink, 58 percent say beer is what they drink most often and 17 percent say wine.
"As a general rule, guys get together, they don't want to be seen with a glass of wine," says Nelson Barber, an associate professor of hospitality management at Texas Tech University who has studied gender differences in marketing wine.
Wine companies would like to change that. During the past few years some have adopted guy-friendly marketing with tie-ins to such red-blooded pastimes as camping and racing.
Take Maximus, a blend of cabernet sauvignon, syrah and merlot introduced by the Bennett Lane Winery in Calistoga a few years back. Bennett Lane, which owns a NASCAR team, is sponsoring a NASCAR West event at Infineon Raceway this Father's Day weekend.
Then there's "The Slammer," a syrah from Big House wines (their Soledad winery is near a California state prison), that features a back label showing a tough-looking guy with pants slung at plumber level.
Redwood Creek doesn't define itself by gender - the outdoors isn't solely a male preserve - but it is sold under a campaign strong on muscular pursuits; corks are emblazoned with GPS coordinates leading to various hiking spots.
"Without a doubt we start with the great outdoors," says Dennison, a horseman and fisherman. "If you decide to bring a little wine on an outdoor adventure, by golly, Redwood Creek is the wine of choice."
Natalie MacLean, editor of http://www.nataliemaclean.com, a wine Web site, tends to be skeptical of marketing campaigns, but she understands a winery's need to stand out on crowded shelves.
Wines aimed at women, with labels such as "Mad Housewife," came out some years ago and MacLean isn't surprised to see guy wines follow. "We all shop based on the label - fluffy squirrel, castle in the middle distance - it's whatever works," she says.
It's up to consumers to decide "whether the wine delivers - for a man's man or a woman's woman," she says.
When selling wine, one thing you don't want to do is walk up to a guy in a wine shop and ask "Can I help you?" says Barber. He theorizes this may have something to do with that elusive asking-for-directions gene.
An opener like "What kind of occasion are you thinking of buying a wine for" is a better bet, Barber says.
Dennison has started some conversations of his own with fellow members of his riding club, men and women.
It's "quite the rodeo cowboy culture and the folks there, of course, are enjoying the odd beer or two," he says. "But as I spend time with them, I'm just getting pummeled with questions on wine and which wine we should have and what wine is good."
He's got Father's Day all planned out. Up early, get the boat, off to his favorite Sierra lake for some fishing with his son and then back to the ranch to fire up the grill and cook their catch.
One guess what he'll be washing it down with.
Baltimore Examiner
January 1, 2009
By Christine Stutz
Until recently, the Malbec grape was known primarily as a minor player in French Bordeaux blends. But it is becoming better known as a varietal on its own, with some excellent vintages coming from Argentina, and price points that make them very attractive.
Malbecs are known for their deep purple color, hard tannins, and earthy coarseness, said Al Spoler, co-host of Cellar Notes on WYPR radio. "The adjective 'rustic' applies to it very easily," he said. "It's wine made by peasants for their own consumption."
Argentina grows the most Malbec, with the stars coming from the Mendoza region. Exports to the United States were a low priority until the Argentinians saw the popularity of Australian Shiraz, he said. Then they refined their winemaking, stepped up production and increased exports to North America.
Spoler is fond of Malbecs produced by Catena and Weinert, both of which sell for around $22. Perhaps the most successful producer in terms of quality, he said, is Susana Balbo, whose wines are always highly rated by Wine Spectator and The Wine Advocate.
Ken Ross, manager at North Charles Fine Wine and Spirits, said Malbecs have been selling especially well during the holidays. "A lot of people are asking for Malbecs," he said. Softer than Cabernet Sauvignon but with more tannin than Merlot, he said, "They offer good value. You get world-class wine for not a lot of money."
Ross said he recommends Malbecs to customers who are serving red meat or pork. They also are a good accompaniment to mushroom dishes, he said, because of their meaty flavor.
Among the labels Ross recommends are Punto Final by Bodegas Renacer ($13) and small producer Antonietti, a steal at $12.
"Argentine Malbec is one of the best bets on the liquor store shelves these days," said Natalie MacLean, a sommelier and editor of a wine newsletter at www.nataliemaclean.com. "It's both delicious and affordable. It also pairs well with a variety of dishes, from hearty stews to spaghetti and meat balls."
In addition to beef and pork, Malbec pairs well with lamb, game and bittersweet chocolate, said MacLean.
A very popular value Malbec is the Altos Las Hormigas, at about $10 a bottle. Alamos is another good brand that sells for about $15.
BK Wine Brief
March 14, 2009
By Britt Karlsson
Natalie MacLean is a productive wine writer who also has an active life on the internet. She has just launched a new wine and food matching “widget” for social media.
What does this mean?
Well, it’s a small piece of code that one can use if one has a blog or a web page. By putting the code on one’s page, one gets a little frame on the page with a food and wine matching tool to help you match the best wine with food.
You can discover many things with the widget, sometimes quite amusing. For example, that if you’re serving baguette the perfect match is Monbazillac (a sweet white wine from near Bergerac) or Merlot. And if you want to finish a bottle of Bandol, you could serve grilled vegetables.
Try it yourself.
Blatimore Examiner 2
March 11, 2009
By Kit Pollard
Natalie MacLean is a food and wine expert and an all-around good writer. When I have questions about what to drink with a meal, or what's new on the wine horizon, I usually go to her website. There's so much information crammed into one site that it's almost overwhelming.
One of the cooler features of the site is her "Drinks Matcher" tool. You choose a food or choose a wine and the matcher will tell you what, well, matches. The level of detail is surprising - Nat includes more than just a few standard meals and a wide variety of wines. Play around with it and I guarantee you'll learn something.
While the tool has been available on her website for a while, it's now also available for free download as a widget. You can add it to Facebook, to an email, or to a bunch of other web applications.
Brockville Recorder and Times
April 10, 2008
By Judy Creighton
The Brockville Recorder and Times published the same story as the London Free Press.
Calgary Herald
May 30, 2007
Renowned wine writer's pairing advice
By Shelley Boettcher
Trying to kill time but look productive in the office this morning? Consider a wine education site.
Chances are good that if you're Canadian and you enjoy reading about wine, you've heard about Canuck wine writer Natalie MacLean. Her book, Red, White and Drunk All Over has sold thousands of copies around the world since it was published early last year, and she's won pretty much every wine writing award in the world. And there are a lot of them.
Natalie's website is a terrific source for people interested in learning more about wine; I'm especially fond of her food and wine matcher (http://www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher), which gives hints for beginning oenophiles trying to plan meals. Choose a food category (appetizers, desserts, for instance), or choose a wine (red, white, sparkling etc.) She'll offer up dish suggestions, recipes and, of course, a list of wines to try.
And when you get bored of menu planning, you can always go back to her main site. You can poke around the site and read her often-hilarious wine articles for hours. Or at least till it's time to go home and put your newfound knowledge into practice.
Canadian Press
March 31, 2008
By Judy Creighton
Four Canadians, including a cookbook author, a magazine and a wine writer as well as a television producer, have been nominated for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Awards for 2008.
Established in 1990, the awards recognize culinary professionals for excellence and achievement in their field. They are dedicated to James Beard, who died in 1985. He was a cookbook author and teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge about food.
He helped mentor and educate generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts.
Trish Magwood of Toronto has been nominated in the entertaining cookbooks category for her 2007 cookbook "Dish Entertains" (Harper Collins). She is also a successful food entrepreneur who owns Dish Cooking Studio in Toronto.
Toronto freelance food writer Sasha Chapman has been nominated in the Food-Related Consumer Issues segment of the competition for her piece "Sitting Ducks," which appeared in Toronto Life magazine in 2007.
A previous four-time winner of James Beard Awards for her writing about drinks, Natalie MacLean of Ottawa is nominated this year in the multimedia category for her presentation "When Food Fights With Wine."
And for his production of Bocuse d'Or 2007, Nick Versteeg of Shaw Cable in Victoria, B.C., is nominated in the Television Food Special category.
The awards and reception will take place at the Lincoln Centre in New York Sunday, June 8. The journalism and broadcast media awards will be presented at the Hudson Theatre on Friday, June 6.
Canadian Wine Facts
By Natalie MacLean
1. Canadian wine making is not a recent phenomenon. Viking explorer Leif Ericson first named Canada Vinland in 1001 BCE after he found so many vines growing where he landed at L’Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland. In 1535, Jacques Cartier also found many grapes growing on the island he named Ile de Bacchus (later known as Ile d’Orleans).
2. Jesuit priests found that wine made from the native rough-hewn grapes, which were not classic vitis vinifera grapes, was barely palatable for sacramental purposes. Vitis vinifera grapes were first planted in the 1900s.
3. Johann Schiller, a retired German soldier, is known as the father of the Canadian wine industry. In 1811, he applied his expertise from Rhine winemaking to 400 acres of grapes planted in the Niagara region of Ontario.
4. The first commercial winery was Vin Villa on Pelee Island in 1866. Today there are 250 wineries with in six provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
5. By 1919 all provinces went dry under Prohibition except Quebec which banned the sale of all alcohol but beer and wine. In a strange twist, Canadian law made it illegal to sell but not to manufacture liquor. Alcohol was also permitted for medicinal, scientific, industrial, sacramental and mechanical purposes. The inevitable result was the proliferation of basement, kitchen and cow shed distilleries as well as a booming smuggling trade to the US.
6. As Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock noted at the time “To get a drink during Prohibition it is necessary to go to the drugstore and lean up against the counter making a gurgling sigh like apoplexy. One often sees there apoplexy cases lined up four deep.” The use of alcohol for “medicinal reasons” became so loosely defined that the government eventually required tonic wine makers to add an ingredient that would cause the “patient” to vomit above the stated dosage. These “therapeutic wines” soon lost their market following.
7. At the end of Prohibition, each provincial government decided to regulate the sale alcohol similar to the system in Scandinavia. The government monopoly in Canada’s largest province, Ontario, is the world’s largest single purchaser of wine in the world buying 8.5 million cases annually (that’s twelve 750 ml bottles per case or 76.2 million litres in total). Approximately 69 percent of the current price of wine is comprised of government taxes.
8. In 1955, Bright’s winery produced the first 100 percent Canadian chardonnay. Up to this point, the most illustrious brand in the company’s repertoire was a Catawba grape-based sherry that was dubbed “Bright’s Disease” by less than enthusiastic tipplers.
9. In the early 1970s, Canadians preferred sweet “pop wines”; one of every 24 bottles consumed in Canada was Andre’s Baby Duck sparkling wine. The menagerie of other pop wines on the market at that time included Gimli Goose, Pink Flamingo, Baby Deer, Baby Bear, Little White Duck, Fuddle Duck and Luv-a-Duck and Pussycat.
10. In addition to the classical varieties, Canada grows several unique hybrids such as Baco Noir, Seyval Blanc, Marechal Foch, a cross between Pinot Noir and Gamay grapes, and Vidal, often used as the basis for its world renowned ice wine.
11. Canada’s cool climatic conditions enable it to be the largest ice wine producer in the world. The grapes for ice wine must be gathered and pressed at a temperature not higher than –8oC. Although both Germany and Austria are large ice wine producers, their climates are not as consistently cold as is Canada’s to guarantee ice wine production every year. Canada produces over 2 million 375ml bottles of ice wine annually. The average price of C$45/bottle in Canada will go as high as C$220 in Japan.
12. Ontario’s premier wine regions include Niagara Peninsula, Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island. British Columbia hosts the second largest grape growing regions including the Okanagan Valley, Similkameen Valley, Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island. The lakes and geography within these regions moderate temperatures and provide an excellent microclimate for grape growing. Eventually, subregions within these appellations will be created based on distinct microclimatic conditions. Canada’s wine regions are on the same latitude as Burgundy, France; Chianti Classico, Italy and Rioja, Spain.
13. Cool climates such as Canada’s produce grapes that are naturally higher in a chemical compound resveratrol. Resveratrol is the anti-oxidant in grape skins that protects the fruit against fungus attacks, and when consumed in wine, appears to reduce fat and cholesterol in human blood which contribute to heart disease.
14. Canadian wines have consistently won medals at international competitions over the past decade. For example, the Niagara winery Inniskillin won France's highest award, the Grand Prix d'Honneur, at the 1991 Vinexpo against 4,100 wines for its 1989 Ice Wine. Other awards have included Grand Golds at VinItaly for icewine and chardonnay, the Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande Trophy for the best blended red, the Civart Tophy for the best of the gold medal winning dessert wines and six gold medals at Vinexpo '97, of which three were for red wines. In March 1999, the British Columbia winery Calona Vineyards won the gold at Chardonnay du Monde competition (World Chardonnay) in France for its 1997 Artist Series Chardonnay.
15. In 1988, the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) was created to ensure minimum quality standards in designated Ontario appellations somewhat similar to the designations in France (Appellation Origine de Controlle or AOC) or the US (American Viticultural Area or AVA). Since then British Columbia has also adopted the system. VQA wines are tested by an independent tasting panel for typicity, quality and the absence of faults. Winemaking techniques and grape ripeness are also audited. Efforts are underway to nationalize the system which would help Canadian wineries to export to European markets where often country-wide standards must first be in place.
16. California winemaker Ernest & Julio Gallo make two and half times the amount of wine that Canadians drink annually. Canada’s largest winery, Vincor, produces 7 million cases annually making it the fifth largest winery in North America.
17. In the year ended March 31, 1997, Canadians spent $11.4 billion on beer, wine and spirits, a 3.6 percent increase over the previous year. They consume an average of 10.6 litres of wine per capita annually, of which 40% is red wine, 42% white and 18% sparkling, fortified and other wines combined. The highest consumption is in the north: those from the Yukon drink an average of 19 litres per capita. Over the past five years, wine consumption has increased 3.2 percent while beer and spirits decreased by 4.7 percent and 7.5 percent respectively.
18. The United States is Canada’s largest wine export market, and in 1997, Canada exported 180,000 bottles to America.
19. To find out more about the Canadian wine industry, visit the following web site: http://winesofontario.org and http://www.bcwine.ca.
Canadian Wines
By Natalie MacLean
What better way to celebrate Canada Day than with wines that are truly our own? Choice isn’t a problem with 250 wineries in eight provinces producing 120 million bottles annually. But it’s the quality of Canadian wines, rather than the quantity, will convince you that they are the ideal complement to summer fare. Although many Ontario and British Columbia wines are available nationally, those from smaller operations may only be available in their home provinces. This makes them a special treat worth sampling if you encounter them during your summer travels.
Canada has a long history with the grape. Viking explorer Lief Erickson first named the country "Vineland" in 1001 BCE when he saw so many vines growing in Newfoundland.
Although the classic vitus vinifera grapes such as cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay do not grow in the province, blueberries, cloudberries, lingoberries, or partridge berries, are the basis for three wineries making fruit wines. These wines exhibit a fresh berry character with bright acidity, making them great accompaniments to lobster dinners and other fish dishes. Try the Rodrigues Markland Cottage Winery Patridgeberry/Lingoberry Wine ($11) and serve it chilled. Rodrigues Markland wines, which are all certified kosher, are available in Newfoundland, Ontario and Alberta.
Moving west, six Nova Scotia wineries make wines during a growing season that is shorter and cooler than those in Ontario and British Columbia. Therefore, vintners use winter hardy grapes such as marèchal foch (a cross between pinot noir and gamay grapes), de chaunac, seyval blanc and vidal blanc as well as German varietals such as riesling and gewürztraminer. Jost Vineyards, located on the Northumberland Strait in Malagash, won twenty-two medals in international wine competitions in 1999 alone. The Jost Vineyards Marèchal Foch 1997 ($9) has dark fruit aromas that pair well with barbecued hamburgers topped with salsa or a seared pepper-encrusted steak. The wine is available in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Manitoba.
Rossignol Estate Winery is the only wine producer on Prince Edward Island. Its fruit and table wines are bottled with labels bearing the artwork of Nancy Perkins, a P.E.I artist, and John Rossingol, the win The seyval blanc and marèchal foch wines won two silver medals at the Intervin International Awards for Wine Achievement in New York while the fruit wines have also received recognition in competition. Try the Rossignol Estate Winery Strawberry Rhubarb ($15) made from lightly pressed fruit that is aged for a year to make this sweet amber wine. It drinks well as an aperitif or as a pie-in-a-glass dessert on its own.
With its cold climate, Quebec is traditionally known for producing fine maple syrup, not fine wine. However, about fifteen wineries produce 250,000 bottles annually, ninety percent of which is white wine, mostly seyval blanc. About half of Quebec’s wine is produced in the Eastern Townships, eighty kilometers southeast of Montreal, where there are more hours of sunshine on average than the rest of the province. The province’s winemaking heritage goes back to 1535 when French explorer Jacques Cartier found so many grapes growing on Ile d’Orleans that he named it Ile de Bacchus after the Greek god of wine.
Vignoble du Marathonien Cuvée Spéciale 1999 ($12), a blend of cayuga, seyal blanc and vidal grapes, has a floral and orange peel aroma similar to the muscat grape. It goes well with chicken dishes and other white meat with sweet sauces. Vignoble de l’Orpailleur’s Vin Blanc 1999 ($11), made from seyval blanc, is a dry white wine with an intense green apple nose and a hint of honey. Drink it with shellfish, white meat and mild cheeses. Both wineries have won medals at international wine competitions.
Ontario’s premier wine regions, Niagara Peninsula, Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island, are on the same latitude as those of Burgundy, France; Chianti, Italy; and Rioja, Spain. The cool climate enables vintners in Ontario along with those in B.C. and Quebec to be the largest ice wine producers in the world. Although both Germany and Austria are large ice wine producers, their climates are not as consistently cold as is Canada’s to guarantee ice wine production every year. Canada produces over 2 million 375ml bottles of ice wine annually. The average price of $45/bottle in Canada will go as high as $220 in Japan.
When the Niagara winery Inniskillin won France’s 1991 Grand Prix d'Honneur for its icewine, the world started to take note of Canadian wine. To win this vinous Nobel Prize, Inniskillin competed against 4,100 wines. While icewines may be made in the winter, they drink well year-round and most of Ontario’s wineries make them. Their sweetness allows them to go with the sweetest of summer desserts. Most are sold in the half bottle size (375 ml), so a bottle can easily be shared by two. Try Inniskillin Vidal Icewine 1998 ($50) and Hillebrand Trius Vidal Icewine 1998 ($45). Also try Inniskillin Sparkling Vidal Icewine 1998 ($90) or Magnotta Sparkling Vidal Icewine ($50), both have an effervescence that softens the perception of sweetness on the palate, allowing these wines to complement a wider range of foods such as veined cheese, nuts and fruit desserts.
In addition to sweet and sparkling wines, Ontario produces a wide range of red and white still wines. Cave Spring Riesling 1999 ($11) is crisp, refreshing white wine that is among the most food friendly, pairing easily with most summer dishes. Henry of Pelham Baco Noir 1999 ($12) has long been known as a benchmark for this varietal red wine with a plummy palate that stands up to grilled and charred meats. Stoney Ridge Cabernet Franc 1999 ($12), with a spicy bell pepper nose, also drinks well with barbecued meats.
Banach Winery in North Battleford, Saskatchewan’s only winery, produces fruit wines based cranapple, strawberry, black cherry and raspberry. The Banach Winery Sir Walter ($12) is made from fresh raspberries with medium sweetness balanced with a touch of tart acidity. It goes well with raspberry and other fruit desserts, and served slightly chilled, it makes a lovely sipping wine for long summer evenings.
British Columbia hosts the largest grape growing region after Ontario with about fifty-five wineries in the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, Similkameen Valley and Okanogan Valley which produces sixty-five percent of the province’s wine. The lakes and geography within these regions moderate temperatures and provide an excellent microclimate for grape growing.
Sixty-five percent of B.C.’s wines are white and include the classic varieties as well as hybrids. For some pleasantly unusual and aromatic white wines, try the Mission Hill Chenin Blanc 1999 ($8) or the Sumac Ridge Pinot Blanc ($12). The province also grows wonderfully rich, fruity red wines such as the Calona Heritage Collection Merlot 1999 ($9) and Okanogan Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 ($9). B.C.’s wines have also won numerous awards in international competition, including the gold medal at the 1999 Chardonnay du Monde competition (World Chardonnay) in France for the Calona Vineyards 1997 Artist Series Chardonnay. Try the current release Calona Vineyards Heritage Collection Chardonnay 1999 ($9).
In addition to tasting Canadian wine this summer, why not visit one of our wine regions? Most of the wineries are nestled in spectacular settings, and they pair wonderfully well with local cuisine, making the trip a gastronomic delight.
Central Pennsylvania Magazine
July 2009
By Donna Marie Desfor
It wasn’t long ago that I decided to set out to learn more about wine.
As I immersed myself in the subject, I begrudgingly discovered there was more to learn than I ever wanted. The simple fact is, I, like most people, wanted a few simple, easy-to-follow rules to pair wine with my food. Much to my surprise, I learned that a lifetime of eating experiences gives us all the basic tools we can use to understand food flavor combinations and wine compatibility.
Instinctively we know that corn-on-the cob tastes best with butter. Or a splash of lemon on seafood magically improves its taste. Just as any chef will tell you that seasoning food with salt will brighten its flavor, a wine professional will tell you the best way to boost a food’s flavor is with wine.
Dave Burkhard, general manager at Mount Hill Tavern Restaurant and Bar in Harrisburg, is currently in a sommelier certification program. He says, “You don’t have to know the fancy wine terms to tell your wine professional what it is that you like about wine. My job is to listen to what you say and then guide you in your choice to find the best match for your taste.” He adds that the wine buyers for Pennsylvania’s Wine and Spirits Shoppes can do the same thing.
When you don’t happen to have a wine professional by your side, there are three basic concepts you can use to pair food with wine: balance, complement and contrast. Just as you might attempt to balance the richness of a sauce with a rich cut of meat, or pair the distinct flavors of ethnic dishes, or serve unexpected flavors together, wine can be thought of as an ingredient and used in much the same way. “Fortunately,” Burkhard says, “many wine labels now include a description of flavor, style or body that can help you make your selection.”
So what of the old adage “red with meat, white with fish?” This is where the concept of balance came into being. Balance is about matching the mouth-feel of each part of the pair. No one component of the pairing should feel heavier (or lighter) in the mouth than the other. Delicate foods such as mild, flaky fish balance well with wines that have a lighter feel in the mouth. Heavier foods, including many meats such as beef, duck or lamb, go well with full-bodied wines. This idea of balance is especially true with dessert: You serve rich, concentrated wines with rich, luscious foods.
If you want to have some real fun with pairing, play with the flavors in your food and wine and pick a common (complementing) flavor in both. Syrah, for example, known for its peppery notes, would be complemented by steak encrusted with pepper, or served with a sauce au poivre. Then, when you are ready to be adventurous, look to contrast a predominant flavor in your food with the flavor of your wine. Think of using a slightly sweet wine, perhaps a Viognier, to contrast a cuisine with a bit of spice, like Thai or dishes that use the now popular Chinese Five Spice. Or, you might even try pairing an old vine Zinfandel, which is known for its rich cherry notes, with vanilla ice cream.
For those who think even these basics are too much to remember, Natalie MacLean, who publishes one of the largest wine e-newsletters at nataliemaclean.com, offers an online and downloadable (in just three clicks) Drinks Matcher widget that answers questions from “which wine tastes best with pork chops in a maple glaze?” to “does rosemary-grilled halibut invite red or white wine?” MacLean suggests that “the protein you choose is often the vehicle for flavor in a dish. Whether you add herbs, sauces or other seasoning, consider this first when matching your wine.” You can search the Matcher to pair meat, pasta, seafood, vegetarian dishes, pizza, takeout, sauces, herbs, cheese or dessert. “The Drink Matcher is meant to be a springboard to help you discover the matches you prefer. The perfect pairing, of course, is between you and the wine you like,” says MacLean.
Of course there’s the ever-popular, if somewhat clichéd, rule to food and wine pairing that “if you like it, then it’s a good match.” But it’s as much fun to discover new wines as it is to taste different foods with them. Burkhard, who oversees a cellar of almost 300 bottles, is quick to point out that his restaurant changes the wines-by-the-glass list regularly. “Within one month the entire list is changed,” he says. “This way people can experience different types of wines or wine blends that they might have passed up if they had to buy a whole bottle.”
If I’ve learned anything from my brief foray into the ever-changing world of wine, it’s that the starting point is as simple as knowing what tastes and flavors I like, and understanding why I like them. From there it becomes one big tasting adventure. There are literally thousands of combinations of flavors and tastes in both food and wine. Some of those combinations are bound to be delicious, and others inevitably will be a disaster. The best thing to remember when it comes to wine and food pairing, though, is not to worry too much about it. Simply taste and enjoy the experience.
Donna Marie Desfor is a chef and owner of There’s a Chef in My Kitchen, LLC, a culinary education–based business in Hampden Township, Cumberland County. Professionally trained in contemporary French Cuisine in South Africa’s number-one-rated Bosman’s restaurant, Desfor now hosts Food Wednesdays, witf.org’s online food section that provides recipes, chefs’ tips and tricks, and delicious information about food in Central PA.
Grilled Korean Pork Chops
This is an easy and tasty marinade that transforms into a delicious glaze with the heat of the grill. The heat from the chile in this dish can overpower the fruit in a wine, so take care not to overdo it. Try a fruity, full-bodied Grenache or a Grenache-Shiraz blend with this dish. Shao Xing wine is a rice-based Chinese cooking wine that is readily available in Asian markets or some ethnic sections of better grocery store chains.
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon roasted red chile paste
2 Tablespoons Shao Xing wine (substitute sherry)
3 Tablespoons Mirin
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 green onions, white and light green parts only, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 Tablespoons finely minced ginger
1 Tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
6 center-cut, bone-in pork chops, about 1 inch thick (about 4-5 pounds total)
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, to garnish
Combine soy sauce and the next 9 ingredients (roasted red chile paste through black pepper) in a bowl. Divide pork chops between two heavy-duty storage bags (or place the chops in a large, shallow bowl) and add equal amounts of the soy sauce mixture to each. Seal the bags and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 8, turning the bags once or twice. Prepare the grill for direct, medium-high heat. Lightly brush the grate with vegetable oil. Remove the chops from the marinade and place on the grill. Discard the remaining marinade. Grill with the lid closed about 6 to 8 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the chops. Remove to a platter, tent with foil and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds. Serves 6.
Clams in Garlic Miso Sauce With Red Pepper
This dish was inspired by some of the finest bistro food I have ever enjoyed. At Yasu Sushi Bistro in Phoenix, Arizona, I was treated to Manila clams in a rich, but slightly sweet, garlic miso sauce with dried Japanese red bell pepper. For a nice summer match, try a bright, unoaked chardonnay or a slightly sweet varietal like Viognier.
2 Tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 Tablespoons butter
6 to 8 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 Tablespoon finely minced ginger
1 small shallot, finely minced
½ cup sake (substitute Chinese cooking wine)
¼ cup miso (light)
½ teaspoon sugar
4 cups chicken stock (substitute high-quality canned chicken broth)
1 bag (50 count) littleneck clams, scrubbed and rinsed
1 small Thai red chile, stemmed and seeded and very thinly sliced, for garnish
Place a Dutch-oven or medium-size stock pot over medium heat. Add grapeseed oil and butter. When butter is melted, add the garlic, ginger and shallot. Sauté for 1 to 2 minutes until soft and the garlic is just beginning to turn golden. Do not let the garlic brown. Add the sake and whisk in the miso and sugar to combine. Raise heat to high, add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce mixture by about half. Add the clams, cover and cook until clams open. Uncover and reduce heat to medium. Continue to reduce the liquid until you have a slightly thickened, rich-tasting broth. Add the chile for garnish. Ladle broth and clams into a bowl. Serve immediately. Serves 4 to 6 as an appetizer or first course.
Centre Daily Times
February 3, 2008
By Jo and Tom Chesworth
With Valentine’s Day coming, are you wondering which red wine to have with your chocolate? Did you ever wonder which red grape is responsible for the most red wine? Perhaps it’s Cabernet Sauvignon, the major component of most Bordeaux red wines and a mainstay in California vineyards. Wrong. It isn’t Merlot, the major component in the rest of the Bordeaux reds and a darling of California wines. Nor is it Zinfandel. So much for most California reds.
How about Pinot Noir, the great red grape of Burgundy and Oregon? Nope. Well then, it must be Shiraz, also called Syrah, grown in Australia and grown, by law, on the right bank of the Rhone River south of Lyon, France. That’s not it, nor is the Native American Concord grape, a wine that is not even considered to be a grape wine.
In fact, it is none of the “international grapes” nor any of the fashionable “named varietals.” It is difficult to find its name on a wine label for reasons that are political. In France there are four official levels of quality. The two highest levels are based on the area where the grapes are grown and the wine is made. In general, the smaller and more specific the area, the higher the wine’s quality. The rules require that vineyards grow only specified grapes, plant only so many vines per acre and that the wine has a minimum alcohol level. The system is called AOC, (Appellation d’Origine Contrôllèe) and the second level is VDQS, a sort of AOC in waiting. The key rule in the system is that, with very few exceptions, you are not allowed to put a varietal name on the label. No Merlot, no Cabernet Sauvignon, and no Pinot Noir.
The next level is vin du pais on whose label you may put a varietal name, but they don’t bother in Europe. However, if they’re making wine for the American market, they do.
The lowest level in the quality system is vin du table which is seldom exported and is usually found in unlabeled plastic milk bottles in supermarkets in France or delivered by the farmer with the morning milk and eggs. Only in the new world do consumers look for varietal names on their wine labels.
The name of the most widely grown red grape, because little of it is grown outside Europe, almost never appears on a label. In France, the country that produces the most wine, it is called Grenache. In Spain it is Garnacha, and up until the mid-1960s there was more Grenache than Shiraz grown in Australia.
It is grown in Provence, France, across the southern border from Italy, through Chateauneuf du Pape to Marseilles, then along the Mediterranean coast in Languedoc- Roussoillon and on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees to the Atlantic south of Bordeaux. Because the grape grows along the Mediterranean, it does very well in that climate (like Southern California) so that Grenache may be the next California wine of the month.
If you wish to indulge in Grenache with your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, you might want to get a bottle of 2003 d’Arenberg Grenache from the Derelict Vineyard in McLaren Vale in South Australia at $25 a bottle. Or perhaps try one of the most food-friendly red wines, Chateauneuf -du-Pape. Georges Duboeuf has a range of prices from $9 for the frugal among us to $24 for the profligate.
Natalie MacLean, author of the popular book Red, White and Drunk All Over, calls wine “liquid sensuality and when you pair it with the mouth-coating luxury of chocolate, the combination is impossible to resist.” Some of her matches are chocolate-covered biscotti with Valpolicella (Italy), chocolate- orange cake and Liqueur Muscat (Australia), chocolate with nuts and Tawny Port (Portugal), or milk chocolate and Tokaji (Hungary).
Or you might try the valentine we are giving each other — Barton & Guestier’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape at $22 and Hershey’s Dark Chocolate at 60 cents a bar.
Charleston Gazette
June 5, 2007
By John Brown
As I’ve almost evangelistically proclaimed over the years: “Brothers and Sisters, you got to drink that wine with victuals. Say hallelujah!” Both the wine and the food are enhanced and your sensory pleasure is doubled. One of the best websites I’ve found to get up-to-date information on matching food and wine is: www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher.
Natalie MacLean, award-winning author of the website, is also author of “Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.” The link above is not just a place to find special occasion food and wine matches. MacLean’s says her matching tool pairs wines with everyday meals, as well as challenging fare, such as vegetarian cuisine, egg-based sauces, cheese, TV dinners, and even dessert, including Jell-O and fudge (for those who like to layer their vices).
Chatelaine
April 2008
By Natalie MacLean
Raise a glass of great vino with help from Chatelaine's wine expert Natalie MacLean. Here are her tips to serving – and enjoying – a perfect glass.
1. Decanting
Pour wine out of the bottle and into a decanter, which can be a water jug, specially designed wine decanter or another large vessel to soften the wine and clarify it of any remaining sediment (the tiny particles from the grapes). Exposing robust red wines to air softens their harsh tannins, which make them taste smoother. White wines don't have strong tannins, so they taste best when fresh from the bottle.
2. Red wine temperature
Serve red wine at about 17C. You can buy a wine thermometer if you really want to be sure, but the wine should be slightly cooler than room temperature. Some light reds, such as beaujolais or other gamay region wines, are better served at cooler temperatures to capture their freshness.
3. White wine temperature
Serve white wine chilled to about 13C. When you pour it, your glass should feel cool but not ice-cold – it shouldn't mist over.
4. Good glasses
A good glass does make wine taste better. All you really need are two all-purpose styles: the bordeaux glass (with a rounded bowl) is the most versatile for reds, and the sauvignon blanc glass (with more of a tulip-shaped bowl) works for most whites. Leading glassware makers include Baccarat, Schott Zwiesel, Waterford, Spiegelau and Riedel.
5. Quality scent
Be sure to smell the wine before you serve it. Whether it's red or white, if it smells like musty cardboard, it may be corked. This flaw occurs when a chemical from the cork leaches into the wine. There's no salvaging it, so try another bottle.
Chef 2 Chef
A Magnum-Sized Resume
Natalie MacLean is more than just an accredited sommelier; she's a wine writer, speaker, wine judge, and publisher of one of the largest wine newsletters on the Internet.
"I've been writing about wine for 10 years," says MacLean, "I love the 'research' aspect of my job and am very thorough about it."
She's good at it, too. Her book, Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass, was named Best Wine Book in the English Language at the Gourmand Cookbook Awards. It also won the Culinary Literary Book Award in the Cordon d'Or international culinary arts competition.
Impressive, but MacLean was just getting warmed up. Her outstanding writing has also won her numerous other awards including: four prestigious James Beard Foundation Awards, six Bert Greene awards, five awards from the American Association of Journalists, and four North American Travel Writers Association awards, to name a few.
Uncorking Today's Wine Culture
Though her resume is a bit intimidating, MacLean is anything but. Noted for her quick wit and remarkably easygoing approach to wine, she's a cool breeze in an industry characterized by stiff know-it-alls. Think you need to cross-check dozens of rules before uncorking your next bottle? Think again.
"The only rule is to drink what you like," says MacLean. "If the wine you like doesn't go with the food you're eating, for goodness sakes, have a bun in between."
It's this open attitude that makes MacLean's work so attractive to beginners just learning the vines and experienced wine fanatics alike.
Smartphone Wine Pairing Guide: Your Pocket Sommelier and Bartender
Whether you're new to wine and need a little help choosing one that works with the lamb you just ordered, or you know your way around the bottle but would like to try something new, MacLean's new smartphone application, the Nat Decants Drinks Matcher, will help you get it right.
"As a wine-loving geek, I love finding ways for new technology to help us savor all of life's pleasures, wherever we are," says MacLean. "My food and wine pairing tool captures all of that learning and those thousands of combinations in a simple, interactive format that anyone can use anywhere."
MacLean's virtual food and wine pairing application is compatible with your iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry Bold, and BlackBerry Curve. Offering much more than a standard wine pairing guide, this Drinks Matcher offers more than 380,000 recipe pairings for everything from campfire grub to gourmet fare.
"Food and wine pairing should be an adventure, but that doesn't mean all combinations are winners. "There's a reason we don't put ketchup on ice cream," says MacLean. "I've spent 8 years testing various combinations--I am a thoroughly hedonistic researcher."
Enjoy the fruits of MacLean's labor by downloading the Nat Decants Drink Matcher for $2.99. You can also read more of MacLean's work and sign up for her newsletter at www.nataliemaclean.com.
Chester Chronicle
August 9, 2009
As mobile phone applications, RSS Feeds and websites become more sophisticated, food lovers no longer need to scan cookery books for inspiration for their evening meal.
When four American University students set up a recipe-sharing website in 1997, their motivation was anthropological rather than commercial.
However, within ten years their website, designed to explore how people share recipes, had grown into one of the world's biggest food websites - allrecipes.com.
According to vice president of marketing, Esmee Williams, it was people at home rather than web entrepeneurs, who made this site a success.
"We just created the technology," she explains. "It was the community who created the content."
With 15 million visitors every year, this easy-to-use website has proven that, when it comes to food and technology, the internet foodie world is not just limited to Blackberries.
But while using the internet to find recipes, do the weekly shop or just order a takeaway has become normal thanks to forward-thinking companies like Allrecipes, the launch of Apple's iPhone two years ago took things one step further.
Easy-to-download applications which could be used on the move, became available, and this month allrecipes.co.uk launched their first iPhone 'app'.
"We first introduced our first mobile phone application ten years ago. But back then it was a small screen and a miserable experience," Williams remembers.
Faster internet connections and better-designed websites changed all that and the companies' 'Dinner Spinner' application has already had 1.5 million downloads in the US.
With a slot machine-like search facility, those who can't decide on their dinner can simply shake their iPhone to activate the Dinner Spinner. No typing is needed.
You could then download another application to help you buy the ingredients, adds Jon Rudoe, head of retail at Ocado.com
"Our application enables you to do a full shop, anytime," he explains.
"You could be sitting on a tube and choosing your products. Your list would then be synced to your Ocado account when you go above ground."
This is great news for those who prefer to make up their shopping lists spontaneously, rather than sitting in front of a computer.
Ordering online is also a handy way to keep an eye on your budget.
"When you're standing in the supermarket you can't do an instant price comparison," Jon points out. "But online you can, so we have to be competitive. You can also see exactly how much you're spending as you go along."
A common myth about Ocado.com is that it only stocks Waitrose products, when in fact the site offer 19,000 products. All branded goods sold on Ocado.com are price-matched with Tesco, and their Waitrose own-label produce is sold at "internet only" prices, which makes them cheaper than you would find in-store.
But if you're still not sold on apps and websites, here are a few sites to get you started...
Eat fresher
Download www.seasonsapp.com to find out which fruits and vegetables are in season. The application includes information on fruits, vegetables, lettuces, herbs, fungi and nuts, so you can save the planet while tickling your taste buds. If you haven't got an iPhone, visit www.eattheseasons.co.uk, instead.
Allergies
Whether you're intolerant to dairy, gluten or nuts, this application will help you choose your meals in restaurants, as well as reminding you what questions to ask your waiter. Visit www.allergyfreepassport.com. Or if you need general advice go to www.eatwell.gov.uk.
Matching food and wine
You might have worked out what to eat and how to buy it online - but do you know what to drink? Get some instant expert advice from Natalie Maclean and you'll never get confused in a wine store again. Visit www.nataliemaclean.com/mobilematch or head to her website for advice, podcasts and subscription to the newsletter.
Chicago Tribune
By Bill Daley
California chardonnays apparently have a wicked identity crisis. For the last few seasons, they've drawn plenty of criticism for being either too big and blowsy, or way too skinny and vacuous. You're left wondering what is the real face of chardonnay, which remains, still, the most popular wine variety in the United States.
But even knowing of this white grape's multiple personalities, I was still caught off-guard during a recent, disappointing tasting of just-released California chardonnays from the 2007 and 2008 vintages.
Only the 2007 Chateau St. Jean Belle Terre Vineyard chardonnay stood out. This wine smelled, tasted and looked like a chardonnay. The eight others were muted, bland, pale. The taste panel was stunned at the lack of character in these wines, which ranged in price from $8 to $44. A few weeks later, a tasting of four more new chardonnays went better. Still, only the 2008 Scott Family Estate Chardonnay from the Arroyo Seco region and the 2007 Bridlewood Estate Chardonnay from Monterey really stood out.
A few days after this second tasting, The Wall Street Journal took newly released high-end California chardonnay to task.
The verdict: Too many "stupid, insulting wines."
What's happening here?
I kept wondering if California chardonnay-makers, long stung by accusations of making high-alcohol, oaky butter bombs, had simply turned tail in the face of the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) movement and hard economic times. Maybe they were trying to encourage American wine drinkers to scamper in the opposite flavor direction, but if so, at what stylistic price?
"California chardonnay is in danger of becoming the indecision beige of the wine world," warned Natalie MacLean, publisher of a wine newsletter at her Web site, nataliemaclean.com.
"Many wines I've tasted lately haven't left a good or bad impression: They've simply left no impression at all," she added. "They remind me of new homeowners who are afraid to commit to bold colors on their walls and end up opting for a neutral, boring palette."
Some wine experts believe the new, leaner chardonnays are for the better, especially if that means more independence from oak for flavoring and less frequent use of malolactic fermentation, a process that makes wines taste smoother, softer and, in chardonnay's case, more "buttery."
"I'm sure that some people are backing off the malolactic character of their chardonnays, and I think that's a good thing. Freshness in a white wine is almost obligatory, I think," said Doug Frost, a master sommelier and wine consultant in Prairie Village, Kansas. "But ... way too many wineries are making un-oaked or lightly oaked chardonnays, and almost all of these New World wines are utterly boring."
No matter how disappointing today's chardonnays can be, it's important to remember that serious winemaking in California is still a recent phenomenon, especially when you compare it with the centuries of oenological experience found in Burgundy, home to the most emulated chardonnays in the world. Perhaps California chardonnay just needs time to mature.
This question of personality is not just a problem for California chardonnay, according to Belinda Chang, wine director of The Modern restaurant in New York City.
"There is definitely something going on," she said. "I have seen a quiet shift among all chardonnay producers worldwide."
No longer cool is what Chang describes as "that over-the-top yeasty, creamy style."
Still, that may be what you prefer in a chardonnay. What to do?
There are thousands of chards from around the world. If the wine is unknown to you, try to figure out a way to get an evaluative sip before purchasing, especially if the bottle is a pricey one. That way you can be assured of drinking in the "personality" you like best.
Three chards with points of view
A recent tasting of nine newly released Golden State chardonnays was so disappointing that panelists agreed to try four more. Out of these two tastings, three favorites emerged: We decided they were chardonnays that were not afraid to be chardonnays.
2008 Scott Family Estate Chardonnay Arroyo Seco $25 A lush, complex wine made from Dijon chardonnay clones, it tastes like a much older Burgundy. It hails from the Arroyo Seco subregion of California's Monterey appellation. The color is appealingly golden. The voluptuous nose is heavy with notes of ripe pear, pineapple and spice. The flavor is big and round, with touches of pineapple, nectarines and clove. Serve with bacon-wrapped scallops.
2007 Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay Belle Terre Vineyard $25 There's an air of cantaloupe and chalk around this white from Sonoma's Alexander Valley. Buttery flavor plushed by touches of melon and oak. Serve with roast pork loin with chimichurri sauce.
2007 Bridlewood Estate Chardonnay $15 There's a lovely nose of caramel and vanilla to this Monterey white. Ripe pear and peaches are balanced on the palate by lively minerality. Serve with rosemary chicken.
Chicago Tribune
July 5, 2009
By Bill Daley
OK, so you don't know a box wine from a baby brunello and that big dinner with colleagues/clients/current object of obsession is just a day away. You want to be dining and wining but will likely be dining and whining ... especially if all you can say to the waiter is, "Got any wine coolers?"
You could sign up for Wine Appreciation 101, but frankly, who has the time? Enter your friend, The Faker, who called on Tribune wine critic Bill Daley for his cheat sheet on pro-style ordering. Follow his script, look like you know your way around a pinot. And whatever you do, don't be afraid to fake it.
Order a "weird" grape variety. For example, Daley says, the pros love dry riesling, but most people won't go near it. Too sweet, they fear. Yet they drink fruity cocktails. Go figure. Of course, you need to have an idea about how that "weird" wine tastes with food beforehand. A great simple-to-use Web site for food and wine pairings is Nat Decants (natdecants.com) by wine writer Natalie MacLean.
Type in the wine ("riesling") and you get a briefing on how the wine tastes and what foods she recommends (Thai dishes, California-style pizza, for example). Another click and you'll have specific wine bottles you can ask for when ordering. (Don't worry if the restaurant is out; ask for something similar in flavor -- and price.)
Spend a little. Never order the two cheapest wines on the list. Savvy wine drinkers know that the second-lowest-priced bottle is generally the highest markup. To hedge your bets, steer clear of the bargain basement and choose from the midpriced selections.
Hold the glass of wine up to the light before accepting the bottle. Study it, frown, say "hmmmm." No "amateur" looks at what they're drinking, Daley says. Or, if you want to be less show-offy, hold the glass out at an angle over a white plate or tablecloth. Replicate the above expression. All this has a serious side -- a brownish tinge means the wine is too old.
Smell the wine. Seriously. Give the glass a little spin so the wine swirls up the side of the glass, then stick your nose in and breathe deeply. Actually, this (like the light test above) is a serious component to evaluating a wine. A good aroma gives you pleasure while offering an indication of how the wine will taste. But if you don't really know what you're smelling, it's the gesture that counts.
Chicago Tribune
March 14, 2007
Drinking of the green (wine, that is)
By Bill Daley
If you ask me, way too many people will mark St. Patrick's Day this Saturday by sudsing it up with green beer. The rest of us can take heart; there are other liquid alternatives out there guaranteed to brighten the day. Take "green" wine.
Oh, not so much green in color, although certain varietals in a certain light take on limey highlights. I'm talking "green" as in flavor profile: crisp, herbaceous, apple-y. Delicious.
These often-spunky wines will stand up to all the corned beef and cabbage, shepherd's pie, fried fish, poached salmon and colcannon dished out over the weekend.
What fits the definition of green? Depends on whom you ask.
"When I think of 'green' wines, those that come to mind are zippy whites with herbal notes such as New Zealand sauvignon blanc, Italian verdicchio and Austrian gruner veltliner," said Natalie MacLean, author and creator of a free online food and wine matching system (nataliemaclean.com/matcher).
"They all have enough mouthwatering acidity to stand up to traditional pub dishes," she said.
Chicago Tribune (10)
April 8, 2009
By Bill Daley
The morning had been spent stomping through some of Bordeaux's most storied vineyards in a cold Atlantic wind, and now lunch was being served at Chateau Palmer.
The cozy first course was a deceptively simple one: eggs baked in a ramekin with red wine, bacon and onions. We all dug in, using tablespoons and sturdy strips of toast, as the last of the springtime chill seemed to melt away.
And, of course, there was a wine to help warm us, 1994 Chateau Palmer.
Drinking a $120 bottle of red wine with eggs was an epiphany. It seemed odd and excitingly un-American. The French preference for eggs at lunch and dinner and served with wine seemed so opposite from the American tradition of eggs at breakfast or brunch with, at most, a Bloody Mary on the side.
But experimenting with eggs at other times of the day, perhaps cooked and served with wine, makes lots of sense now. First, Easter is approaching and 62 percent of U.S. moms are poised to buy at least two dozen eggs to mark the occasion, according to the American Egg Board. Do something besides just hard-cooking them. Second, hard times mean people are looking for more affordable sources of protein such as eggs.
But there's a catch: "Eggs are notoriously tough on wines," said Evan Goldstein, president of Full Circle Wine Solutions, a spirits and wine education company based in San Francisco.
Goldstein, a master sommelier and author of "Perfect Pairings," a food and wine matching book, said dishes in which eggs have a starring role can dampen the profile of many dry wines.
"The egg cuts down on the acidity, it cuts down the impact of the wine dramatically," he said. "You get something that's a mere shadow of itself."
His solution? Pour a very acidic, crisp wine. Experiment with sparkling wine, gewurztraminer and riesling.
The eggs worked with the Chateau Palmer, he said, because the red wine and bacon sauce in which the eggs were cooked had enough acidity to switch the flavor focus from the egg itself.
Bacon, mushrooms and ham are "bridging ingredients" that help "smooth" red wines, such as pinot noir and syrah, to work with eggs, said Natalie MacLean, a Canadian wine writer who runs an online food and wine matcher at her Web site, nataliemaclean.com. For whites, she wants unoaked wines.
"I love unoaked chardonnay or sauvignon blanc with eggs because they don't have those heavy tannins and oak flavors that battle with the sulfur compounds in eggs," MacLean said.
The lack of oak is important, said Joshua Wesson, senior director of wine, beer and spirits for The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., better known as A&P.
"If you want to make someone suffer, serve them a barrel-aged chardonnay with an egg salad sandwich," Wesson once declared.
"You also need to consider the texture of the eggs," he said. "Look at scrambled eggs. If they are soft and runny they present a different challenge to a sommelier than if the eggs were firm. Wine, as a liquid, has trouble relating to another liquid-y food."
A light, even ethereal wine that matches the lightness and delicacy of the scrambled eggs would work, Wesson said. A dry manzanilla or fino sherry, or a very dry sparkling wine, are some of the better options.
The message is clear: Experiment with your favorite egg dishes and your favorite wines. You may be pleasantly surprised.
Chicago Tribune (2)
September 12, 2007
By Bill Daley
A ripe tomato deserves to be showcased at the table with, at least, a sprinkling of good salt and, at most, a piece or two of mozzarella, basil sprigs and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. And, to make it even more celebratory, be sure to pour some wine even though there's a challenge in finding one that will work with the lively, mouth-filling flavor tomatoes bring to the table.
Sommelier Marcus Will says the tart acidity of fresh tomatoes demands a wine equally electric or the wine will end up tasting flat.
"Move to a sauvignon blanc that's zippy and slightly racy," he says.
Will is not alone in recommending sauvignon blanc. Other experts suggest the herby sauvignon blancs from France's Loire and Bordeaux regions.
Natalie MacLean, the Canadian wine writer, also points to sauvignon blanc on her Web site, Nat Decants (nataliemaclean.com). But there are other wines, both red and white, that can work with tomatoes, such as an Italian barbera, because of their acidity.
"When tomatoes are cooked in a multi-ingredient dish or in a sauce, such as ratatouille or marinara, they're less harsh and their acid edge is softened," she noted in an e-mail interview. "With these dishes, you can try other juicy Italian reds, such as Valpolicella, sangiovese and dolcetto. They all have complementary ripe red fruit aromas, a touch of spice and a mouth-awakening acidity."
MacLean said pinot noirs from such cool climate regions as Burgundy, New Zealand and Oregon have a tartness to hold up to tomatoes. But warm-climate pinots, such as those from California and Australia, are "too ripe and flabby to hold their own," she said.
A fresh approach
2005 Domaine de Bel Air Pouilly Fume: This sauvignon blanc from France's Loire Valley perfectly matched the mouth-feel of tomatoes. Elegant, with notes of grapefruit and anise, this wine made the tomato taste even fresher. $23.
2004 Villa Giada Barbera d'Asti Ajan: Aromatic, with notes of spice, clove and pepper, this Italian red tasted of dark fruit and earth. Wine highlighted the tomato's natural sweetness. $22.
2005 Gustave Lorentz Gewurztraminer Reserve: This Alsatian white was better poured on its own. The oily richness of wine got lost amid the tomato's flavors. $18.
2004 Gobelsburger Gruner Veltliner: From Austria, this white offered butterscotch notes offset by a zesty acidity. Most tasters thought the wine overwhelmed the tomato. $18.
2004 Ruffino Chianti Superiore Il Leo: Rich Italian red with plump fruit underscored by notes of earth. Most tasters thought the wine did not improve when matched with the tomato. $17.
2005 Poderi Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto di Dogliani: Italian red with a very low profile, this wine's unassuming berry flavors almost disappeared when paired with the tomato's vitality. $19.
Chicago Tribune (3)
September 5, 2007
By Bill Daley
It's high season for tomatoes, that short but intense period when locally grown tomatoes seem to be everywhere: Farm stands, supermarkets, back-yard vines. One bite into a juicy, ripe sun-warmed tomato and you recognize once more what all the fuss is about after spending months dodging those wan, rock-hard "tomatoes" sold or served out-of-season.
A fresh, vine-ripened tomato deserves to be showcased at the table with, at least, a sprinkling of good salt and, at most, a piece or two of mozzarella, basil sprigs and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. And, to make it even more celebratory, be sure to pour some wine even though there's a challenge in finding one that will work with the lively, mouth-filling flavor tomatoes bring to the table.
Marcus Will, sommelier at Va Pensiero in Evanston, said that the tart acidity of fresh tomatoes demands a wine equally electric or the wine will end up tasting flat.
"Move to a sauvignon blanc that's zippy and slightly racy," he said.
Will is not alone in recommending sauvignon blanc. It is the tomato wine of choice for Efrain Madrigal, wine director of Sam's Wines & Spirits. He suggested the "especially herby" sauvignon blancs from France's Loire and Bordeaux regions.
"To me, these wines have an herby, almost tomato leaflike note that works well with uncooked tomatoes," he said.
Natalie MacLean, the Canadian wine writer, also points to sauvignon blanc on her Web site, Nat Decants (nataliemaclean.com). But there are other wines, both red and white, that can work with tomatoes, such as an Italian barbera, because of their acidity.
"When tomatoes are cooked in a multi-ingredient dish or in a sauce, such as ratatouille or marinara, they're less harsh and their acid edge is softened," she noted in an e-mail interview. "With these dishes, you can try other juicy Italian reds, such as Valpolicella, sangiovese and dolcetto. They all have complementary ripe red fruit aromas, a touch of spice and a mouth-awakening acidity."
MacLean said pinot noirs from such cool climate regions as Burgundy, New Zealand and Oregon have a tartness to hold up to tomatoes. But warm-climate pinots, such as those from California and Australia, are "too ripe and flabby to hold their own," she said.
Tom Benezra of Sal's Beverage World stores also recommended Italian reds, including Chianti and barbera.
"Rarely does one sit down to a meal of wine and fresh tomatoes alone," he said. "In summer, plain fresh tomatoes make a terrific side dish to grilled beef and lamb, so [those] red wines will work well."
But Benezra doesn't go with sauvignon blanc. He doesn't think New Zealand sauvignon blanc has "enough structure" to stand up to the "robust acidity" of a fresh tomato. As for the French sauvignons like Sancerre and Pouilly Fume, Benezra said they "often show flinty minerality ... which does not do tomatoes any favors."
His choice then? Gruner veltliner from Austria.
"This green wine has a steel structure which readily stands up to a juicy tomato while not competing with its flavors," he said.
He also favors fruity wines like a French Vouvray, made with chenin blanc grapes. He also said dry fino and manzanilla sherries with "their zesty, salty smell ... are a natural match with more strongly flavored fresh tomato dishes such as tomatoes with vinaigrette or gazpacho."
In their book, "What to Drink with What You Eat," authors Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg recommend a number of wines for tomatoes in their various forms: Pour a rose with raw tomatoes, a Spanish albarino for tomato confit, sangiovese and barbera for cooked tomatoes, and so on.
They also quote Brian Duncan, wine director of Chicago's Bin 36 restaurant. Serve a gewurztraminer with a platter of differently colored tomato slices sprinkled with olive oil, sea salt and basil and, he predicted, "People will think you are a rock star!"
Duncan told the authors that pairing raw tomatoes with the fruity, high-acid German wine would make it seem like you were tasting a tomato "for the very first time."
- - -
A fresh approach
The Good Eating wine tasting panel sampled one Austrian white, two French whites and three Italian reds to discover which worked best with tomatoes purchased at Chicago's Green City Market. As always in these informal blind tastings, the score reflects how well the wine matches up with the food.
2005 Domaine de Bel Air Pouilly Fume
This sauvignon blanc from France's Loire Valley perfectly matched the mouth-feel of the tomatoes. Elegant, with notes of grapefruit and anise, this white wine made the tomato taste even fresher.
(3 corkscrews) $20
2004 Villa Giada Barbera d'Asti Ajan
Aromatic, with notes of spice, clove and black pepper, this Italian red tasted of dark fruit, earth and tomato leaf. The wine highlighted the tomato's natural sweetness.
(2 corkscrews) $19
2005 Gustave Lorentz
Gewurztraminer Reserve
This Alsatian white was better poured on its own. The oily richness of wine got lost amid the tomato's flavors.
(2 corkscrews) $15
2004 Gobelsburger Gruner Veltliner
From Austria, this white offered butterscotch notes offset by a zesty acidity. Most tasters thought the wine overwhelmed the tomato.
(2 corkscrews) $15
2004 Ruffino Chianti Superiore Il Leo
A rich, smoky Italian red with plump fruit flavors underscored by notes of earth. Most tasters thought the wine did not improve when matched with the tomato.
(1 corkscrew) $14
2005 Poderi Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto di Dogliani
An Italian red with a very low profile, this wine's unassuming berry flavors almost disappeared when paired with the tomato's vitality.
(1 corkscrew) $16
-- B.D.
Sources: These wines may or may not be in stock at your local store; inquire first. At least one of these wines was found at these stores: Binny's Beverage Depot stores, Fox & Obel, Schaefer's in Skokie, The Wine Cellar in Palatine, Randall & Vine Wine Shoppe in Algonquin, DiCarlo Fine Wine & Spirits in Mundelein, Tannins in Elmhurst. Prices may vary from store to store. Prices are rounded off.
(4 corkscrews) Excellent (3 corkscrews) Very good (2 corkscrews) Good (1 corkscrew) Fair (No corkscrews) Poor
Chicago Tribune (4)
January 9, 2008
By Bill Daley
Does boeuf bourguignon have to be made with a wine from its namesake region, Burgundy? It's traditional, yes, but it doesn't have to be.
It's no accident that Fiona Beckett, the British food writer, recommends a red from France's Languedoc or Rhone. She wants a more full-bodied wine in her recipe.
Nor does the wine in the pot need to be the same as what's poured in the glass. Wine can lend a great deal of flavor to cooking, but long cooking destroys a fine wine's nuances and layers of complexity.
"Burgundy isn't the only wine that pairs with beef Burgundy, and it isn't even necessarily the best match," added Natalie MacLean, the Canadian wine writer who offers a wine-food matching tool on her Web site, nataliemaclean.com. "I pair the dish with a wide variety of red wines, including Barolo, Bordeaux, New World cabernet sauvignon, Chianti, Cotes-du-Rhone, merlot, syrah and zinfandel. I also match it with full-bodied whites, such as chardonnay and gewurztraminer."
Mark L. Esterman, the Michigan-based wine buyer for Meijer stores, uses whatever red is left over from the night before, so he'll usually go with a cabernet sauvignon or a Bordeaux from Saint Emilion. If he must buy a wine for cooking, he uses "a good wine -- just not an expensive wine."
Efrain Madrigal, wine buyer for Sam's Wines & Spirits, thinks big cabs, Bordeaux and Barolo belong in the decanter, not the pan. He looks for red wine with abundant cherry-plum flavors, fresh acidity and even a little earthiness.
"Lately my go-to cooking red has been the 2006 Casa de la Vega Garnacha from La Mancha, Spain," he said. "It is absolutely marvelous as a cooking wine: vinous, fresh, savory and, of course, it is a dynamite companion when served with the dish it was used in."
Alixe Lischett of Cabernet & Company in Glen Ellyn prefers a Burgundian wine or American pinot noir. She stays away from cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel or heavy syrahs because they might flavor the stew too much.
Another thing about not using a Burgundy, said Sterling Pratt of Schaefer's in Skokie, is coming up with alternative names for the dish.
"Alliteration may be important here," he quipped.
Pratt has a point. While "sirloin shiraz" and "steak sangiovese" could work, boeuf bourguignon just rolls off the tongue ... well, for the French anyway. Here's how to pronounce it: "Beuf boor-gee-NYON."
Boeuf bourguignon
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Chilling time: 12 hours
Yield: 6 servings
Fiona Beckett prefers to use a fuller-bodied red wine from the Rhone or Languedoc instead of Burgundy in this recipe adapted from "Food, Wine & Friends." Pancetta, an Italian bacon, is sold in specialty markets and some supermarkets; you can substitute regular bacon.
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 1/2 ounces pancetta, coarsely chopped
2 pounds beef chuck, fat trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
3 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
2 cups red wine, plus extra if needed
Bouquet garni of thyme sprigs, parsley stalks and 1 bay leaf
2 tablespoon butter
4 ounces cremini mushrooms, halved
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta; cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a Dutch oven. Add the beef to the skillet, in batches if necessary; cook, turning, until brown on all sides, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to the Dutch oven.
2. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of the oil in the skillet. Lower heat to medium; add the onions. Cover; cook, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture begins to caramelize, about 15 minutes.
3. Stir in flour; cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in the wine. Raise the heat to medium-high; heat to a boil. Pour the onion mixture over the meat in the Dutch oven; add the bouquet garni. Heat to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer; cook until meat is just tender, about 2 1/2 hours. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature. Refrigerate 12 hours.
4. Return the stew to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Heat to a boil over medium-high heat; lower heat to a simmer.
5. Meanwhile, heat the butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms; cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir the mushrooms into the stew; cook until flavors come together, about 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add more wine for a pronounced wine flavor, if you like. Sprinkle with parsley.
Nutrition information per serving:
462 calories, 63% of calories from fat, 32 g fat, 12 g saturated fat, 111 mg cholesterol, 9 g carbohydrates, 32 g protein, 310 mg sodium, 2 g fiber
- - -
Ranging far from Burgundy
The only Burgundy wine in this informal blind tasting came in dead last in scoring, both on its own and when paired with a beef stew made in the style of bourguignon. The wine was just too austere. Ratings below reflect how well the wine worked with the beef stew.
2006 Dona Paula Estate Malbec
A steal at $13, this deep purple beauty smelled of dark berries and earth and coated the palate seductively. Berry fruitiness was sparked with black pepper and balanced with tannins. The stew enhanced the wine's flavor, accenting the layers of spice.
(3 corkscrews) $13
2005 Martin Codax Ergo Rioja
This tempranillo-based red from Spain had a jammy berry flavor reined in by plenty of acidity and tannins. Short, bright finish. The stew gave the wine more complexity, toning down the berry and bringing up earthy notes.
(3 corkscrews) 13
2004 Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon
Tasters liked this Aussie a lot on its own and with the stew; their scores barely budged. Most felt the stew brought out the fruitiness in an otherwise lean but powerful wine. Some, however, thought the wine was overwhelmed by the meat.
(3 corkscrews) $20
2005 Bogle Vineyards Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
With its light color and earthy nose, this California red seemed oh-so-Burgundian. Cherry and berry flavors were augmented by notes of earth and black pepper. The wine's score dipped slightly when paired with the meat.
(2 corkscrews) $15
2002 Chateau Perron Lalande de Pomerol
A Bordeaux blend of merlot, cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon, this wine was terrific on its own with good mouthfeel, assertive barnyard aroma, and notes of earth, stone and black pepper overlaying the fruit. The stew overwhelmed the wine, muting its force.
(2 corkscrews) $22
2005 Rene Lequin-Colin Bourgogne
Au courant with its screw cap and its varietal (pinot noir) labeling, this Burgundian red did not impress panelists very much. Most found it thin and sharp, but one taster thought that's what a rich, hearty stew needed for balance.
(2 corkscrews) $22
This story also appeared in the Orlando Sentinel.
Chicago Tribune (5)
March 5, 2008
By Bill Daley
Muscat is an ancient grape poised for new attention from adventurous wine lovers looking for a fragrant wine that comes in a wide range of styles from dry to sweet.
Chicago-area retailers have seen the wine growing in popularity. Tracy Lewis Liang, wine and spirits director at Treasure Island Foods stores, has noticed a recent uptick in sales. She said the renewed interest is because people are getting over the idea that fruity means sweet and unsophisticated.
"Muscat is one of those grapes like riesling and chenin blanc that can make any style of wine from bubblies to dry dinner wines to wonderful dessert wines," she said.
Hundreds of muscat varieties are grown for winemaking or for table grapes or raisins. Two of the top varieties are muscat a petits grains, used for dry Alsatian wines, and the sweet muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, according to "The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia."
"This grape is like Silly Putty," said Efrain Madrigal, wine director of Sam's Wines & Spirits. "You can make it into any style of wine you want ... I think its versatility is why it continues to captivate winemakers."
Grown around the world, from Europe to Australia to California to North Africa, muscats share a distinct perfume.
"From flowery and dry versions in Austria and Alsace to nectarlike potions from California and Australia, aromatics is the key," said Doug Jeffirs, director of wine sales for Binny's Beverage Depot stores. "Nothing else is so much like pure grape essence, like biting into the ripest grapes right off the vine. That's why muscat has, and always will have, its own place in the wine world."
Don't think you've ever had muscat? Well, sparkling Asti (once known as Asti spumante) is made from muscat, as is its fizzy cousin, moscato d'Asti. Today, Asti is one of the most popular Italian wines made.
Tom Benezra of Sal's Beverage World theorizes the newfound attention to muscat wines is because there's increased interest in sparkling wines.
"Moscato d'Asti is showing the greatest increase in part because of its frizzante style," he said. "With its obvious grapy flavors, gentle bubbles and sweet finish, the wine is an easy crowd pleaser. Moscato d'Asti pairs well with most desserts and its unusually low alcohol, typically 5 to 7 percent, makes it an ideal after-dinner cocktail."
Janel Syron, sommelier at WineStyles Belmont in Chicago, said that muscats, like rieslings, appeal especially to wine newbies because they're generally sweeter in style and fit in with the sweeter drinks most Americans are used to.
"They are great wines to help ease you into wine drinking without intimidating you," she said.
Natalie MacLean, the Canadian-based wine writer and editor of an online wine newsletter (nataliemaclean.com), believes the dryer styles are catching on fast because they pair well with seafood, poultry, pork and veal.
"Muscat is one of the great underrated wines in the world," she said. "Buy it now while it's still reasonably priced."
- - -
Sweet wins the day
Six muscats from around the world, three dry and three rather sweet, were the focus of this blind tasting. Panelists clearly preferred the sweeter styles, which had a vibrant fullness the drier muscats lacked.
2006 Martin & Weyrich Moscato Allegro
Made in the style of an Italian moscato d'Asti, this California wine had an elegant spark thanks to lots of acidity. Slightly spritzy, the wine smelled of honey and pears. Serve with apple tart, strawberry shortcake.
(3 corkscrews) $12
2007 Benessere Muscat di Canelli Frizzante
The nose of this just-released wine from California's Napa Valley had a touch of rubbery funk nestled in among the floral scents. The wine's mild fizziness helps cut the sweetness. Serve with roast chicken stuffed with dried apricots, poached pears or triple-cream cheeses.
(3 corkscrews) $25
2006 St. Supery Moscato
From California, this last of the sweeter muscats has plenty of grape flavor and a soft yet sugary finish. The wine smelled of honeyed cooked fruit.
(2 corkscrews) $17
2003 Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Herrenweg de Turckheim Muscat
From France's Alsace region, this dry wine offered plenty of minerals, a pronounced flavor of grapes and violets and a sweet honeyed aroma. Serve with shrimp de Jonghe, sauteed scallops, Virginia ham.
(2 corkscrews) $40
2004 Vignalta Sirio Muscat
From Italy's Veneto region, a dry muscat with notes of washed stone, apples and even a whiff or two of salami. Tart finish. Serve with melon and prosciutto, charcuterie, roast chicken.
(2 corkscrews) $14
2003 Jean Leon Terrasola
Made of 85 percent muscat, 10 percent parellada and 5 percent gewurztraminer, this Spanish blend had a petroleum-like nose and taste. Notes of stone and pear, very tangy aftertaste. Serve with flounder in beurre blanc sauce, poached pears.
(2 corkscrews) $16
Sources: These wines may or may not be in stock at your local store; inquire first. At least one of these wines was found at these stores: Binny's Beverage Depot, Sal's Beverage World, Sam's Wines & Spirits, Artisan Cellars, Fine Wine Brokers, Fox & Obel, Treasure Island Foods, WineStyles Belmont, Cabernet & Co. in Glen Ellyn, DiCarlo Fine Wine & Spirits in Mundelein, Dobby's World Wide Wine & Liquors in Palatine, WineStyles in Palatine, WineStyles in Woodridge. Prices may vary from store to store. Prices are rounded off.
Tampa Bay Online also published this on March 10, 2008.
Chicago Tribune (6)
September 2, 2008
By Bill Daley
Finding only two domestic pinot blanc brands, one from Oregon and the other from Long Island, sitting ignored on the very bottom shelf of the "other whites" section at Sam's Wines & Spirits' Marcey Street store underscored visually just how below-the-radar this grape variety remains.
Oz Clarke, the British wine writer, once famously compared pinot blanc to Cinderella because the grape variety always seems overshadowed by other grapes. Certainly that is the case here in the U.S., where pinot blanc is snubbed. Too bad, because pinot blanc can have a lively acidity, a refreshing crispness and appealing body.
"It is a wine that is round, full and elegant without having an odd tartness on the finish," said Charlene Pontrelli of WineStyles in Woodridge. The wine should not be citrusy but more like an apple, she added, with "a hint of creaminess and a touch of nuttiness on the finish."
While there are those, like Tom Benezra of Sal's Beverage World stores, who think "pinot blanc and 'great' is somewhat oxymoronic," others like Alixe Lischett of Cabernet & Co. in Glen Ellyn savor its appeal.
"I think pinot blanc can be wonderful with food, especially fowl like the Thanksgiving turkey or your everyday chicken," she said. "It's not usually as dry as chardonnay so I feel it makes a better pairing with the bird. Its nose is slightly fruity, more ripe apple than anything, and a good one has some hints of spice and honey on the palate."
Perhaps pinot blanc is suffering from an identity problem: You've got to know it to love it. And, like other white grape varieties identified with France's Alsace region, pinot blanc has had difficulty in the American market despite the plus of being labeled by grape type. Though a white mutation of pinot gris, which is a lighter-colored version of pinot noir, pinot blanc was long linked to chardonnay because it had a similar if less fragrant style, according to "The Oxford Companion to Wine."
The confusion extended into the vineyards. In Australia, "The New Wine Lover's Companion" reports, much of what was called pinot blanc was found to be chardonnay while some of California's oldest pinot blanc vines were actually another variety called melon de bourgogne.
Pinot blanc also goes by other names in other countries. It's "pinot bianco" in Italy (not to be confused with pinot blanco, which is chenin blanc). It's "wiessburgunder" in Austria and Germany, "beli pinot" in Croatia and "clevner" or "klevner" in some corners of Alsace.
In Alsace, where pinot blanc has attained the most renown, the grape is often blended with other varieties, notably auxerrois, but is sold as "pinot blanc." Indeed, there's no limit on how much auxerrois can be added, it can even be in the majority, and still be billed as pinot blanc, said Louise Jordan, a spokeswoman for the Alsace Wine Council, an industry group.
In the United States, Oregon and parts of California are the most notable growers of pinot blanc. You will likely have to look hard for it in Chicago-area stores. Offering a reason why is Bill Newton, special projects manager for Binny's Beverage Depot stores.
"We only have a couple domestic pinot blancs, Elk Cove from Oregon and Valley of the Moon from California," he said. "Part of the problem is that there is not a great deal of demand for pinot blanc so not much is planted. The best domestic pinot blancs I have tasted have been when I visited Oregon. St. Innocent, Witness Tree, Bethel Heights all have pinot blanc, but often they are only available through the winery due to small production."
Sounds like what he's saying is for us to get more pinot blanc we all need to drink more pinot blanc. That shouldn't be too hard. Pinot blanc goes with many foods. Wine writer Natalie MacLean posts numerous pairing possibilities on her Web site, nataliemaclean.com: corned beef, brie, chicken Caesar salad, Asian-style noodles, sashimi, leek and onion dishes, even gefilte fish.
Give pinot blanc a spin in your wine glass. Let me know what you think.
The tasting: Back to the source—Alsace
Although all hail from the French province of Alsace, these seven pinot blancs each had its own personality. Some were golden and full-bodied like a chardonnay while others seemed paler, more reserved. The Good Eating tasting panel clearly preferred the bolder pinot blancs.
2005 Albert Boxler Reserve
Crisp green apple notes and touches of grapefruit balance an almost grapey sweetness in this pinot blanc. Fresh and juicy. Serve with pan-fried trout, kung pao chicken, tacos al Pastor.
$28
2005 Albert Mann
Colored gold like chardonnay and richly scented with notes of apple, pear and stone, this wine had a slightly oily texture that enriched the pineapple, apple and peach flavors. Serve with seared scallops, chicken tikka masala.
$16
2004 Marcel Deiss Bergheim
There was a certain brown tinge to this pinot blanc. Expect notes of apple, honey and stone on the nose. The flavor is of apricots and peaches; acidity keeps the sweetness in check. Nice, long finish. Serve with an Alsatian onion tart, grilled sausages.
$25
2005 Domaine Bruno Sorg
A light gold, this wine had a lively citrusy nose and tasted like pear, apple and mango, with a hint of butterscotch on the finish. Serve with crab rangoon, cashew chicken.
$13
2005 Trimbach
Nearly colorless, but with flavor notes of apple, grape and black pepper. Supporters liked it well enough but doubters found it a tad watery. Serve with sauteed mushrooms, turkey burgers.
$13
2006 Lucien Albrecht Cuvee Balthazar
A very aromatic wine, this creamy pinot blanc was ripe the flavors of peaches and plums. Serve with Thai green curry, cheese quiche, roasted chicken.
$13
2005 Jean Ginglinger Cuvee George
Watery and dull, a number of tasters wrote. Others found it more palatable, with a minerally nose and tart fruit flavor. Serve with grilled shrimp, choucroute.
$18
Sources: These wines may or may not be in stock at your local store; inquire first. At least one of these wines was found at these stores: Binny's Beverage Depot, Sam's Wines & Spirits. Prices may vary from store to store. Prices are rounded off.
Chicago Tribune (7)
September 10, 2008
By Bill Daley
Chicken wings, no matter how they're prepared, are among the simplest but memorable pleasures of life. Be sure to mark the occasion with a glass of wine.
Wine?
Well, yes. Beer may be the traditional choice for wings, especially those sauced up in classic Buffalo style. With a little bit of experimentation, though, you can find just the right wine for whatever type of wings you are serving—even the honey barbecue wings used in Good Eating's tasting.
Natalie MacLean, author of "Red, White and Drunk All Over," recommends an off-dry riesling or a fruity merlot with honey barbecue wings.
"The sweetness and tangy flavors in the wings need a wine with a touch of sweetness, whether that's some residual sugar in the riesling or fruit ripeness in the merlot," MacLean said. "But, for fun, try a spumante. This lightly sparkling, off-dry Italian bubbly is amazing with many honey barbecue dishes but with chicken wings it's divine."
What wine to serve with chicken wings matters because we Americans eat so many of them. The National Chicken Council estimates 12 billion chicken wings, some 2.6 billion pounds, will be marketed in 2008. And that's just wings sold as wings, not the wings still attached to the bird.
I posed the "wing-wine" question to a number of Chicago-area experts and common themes emerged. The perfect wing wines would be crisp, refreshing and able to play well with the often bold flavors of the various sauces used as glazes.
Tom Benezra of Sal's Beverage World touts riesling, among other wine varieties, to pair with wings.
"Riesling and chenin blanc in their California and Washington state versions provide refreshing fruitiness and a crisp finish without the minerality of Old World styles, making for a smooth combination," he said. "Anyone looking for an excuse to drink white zinfandel has found it here. It's a perfect match, both in terms of its soft, fruity flavor and its all-American heritage."
Barbara Rooks of Schaefer's in Skokie recommends Wente's Riverbank riesling, with its 24 percent share of gewurztraminer, because of its greater weight and spiciness. She also thinks an Austrian gruner veltliner, such as those made by Rainer Wess, would work, especially because the wine has a note of nutmeg on the finish.
Rooks' favorite wing wine is a Spanish red, a garnacha like Monte Oton. She thinks the wine's light cherry flavor and spiciness works with the heat and flavors of the wings.
Go with red Rhone varieties if the wings are slathered with barbecue sauce, suggested Bill Newton, wine and special events manager for Binny's Beverage Depot.
"I would look at a Central Coast syrah," he said. "Beckmen syrah and Beckmen Cuvee Le Bec, which is made from a blend of Rhone varietals, would both go well with the barbecue sauce. The smoky, spice flavor profile in these two wines would be a great match."
Efrain Madrigal of Sam's Wines & Spirits is not so convinced red wine can work with wings, especially Buffalo wings.
"The vinegary hot sauce would kill just about all reds," he said. "Rosés and whites would be better, but I would go with something bubbly. Champagne or methode champenoise styles may be too austere, so I would go with a softer, creamier prosecco. Prosecco also tends to have a bit lower alcohol, so it won't amplify the heat from the wing sauce."
Standing up to honey barbecue
Admittedly, there's a certain over-the-top zaniness in pairing a $110 bottle of French Champagne with a mess of honey barbecue chicken wings ordered from the Wing Zone restaurant in Evergreen Park. But it works—and provides a little comic relief in these dire times.
The Atlanta-based Wing Zone chain sells chicken wings in 25 different flavors; honey barbecue is one of the faves. Makes sense as there is a lot of honey barbecue this and honey barbecue that out there. It's a flavor that needs to be paired with many different wines to get the right match. Wing Zone's honey barbecued wings had a pronounced but appetizing smoky aroma. The sauce was dark, sticky, sweet and just a little spicy. The chicken was fried until golden and crunchy before being sauced.
For Good Eating's blind tasting, there were six wines: three white, one sparkling rosé, two reds. Each wine was sampled on its own and scored. Then the wine was paired with the wings and scored again. It is that wing-matching score given below.
2007 Grgich Hills Estate Fume Blanc
This tart, crisp sauvignon blanc had grapefruit on the nose and a flavor that offered touches of pear, stone and black pepper. Tasters loved this Napa Valley white on its own and found it ably supported the wings. 3 corkscrews
$28
1998 Pol Roger Rosé
Ah, the decadence: bubbly and wings. Yet, this pretty salmon-colored sparkler was great on its own. There was a toasty note to the nose and the crisp flavor was enlivened with touches of tart berries. The Champagne balanced the sweetness of the sauce while highlighting the pepperiness of the chicken. 3 corkscrews
$110
2006 Joel Gott Zinfandel
Terrific on its own, this California red was aromatic with notes of cedar, incense, spice and blackberries. Most tasters thought the zin helped the wings by cutting the sauce's richness. A few naysayers thought the wings were overwhelmed by the wine, thus dropping its score slightly. 3 corkscrews
$15
2006 Torres Sangre de Toro
This inexpensive Spanish garnacha blend had notes of spice and raspberry on the nose. The rich fruit flavor was overlaid with spice, wood and black pepper. The red worked well with the wings, although some panelists worried the wine might be a little too heavy. 3 corkscrews
$8
2006 Dry Creek Chardonnay
This Russian River Valley white had that classic chardonnay nose of toasty oak. The flavor was crisp, with notes of apple, pear and oak. Tasters thought the match was workable but not very exciting. One panelist thought the oak of the wine was too much with the smoke of the wings. 2 corkscrews
$18
2006 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc
A blend of grenache blanc and roussane, this California white had a charmingly floral aroma but tasted somewhat watery. The chicken wings gave the wine some sass. 2 corkscrews
$18
Sources: These wines may or may not be in stock at your local store; inquire first. At least one of these wines was found at these stores: Binny's Beverage Depot, Sam's Wines & Spirits, Sal's Beverage World, Cabernet and Co. in Glen Ellyn, DiCarlo Fine Wines & Spirits in Mundelein, Dobby's World Wide Wine & Liquors in Palatine, Schaefer's in Skokie, The Wine Cellar in Palatine. Prices may vary from store to store. Prices are rounded off.
Corkscrew ratings
4 Excellent
3 Very good
2 Good
1 Fair
None: Poor
Chicago Tribune (8)
November 5, 2008
White wines buoy up clam chowder
By Bill Daley
Whether your idea of clam chowder is Boston's bowl of creamy goodness, Manhattan's tomatoey brine or Connecticut's vibrant clear broth, team this classic dish with a glass of chilled white wine.
A white wine will give you the refreshing crispness to stand up to the full-throttled clam flavor, while a sense of fruitiness—a touch of sweetness, even—will flatter the chowder's innate saltiness.
The one variable that may change is the wine's weight or profile, as noted by Natalie Maclean, the Canadian wine writer who offers food and wine pairing suggestions on her Web site, nataliemaclean.com.
"Clam chowders in a clear base go swimmingly with crisp whites such as pinot grigio, chenin blanc and pinot blanc," she said. "When it comes to richer chowders with milk or cream bases, go for a more full-bodied, opulent white such as an oaked chardonnay from California or Chile."
"Another interesting twist is viognier from the Rhone Valley in France," she added. "It's also highly aromatic with a voluptuous texture and has a bit of sweetness to marry with such a robust dish."
Dru Melton, general manager and chef for Soupbox restaurants, recommends chardonnays, especially those with "slight citrus hints" to offset the chowder.
Steve Tindle, wine and spirits director for Shaw's Crab House restaurants, recommends an Alsatian pinot gris for its richness and hint of sweetness to match with creamy chowders.
As for a wine with Manhattan clam chowder, he'd look for an earthier tone alongside a crisp minerality. His pick? A Greek assyrtico from Domaine Sigalas.
"It's great with raw oysters; it will work here," he said.
Standing up to the chowder
Any wine paired with the simplest clam, broth, potato and onion soup still has to have character of its own. We tried six different bottles. As with all food and wine pairings, the Good Eating rating reflects how well the match was regarded by panelists.
2005 Rolly Gassmann Riesling: This Alsatian white had a clear sweet but spicy note and a citrusy tang on the finish. The chowder's saltiness underscored the wine's sweetness and complexity. $28
3 corkscrews
2007 River's Edge Pinot Gris: From Oregon's Umpqua Valley, this wine had a honeysuckle-like aroma with a touch of tropical fruit and flavors of flowers and minerals. The chowder gave depth to the wine. $15
3 corkscrews
2006 Pazo Senorans Albarino: Tied with the wine below, this Spanish white from Rias Baixas scored slightly higher on its own. The flavor was fresh, crisp, herbal with grapefruit in the finish. The wine's tang accentuated the clammy flavor of the chowder. $25
2 corkscrews
2006 J.C. Chatelain Pouilly-Fume: This sauvignon blanc from the Loire had a creamy minerality with a richness that held up well to the robust chowder. $25
2 corkscrews
Simonnet Febrve Cremant de Bourgogne: This non-vintage rosé sparkler from France's Chablis region had a liveliness, an assertive acidity, yeast notes and tart fruitiness, but it was a bit too delicate for the chowder, losing nuance. It tied with the following wine. $16
2 corkscrews
2006 Stuhlmuller Vineyards Chardonnay: This Alexander Valley wine was the favorite of the group on its own. The flavor was fruity yet tart with touches of herbal notes. But the wine made an unremarkable match with the chowder. $22
2 corkscrews
Chicago Tribune (9)
March 4, 2009
By Bill Daley
Ethiopians have for centuries made a honey wine known as tej. You can sometimes find this mead-like beverage for sale at some Ethiopian restaurants. Or, you could try a mead made domestically.
For most diners looking for that Ethiopian meal out at a restaurant or for takeout, the drink of choice most likely will be beer or a grape-based wine.
The question is: What sort of wine to pour with Ethiopia's highly seasoned meat and vegetable dishes, most of which are served on rounds of injera, the tart Ethiopian flat bread made from teff flour.
Tom Benezra of Sal's Beverage World stores, located in the Chicago suburbs, wants a wine with an "earthy minerality" alongside the fruitiness to enliven the food. That's why he goes with Old World or Old World-influenced white wines. He particularly likes a South African chenin blanc or a French Vouvray to counter the berbere spice paste, a widely used combination of red pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, onion, garlic and other seasonings, that provides zip in many Ethiopian dishes.
For red wine drinkers, the fruity-spicy combination found in California zinfandel and Australian shiraz will work especially well with beef dishes," he said. "Expect some fireworks in your mouth if the dish is hot."
Natalie MacLean, a wine writer who runs an online food and wine matcher at her Web site, nataliemaclean.com, likes cabernet sauvignon with lamb-based Ethiopian dishes.
"But stick with New World cabs that are more fruit-forward and can also handle the spices in the dish," she added. With doro wot, the Ethiopian chicken and egg stew, MacLean recommends an oaked chardonnay for a white or a syrah for a red.
"These deep, voluptuous wines will marry nicely with the richness of the dish," she said.
The tasting
We tried three reds, two white and a honey wine to find a good match for doro wot, the popular Ethiopian chicken and egg stew. Why a honey wine? It's a traditional beverage in Ethiopia. The big winner? A South African chenin blanc. It scored first on its own and when paired with the doro wot. As with all food-wine ratings, the final score reflects how well the wine and the food worked together.
2007 Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc
This South African white had a brilliant light yellow color, a jazzy herbal nose and a mouthwatering crispness. The richness of the doro wot cut the wine's tartness while the wine made the stew taste spicier.
$15
2006 Yangarra Grenache McLaren Vale Old Vine
This big Australian red had a nose of eucalyptus and smoke. The flavor offered lots of black cherry fruit and a touch of mint. The wine and the doro wot balanced each other well; the wine's flavor lingered on the palate.
$24
NV Wild Blossom Meadow Mead
Tasters loved this Chicago honey wine's intense clove scent. A refreshing acidity kept sweetness in check. But panelists weren't so sure how the mead worked with doro wot. Some thought the wine's spices gave the stew a delicious zap, yet others thought the mead didn't work with all of the stew's ingredients, especially the hard-cooked egg.
$13.
2006 Georges Duboeuf Fleurie
A red from one of so-called cru villages of France's Beaujolais region. The nose was a tad musty, and the flavor was lean on fruit, but the doro wat's seasoned sauce reinvigorated the wine to a degree.
$15
2004 Kim Crawford Chardonnay, Tietjen & Briant Vineyards
This white from New Zealand's Gisborne wine region was classic chard: color, aroma and flavor. Expect notes of vanilla, oak, toast. The texture of the buttery wine made the doro wot seem plusher.
$17
2005 Ajello Majus Nero d'Avola
Solo was a terrific Sicilian red, with an extraordinary nose of tea, tobacco and cedar and a lush fruit flavor kept in check by just the right degree of tannin. But the wine lost its luster with the doro wot. The two vied too much for attention, reducing each other.
$11
City TV CityLine
November 20, 2009
By Suzanne Ellis
Natalie MacLean first had the idea to write about wine on a seemingly innocuous trip to the grocery store back in 1999.
Groggy and sleep-deprived -- she was on maternity leave at the time -- she picked up a local food magazine and started flipping through it. That’s when it hit her.
“They had all this beautiful food photography, recipes and so on, but no wine,” MacLean told CityLine.ca in a recent phone interview from her home in Ottawa. “I thought, well, I’ve taken a sommelier course. I know about the Internet, so I pitched them a story about wine on the Internet. They went for it, really liked it, and that became a regular column.”
That column gave MacLean the confidence she needed to cold-call editors of other magazines to pitch them on articles about wine -- the response was overwhelmingly positive and when the end of her maternity leave rolled around she decided not to go back to her former job in the high-tech world (she worked for a California-based computer company).
“I really enjoyed my job but there was nothing like writing about booze for a living,” she laughed.
Ten years on, MacLean has received countless accolades for her wine writing, including four James Beard Journalism Awards, and her 2006 book Red, White and Drunk All Over was selected as the Best Wine Literature Book at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. MacLean’s popularity stems in part from her insistence on eliminating the 'snob factor' so often associated with wine appreciation, and focusing instead on the sheer pleasure of enjoying a glass.
“I think there is something more to wine than almost any other drink,” she enthused. “There’s a reason we don’t have orange juice critics. It’s the buzz. There’s something that compels people when it comes to wine. It’s not a vodka shooter that you just knock back. There’s something in that glass that’s interesting even if you don’t want to spend a lot of time analyzing it.”
The idea of marrying wine and the Internet was pretty much unheard of back in 1999, but because MacLean worked in the technology field prior to writing about wine she knew being online would help her to reach a wider audience of wine enthusiasts. In addition to her website, www.nataliemaclean.com, where she posts columns and reviews, she sends out an e-newsletter to 103,000 subscribers and counting, and this past June launched food and wine pairing mobile applications for the BlackBerry and the iPhone.
“It started with the number of questions I received on food and wine pairing, by far the most of any other wine-related topic,” MacLean explained. “So I played around with it and thought, there’s got to be an easy way to answer people’s questions because they don’t want a whole article answer they just want to know, ‘What goes with my pepperoni pizza?’”
MacLean is also on Twitter (follow her @NatalieMacLean) and Facebook.
“I love it. I feel so connected to the wine world and what makes wine lovers passionate. They’re right on it, they call you on anything. I have this group of people, about 100 of them, and I call them ‘Wine Lovers for Better Grammar.’ They always tell when I misplace a comma or something in the newsletter,” she said.
“Wine is one of those things that I think really works well online. I welcome people to take wine at any level, the level of, ‘I like it. I’m going to drink it. I’m not analyzing it. Don’t bother me.’ But then if you want to dig into it, there’s so much information about wine. There’s that intermediate level of, ‘I just want to know what works here. What wine with this dish that I’m cooking?’ That’s the sensory, hedonism, very fun level of wine that most people enjoy.”
MacLean is currently working on her second book, and rest assured it will be as down-to-earth and approachable as her last.
"The more you try wine, and the more relaxed you are about it, the more you will get into it," she offers. "It can lead to that deeper appreciation, but we don’t have to get all tense about it up front and think that we need to know our Cabernets from our Shirazes in order to pick a decent bottle. Only you are the expert on your palate. In the end you have to please yourself."
CNNMoney.com
October 26, 2007
By Jessica Dickler
NEW YORK (CNN.com) -- From a box of Franzia to a bottle of 1961 Chateau Petrus, there are few drinks with such a wide range of quality and cost as wine.
As wine has grown more popular, more and more producers are getting into the market with inexpensive offerings designed to be consumed immediately, pushing overall prices down steadily.
But at the same time, demand has soared for premium wines, which are grown in limited quantity and released in moderation -- resulting in record breaking prices.
This Sunday, an Imperial of a 1961 vintage of Château Petrus (which is the equivalent of eight regular bottles) is expected to sell for $150,000 at an auction at the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago. That would make it one of the most expensive bottles of wine ever sold at auction.
(For the record, the most expensive bottle sold to date was a 1945 Château Mouton-Rothschild that fetched $310,700 at Sotheby's in February of this year, according to Vinfolio.)
The Château Petrus is part of a large collection of bottles of Bordeaux that also includes a Jeroboam (equivalent to six regular bottles) of 1945 Château Mouton-Rothschild, and Magnums (equivalent to two regular bottles) of 1921, 1947 and 1961 Château Petrus; 1945 and 1982 Château Mouton-Rothschild; and 1961 Château Latour-A-Pomerol.
How to win at a wine auction
"There are really two kinds of wine now, one is for drinking, and the other is for collecting. Like rare stamps, collectible wines can take on inexplicably high price levels," said Princeton University economics professor Orley Ashenfelter who publishes a wine newsletter called Liquid Assets.
"I drink my wine and use my postage stamps to mail letters, and I continue to marvel at those who don't."
Collectors on the other hand, may want to make a bottle of this caliber the showpiece of a high-end wine cellar without ever intending to drink it. Rather they would hope to resell it in the future, hopefully for a profit, Ashenfelter said.
Vying for a vineyard
The price of a good bottle of wine is largely based on the cost of production, according to Natalie MacLean, editor of a wine newsletter and author of Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.
Factors from the quality of the vineyard property and its orientation (an eastern exposure provides more gentle sunlight) to the type of barrel (oak or otherwise) and length of the cork, all contribute to the price a good bottle can command.
But, "after a certain point the pricing becomes irrational," said MacLean. The value of luxury wines is based more on factors such as prestige, rarity and reviews.
Of the high-status wines on the market, the Château Petrus is considered among the best. That's because it's from the prestigious right bank of the Gironde river in the Bordeaux region of France.
In addition, large bottles, like an Imperial, are rare and can command a significant resale premium over standard bottle sizes, according to MacLean. Many also believe that wine in bigger bottles ages more slowly and therefore has a longer life.
And on top of that, 1961 is ranked among the best vintages for Bordeaux, and its peak drinking window is right now, making it a prime buy.
"There's no saying where the price could go," according to Edward Robert Brooks, managing director of Edward Roberts International auction house, which is managing the sale. "Blue chip collectibles in any category tend to fare well."
In terms of an investment, "wine is one of the few collectibles you have to destroy to enjoy," he added, and as the number of available collectible bottles diminishes over time, those remaining will be worth more.
MacLean nevertheless warns against buying a wine like this as an investment. "Flipping is always risky," she said. Although, worst case scenario, "you could always drink your liquid assets."
Contra Costa Times
November 25, 2008
By Jessica Yadegaran
As much as we anticipate pairing wine with our Thanksgiving feast, let us not forget: that bird at center-stage is akin to winged tofu. Dry, winged tofu.
Doesn't exactly tickle your wine fancy?
Not to worry. When selecting a wine for the festive meal, it's not the turkey you're pairing to anyway. Rather, it's everything that touches the turkey on your plate: a sea of savory, sweet, creamy and crunchy side dishes that are the true stars of the holiday. For this reason, spry, fruity wines with little age and decent acidity are the best for turkey and its fixings. The great news is that young wines are affordable, widely available and thus perfect for serving large groups in troubled economic times.
Naturally, even traditional dishes such as stuffing and green bean casserole are subject to cultural twists. So it's important to find wines of the moment that have mass appeal, says Lettie Teague, New York-based executive wine editor for Food & Wine Magazine. Teague's taking Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing to her host's home, and probably will arrive with a bottle of Riesling, like Dr. Loosen's Blue Slate from the Mosel in Germany or Dr. Hermann J. Wiemer's from the Finger Lakes region of New York.
"They are affordable and respectable and give us something to talk about," Teague says. "They are wines with a narrative. After all, Thanksgiving is a holiday with a narrative and a history, so I like to bring wines that have a story as well."
Dr. Wiemer was the disciple of the founding father of Finger Lakes Riesling — Dr. Frank — and was one of the first to make a top-notch wine from New York, Teague explains. As for Dr. Loosen: "It's just one of the best properties in the Mosel and Eric Loosen is a renegade for quality," she adds.
Riesling is ideal for Thanksgiving because it has acidity that is not arresting and enough fruit and richness to both stand up to and cut through all the flavors and textures at the table. Plus, the 2007 bottlings just arriving in the market come with high praise, and, in the case of the Loosen Blue Slate, a good price. That's a combination to be thankful for, Teague notes.
For the same reasons of appeal — fruit, acidity and body — she recommends Alexander Valley Pinot Noir for those seeking a red wine. "It's not the big extracted stuff," she says of food-friendly Pinot Noirs such as Handley and Navarro.
Crave a bigger red? Go with Argentine Malbec instead of that tannic, high-alcohol Cabernet Sauvignon, which, with the 3,000 calories the average person consumes at the Thanksgiving meal, would probably send you to bed by sundown. "Malbec is trendy and even though it's bigger and richer than Pinot Noir, it still has lush fruit and firmness," Teague says. A good one is Alamos under the Catena family label, she adds.
Curtis Mann of The Vine at Bridges tasted dozens of wines before creating a three-bottle Thanksgiving sampler for sale in the Danville wine bar and retail shop. The $50-sampler features 2007 bottlings of Simonsig South African Chenin Blanc, Frias Napa Valley Rose and Aubin Cellars "Verve" Pinot Noir from Oregon.
"Chenin Blanc is just a great aperitif wine because it has decent acidity and enough earthiness to blend with food," says Mann, wine director and retail manager at The Vine at Bridges. "It's between Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc so it's very flexible. Rose is fun, easy and those strawberry flavors go well with cranberries and sweeter dishes."
As for the Oregon Pinot Noir, Mann calls it "the ultimate dinner wine." "It has the perfect balance of earth and fruit," he says, adding that the Aubin is dynamite with mushroom-based stuffings. Mann's family is Italian, so he'll be sneaking in Barbera to go with the spaghetti and ravioli that is served every year. "It's the ultimate tomato sauce wine because it has such high acidity, so much fruit and lack of tannins."
Tannins are evil when it comes to turkey because they dry out your mouth. And, unlike most game and poultry, turkey meat is already very dry in texture. So you need a mouth-watering wine to complement it, says Natalie MacLean, author of "Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass" (Bloomsbury). For reds, she suggests Beaujolais and Zinfandel, which have juicy, berry-ripe flavors that go well with turkey.
Chad Lamprecht of Danville's Corks wine shop recommends the 2005 Watts Old Vine Zinfandel from Lodi. "It's fruit forward and jammy so it complements all the foods at the table," says Lamprecht, Corks' general manager and wine buyer. "And most people love it."
Just like turkey.
Thanksgiving sampler
- Simonsig Chenin Blanc Stellenbosch: Sweet aromas of apples and pears and honey-drenched tropical fruits such as guava and pineapple on palate. Rich and smooth.
- Frias Napa Valley Rose: Zippy acidity, watermelon aromas and strawberry flavors are the cornerstones of this refreshing wine.
- Those eating crab for Thanksgiving can find a match with Aubin Cellars "Verve" Stoller Vineyard Dundee Hills Pinot Noir: Willamette Valley at its finest. A complex yet pretty wine with pomegranate and cherry flavors and earthiness both in the nose and glass.
-- Jessica Yadegaran
Cooking Light
September 2007
By Gretchen Roberts
"Wine likes to grow up slowly in dark, cool conditions," says Natalie MacLean, author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. If it's too hot, the wine will age too quickly. It’s the difference between cooking your dinner in the microwave versus slow-roasting it."
The ideal temperature for storing wine is 55 degrees Fahrenheit, with a humidity level around 75 percent. The cool temperature helps the wine mature at a slow, steady rate, maintaining optimal taste during the storage period. Since most fine wines are plugged with natural cork, and not topped with a synthetic version or a metal screwcap (an option that is increasingly popular with moderately priced wines), cool temperatures and high humidity levels help prevent the cork from becoming dry and brittle, which would allow air into the bottle. Wine that is exposed to air or too much sunlight oxidizes, turns brown, like apple slices, and ends up tasting like spoiled fruit. Storing bottles on their sides also helps keep the cork hydrated.
A wine fridge is convenient for entertaining, since the wines are both close at hand and ready to serve," MacLean says . Alternatively, you could simply expand your basement storage by adding racks and keeping an eye on sudden temperature spikes or dips. As long as the temperature fluctuates gradually, you're OK," MacLean says. "Many people have basements that are naturally cooler than the rest of their homes, and a cool basement is a better place to store wine than a warm house."
If you pour wine daily, are you likely to have several varietals of wine on hand to pair with meals? If so, you'll need the same storage conditions already discussed, but with more space in which to store bottles. "lf you drink a glass of inexpensive wine every day or so, you're probably not buying bottles that need to be aged," MacLean says. "In that case, you don't need a cellar, just a place to put bottles that is away from the extremes of heat and cold."
Expert pick for best storage and accessories for your wine
Natalie MacLean’s pick: Sub-Zero undercounter wine refrigerator ($2,500; 8OO-222-7820 or www.subzero.com ) Why: These fridges provide a great staging area when you're entertaining. You can store up to 45 bottles instead of running back and forth to the cellar. This model is UL-approved meaning it’s safe to use in outdoor kitchen settings.
Crystal-Clear Answers
By Natalie MacLean
Most of us agree that a good glass makes a drink taste better. You can go overboard, though: some glassware companies (and drink snobs) insist on a different glass for every kind of cocktail, spirit, beer and wine. Listen to them describe the design of each glass, and you might think you'd accidentally wandered into a PhD class on structural physics. Let's face it though: buying more than a hundred glasses isn't just expensive, it's impractical—to store and clean them, and even find room for them on the table for dinner or a party.
Besides, just as we're bending traditional rules about matching food and drink nowadays, we're also relaxing our approach to glassware—choosing what pleases us, and what's practical. You really only need three basic glasses, for wine, beer and cocktails. Caterers know this well: they deal with a range of gatherings, and they're experts in what works at a reasonable price and with realistic effort. We asked several to pick their favourite glasses in each category.
Tracey Black and Heather Maclachlan of Ottawa's MacKay Street Epicuria use highball glasses for most mixed drinks, spirits straight up or on the rocks, long drinks, water, punch, pop and juice. Unless they're catering for a martini-based cocktail party, or there's a special request for them, they don't use martini glasses.
They serve beer in a stemmed, tapered beer glass: it's easy to hold while balancing hors d'oeuvres in the other hand. For wine, they prefer an eight-ounce glass with a simple curved bulb for both reds and whites. (When catering for wine tastings, though, they use different glasses for reds and whites.) The two believe that larger glasses are more practical: they don't have to be refilled constantly, and there's room to leave a space at the top—which minimizes the risk of sloshing wine onto clothes or the carpet. As well, the larger wine glass allows guests to swirl the wine and appreciate its aromas.
Susan Bowman of All the Best Fine Foods in Toronto uses a 10 ½ ounce glass for beer, soft drinks and water. She says she chooses glasses that don't have cut or coloured glass as they're more versatile: they work with various place settings and don't obscure the colour of the drink. Bowman favours a flute glass for festive get-togethers: champagne, sparkling wines and many specialty cocktails look elegant in this glass. Plus, she says, the flute is a well-balanced glass that's easy to hold while standing or sitting.
For wine, she likes to use an 8 ½-ounce tulip-shaped glasses. She prefers ones that are durable—that don't break easily, and that fit easily into a standard dishwasher. This means a sturdy stem rather than a thin and delicate one, and a medium height rather than tall. It also means that they should be made of glass rather than crystal, which scratches easily and must be hand-washed.
Ann Dunkley from Toronto's The Moveable Feast uses glassware that has elegant stems and modern designs which work well for dressy cocktail parties. She likes the high ball and double old fashioned glasses: they accommodate just about any cocktail, as well as beer and water. She uses a nine-ounce tulip glass for still wine, but prefers the traditional flute for champagnes and sparkling wines: these wines go flat too quickly in a regular glass.
Dunkley recommends stocking three to five glasses per person. In her experience, some guests will invariably set their empty glass down and forget it; some will switch from one type of drink to another; and some just prefer a clean glass for their next drink. It's not only faster to have clean glasses ready, she says, but it's also cheaper: it costs less to rent extras rather than pay someone to wash them during the event.
There's a wide range of wine glassware available; so if you want to add to your basic collection, start by buying different glasses for red and white wines. Simplicity is still the guiding principle, though: choose one glass with a narrow bowl that can accommodate most styles of white wine—most often this is the glass for Sauvignon Blanc, but most Chardonnays, Rieslings and other popular white wines will drink well from this glass.
For reds, choose a glass with wider bowl to accommodate the robust aromas of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Zinfandel. You may also want to get some small dessert wine glasses for Ice Wine, Late Harvest Wine, Port, Sherry and even liqueurs, brandy and cognac.
These extra glasses need not break the bank: many glassware companies—Riedel, Baccarat and Waterford—sell several lines at different price points. Often their value line can even go in the dishwasher. The only thing now is for them to create a glass that makes oxidized wine taste fresh again.
Cater Contacts
MacKay Street Epicuria, Ottawa: 613-745-7356
All the Best Fine Foods, Toronto: 416-928-0569
Moveable Feast, Toronto: 416-969-8962
Glassware Sellers
LCBO Stores across Ontario
William Ashley
Wine Establishment, Toronto: 416-861-1331
C.A. Paradis, Ottawa: 613-731-2866
Blasted Bottles, Ottawa: 613-761-5999
Curve Magazine
November 2008
By Catherine Plato
Though Natalie MacLean is about as sensitive to her wines as the average parent is to her children, she still manages to tackle this seemingly snobby, daunting and inaccessible subject with a lighthearted sense of humor that other wine writers sorely lack. Poetic but still down-to-earth, MacLean’s writing is as addictive as her subject itself.
Her journey in pursuit of great wine began with an introductory wine appreciation course, and has since brought her to vineyards around the world, as well as to the World Food Media Awards, where she recently earned the esteemed title World’s Best Drink Writer.
Though she professes to have only minimal skills in the kitchen, MacLean is brilliant when it comes to matching wine with food—even food you might never imagine having with wine. On her website, nataliemaclean.com, she suggests matches for such oddities as nachos (zinfandel), bacon and eggs (semi-dry sauternne), Rice Krispies squares (off-dry Riesling)and Oreos (vintage port).
However, my personal drinking habits usually correspond more to what’s happening in my psyche than on my palate. I had to wonder: What wine goes best with a broken heart? A bad day? A celebration? Luckily, MacLean had the answers to all these pairings as well.
Let’s Drink to this
Award-winning wine writer Natalie MacLean recommends the perfect sip for any occasion.
Trying to seduce a new woman:
Pinot noir: the romantic grape. It’s so difficult to grow and make, but is seductively sublime when it works. I love those from New Zealand, such as Kim Crawford.
Celebrating victory when gay marriage is legal in California:
Definitely a blended wine here, like a shiraz-cabernet from Australia: lots of fleshy fruit from the shiraz, with newfound structure and support from the cab—just like legally sanctioned love.
Nursing a broken heart:
Banyuls and tawny port are the perfect self-indulgent, poor-little-me wines. They drink well with chocolate and most desserts, even a pint of Häagen-Dazs.
Telling a woman it’s over:
Any high-alcohol wine with a bitter finish will do: Italian amarone is probably best. And skip the Riedel glassware in this situation—a tumbler or shot glass is optimal.
Relaxing after a hard day at work:
Pick a wine you can sip slowly, like a German riesling: low in alcohol but high in flavor, so you won’t pass out on the sofa at 7 p.m.
Meeting your girlfriend’s family for the first time:
Try a medium-bodied wine that will appeal to many palates—one without too much oak, tannin or alcohol. I call these switch-hitter wines, as they go both ways, food-wise. They’re good with meat, chicken, pasta, etc. For example, a California merlot from Beringer.
Coming out to your family:
Try a wine from an overlooked or undiscovered region, such as an Argentinean malbec or a South African shiraz. Your family will be pleasantly surprised at how palatable both the wine and the news can be.
Dallas Morning News
July 10, 2007
By Kim Pierce
A winey friend turned me on to a useful and user-friendly food-and-wine pairing site, put together by author and sommelier Natalie MacLean, who's accumulated a string of prestigious writing awards.
Start your pairing by food (What goes with lobster?) or by wine (rosé, dry). The site not only gives some really good, imaginative pairings, it also links to recipes (Lobster Cakes with Mango Rhubarb Salsa).
The site includes podcasts (How will global warming affect wine?), FAQs, and more. Can't find the match you need? You're invited to e-mail Natalie, and she'll suggest a match for you.
Dallas Morning News (2)
January 21, 2007
By Kim Pierce
It's not too soon to start thinking about V-Day. In that regard, a question came up recently: What wine do you pair with chocolate? It's a good question, because the wrong combination turns chocolate bitter and wine sour. I wrote about this two years ago for V-Day, and the Taste wine-tasting panel came up with chocolate, cheese and wine combos a year ago. Cathy Barber wrote about the unusual combination of scotch and chocolate last year, too.
Here's yet another source to help you negotiate the sweet-and-bitter wine-chocolate shoals: Wine expert Natalie MacLean pairs wine and chocolate desserts on her Web site. Read on for her top 10 combinations.
1. Dark chocolate and a wine from the Banyuls region of France
2. Chocolate-covered biscotti with a recioto della Valpolicella from Italy
3. Chocolate-orange cake with muscat liqueur from Australia (I would add orange muscat from a Texas winery, such as Flat Creek Estate)
4. Chocolate and nuts with a tawny port from Portugal
5. Milk chocolate with a tokaji from Hungary
6. Bittersweet chocolate with an amarone from Italy
7. Chocolate-dipped fruit with a Canadian icewine
8. Chocolate ganache truffles with a Sauternes from France
9. Chocolate-raspberry cheesecake with framboise liqueur from California
10. Chocolate hearts with cream filling with a Spanish cream sherry
These are all generic styles of wines or liqueurs, rather than wines from specific producers, so when you go to the store, you should be able to find a match.
You can go to MacLean's Web site at www.natdecants.com and follow the steps for pairing wine and food to see more matches.
Dayton Daily News
April 29, 2008
By Beth Blair
The Dayton Daily News published the same story as the WNBC New York.
Daytona News-Journal
February 14, 2007
By Jeff Farance
Natalie MacLean, a sommelier and educator, writes for several magazines. "Wine gives me an excuse to meet really interesting, obsessive, passionate people," she said. "So it's my way into people's lives."
"I can tell the story of people's lives through wine."
MacLean described her book as being about "wine and seduction," -- with an emphasis on the human-interest angle that is her entry point in writing.
Wine and seduction go together, she said. "Researchers at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) discovered that the other person appears, on average, 25 percent more attractive after one glass of wine."
What kind of wine should be paired with a Valentine's Day celebration?
Bubbly of most any sort, is practically de rigueur for any special occasion, MacLean said. "Plus, sparkling wines are friendly to most appetizers and desserts. And people are friendlier when paired with them."
"There have been some studies saying women prefer wine over chocolate for Valentine's Day because wine ususally means sharing and spending time together."
But let's not forget the chocolates, she said.
"There are some wines -- maybe port, for example -- that do pair well with chocolate," MacLean said.
"I like to double up on my vices, so wine with chocolate is a great combination."
Daytona News-Journal (2)
February 13, 2008
By Jeff Farance
Think of Valentine's Day, and what color comes to mind? Not white. Maybe pink. Certainly red.
Many will pop the cork on a bottle of bubbly in a romantic gesture. Champagne and other sparklers do, indeed, pair nicely with almost anything. Romance is almost inherent in serving sparkling wine. But, being a contrarian and lover of all wines red, I'm opting for a red Valentine's Day.
Just to bolster my case, I turned to a renowned expert, columnist, accredited sommelier, writer, wine judge, author, raconteur and lovely person, Natalie MacLean (her free Internet newsletter is at www.nataliemaclean.com).
We're both fans of red wines, particularly zinfandels, and we're both admittedly cheap. So still-reasonably-priced zins often are the go-to beverage for almost every occasion.
"Does zin serve you as well as it does me with chocolates, especially dark chocolate?" she asked in a recent e-mail. "I think some tannic fruit is a nice counterpart to dark and even to lighter milk chocolates. I love zinfandel with dark chocolate: The wine's blackberry and plum flavors marry well with the darker flavors of this chocolate."
So there it is. Break out the Hershey's or our own Angell & Phelps (a welcome treat) and uncork a red zin.
Natalie also recommends something I've long loved but not had in ages: "Late harvest zinfandel also works well because of its extra sweetness and richness." It's a dessert wine made by a number of zin producers and usually vinted in half-bottles.
"The lightly fizzy Italian sparkler Brachetto D'Aqui, with its ripe notes of strawberries, would be divine with decadent cake," also notes Natalie.
"Even though I'm serving (sparkling wines) more often, they still aren't exactly a staple," she says. "But I've always felt they're the ultimate pairer with most anything. A (semi-sweet) bubbly would be lovely with a light chocolate dessert. In wine, you can find all the flavors, richness and sweetness of chocolate, but chocolate just doesn't have that added bonus of alcohol!"
Just one recent notable example of a formidable zin is Chase Family Cellars Hayne Vineyards 2003 Napa Zinfandel (an uncheap $45). It promised and delivered ripe black cherry and plum flavors with a background of toasty vanilla. The nose was dark cherry with a hint of volatile eucalyptus, but we also found some mocha notes on the palate that made it ideal for some very dark chocolate. The body was full (not quite chewy, but still a big wine), and the finish extended way past dessert.
So, Valentines, candy's dandy, but, hey, it's hard to drink a toast with it. But wine and chocolate are a hard combination to beat for a Cupid caper.
Daytona News-Journal (3)
April 9, 2008
By Jeff Farance
What a learning experience a wine-tasting can be. And there's an added benefit of that relaxing sensation derived from a few hours of sniffing and sipping.
So here I was, tasting and talking with Marie-Edith Olivier, a regional sales manager for Robert Kacher Selections, an importer of many interesting boutique French wines at various price levels. And she's pouring a white wine whose label, surprisingly to me, proclaims it's a Domaine du Tariquet Sauvignon.
"Sometimes we change the labels for the U.S. market so they display the grape, which is not what we do with most French wines," said the Marseilles native during her tasting at the Port Orange Wine Warehouse.
For about $8, this is a classic sauvignon blanc -- some moderate citrus on the nose, more lemons, limes and pineapples than grapefruit on the palate. The body is moderate and the finish solid. This isn't the aromatic, really grapefruity stuff of New Zealand sauvignon blancs. It was tasty, and I enjoyed it.
But I was mystified. Did the French really do a lot of sauvignon blancs, but, in typical fashion, call them something else? I just couldn't remember.
Too lazy and busy for even an Internet search, I turned to my favorite authority: Natalie MacLean, a sommelier, wine educator and writer, and editor of a free, award-winning wine newsletter at nataliemaclean.com.
"French sauvignon blanc isn't as noticeable on the shelves as is this wine from other regions, such as New Zealand or California," says MacLean. "That's because the grape isn't often noted on French labels. However, both Bordeaux and the Loire Valley produce spectacularly crisp and mouth-watering versions of this wine.
"In the Loire, they're often labeled as sancerre or pouilly-fume. In Bordeaux, sauvignon blanc is blended with the grape semillon to produce a richer style. Some famous labels include Chateau Haut-Brion and Domaine de Chevalier.
"French sauvignon blanc can taste more austere, almost stony, compared to fruitier and more herbal versions from New World regions. But once you develop a taste for it, you'll love the way it pairs with a wide range of dishes."
MacLean includes hundreds of pairings for sauvignon blanc and other wines in her online food-and-wine matching tool at nataliemaclean.com/matcher.
I knew pouilly-fume. I've had them (though they're never labeled as sauvignon blancs and are so minerally and austere, they're not readily apparent as such). They were the basis of wine legend Robert Mondavi's proprietary name for his California sauvignon blanc, "Fume Blanc," which I've enjoyed many times.
So now lovers of this versatile white have more options for sauvignon blancs worldwide.
Decanter Magazine
September 2009
Decanter contributors were lauded for their efforts at the 2009 Louis Roederer International Wine Writers' Awards in London last night.
Margaret Rand, a previous winner of Roederer's Champagne Writer of the Year, was named Feature Writer of the Year for her articles in Decanter, and specialist wine photographer Jon Wyand was given the Artistry of Wine Award.
Tom Stevenson, the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) Regional Chair for Champagne, won the Champagne Writer of the Year while Decanter contributor Tim Atkin MW won the Wine Columnist of the Year Award for his pieces in The Observer, Intelligent Life and Off Licence News. Oz Clarke won the International Wine Book for Bordeaux. Christine Austin of The Yorkshire Post won the Regional Wine Writer of the Year.
Canadian wine writer Natalie MacLean won the Online Wine Writer of the Year. Metcalfe told decanter.com he hoped MacLean's win prompted more writers outside the UK and Europe to enter in future so the awards lived up to their 'international' status.
East Bay Express
March 19, 2008
By Blair Campbell
When a medium-fancy friend of mine recently joined me for dinner at a medium-fancy Bay Area restaurant, she recoiled when our waitress told her the price of certain Syrah: $8 a glass. Her horror wasn't at the cost — although it certainly could have been. Instead, she was realizing that since many of this restaurant's wines were in the $10-15-a-glass range, this $8 glass might very well have been a dollar-store special of dubious quaffability.
Now, this same friend regularly — and happily — purchases bottles of wine for $8 or less. "If it tastes good, I take great personal satisfaction in getting that deal and having a delicious glass of wine at the same time," she says. Still, she's all too aware of the steep restaurant markup on wine. Wines by the glass can be sold for as much or more than the retail price of the bottle — allowing restaurants to immediately recoup their costs and to drive consumers toward purchasing a whole bottle. Bottles are typically priced for two to three times their retail value. "Once you get more savvy about the markup, it does feel a little obnoxious — but I like to pair my food with wine," my friend concludes. "And there's nothing more disappointing than a bad glass of wine."
That love of wine, and fear of disappointment, are just what restaurateurs are banking on — literally. But this phenomenon may be less about greed and more about self-preservation.
"The big thing with wine is, after you open it, it's going to go bad pretty quickly," says Rolan Reichel, an Oakland resident and former restaurateur now working in the beverage industry. Reichel explains that offering wines by the glass can actually be a money loser for restaurants. "Unless you're really busy, you're going to end up with a lot of half-empty bottles at the end of the night. You can lose a lot of money on your wine program." This is why, Reichel explains, you see many restaurants experimenting with different-sized pours, carafes, and other ways of getting the consumer to drink more and try more-expensive brands. "For a lot of restaurants, wine by the glass is a service. That's why people try all these other things. If they made money, they wouldn't tinker with it."
For Rick Mitchell, proprietor of Luka's Taproom and the new Franklin Square Wine Bar in downtown Oakland, "tinkering with it" has meant half off every bottle on Luka's wine list every Sunday night.
"Sunday nights were slower for us, so we wanted a way to bring people in," explains Mitchell, adding that the discount gives patrons who typically order by the glass a good reason to try something new. "We wanted to give people incentive to open the wine list and order a bottle." Ideally this would give some of the higher-priced wines on the list a bit of added exposure — that $80 bottle you'd normally skip right over looks a little more tempting at $40. Unfortunately, says Mitchell, it doesn't really work out that way. "Ninety percent of the people come in and get the cheapest bottle we offer, at half off," he notes with a chuckle.
Luka's 50-percent-off-a-bottle night is just one example of how many restaurants are bowing to an increasingly savvy and wine-thirsty consumer. A comparable trend is the waiving of corkage fees — the amount a restaurant charges when you bring your own bottle — either all the time or on regular no-corkage-fee nights. Anecdotal evidence shows these nights generate huge business; my local place is often booked solid, with a line of walk-ins out the door. There's also a convivial atmosphere, attributable to the fact that restaurants are giving their patrons not just a break from "obnoxious" markups, but also a chance to strut their own wine knowledge and make their own choices about which wines to pair with what's on the menu.
Lest you feel your expertise is lacking in that area, we've enlisted some advice from Natalie MacLean, author of Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. A noted authority on food-and-wine pairing, MacLean offers an interactive matching tool on NatalieMacLean.com; here she recommends the good varietals and regions to look for at the liquor store when choosing what to drink with various cuisines.
MacLean's suggestions accompany a list of six restaurants we think are noteworthy for their consumer-friendly wine programs. Consider a visit — and if you want to make the night a real steal, consult archived Wineau columns for the best bargains among the varietals mentioned, and where to find them.
Eating Well Magazine
June 2009
The Editor's Pick
Look for a perfect pair with sommelier Natalie MacLean's online Wine and Food Matcher (www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher).
Select a food from the expansive list and receive both red and wine wine recommendations.
Or choose the wine variety and you'll get a long list of food suggestions.
eHow
December 31, 2009
By Linda Natali
"Too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right," opined the late great American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Many would tend to agree with Ole' Fitzgerald, and fortunately this New Year's may be the first one in a long time that those of us longing to party like rock stars can afford the good stuff.
Shipments of champagne to the United States plummeted 41.2 percent from January to August, according to the Champagne Bureau, the U.S. arm of the region's official trade group. The surplus left in storerooms still exceeds current demand, the excess supply resulted in major price slashing and good deals for the common man. Bargain champagne here we come!
Before you pop the cork to ring in the New Year make sure that you know how to choose quality champagne at an awesome price to get the best bubbly for your New Year's Eve blow-out.
Things You'll Need:
* Champagne
* Money
* Time
* A reason to celebrate (or not)
Step 1: Go for the authentic.
Champagne is a sparkling wine, made in the Champagne region in the North East of France. The only wine that is legally allowed to be called "champagne" is wine that has been produced in this region.
Step 2: Select a well-known marque.
If you aren't a bubbly connoisseur and not exactly sure how to start whittling down your choices from the vast assortment of sparkling wines, it is best stick to the tried and true brands.
These include Bollinger, Charles Heidsieck, Krug, Moet et Chandon, G.H. Mumm, Joseph Perrier, Ruinart, Taittinger and Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin.
Choosing a bottle from one of these well-respected labels is a great start to discovering which champagne best suits your palate.
Step 3: Pick a blend.
Most houses produce several blends or varieties, or "cuvées," of champagne. Nonvintage cuvées are blends that epitomize the house's signature style, with little variation over the years, according to Natalie MacLean, a sommelier and author of "Red, White and Drunk All Over."
Although these bottles are the least expensive produced by a marque, they can be of awesome quality. Often more than 100 different wines from different years are included in the blend.
Vintage or dated bottles are only produced when a season's harvest is remarkably good. "You're going to taste the difference the weather makes each year," MacLean says of vintage bottles, which houses create at their own discretion.
Expect to pay twice the amount of a nonvintage blend - and even more for an exceptionally strong growing year. If you have your heart set on a vintage bottle, do your research and find out which have been good growing years.
Prestige cuvées are a house's creme de la creme and offer you the opportunity to party like a real rock star. We're talking champagnes like Cristal or Dom Perignon. "These wines are, quite simply, the house's best of the best in a vintage year," says Emanuelle Chiche, managing director of The Bubble Lounge, a sparkling wine and champagne bar with locations in New York and San Francisco. Prestige cuvées are held to higher standards of production and are made in limited quantities from the first pressing of the very best grapes. Know that you will definitely pay bigger bucks for the best.
Step 4: Smell the age.
Champagne aromas develop with age. The wine is matured in producers' cellars for at least 15 months for non-vintage champagne, three years for vintage wines and even longer for prestige cuvées, before they are released onto the market.
Generally speaking, the older the bottle the more developed and nuanced its flavor, says Eric Benn, co-owner of The Bubble Lounge. A non-vintage blend should be drunk within three years, while a vintage bottle can usually be kept for 10 to 15 years. But older isn't always better, he cautions - you'll need to have great faith in your supplier that the bottle has been transported carefully and stored properly over the years. You can tell the age of the sparkling wine by drinking in (smelling) the the following aromas:
Age 15 months to 3 years: White flower, citrus and fresh fruit aromas.
Age 3 to 5 years (Mature): Bold summer flowers or ripe/stewed fruit aromas dominate.
Age five years or more: Bouquets of dried flowers and grilled nuts.
Step 5: Choose your dosage.
Once the bubbly has aged sufficiently, a certain amount of sugar is added, known as the dosage. There are many different dosages of champagne, but you can usually get an idea as to what the dosage is by reading the label. The most common dosages are extra brut, brut and demi-sec. Extra brut or ultra brut champagne contain no added sugar/dosage so they are the best choice for dieters. They are very dry wines.
Brut champagne wines are very dry, but slightly sweeter than extra brut, and they contain a very low amount sugar. They are perfect for most occasions, which is why they are the most popular variety of champagne sold today. Champagne makers save their best grapes for this category.
More sugar is added to demi-sec champagne wines than to brut champagne wines. This gives them a sweet taste. As a result they go swimmingly with desserts.
Step 6: Roll the bubbles around.
If given the opportunity to taste various sparkling wines before your purchase, take the time to observe the bubbles. Tasty champagne generally has small bubbles that quickly make their way to the top of a fluted champagne glass.
Take a sip and roll the bubbles around in your mouth. Take note of how strong the fizz becomes. Enjoy the feel and notice whether the bubbles are fine or coarse. As you taste more champagnes and sparkling wines, you will soon see the difference. Discover which type of bubbles you enjoy more.
Step 7: Make your own decision.
Choosing champagne is the same process as buying jewelry, a new car, clothes, or furniture. You know your own taste and price range best.
If possible, don't leave the choice up to someone else. Pamper yourself a little this New Year's Eve and pick something that excites you and adds to the festive mood. Go for something that you couldn't have afforded in the past but with the current price cuts is just within your reach this year.
By choosing what you like you may end up quoting Dom Perignon, who at the moment of his discovery of champagne exclaimed, "Come quickly, I am tasting stars!"
Elmira Star-Gazette
November 17, 2007
By Jeff Richards
Have you picked out the perfect bottle of wine to accompany your Thanksgiving dinner next week?
No matter what type of wine you like, Finger Lakes wineries can provide a great bottle of wine for that special occasion when friends and family gather to give thanks.
Wine writer Natalie MacLean offers five tips for choosing just the right wine to go with your holiday meal.
She suggests starting with bubbly. More and more area wineries are not only making sparkling wines, they also earning accolades with them. Swedish Hill Winery in Romulus earned the Best Sparkling Wine award at this year's Wine and Food Classic held in the Napa Valley. It is one of four sparkling wines I was able to taste recently that should be a hit.
Natalie's next suggestion is to consider the turkey. She says that most turkey is dry in texture and could use a mouthwatering wine like a crisp Riesling or pinot grigio to complement it.
"I think Riesling is one of the best wines for a holiday meal," say Natalie. "I love Finger Lakes Rieslings. They hold their place with the best Rieslings in the world."
That plays right into one of the strengths of the Finger Lakes. Recently, King Ferry Winery earned a gold medal at the Canberra Riesling Challenge in Australia with its 2006 Treleaven Dry Riesling. The wine scored 55.5 points, finishing only a half point behind the worldwide winner that was produced in Germany. Other Finger Lakes wineries that scored well in the challenge were Heron Hill, Sheldrake Point Vineyard, Wagner Vineyards and Rooster Hill Vineyards. Overall, five of the top eight wines in the U.S. division were from the Finger Lakes.
Natalie also suggests looking beyond the bird. You do not have to match the wine to just the turkey, she says. Dave Peterson, manager at Swedish Hill agrees, saying, "I love those fruity, dry roses with food." Or how about a 2006 Vidal Blanc from Atwater to go with the squash or green beans, suggests Katie Marks, who handles public relations and marketing at Atwater Estate Vineyards in Hector, where her father, Ted, is proprietor.
Natalie goes on to recommend a buttery chardonnay to complement the smoky flavors of chestnuts and pecan stuffing. You get the idea: there are lots of options, red, white and rose.
Natalie's closing suggestion focuses on dessert. "End on a sweet note. If anyone still has room when it is time for pumpkin or pecan pie, offer a late harvest or Riesling ice wine." That is another category in which the Finger Lakes wineries excel. There is even a holiday treat called Cranberry Essence from Cayuga Ridge Estate that ties in beautifully with a Thanksgiving meal.
The bottom line is that Finger Lakes wineries offer a bountiful selection of wines to accompany your meal.
Here's to a joyful Thanksgiving holiday as you share the day with loved ones.
EMC News
October 29, 2006
By Victoria Carnaghan
Natalie MacLean is used to playing many roles in her day-to-day life. The acclaimed wine columnist has published dozens of articles in food and drink publications across North America. She’s also a mother, a wife and an expert at web design.
But in her newly published book, Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine Soaked Journey From Grape to Glass, the first time novelist takes on jobs she never would have imagined herself doing.
A result of three years of travelling through the world’s most famed wine regions, Ms. MacLean’s book is written so readers feel they are riding along with her as she visits classic wine regions in France, California and tries her hand at various wine-related jobs.
“I worked undercover as an expert sommelier in a fancy French restaurant for the night, which resulted in many drops of expensive wine spilled on white tablecloths,” she said in a recent interview. “I like to do, not just to research.”
She also worked in a wine shop in New York and helped with the or wine harvest in California.
“I describe what it's like to be out in the middle of the vines, picking grapes under a blistering hot sun. Then back at the winery, I became one with my subject; essentially, a human grape: sticky, purple and completely crushed,” she wrote on her popular web site.
But other than first hand experience, Ms. MacLean also uses live interviews and historic research to support her personal observations: “I tried to find passionate, obsessed people in the wine industry. I think people like to read about other people. I met a strange and marvelous and nutty man (in Bonny Doon Vineyards in California), and told his story.”
And though Ms. MacLean has travelled extensively, (recreationally she said she likes to go to non-vineyard parts of the world too) she said she, her husband Andrew and their son Rian love their current Nepean neighbourhood.
“We love being here,” she said of her home for 10 years. “Especially with my son, I can’t imagine raising him anywhere else.”
Currently, Ms. MacLean is touring the USA and Canada to promote the book, hitting major Canadian cities from the coast to coast, as well as in Atlanta, Miami, and Charlotte.
With an impressive educational background, including an Masters in Business Administration from London’s Western University that she funded herself by giving Highland dancing lessons to her neighbours in her native home town by Halifax, Ms. MacLean has also been recognized by her contemporaries. In 2003, she garnered the Food Media awards World’s Best Drink Writer nod and has won four James Beard foundation Journalism Awards and five awards for excellence in food journalism from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
Armed with these credentials, the writer said she is happy doing just that: writing regularly for news dailies, wine and food magazines and updating her e-newsletter each week. Recently, she hit 53,000 subscribers, hailing from countries across the globe, and couldn’t be happier.
“I love that connection, the camaraderie,” she said. And writing a book helped to further establish a relationship to fans of her work.
“A book allowed me to do a lot of things, but deeper. I met more passionate people, and established a stronger bond with readers.”
In her book, Ms. MacLean also describes her personal evolution from a newly-graduated student, to accredited sommelier and experienced taster. She said she tried her first good wine in a Toronto restaurant after the waiter recommended she and her future husband, Andrew, try a Brunello. The two assented, thinking they were getting an entrée.
In the introduction of the book, Ms. MacLean writes:
“The pop of the cork seemed to relieve something inside me. The aroma of the wine rushed out to meet me and all the smells I’d ever known rushed away.”
And this descriptive passion is one of the definition characteristics of her work. As a food journalist, Ms. MacLean said the key to reaching readers successfully is to find a way to be “imaginative but concrete. You have to try to describe what’s a very subjective experience. It’s a matter of trying to translate into words an experience that appeals to smell and taste; you’re trying to verbalize that but doing so with magic and allure in your writing.”
Furthermore, she added, a writer always has to love their subject. Ms. MacLean’s personal passion for wine, its hedonism, its connection to history, geography and commerce are the backdrop to her style and expression, she said.
And despite the sometimes complex language and volumes of knowledge that seem to define the world of wine, the author says the best advice she could give to wine amateurs seeking to refine their palate is to try lots of wines. “There’s no substitute for pulling corks,” she says. “And compare them side by side. Serve or order a few ones at once”; and of course, make sure to read books and articles written by those wisened by experience.
Epicurious
February 2008
By Natalie MacLean
These five wines help set the mood. Better yet, they're paired with recipes, so you've got five instant dinners.
Beringer Third Century 2005 Pinot Noir, Central Coast, California
(about $14)
This bottle's name refers to the fact that this winery is now operating in its third century--the company has been around since 1876. The Central Coast is similar to the cool climate of Burgundy, and the fruit shows the same characteristics of just-ripe fruit with an intoxicating undercurrent of earth and spice. (Though if you really like spicy, you might consider a Zinfandel instead.)
Errazuriz Wild Ferment 2005 Pinot Noir, Casablanca Valley, Chile
(about $17)
This wine was fermented with wild native yeasts, which extends the fermentation process and deepens both the color and flavor of the wine. It is full-bodied, with the lush flavors of strawberry, plums, and cedar, and a silky smooth texture. Dishes cooked with wine are easy to match with many vinos, but I chose this dish because the root vegetables echo the wild, sexy earthiness of the wine.
Amity Vineyards 2005 Pinot Noir, Oregon, United States
(about $23)
An elegant, medium-bodied Pinot, this one has enticing aromas of spice and black cherry that marry splendidly with the robust flavors in the pasta "rags" recipe and Beef Bourguigon. The wine is elegant and balanced, with a long finish. Although the dishes are a little more muscular than the wine, they work together much like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. (She definitely needed balance to dance backwards in heels.) You'll dance all night with this wine.
Austins 2006 Pinot Noir, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
(about $25)
As one of Australia's oldest wine regions, Geelong is host to many small, artisanal wineries like Austins. The area's cool climate and oceanside location help produce wines that are balanced but also have rich, ripe fruit flavors. This Pinot, bursting with cherry notes, is closed with a screwcap, which, if nothing else, allows for quick access on Valentine's Day when speed, not finesse, is often a key factor.
Domaine Chandon 2005 Pinot Noir, Carneros/Napa, California
(about $28)
This medium-bodied Pinot has notes of raspberry, cherry, cedar, and a touch of oak. Domaine Chandon is known for its fabulous sparkling wines, so it's not surprising that it does a great job with finicky, cool-climate Pinot (one of the most food-friendly wines on the planet). It may be known as the "heartbreak grape," but that has nothing to do with its impact on relationships; it's an indication of how difficult it is to grow. Like a great relationship, when it works, it's pure magic.
Forbes
June 16, 2008
By Todd Pitock
Normally you'd figure that any PGA Tour player accepting high-fives for scoring in the 90s must have had a sip of something strong. A group of current and former pros, though, have taken winemakers for playing partners and adopted the wine critics' 100-point scale as a new measure of being on par.
The idea is simple enough: Golfers bring the fame, winemakers bring the expertise and together they alchemize the mix into a golden brand. Greg Norman has been at it for nearly two decades. More recently, Arnold Palmer, Mike Weir, Nick Faldo, John Daly, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Gary Player have all jumped in, the latter releasing his first bottling this spring.
On the whole, connoisseurs give high marks. Els' and Norman's have received the best scores in the wine press, and other projects like Mike Weir's have had a warm reception as well.
"They liked my image and my ability to reach a certain audience," says Greg Norman about Beringer Blass, now part of the Australian conglomerate Fosters Group. The company approached him in the 1990s. "I liked them because they had financial and marketing wherewithal. They had [an Australian] wine that wasn't selling well in America, and they wanted to completely change the image, change the taste and rebrand it."
The company introduced Norman to two in-house wine experts. They spent months tasting together, fine-tuning wines to Norman's palate.
"Then," Norman recalls, "we had to identify our market. We could go high-end, to the $100 bottle, where there are pretty good margins but low volume, or we could go to lower margins but higher volume."
They chose to stay reasonably priced and have grown since their 1999 debut, recently introducing California appellations, and achieving sales in 2007 approaching 300,000 bottles.
If Norman wasn't originally a wine expert, Ernie Els wasn't even a wine drinker when he got involved in the business. At the time, Els' favorite varietal was, um, beer. But his wife, Liesl, liked wine, and their friend Jean Engelbrecht, whom the couple had known since they were teenagers, happened to be one of South Africa's most respected winemakers.
"They said, 'Why don't we open a winery together?'" says Engelbrecht. Engelbrecht gave Els an education in wine, and the first vintage of Ernie Els Wines was produced in 2000. The winery, located in South Africa's Stellenbosch, sits on a high slope with views of the 72-hectare estate. There are plush sitting areas, a one-room museum showcasing Els' achievements, a barrel room and a tasting bar looking out on the vineyards.
For Els, the winery was the first step in a Norman-like empire, with a golf-course design company, a real estate company, a clothing line and a golf-travel venture, the last one with Engelbrecht as a partner as well.
"Golfers haven't succeeded [in other businesses] unless they were personally involved," Engelbrecht says. "Ernie has done that, and his name has helped the whole South African category get attention from places that were ignoring us before."
Mike Weir has likewise raised the profile of Canadian wine. The Ontario native opened Mike Weir Estate Winery in 2005 on the Niagara Peninsula and quickly started winning medals at Canada's top wine competition, the Cuvée Awards, in 2006 and 2007. His Vidal Icewine, made from grapes harvested after the freeze, follows Ontario's (and British Columbia's) success at producing the sweet wine style pioneered in Germany.
Unlike these other business endeavors, however, Weir's is not a quest for personal riches. Instead, all proceeds go to the Mike Weir Foundation, which benefits Canadian children's charities.
Gary Player had real estate in mind when he started a wine venture. Led by his son, Marc, chief executive of Black Knight International, the company put together a consortium to acquire a well-known South African vineyard, the Boschendal Estate, in 2004. The primary aim was a golf-and-real- estate development, but Marc Player says making wine has become a way to honor his father's career. The winery's Major Championship Series collection will be bottled every year to commemorate Player's 18 Major and Senior Major victories. The first vintage is a 2003 Stellenbosch Bordeaux-style blend released at the Masters in April. They will be available at wine stores and at select Gary Player golf courses.
"We're looking to extend the brand to areas outside of our core business," Marc Player said. "It's not mass-market and it's priced at the high end, so it all fits with our key customers--baby boomers who travel and drink wine. Wine fits well in terms of the grand strategy."
For his South African venture, Retief Goosen linked up with winemaker Morné Jonker on South Africa's Garden Route--250 miles from the Cape area where almost all of the country's wines are now produced, on land that has quickly built a reputation for having the densest concentration of championship-caliber golf in Africa.
Jonker saw an opportunity to make wine in the country's coldest growing region and create European- or Old World-- styled wines.
"We'll never make more than 5,000 cases. So with small volume, we'll focus on high-quality wines that are priced at the higher end," he says.
Last year, The Goose Winery launched its 2005 vintage, a Cabernet Sauvignon- Shiraz blend. The 2003 vintage was introduced to the U.S. market at the 2008 CA (nyse: CA - news - people ) Championship at the Doral Resort & Spa in March.
Retief promotes his wine on the pro circuit. "His branding makes a difference," Jonker says. "He markets with resorts, such as Mission Hills in China. He's an ambassador to Rolex, and we serve at their corporate functions around the world, including Carnoustie last year."
With all this star power, does it matter that many of these wines are actually good? Sure, says sommelier and wine critic Natalie MacLean. "The wines are ultimately brand extensions for these marquee sportsmen, but in the end, they have to deliver on taste, and they do."
"They have a legacy attached to them," adds Mark Russo, a longtime wine writer and golf enthusiast who founded Angel's Share, a food and wine events company in California. "If you're truly a golf aficionado, you probably don't care; it's a nice souvenir, a great keepsake and may actually increase in value with an autograph. But for the true wine geek, it's what ends up in the glass and not what's on the label that counts. It can't be just a pure business deal."
Forbes Magazine (2)
February 20, 2008
By Pascale Le Draoulec
Which restaurant boasts the largest collection of Amarone wines in the world?
Here's a clue: It's not in Italy, or even New York.
It's an old-style Italian joint called Via Allegro Ristorante, in a generic strip mall across from a Home Depot in western Toronto.
Top Restaurants For Canadian Wine-Lovers
Don't let the plebian locale fool you. Its wine list--which, at 5,000 selections, is one of largest in the world--has earned the prestigious Grand Award from Wine Spectator each year since 2003.
Bistro a Champlain, about an hour outside of Montreal on the road to Mont Tremblant, easily boasts the world's largest collection of large-format bottles of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti. We're talking stacks of Methuselahs--six liter bottles--of what many consider to be Burgundy's pinnacle.
If you thought Canada's alcohol consumption was limited to ice wine and Molson Golden, think again.
Wine consumption is on the rise in Canada. In 2005, Canadians drained 396 million bottles, representing an increase of 23% over the 2001-2005 period. By 2010, wine consumption is expected to grow to 465 million bottles a year. Over 10 years, wine consumption will have increased by an average of 4.5% per year.
And though "wine has not yet surpassed beer as the beverage of choice"--as it now has in the United States--"it's only a matter of time," says John Szabo, a wine consultant and master sommelier for the Toronto-based Center for Vine Affairs.
"The interest in wine has skyrocketed in the last few years," he says. "Everyone in Canada is taking a wine class and reading wine blogs."
Behind The Bar
Wine bars are cropping up everywhere, even in remote corners of Newfoundland, where at a spot called Atlantica, you can find a bottle of Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers 2004 for $143.
What has fueled the excitement over the grape?
In the case of Newfoundland and much of Eastern Canada, a sudden infusion of "ridiculous amounts" of oil money has created a huge demand for luxury goods such as wine, says Szabo.
What's more, Canada has seen its own burgeoning wine industry explode in the last 10 years. Its two wine-producing regions, the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, are turning out award-winning pinot noirs and Rieslings.
"Wine appreciation is directly related to the development of a local wine industry," says Natalie MacLean, whose web site is nataliemaclean.com and is author of Red, White and Drunk All Over.
Having hometown celebrities like Wayne Gretzky and Dan Aykroyd get in on the winemaking act has also brought more exposure to Canada's wine regions, and to wine appreciation in general.
"I'm quite proud of Canadian wines,' says MacLean. "But the challenge in talking about them is that a lot of people haven't tried them."
This is because of Canada's relatively small production and archaic laws limiting intra-provincial transport.
"So much of the great wine that's made here stays here, " says MacLean.
Szabo agrees. "To get the good stuff, you really have to go to the source," he says. "It's easier--and cheaper--for me to get a wine from Chile than it is to get one from B.C."
Dishing The List
We asked MacLean, Szabo and other Canadian sommeliers to come up with a list of top restaurants across the country to drink wine--both Canadian and international.
For a taste of the best wine British Columbia has to offer, they picked Sooke Harbour House, which boasts the largest collection of wines from the province, including the largest ice wine selection in the world (300 bottles).
For wines from Ontario producers, Treadwell Farm to Table Cuisine in Port Dalhousie was the clear choice. Sommelier James Treadwell, who owns the restaurant with his father, award-winning chef Stephen Treadwell, has compiled a stellar list showcasing the pride of local producers alongside an intelligent selection of international labels.
To experience the best Nova Scotia has to offer, wine writer and sommelier Craig Pinhey recommends Five Fishermen, which lists Nova Scotia wines by their sub-appellations.
Post Hotel Dining Room, Post Hotel and Spa, Lake Louise, Alberta
Most Breadth And Depth
The wine cellar at this rustic yet posh retreat in the heart of the Canadian Rockies features 30,500 bottles and more than 2,000 selections, ranging from cult California Cabs to outstanding Burgundy verticals. It is the recipient of Wine Spectator magazine's highest honor, the "Grand Award." This is where Chateau Margaux chose to hold its wine summit in 2006.
For more information, visit www.posthotel.com.
Treadwell Farm To Table Cuisine, Old Port Dalhousie, Ontario
Best Selection Of Ontario Producers
Stephen Treadwell prepares the "farm-to-table" cuisine at this highly rated restaurant, and his son James runs the wine program. Though international in scope, the wine list showcases Ontario's finest, including many hard-to-find gems.
For more information, visit www.treadwellcuisine.com.
Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar, Toronto
Most Esoteric Wines By The Glass
Want to taste something new and different? Each item on Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar's menu--from the chilled beet soup to the signature Yukon Gold fries with aioli--has a grape mate in a glass, carefully chosen by Jamie Drummond, the Indiana Jones of sommeliers. He is known for uncovering off-the-beaten-path "conversation wines," like the Peter Franus Mourvèdre "Brandlin Vineyard" Mount Veeder from Napa Valley he was pouring last month.
For more information, visit www.jamiekennedy.ca.
Beckta Dining & Wine, Ottawa
Best For Boutique, Artisanal Wines
Stephen Beckta, a former sommelier at the esteemed Daniel and Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan, returned to his native Ottawa to open this ingredient-driven restaurant, showcasing handcrafted wines from small producers. Beckta is particularly proud to pour rare finds like the Riesling "Picone Vineyard" Charles Baker, VQA Niagara 2006 ($70). "It's Canada's best Riesling," he says, "but impossible to get."
For more information, visit www.beckta.com.
Toqué Montreal
Best Range In French Wines
In Quebec, naturellement, oenophiles lean toward all grapes Gallic. For a broad selection of French wines, head to chef Norman Laprise's top-notch Toqué, where the list travels from the Loire Valley, to the Roussillon and the French Alps, as well as Burgundy and Bordeaux. The list of dessert wines, which includes a $600 bottle of Château d'Yquem, Lur-Saluces, 1993, is particularly impressive.
For more information, visit www.restaurant-toque.com.
Bistro A Champlain, Sainte-Marguerite-Du-Lac-Masson, Québec
Most Decadent French Cellar
Set in an old general store dating to 1864, this restaurant overlooking Lac Masson was the first in Canada to receive The Wine Spectator's Grand Award for its over-the-top cellar, which many have described as a "French-wine-lover's Mecca." Have the colorful owner, Champlain Charest, give you a personal tour through stacks – and stacks -- of Bordeaux grands crus and Methuselahs (six-liter bottles!) of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti. Astonishing.
For more information, visit www.bistroachamplain.com.
Five Fishermen, Halifax
Best Selection Of Nova Scotian Wines
The wines of Nova Scotia marry well with fish, and so they figure prominently on this seafood restaurant's list. Regional pride may also have something to do with it: The list even includes the sub-appellations of each offering. These wineries "represent the best of wine from the Atlantic Provinces and are gaining recognition throughout Canada and across the world" reads the list, by way of introduction.
For more information, visit www.fivefishermen.com.
Via Allegro, Etobicoke, Ontario
Best Italian Wine Selection
The wine list here "makes the average phone book look like a paperback in comparison," says Toronto wine consultant and master sommelier John Szabo. Though they've got everything covered here--from Mouton Rothschild dating to 1893 to 300 Canadian wines--they are known for their breadth and depth in Italian wines, particularly their mighty Tuscans and Amarones.
For more information, visit www.viaallegroristorante.com.
Barberian Steakhouse, Toronto
Best Burgundy Verticals
This classic celebrity haunt where Richard Burton proposed to Elizabeth Taylor--the first time--has amassed a massive collection since opening in the 1950s. You can fit 40,000 bottles in the snazzy new cellar. Most of the 2,000 labels lean toward France (Owner Aaron Barberian is a Burgundy fiend.) You can admire the collection if you dine in the mezzanine cellar--20 feet underground, so remember to bring a sweater!
For more information, visit www.barberians.com.
Forbes Magazine (3)
January 15, 2009
By Eric Arnold
Don't be surprised if it's easier this month to get a reservation at Smith & Wollensky.
The reason: With the economy in decline and expense accounts under increased scrutiny, businesspeople may be skipping the steakhouse--and the overpriced wines that flow there.
That appears to be what's happening at Morton's and Ruth's Chris. In the last year, Morton's stock has dropped 75%. Ruth's Hospitality Group, which owns the Ruth's Chris chain, has followed a nearly identical downward trajectory.
In Depth: Most and Least Pricey U.S. Steakhouse Wine Lists
"There are two major problems facing both of the steakhouse operators," says Chris Armbruster, senior research analyst at Al Frank Asset Management. "First is general weakness in consumer spending due to less levels of disposable income and lower levels of confidence, even at the high end. The second is a decline in business spending on steak dinners. I believe corporations are gravitating to meetings and sales calls over the phone rather than over a $50 steak dinner."
And that $50 is just for one steak--no appetizers, sides or dessert. Now throw in the wine.
Restaurants typically price their wines at roughly triple what they pay the wholesaler, but steakhouses often sell a bottle for as much as four times the wholesale price.
That's exactly the sort of thing that happens at New York's Del Frisco's. There, dinner for two--a double porterhouse, plus two sides--costs about $135, not including appetizers, dessert, tax and tip. Along with that, a bottle of Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 from California's Alexander Valley costs $150, "which is very high," says David Gordon, the wine director behind the award-winning list at New York's Tribeca Grill, and also an importer at New York-based David Bowler Wine. "That wine costs $40 a bottle, so that's a four-times markup."
Still, even in a down economy, deals are done. If a client wants to meet over meat, go for the steakhouse with a wine list that favors fairness over fleecing and provides enough variety to satisfy several tastes.
Big Markups
To get a better sense of which lists qualify, we recruited, along with Gordon, Tyler Colman, Ph.D., a Wines For The Weekend guest and author of the new book A Year Of Wine; and Natalie MacLean, the wine writer behind the blog Nat Decants and author of the book Red, White & Drunk All Over.
All three were provided wine lists from nine steakhouses, most of them chains with multiple U.S. and even some international locations (the exception being New York's Peter Luger, which only has two locations). The Palm provided a list without prices.
Wherever possible, our panel was provided the steakhouses' "core" lists. A chain might have a core wine list that's 60% identical from location to location, with the balance chosen by the on-site beverage manager, who's familiar with the local clientele's preferences. Some steakhouses provided a list from a particular location, noting that it's a fair representation, in terms of selection and price, of what a diner would find at any of that chain's restaurants. The restaurants' names were removed from each list before they were provided to our panel.
The lists, in general, had two things in common, our experts said. The first is the dominance of big, rich red wines, such as California cabernet sauvignon, with a lack of more subtle or lighter-bodied wines. Second, all three of our experts were quick to note the prices--almost universally over the top. The most egregious, the panel noted, was the list at Del Frisco's. Cakebread cabernet, which wholesales for about $40, costs $175 there.
Best Bets
This list, though, is especially well-chosen, which comes at a price. In fact, our experts found that the most carefully selected lists also tend to be the most expensive. These include the lists at BLT Steak and Smith & Wollensky. Del Frisco's has about 450 California cabernets, ranging in price from $44 to $5,000 (the average is around $400 per bottle); BLT steak offers more than 60 Italian reds ranging from $44 to $987 (average of $233 per bottle); and Smith & Wollensky has a collection of about 80 library wines that range from $113 to over $6,000 (averaging more than $500 per bottle). But all have hundreds of other selections as well, from multiple regions around the world.
Del Frisco's has "the biggest list, the most selections, it has a lot of great wine on it. However, the pricing is the highest of anyone," says Gordon. Looking at three particular Napa cabernets that appear on most of the lists, the prices were all quadruple markups at Del Frisco's, he found. Along with the previously mentioned Jordan ($150), the 2001 Screaming Eagle from Napa is $4,000; at Gordon's Tribeca Grill, it costs lest than half that at $1,800.
Gordon says, "$1,800 is ridiculous, too, but people do come in and buy it."
Gordon, Colman and MacLean were impressed with the list at Smith & Wollensky, not for its depth of style but for its verticals (same wine, several different years available). This gives diners the option of choosing more mature wines. For example, there are eight vintages of Mayacamas cabernet from Napa, ranging from 1988 to 1997 (the cheapest is $228, the most expensive is $480).
Capital Grill earned praise for its mostly fair prices ($38 for a gruner veltliner, for example), as well as for its range of white wines. While the list has typical steakhouse cabernets, there are plenty of other selections as well, such as a dozen sauvignon blancs starting as low as $26. More than half the selection of Bordeaux wines are under $100 (starting at $29); the most expensive, the Château Hosanna 1999, is $230.
But BLT Steak won over all our experts for its range of vintages and regions beyond California and Bordeaux. There's Spanish wine, red Burgundies--even "Zweigelt, an unheralded red grape from Austria," Colman points out.
MacLean called it "the wine list as Bible or telephone directory," and while the prices are high, Gordon noted that they're not in Del Frisco's territory, and that the wide range of styles and varieties available makes up for the high costs. There are nearly 40 reds from France's Burgundy region, including a few vintages of the rare and pricey Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, as well as about 30 Spanish wines from six regions, including a 1976 Lopez de Heredia for about $300.
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Similarly, all three experts noted the list at Fleming's Prime, which orders its wines from lightest to heaviest to give diners a better sense of what they're buying.
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"It emphasizes that they recognize that diversity," says Colman, and none of the other panelists found the Fleming's prices to be beyond the range of what's normally acceptable at steakhouses.
Behind the Leaders
Two other lists that stood out for their high number of selections, if not a broad range of styles, were those at Ruth's Chris and Morton's. But the prices put off our experts. At the latter, a bottle of Dom Perignon, for example, is $326 (it's less than that even at Del Frisco's), and Cakebread cabernet from Napa is $161--most of the other lists have it for $150 or less.
"If the stock market ever recovers, this is the place to dine," says MacLean of Morton's.
Similarly, of the Morton's list, Colman found one wine--the 75 Wine Co., Amber Knolls Vineyard cabernet from California--that retails for $20; it's $80 on the wine list.
But a careful look at the list uncovers some values. For one, MacLean noted the strong by-the-glass selection, and both she and Colman pointed out the high number of selections by the half bottle--which cost half as much, of course. And there could be more values to come.
"Much more wine is being brought in for that $50-and-under price point, which is becoming more popular," says Tylor Field, vice president of wines and spirits for Morton's. He also says Morton's is trying to create more values as the economy sags, in part by negotiating prices on large allotments of a particular wine, then selling it by the glass. "People want to have something great but don't want to make an investment of $100 when they can make an investment of $16 and still have a great experience," he says.
Ask any of the steakhouses' beverage directors about their wine prices, however, and they're quick to say that they don't gouge, it's their competitors that do.
"Well, I don't think ours are [overpriced]," says Marian Jansen op de Haar, director of wine for Flemings, in response to a general question about why steakhouses overcharge for wine.
However, there's a fair argument to be made that it isn't the steakhouses' fault for pricing wines the way they do--it's the consumers'.
"People know these wines and chase after them," says Fred Dexheimer, national beverage director for BLT. High consumer demand for well-known, cult-status Napa wines drives the wholesale prices up, and they get even higher at the steakhouse because "people are willing to pay," he says.
Of other steakhouses,Dexheimer says, "the more you charge, in some cases, the more it sells. There are names out there that get certain guests excited, and they're entertaining clients. A lot of it is impressing your guests and putting the tried-and-true, familiar [wine] on the table."
But as the economy worsens, more steakhouses could make adjustments, as Morton's has with its by-the-glass selection. Gordon thinks other steakhouses will follow suit, and find even more ways to offer value.
"A lot of the steakhouse business is expense-account business, and people's expense accounts are scaled back," he says. "They can't order $300 wine each time [they] go out."
Colman puts it more bluntly: "I don't know how these guys are going to make it in this economy, to be perfectly honest."
Morton's
Highest bottle price (Lafite Rothschild 1999): $949
The verdict:
This wine list won over Colman and MacLean for its by-the-glass selection, as well as a solid list of half bottles. Gordon said it was one of the more fairly priced lists, even if it wasn't anything special. But because only the core list was rated, different Morton's locations should offer many more wines, chosen by the on-site beverage managers.
Smith & Wollensky
Highest bottle price (Screaming Eagle 2001): $6,150
The verdict:
All of our experts gave this list a passing grade for its verticals--certain brands of wines from different years. But the prices are high, and the list is dominated by full-bodied reds such as California cabernet. "I thought this one was solid," said Colman; MacLean liked the offerings of mature wines rather than just recent releases.
Ruth's Chris
Highest bottle price (Harlan Estate 1997): $2,529
The verdict:
MacLean says this list wins for its depth of California wines, but all three experts agree it was one of the more overpriced lists. It's standard for a steakhouse, though, so if you want the trademark California cabernets, chances are, Ruth's Chris has most, if not all, of them.
Del Frisco's
Highest bottle price (Mouton Rothschild 1945 and Chateau Petrus 1961 magnums): $19,500
The verdict:
This list was the most impressive to our experts for its selection, but also for its price--over the top. In some cases, wines were marked up to quadruple their wholesale costs. "I appreciate the fact that they sourced wines from other places and had mature wines, such as Bordeaux and Burgundies," says Colman, but it appeals mainly to a very affluent customer. "If you want to spend $3,000 on a bottle, step right up," says MacLean.
Fleming's Prime
Highest bottle price (Dom Perginon 1999): $285
The verdict:
Although this list didn't win anyone over for a deep selection, all three experts liked its 100 wines by the glass, as well as its listing of wines from lightest to heaviest. There are also some wines that didn't appear on every other list. They're "not the most common items, so it's slightly different, which is in its favor," says Gordon.
BLT Steak
Highest bottle price (Richebourg, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti 2001): $1,495
The verdict:
While this list was among the pricier, it wasn't the most outrageous, and it had the best range of varieties and styles, according to our experts. "The pricing is high, but it has the most interesting wines," says Gordon, while MacLean lauded its breadth and depth. It's not just California cabernet and Bordeaux, but solid offerings from Italy, the Pacific Northwest, Burgundy and Spain, to name a few.
Capital Grill
Highest bottle price (Roederer Cristal Rose 1996): $446
The verdict:
This restaurant provided a core list; the individual beverage managers seem to have the most freedom to add their own selections out of any of the chains. This main list also impressed our experts as one of the strongest on price and selection, despite its relatively short length. "It wasn't as lengthy, but a pretty good mix of styles and places," says Colman, while MacLean appreciates that "white wines get some respect here, thank you."
Peter Luger
Highest bottle price (Lafite Rothschild 2001): $1,200
The verdict:
We slipped in this list more or less for fun, since the Brooklyn steak standard is known for its food, not its wine. All three experts thought the one-page wine list was pedestrian at best, and the pricing high, but not completely unfair. "It's the basic stuff," Gordon says of the list.
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
July 28, 2007
By Dan and Krista Stockman
If you want more offbeat pairings, check out the matches by Natalie MacLean at www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher. She matches wines with everything from Jell-O to TV dinners.
Fox Business News
April 29, 2008
By Beth Blair
Fox Business News published the same story as the WNBC New York.
Free Running with Kevin Ecock
April 6, 2009
By Kevin Ecock
I like to pair wine with foods. I also like simplicity. There are dozens of food types and styles that will go with most wines. I am however not a food critic. It would be very unfair of me to give my thoughts on someones hard work and creativity in the kitchen unless I am entitled to do so!
The web (blogs especially), magazines and, I must admit, even the daily broadsheets, have endless examples of self made critics. There is nothing wrong with having a view and expressing it. There is a subtle difference between that and being a critic!
Obviously we all have to start somewhere and it would be patently stupid to suggest we wait until someone has grey hair or a string of degrees or something before we can accept them into the critics inners circle! So, what to do?
Maybe we need to start reviewing the critics? Don't accept what they say unless that can at the very least support their views with some form of credibility. For instance if I attend the Chilean wine fair and then compare a restaurants house wines (from Chile) against the 150 or so I had just tasted you would have to say it's a valid critique. If on the other hand I take a copy of the wine list home with me, look up the web and figure out a bit about the wine and then tack that onto the end of my restaurant review.....well you can see what I mean!
Don't just accept reviews.l Question them. Don't believe reviewers without questioning their credentials.
Sometimes simplicity works. Viognier and roast chicken anyone? or would you prefer an obligingly comprehensive suggestion from the brilliant Natalie Maclean on NatDecants?
Pair Viognier with mild curries, grilled fish, scallops, shrimp glazed ham, grilled chicken, oily nuts such as macadamias and cashews, Emmental cheese, chicken in a ginger or orange sauce, turkey tetrazzini, chicken korma or tika, fried food, sashimi, sushi, lamb tagine with raisins, almonds and honey, butternut squash risotto, pork chops, smoked ham, tarragon, lobster thermidore, carrot soup and roast vegetables. Chicken and Poultry: Honey-Roast Poultry,Turkey With Traditional Trimmings. Ethnic Dishes: Chicken Korma, Chicken Tika, Coconut Curry (Mild), Creamy Curries, Curries: Spicy. Deep Fried Food: Hummus, Indian Dishes, Lightly Spiced Curries • Sashimi • Spicy Food • Spring Rolls • Sushi • Thai Coconut Shrimp • Thai DishesLamb • Lamb Tagine With Raisins, Almonds & HoneyPasta • Butternut Squash Risotto • Lemon-Mint RisottoPizza • Pizza, PestoPork • Ham And Melon • Pork Chops & Maple Glaze • Pork Chops, Grilled • Smoked HamSauces, Spices, Herbs • Anise, Fennel • Butter Sauce, Beurre Blanc • Caraway • Dill • Seafood Sauce, Cream-Based • TarragonSeafood & Shellfish • Clam Chowder Cream Base • Coquilles ST. Jacques • Grilled Salmon • Halibut With Orange & Salsa Verde • Lobster • Lobster Thermidore • Poached Salmon • Shrimp Cocktail • Smoked FishSoups & Stews • Chicken Soup • French Onion SoupTurkey Holiday Dinner • Turducken • Turkey With Traditional TrimmingsVegetables & Salads • Baked Squash • Carrot Soup • Field Greens Salad • Marshmallow Sweet-Potatoes • Pumpkin Dishes • Roast Vegetables • Smoked Mushrooms • Spiced ParsnipsAppetizers • Oily Nuts (Macadamia, Cashews)Cheese • Emmental Grand CruChicken/Poultry • Chicken In A Ginger, Orange Sauce • Chicken/Turkey Tetrazzini, Cream Casserole • Chicken With Pancetta & Herbs
Natalie MacLean is brilliant and I love her site. Believe it or not she sounds (never met her, heard her on the radio) as though she can deliver impartial advice in a simple and easy to understand manner. I will continue to question her. I don't expect she would have it otherwise. Maybe that's the secret to being a valid critic?
Gaper's Block
March 10, 2009
By Gemma Petrie
Natalie MacLean, a four-time James Beard Journalism Award winner, recently unveiled a new food and wine pairing tool on her website, Nat Decants.
While primarily for wine-lovers, the tool also pairs beer, liquor and coffee. The vast number of foods and beverages in the database make this a useful tool to bookmark for the next time you are planning a special meal or opening a prized bottle.
Globe & Mail
November 18, 2006
By Tralee Pearce
Leave it to Ottawa wine writer Natalie MacLean to advocate vino elbowing out liquor.
On a book tour stop in Toronto recently, she asked superstar chef Jamie Kennedy, who is a resident of the budding wine region of Prince Edward County, to whip up a couple of wine-based cocktails to celebrate the launch of her new memoir, Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.
MacLean, who publishes an online newsletter called Nat Decants, collected stories for the book about vineyards from Burgundy to California. She worked as a sommelier in the haute-est of restaurants, and dove into the arcane world of wine ranking à la Robert Parker.
The first of Kennedy's creations, made with sparkling wine, is effervescent and a lovely way to start the evening. The second, made with frozen gewurztraminer and gamay, is a little heavier, but will ease you into dinner.
"I think of these cocktails as I would a meal that doesn't involve the whole spice rack," MacLean says. "Elegant and delicious. That's why I believe that both of these better complement many dishes than other cocktails. They're not too sweet and with a wine base they're able to pick up the flavours in a meal without overwhelming them."
Okay, so maybe she's biased, but we're happy to follow her lead. And who knows, maybe this budding trend will show up in a future tome.
"What gets me going is the story of wine, the people, the possibilities, the way it engages us," MacLean says. "There's a reason there are no orange-juice critics."
Sparkling Raspberry and Pear Float
Ingredients
• 1 oz. sorbet from pear purée and Poire Williams
• 3 oz. sparkling wine
• 1 oz. raspberry cordial made from raspberry purée, vodka and sugar syrup
Method
• Churn sorbet mix in an ice cream freezer
• Pour one ounce of raspberry cordial into the bottom of a champagne coupe
• Place one quenelle of sorbet on the cordial
• Place coupe in front of guest and pour 3 oz. of sparkling wine in the glass
• Serve with a straw and a spoon
Rosé Frappe
Ingredients
• 3 oz. gewürztraminer wine and 1 tsp. sugar
• 3 oz. gamay wine and 1 tsp. sugar
Method
• Mix gewürztraminer with the sugar and freeze in a bowl in the freezer,
stirring from time to time
• Mix gamay with the sugar and freeze in a bowl in the freezer, stirring from
time to time
• Blend each bowl separately in a bar blender to make slush
• Pour simultaneously into a martini glass and swirl with a spoon
• Serve with a straw
Globe & Mail (2)
December 19, 2007
Executive Class
By Sandy Farran
Natalie MacLean is an accredited sommelier, wine journalist and author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.
I understand you travelled extensively to research your book.
Yes, I spent three years sipping and spitting my way through various vineyards around Europe and around North America - Burgundy, Champagne and California, among others.
How do you research your stories?
You can only say so much about wine by just opening the bottle: it's wet, it's fruity, it tastes good or it doesn't. The story of wine is the story about the place, where it's grown. Wine holds such a fascination for so many people because it's so varied. To get the full story and the full colour, you need to go where they are growing it to feel the dirt where those vines are planted, to talk to the winemakers in their own milieu, rather than meeting them in a restaurant somewhere.
Do you sample the wine on airplanes or at airports?
Oh yes, I'm always researching. I'm very thorough with my subject! Many people want to fly business class because there is more legroom. I want to fly business class because the wines are a lot better. I think more and more airlines are using food and drink as a way to differentiate themselves. They can't control the weather or understaffing -- oh, I guess they could control the understaffing, but that's a lot more expensive than offering premium bottles of wine.
So which airlines are serving noteworthy wines?
I like it when airlines specialize in wines from their home country: Air Canada and Air France both do that. And it's a really great sampling program for the wineries to get themselves listed with the in-flight wine program just as it is prestigious to be on a restaurant wine list. It's a way of exposing your wine to affluent, educated customers.
Just like a restaurant does.
Yes, it's like a restaurant, except for the itsy-bitsy glasses, which change the whole experience. I used to think that the right glass was all marketing bunk until I took one of those taste tests and found the glass really does make a difference to the smell and taste. A big glass allows you to swirl your wine without getting it on your shirt, and it also concentrates the aromas. Airlines, of course, are limited to those little glasses because of storage and breakage and so on.
I tend not to drink while flying because a small amount can affect me and it seems to increase the effects of jet lag. What's your advice for drinking and flying?
Well, flying is already dehydrating, so people tend to drink more water. And alcohol is dehydrating, so you're compounding the effect of a dry cabin with alcohol. I still won't give up on a glass of wine onboard because it can really help with flight delays and so on, so I just drink a lot more water.
And it can also help with the misery of flying.
Absolutely. A little bit of wine goes a long way to combat today's travel experience. Your palate dries out at 30,000 feet and you become less sensitive to the fruit aromas in the wine. So a lot of airlines try to serve very fruity, robust wines, which I think is a good move. You don't want to analyze some complex, subtle Bordeaux in-flight; you just need a robust wine to make flying more palatable.
Globe & Mail 3
June 21, 2008
By Natalie MacLean
The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
By Benjamin Wallace
Crown Publishers, 304 pages, $27.95
An old bottle of wine is rare, but a ripping good mystery about one is rarer still. The tale of The Billionaire’s Vinegar begins on December 5, 1985, in the tony West Room of Christie’s London auction house. Lot 337, a hand-blown, dark-brown bottle of 1787 Château Lafite, is held aloft for all the bidders to admire. The reason: not only is this the oldest bottle of wine ever to come up for auction, but the glass is also etched with the letters “Th. J.”—supposedly the initials of Thomas Jefferson, America’s founding father and the purported former owner of this prize bottle.
Among the bidders are two men particularly determined to take home this piece of liquid history: Marvin Shaken, publisher of Wine Spectator magazine, and Kip Forbes, son of publishing billionaire Malcolm Forbes. After a white-knuckled volley, lasting just one minute and 39 seconds, between the two paddle-wielding contestants, auctioneer Michael Broadbent brings down the gavel. Forbes triumphs with a bid of $156,450, the highest amount ever paid for a single bottle.
But whose victory is it?
That’s what author Benjamin Wallace wants us to discover in his first book. The former executive editor of Philadelphia magazine, Wallace has a great story to tell—a mystery worthy of Grisham or Clancy—and he builds the tension clue by clue.
That particular bottle was part of a cache supposedly found in 1985 by a German pop-music-promoter-turned-wine-buyer named Hardy Rodenstock. He claimed that he discovered them in a walled-up Paris cellar, though he was secretive about the original owner and other details. The sale made headlines around the world, driving skyward the prices of other fine wines as the public was fascinated by the numbers: a glass of wine costing thousands of dollars, sips for hundreds.
Of all the compelling portraits in this book, the most intriguing is of the elusive Rodenstock. As Wallace describes him, his “stolid moon of a face [was] barely interrupted by small, opaque eyes and the faintest suggestion of a mouth. What you remembered about him, were not the stippled-in details, but the big-brush outlines … when he shook your hand, he would click his heels.”
After the Jefferson sale, Rodenstock continued to miraculously discover many more rare wines in hidden cellars from Russia to Venezuela. Rodenstock and his friends host lavish competitive tastings that often turned into gluttonous marathons. One such event featured two hundred vintages of Lafite-Rothschild and another was a week-long tasting of the coveted dessert wine Château d’Yquem.
Possibly the most over-the-top of these patrician pleasures was a reenactment of a 1867 dinner attended by Czar Alexander II of Russia, his son and heir Alexander III and the future first emperor of Germany, Wilhelm I. The eighty guests were served only wines that would have been consumed at the original feast. Fittingly, Rodenstock called this event The Three Emperors Dinner—bringing to mind the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
At least one man began to suspect that buyers of Rodenstock’s wines were dressed in nothing but their illusions: American billionaire, Bill Koch. He decides to authenticate four more of those Jefferson bottles he’d bought in 1988 for $500,000. His suspicions are aroused by the lack of historical documentation. Thomas Jefferson was an obsessive record-keeper: he kept copies of all his 16,000-odd letters and of even his most minor expenses, such as the payments for oats for his horse when he was in Paris. But none of his many ledgers makes any references to the purchase of these expensive bottles.
A litigious fellow, Koch hired a former FBI agent to investigate Rodenstock, spending more than a million dollars of his own money. After exhaustive testing, he concluded that the bottles were in fact fakes, and in July 2006, he sued Rodenstock for fraud. That’s where Wallace’s telling of the tale ends, as his book went to press. Since then, though, a U.S. judge ruled that the New York court lacked jurisdiction over Rodenstock, so Koch is pursuing his quarry in European courts.
Wallace’s narrative leads us into a world of heiresses, celebrities, rogues, bankers, tomb raiders, dilettantes, villains, Arab potentates, American millionaires, and as the tale darkens, forensic scientists, glass and handwriting experts, Jefferson scholars, FBI agents and federal court judges. The tale of Rodenstock allows us to indulge our fascination with con artists, with their galling hustle to get what they want and their inventive intelligence to elude capture. No wonder actor-producer Will Smith is making a movie based on the book.
Wallace is brilliant at sketching characters with delicious details. There’s Christie’s auctioneer Michael Broadbent, for instance, who at 58 was still “pedalling to work each day on his Dutch ladies bicycle with a basket, legs gunning furiously, a trilby hat perched on his head.” He shows his “boyish sense of marvel at the longevity of wine” and describes it variously as having aromas of crystallized violets, clean bandages, dunked gingernuts and schoolgirl uniforms. Other vivid personalities are wine collectors, such as Marvin Overton III, “a Texas neurosurgeon who sometimes wore a bolo tie with a fur coat” and the shadowy Lloyd Flatt, “an eyepatch-wearing Tennessean” believed to be an international arms dealer.
As Wallace follows the story, he parallels America’s hard-won connoisseurship over the last 20 years with Jefferson’s own journey from touring the vineyards of France to attempting to make his own wine back in Virginia, observing that his 1787 trip to France made him the greatest wine connoisseur writing in any language. In America, wine moved from a little-understood but pleasurable beverage to drinkable art and investment vehicle.
Wallace also explores the subjectivity of wine and the suggestibility of human nature. Even experienced drinkers are strongly influenced by the pronouncements of experts, such as the American critic Robert Parker. He also observes the perceived relation of price to quality. Since the book was published, a telling experiment underscores his point: in a blind taste test of two glasses of the same wine, participants preferred the one that they were told was more expensive.
For those who can’t stomach another wine guide, The Billionaire’s Vinegar makes learning about wine more palatable. The book touches on the history of wine auctions and how they work, on how wine is priced and how it gains rarity, on the importance of vintages and crop yields, on bottle sizes, wine tasting, glassware, wine and food matching, wine criticism, and collecting and cellaring wine. Not all wine books are destined to languish on the coffee table, sampled only occasionally to confirm a fact: some are meant to be gulped down from cover to cover.
One of his most poetically instructive passages is his description of how wine ages and transforms into a more life-altering experience than say orange juice. When oxygen interacts with young wine, all the components soften and knit together, especially the astringent tannins, which “drift down into a carpet of sediment, taking with them the saturated, inky pigments.” What’s left is a “mellowed, unfathomably subtle flavor.” He points out the paradox of wine: time makes it great and time destroys it. But the very unpredictability of aging wine makes it thrilling.
Wallace also delves deeper into what makes wine authentic. He notes that Dutch merchants dosed claret with brandy to help it survive long sea journeys to distant markets. Famous châteaux have historically “reconditioned” old bottles to prevent them from oxidizing: topping them up with wine of the same or younger vintage. The spectrum of wines considered authentic is almost as varied as the shades of fakery: labelling inferior vintages with superior ones, blending vintages, topping up vinegarized wine bought cheaply at auction, replacing the wine with another wine or even with another liquid, such as colour-dyed water.
Until recently, with the advent of fraud-prevention technologies, wine was one of the easiest products to fake. The reasons are partly physical: One bottle looks much like another, labels are easy to reproduce with desktop publishing and the product can’t be tested without consuming it. Partly they’re psychological: if a pricy bottle tasted like vinegar (hence Wallace’s title), often the rich-but-unsophisticated buyer isn’t confident enough to know that this isn’t how the wine should taste. Partly they’re time-related: Buyers often don’t open their bottles until years later, by which time the fraudster is long gone.
In the Rodenstock case, all of these factors came together to create the perfect storm. Châteaux owners didn’t want to admit that their bottles could be faked, critics didn’t want to confess to being fooled, auction houses didn’t want the $70 million market to collapse and buyers didn’t want to know that their cellars were full of fakes.
In chronicling these events, Wallace brings a reporter’s discipline to both the depth of his research and to his even-handed treatment of his findings. This is both the book’s strength and its flaw. He might have done more than just confirm court briefs, quote published articles and reference interviews with the key players. He might, for instance, have included more in-depth personal interviews with these characters. More importantly, he could have given us a much stronger personal opinion of the events and facts. Instead, he is dutifully journalistic to the end.
What The Billionaire’s Vinegar is really about, though, more than wine, is desire: the desire of con artists to get what they can and the desire of the victims to believe what they wish. Desire runs through this book like wine sediment: shifting, murky and tinged with bitterness.
Globe & Mail 4
July 16, 2008
By Liz Walker
"It was a warm, breezy July evening and we were with good friends whom we've known for 15 years. It was an informal get-together and I love those because we can bring wine.
"We started with gourmet potato chips while the grill was heating up, and we opened a bottle of bubbly from Spain. I loved the shabby-chic combination, and with the salt and fat of the chips it was amazingly good.
"They did cedar-planked grilled salmon. I was able to be a wine renegade and match it with a red wine. Salmon, when it's grilled, takes on those beautiful smoky, woody, grilled flavours. ... I chose a Canadian pinot noir. It's a silky, light red wine that doesn't have a lot of those mouth-drying tannins. Pinot noir is fantastic with grilled salmon. It's one of the ultimate combinations.
"With a barbecue, those who don't like to spend a lot of time cooking, can shine. ... They like to get the flavour without the fuss when it comes to dinner."
Globe and Mail 5
April 22, 2009
By Dave Michaels
Pursuing wealth has its obvious rewards, but making money is much easier when you're doing something you love. Starting a business requires plenty of time and energy, and as such it should be something that is worth trading your life to undertake.
Follow your passion, experts say, and you'll succeed.
This aphorism certainly applies to Natalie MacLean, many times over.
The accredited sommelier, wine journalist and author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over got her business start early — she opened a dance school in her Nova Scotia basement when she was 15. She photocopied handmade notices and took them to the principals of the local elementary schools to pass them out in classes. Eventually she had 300 students and five teachers working for her, and she was able to put herself through university without going into debt.
She studied English literature at Oxford University, and earned an honours bachelor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax and an MBA at the University of Western Ontario.
She didn't start drinking wine until she and her husband took a wine course together at George Brown College in Toronto. She later completed a sommelier certificate while working for the computer company Silicon Graphics.
She began writing in 1998 with a column about wine for a local magazine. She eventually would write for more than 60 publications, including Bon Appetit and Food & Wine.
Today the Ottawa-based writer publishes Canada's largest wine e-newsletter, with more than 100,000 subscribers, at www.NatalieMacLean.com.
Ms. MacLean joined us earlier to talk about turning your passion into a money-making enterprise.
Dave Michaels, globeandmail.com: Hello Natalie! So glad you could join us today. I'll toss the first question: As a wine writer, who do you define as your core audience? The weekend shopper looking for the value-priced (under $15) cabernet, or the aficionado seeking the super Tuscans or more rarefied Vintage selects?
Natalie MacLean: Hi Dave. Like other businesses, wine writers must choose a segment within their industry. I focus on wines between $10 and $25 (many are under $15, though, for value shoppers, especially in this economy). I also match them all with food and recipes so that my customers have an idea for a complete dinner that's affordable.
While I do review the super Tuscans, cult California cabernets, coveted Bordeaux blends and so on, these have a very small market in terms of who can afford them. They're easy to find in the database of 50,000 wine reviews I've posted on my site because you can search by price, vintages, drinking maturity, region, wine name, score and so on. However, the vast majority of my wines are in the $10-$25 range, as that is the range that most consumers want. (And I'm in that price bracket myself!)
Richard Miller from Toronto writes: Natalie, I have followed your newsletter since 2003 and continue to think it is fantastic. Thank you for sharing your passion! My question is about being a wine agent. I understand generally what agents do, but could you explain the business model? How do they get paid, what are the margins like, how many wines/wineries do you reasonably need to represent to have a viable business, etc.? What are some of the pros and cons of entering that field?
Natalie MacLean: I'm delighted that you enjoy the newsletter, Richard! The business model varies by agent in terms of the number of brands represented and the regional or price point focus. There are several hundred agents in Canada, ranging from those who represent a few brands on the side (in addition to their day job) to those who make a full-time business of it and employ a large staff, such as Lifford Wine Agency, Churchill Cellars, Charton-Hobbs and others. It's worth visiting their websites to see their portfolios.
For the best overview of an agent's role, commissions and other variables, I recommend that you take Steven Trenholm's course "Importing for Profit and Pleasure." He's based in Toronto, and hundreds of people have taken his course, either to import wines for their own consumption or to make a full-time career of it. E-mail me via my website (www.nataliemaclean.com) and I'll put you in touch with Steven.
Dave Michaels, globeandmail.com: Natalie, what, if anything, can other businesses learn from the new ways of marketing wine? Is there a larger lesson in the critter phenomenon?
Natalie MacLean: Over the last five years, wine marketing swung from chateau-on-a-mountain elitism to critter-cute accessibility. Neither serves wine drinkers well, as one makes wine inaccessible, the other dumbs it down. Savvy wine producers are hitting the middle stride with contextual marketing: helping consumers find a place for well-made wine in their everyday lives. This means enjoying a glass or two of wine with dinner at home during the week, not just on special occasions or when dining out on the weekend. It also means that there can be a thrilling, multi-layered pleasure to wine that can be enjoyed without a sommelier certificate and without having to declare all wine as equally well-made in the name of misguided wine democracy.
Kevin Goodlad from Kingston, N.S., writes: Hello from N.S., Natalie... Any suggestions about how to get past the gatekeepers in any target organization?
Natalie MacLean: How about a good bottle of wine? :) Can you give me an example please?
Dave Michaels, globeandmail.com: Natalie, everybody loves the idea of supporting small, local businesses, but can smaller wineries really compete with the Constellations of this world?
Natalie MacLean: Small wineries can compete particularly well against conlgomerations when they focus on their market niche: local customers. Local can mean more than just those within driving distance of the winery; it can also include those on a mailing list or those with whom the small winery has developed a personal relationship. Social media tools, such as Twitter and Facebook, are helping small wineries extend their reach and devlop these personal relationships with a wider audience.
Kristi Hanratty from Fort Collins, Colo., writes: Hi! I would love to work in wine marketing, but have only taken classes (wine appreciation, WSET Intermediate, Colorado State University horticulture classes, etc.). Do I need to get a masters of marketing in wine, or are there other ways to work in the industry without further schooling?
Natalie MacLean: I'm a big advocate of education and training to be better equipped to enter your field. I don't think it's a requisite but it will definitely help, especially if you don't have any industry experience yet. If you like, I'll put you in touch with a few wine marketers in the field and you can ask their opinion. Contact me via my website please.
Mindy Hahn from Winnetka, Ill., writes: What are the best careers that marry a love of wine and all things culinary with travel?
Natalie MacLean: Wine, food and travel writing are all excellent avenues. You could also join a travel agency or become an independent tour operator focusing on one or two regions and helping your customers explore cooking schools, wineries, restaurants, etc. Another option is to work in a winery, even for a year, and make it your home base while you travel on weekends around the region.
Lawrence Crofton from Canada writes: Hi Natalie. We're planning to start a tour business (Yeah right! Great timing! :) ) In your experience, outside of the paid advertisement model, what did you find was the best way of creating market awareness?
Natalie MacLean: Your best bet is to establish links with high-traffic wine, food and travel sites, Lawrence. (I'll link to you :) ) Also, if you can become a regional wine expert, that would help. Offer your expertise to journalists writing about Niagara or B.C., for example. Perhaps you're not an expert, but you know how to make the most of your visit to wine country with 10 tips for travellers.
Erin Rosar from Calgary writes: Hi Natalie. As a fellow woman sommelier I am interested to know your thoughts: Do you feel that as women we are perceived as less intimidating then men in the wine industry? And if so, with more women joining our industry are we helping to create a new and more open and relaxed arena for people to learn about wine in? Do you see this as a new side to the wine industry?
Natalie MacLean: It's a stereotype, but yes, women are perceived as less intimidating than men in the wine industry. (I know some real tigers who prove that wrong.) However, I think that women can use this to their advantage, whether it's setting customers at ease in restaurants and wine stores, or in using a more conversational voice to write about wine. I resist the Chardonnay-as-little-black-dress metaphors, but I do imagine a woman when I write: she's my best friend and we're sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a good glass of wine. It keeps it real rather than climbing into the ivory tower of which wine got 98 points out of 100.
According to three recent industry studies, women buy 70 per cent to 80 per cent of wine and drink 60 per cent of it. That's reasonable, since as purchasers of most household items from Shreddies to SUVs, women control most wine buying. Women are also responsible for most social planning, from family meals and dinner parties to larger gatherings and celebrations. That's why most consumer magazines, and certainly all of the largest, are aimed at women. Gourmet and Bon Appetit each have more than 1 million subscribers; Wine Spectator has about 350,000.
Chris Del Plato from Long Valley, N.J., writes: I would like to hear Natalie's thoughts, experience and difficulties encountered relative to forging a new career/business centred on her passion while maintaining another job/career (and still paying the bills).
Natalie MacLean: It's a good idea to transition slowly career-wise until you can jump from one moving train to another, rather than be left standing in the station with a stack of unpaid bills. I was fortunate in that I was on maternity leave from my high-tech marketing position. So I started slowly pitching ideas to different publications and then decided to make a full-time go of it at the end of my leave. But even if you're not pregnant, you can still make that gradual transition: Start with one small piece of the pie. In my case, it would have been writing a story for a community newspaper on the weekend and then building out from there. At a certain point, just before you jump, it can be a very difficult time - stressful, yet so worth it!
Ralf Joneikies from Vancouver writes: Hello Natalie. Have you found any particular obstacles to becoming a wine writer? My own experience has been that this is a particularly closed world, and magazines and newspapers generally don't care to look at finished articles. What route would you recommend?
Natalie MacLean: When I started, I was told that I would never earn a living as a wine writer, and that I should keep it as a weekend hobby (sweetheart). Well, that fired my burner! It took time, dogged persistence and an unshakable faith that I was doing the right thing, but eventually I broke in. Start with your community newspaper, take courses and build from there. Don't give up!
Tom Johnson from Louisville, Ky., writes: Is the wine publishing industry specialized? That is, are there a defined group of author's agents that specialize in wine books?
Natalie MacLean: Some literary agents don't represent more than one wine writer at a time as they believe that it creates a conflict of interest. Whom do they promote? Others believe that there are economies of scale and learning by specializing in one or two industries and knowing them well. Often they'll do both food and wine. So it depends on the agency.
Tara Fraser from Montreal writes: Hello Ms. MacLean! I visit your website quite frequently and think it is fantastic! I especially love that you have gone 3.0 with your wine and food pairing widget. How much have these sorts of initiatives helped with the viral marketing of your website and newsletter?
Natalie MacLean: Thanks Tara! The Drinks Matcher widget (www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher) has been an amazing 3.0 viral tool! To date, 3,256 people have posted it on their websites, blogs and social media pages like FaceBook, MySpace and iGoogle. (It takes just takes 3 clicks.) It's all about sharing your content rather than keeping it just on your own website. A number of these folks have e-mailed to say that their site traffic has increased because people are coming back to their site for more pairing suggestions, from Champagne and sushi, to Oreos and port.
I also use other 2.0 and 3.0 tools such as interactive recipes, a blog, wine glossary, podcasts, links, events, articles, daily Twitter updates (http://twitter.com/NatalieMacLean), RSS feeds, Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, iGoogle: it all helps to build a community. Wine is about conversation, and wine online is no different. I love having a nanosecond connection with others who are passionate about wine, like you Tara. :)
Richard Miller from Toronto writes: Thanks for that! If I may ask another few questions: How well do you think Australian wine will be able to withstand the onslaught of value wines from South Africa or South America (e.g., I think Fuzion has now kicked Yellowtail off its perch)? What do you think of Torrontes (the grape)? When's your next book due (any sneak peeks available?)
Natalie MacLean: Australia has some tough competition ahead of it from the two countries that you mention. I'm visiting Argentina next month to see what's up with their lip-smacking delicious Malbecs and their aromatic answer to Chardonnay, Torrontes (love it). These wines have incredible depth of flavour at terrific prices. South Africa excels at both Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz. The number of wines that I recommend for less than $15 from these two countries is pretty high now. It'll be interesting to see where it all shakes out.
I'm working on my next book now; hope to publish next year if I stay on schedule. (So many wines to try; the research never ends!) Richard, your free bottle of wine is in the mail for that unsolicited plug :)
Michelle Herrington from Canada writes: Hi Natalie, is there any advice you can give to young people starting out on how to find out what our passions are and how to turn them into successful businesses? I like to think that it would be wise to try various things and then when I find my passion, look for a niche in the market and go from there.
Natalie MacLean: You've got the right idea Michelle! Try lots of things, join clubs, read books, take adventure/experiential type vacations. Think about what you like to do for fun: Could you earn a living from it if you got the right credentials, set up the right business strategy? I call dining out our family sport: we're not big into camping, etc (It's so hard to balance a nice crystal decanter on a campsite log.) So that old adage about following your bliss, and the money will follow ... it works.
Karen Sandford from Canada writes: Hi Natalie. I love your newsletter and have been following it for several years now. I'm going to be moving back to Canada from the U.S. and want a career change to the wine business. I have a passion for wine and have taught myself everything that I know. How do you suggest I start my career change? (Most of my experience is in high tech sales.)
Natalie MacLean: Thanks Karen, delighted that you like the newsletter! Congrats on your courage to consider changing jobs. Join some wine clubs, read more, taste more. You might consider taking a sommelier certificate program at night or perhaps you want to plunge right in and enroll in one of the wine MBA university programs and try getting co-op work experience as part of the program. Another option is to start slowly and volunteer at a winery in the tasting room, or go be a cellar rat for slave wages. Lots of entry points. :)
Richard Miller from Toronto writes: Given your broad exposure to wine and related markets, are there any unrealized business opportunities that you see (and are not going after yourself): Are there any un/underserved markets or segments, any customer needs that haven't been sufficiently addressed, any areas that would benefit from having new, fresh competitors enter the space?
Natalie MacLean: No, I've covered them all, Richard. :) Okay, seriously, I think online wine sales and home delivery is a ripe market open for more competitors.
My passion is writing about wine, and more specifically, about the people who make, buy and drink wine: winemakers, sommeliers, retailers and drinkers. For me, wine is a pleasurable excuse to write about human nature. I raise my raise glass to everyone here!
Dave Michaels, globeandmail.com: And we've run out of time. Thanks, Natalie, for sharing your expertise with us today. Good luck with the next book!
Government Executive
October 2006
A fine wine is “like a sigh”
By Paul Crookall
Initially, one might question interviewing a wine writer for this magazine. But we have had enthusiastic responses to Natalie MacLean's previous contributions and she has just published her first book, Red, White, and Drunk All Over.
As we spoke, Natalie lovingly described how opening, tasting, and luxuriating in a good wine can provide a slow, warming, welcoming passage from the fast pace of work to a more relaxed evening. Unlike the fast hit of vodka or less legal drugs, it is "like the sigh at the end of a long workday that marks the transition into home life.”
The book is not a wine text. Instead, it draws the reader into the stories of people passionate about their business – a joke-cracking hippie who runs Bonny Doon wineries; a 73-year-old Frenchman who cares for each vine as a child, even though many have been in the family several decades longer than he has; and the centuries-old stories of the widows who made champagne.
Natalie came upon her career accidentally when, post-MBA, she was dining at an Italian restaurant. "Would you like to try the brunello?" the owner asked. Thinking it was a regional dish, she said yes. He came back with a bottle. "We were relieved not to have to tackle the wine list," Natalie recounts in her book. "Neither of us knew much more about wine than which fluffy animals on the label we liked best." She describes the wine as "a rich robe of mahogany…the aroma rushed out to meet me, and all the smells that I had ever known fell away. I didn't know how to describe it, but I knew how it made me feel...I felt the fingers of alcoholic warmth relax the muscles at the back of my jaw and curl under my ears. The wine flushed warmth up into my cheeks, down through my shoulders, and across my thighs…A pilot light had been ignited inside me; over time it would grow into the flames of full-blown passion."
What can one do if the ordered wine at a restaurant is not to their liking? It may not be 'bad' or 'corked', but it isn't what they were hoping for.
“Don't be intimidated by sending back a bottle that you don't like. A recognized industry standard is that up to ten percent of wine bottles are 'tainted' – their flavour is off. Or you may not be familiar with the wine you ordered – its not Yellow Tail – and simply may not be enjoying it. At the price you pay in a restaurant, you are entitled to get the wine you want. Restaurants report that less than one percent of wine is returned – so people are clearly drinking bad wine that they are too embarrassed to send back. You can reduce the chances of getting a wine you don't like by consulting with the sommelier or waiter. Let him/her know what kinds of wine you like, maybe suggest a choice of two or three from the list (so she will know what price range you want).”
What are your thoughts on the great cork debate?
“Screw caps have no negative effects on the flavour, and reduce the spoilage from bad corks. Don't be afraid to try them.”
For me, the ideal vacation is to take a golfing holiday to a wine-producing region. But I don't like morning golf, so I do the wineries first. That has an unintended side effect on my game. Do you have any advice?
“Your palate is actually best for wine tasting in the morning. So keep doing that, but learn how to spit rather than guzzle, that way you won't marinate your cortex.”
What should readers who want to learn a little more about wine do?
“Well, reading my book would be a good start. I find many of your readers also are on my website. You can join a local wine club – I meet many public service managers there. Take winery tours. Make notes on wines you have liked, and over time you will notice certain grape types, regions, and producers that you like.”
Grape Wall of China
July 1, 2008
By Jim Boyce
Sommelier and wine scribe Natalie MacLean has written for dozens of magazines and newspapers, penned Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass, and authors the monthly wine newsletter Nat Decants. I asked MacLean, who hails from Canada, about how the palates of professionals and amateurs match up, how cultural background affects wine critics, the pros and cons of the Internet for wine consumers, and more.
In Red, White, and Drunk All Over, you state that you taste 3,000 wines per year, while a critic such as Robert Parker tastes as many as 10,000. Given this, how relevant are the palates of professional tasters to those of casual wine drinkers, especially as the former tend to spit wine and try it without food?
You’ve hit on the rub of the problem! To find good, reasonably priced wines, you need to taste many. I recommend just one or two wines for every 20 that I sample. But tasting large groups of wines does tend to numb the palate and take wine out of its intended context of a meal. However, I think that wine writers still do readers a service by trying lots of wines and weeding out the bad ones. The trick really is to find a critic whose palate is similar to your own so that you can trust his or her choices.
Your book covers a feud between American critic Robert Parker and British critic Jancis Robinson, and how each tended to be backed by his or her compatriots. This is intriguing since I sense the cultural background of wine writers will affect the Chinese market. To what extent do you think wine writers are influenced by their own cultures?
Wine writers are extremely influenced by their own cultures. Those of us who grow up in North America aren’t often exposed to wine until we’re adults. And even then, it’s New World wines that are usually our first wines. Contrast that to someone growing up in the U.K. or Europe where it is much more likely to be part of the family dinner.
You wrote about working with Randall Graham and his team at Bonny Doon Vineyards in California. How difficult was it to grasp and translate the technical side of making wine into terms accessible for readers?
The technical side is always a challenge, especially when you don’t have a chemistry degree. Most readers want to learn about the process but you must be careful that the technical details don’t derail the narrative. Good wine writing is good storytelling: you need to make readers curious, amused, and enlightened.
Due to the Internet, wine consumers have more access than ever to information. Your free e-newsletter, with more than 87,000 subscribers, demonstrates this power. For consumers, what are the pros and cons of getting wine information from the Internet?
The Internet means that wine information is easy to access anytime: you no longer have to be part of the industry or even take a course to be knowledgeable. The downside is that there is a lot of inaccurate and unclear information posted online. You need to sort through the various sites, blogs, and e-newsletters to find those you trust.
If you could change one thing about the wine industry in order to get more people to try wine, what would it be?
I’d make in-store sampling more prevalent. Wine is such a mysterious product to buy for many people. Most of us decide based on whether we like the cute squirrel or the ancient castle on the label. You need to taste wine to know if you like it. More sampling programs would take so much of the guess work and intimidation from the buying experience.
You are stuck on a desert island and allowed to have three bottles of wine - what would they be (we’ll say that the water in the lagoon is cool enough to chill Champagne)?
Domaine Romanee-Conti: all three bottles because it would be sad to have just one or even two if I knew I could have three.
Green Food & Drink Matches
“Green food and green wine go together, so veggies dance with wines that have herbal, grassy aromas, such as New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc,” says Natalie MacLean. “In fact, if there were an award for Veggie Wine of the Century, it would go to this one. Not only does it have complementary aromas of asparagus and canned peas, but it also has bright citrus notes that complement most vegetables.”
While white wines often work better than red wines with vegetables, light reds like Pinot Noir and Gamay also work because they have soft tannins, juicy berry flavors and good acidity. Big reds like Shiraz and Cabemet Sauvignon can end up fighting with veggies, because their robust tannins clash with the natural compounds and flavors in vegetables.
Natalie’s top 10 green food and wine matches:
1. Field greens salad and Sauvignon Blanc
2. Avocado and Pinot Grigio
3. Asparagus and Grüner Veltliner
4. Green peas and Pinot Blanc
5. Zucchini and Chenin Blanc
6. Artichoke and Verdicchio
7. Green tomatoes and Pinot Noir
8. Broccoli and Riesling
9. Bell pepper and Gamay
10. Green melon and Moscato d’Asti
The Nat Decants Mobile App has thousands of wines to pair with any dish: meat, pasta, seafood, vegetarian fare, pizza, eggs, cheese and dessert. You simply choose the food or wine to get the pairing suggestions. There are also lots of recipes for those planning an Irish-themed meal.
The mobile app is updated regularly with new dishes and wines from the 110,000-plus readers who subscribe to Natalie’s free e-newsletter, which offers tips on how to buy, cellar and serve wine.
Got a dish green or otherwise or a wine to stump Natalie? Just e-mail her via her web site and she’ll suggest a match for you. Get the free Nat Decants Mobile App here:
www.nataliemaclean.com/mobileapp
Please feel free to use any or all of the material on this page (and ignore the standard copyright notice below :)
Green Food & Wine
You don’t need the luck o’ the Irish to find great green food and drink pairings this St. Patrick’s Day, according to Natalie MacLean, who offers a new Drinks Matcher widget. “Just look for complementary flavors and textures.”
“Green food and green wine go together, so veggies dance with wines that have herbal, grassy aromas, such as New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc,” Natalie adds. “In fact, if there were an award for Veggie Wine of the Century, it would go to this one. Not only does it have complementary aromas of asparagus and canned peas, but it also has bright citrus notes that complement most vegetables.”
While white wines often work better than red wines with vegetables, light reds like Pinot Noir and Gamay also work because they have soft tannins, juicy berry flavors and good acidity. Big reds like Shiraz and Cabemet Sauvignon can end up fighting with veggies, because their robust tannins clash with the natural compounds and flavors in vegetables.
Natalie’s top 10 green food and wine matches:
1. Field greens salad and Sauvignon Blanc
2. Avocado and Pinot Grigio
3. Asparagus and Grüner Veltliner
4. Green peas and Pinot Blanc
5. Zucchini and Chenin Blanc
6. Artichoke and Verdicchio
7. Green tomatoes and Pinot Noir
8. Broccoli and Riesling
9. Bell pepper and Gamay
10. Green melon and Moscato d’Asti
Natalie’s free Drinks Matcher widget can be downloaded in just a few clicks to any computer desktop, web site, blog or social media page like Facebook, MySpace or iGoogle from www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher. The Drinks Matcher doesn’t just focus on green foods. The interactive tool has thousands of wines to pair with any dish: meat, pasta, seafood, vegetarian fare, pizza, eggs, cheese and dessert.
You simply choose the food or wine from a drop-down menu to get the pairing suggestions. There are also lots of recipes for those planning an Irish-themed meal. The matcher is updated regularly with new dishes and wines from the 100,000-plus readers who subscribe to Natalie’s free e-newsletter, which offers tips on how to buy, cellar and serve wine.
In Red, White and Drunk All Over, Natalie discusses how to match food and wine in greater depth, including wines for a multi-course dinner. There’s also a chapter with advice on pairing wine with five challenging foods: chocolate, cheese, spicy dishes, vegetables and fast food. Got a dish or a wine to stump Natalie? Just e-mail her via her web site and she’ll suggest a match for you.
Please feel free to use any or all of the material on this page (and ignore the standard copyright notice below :)
Gremolata
September 2006
By Malcolm Jolley
Natalie MacLean’s Red, White and Drunk All Over has already elicited praise from wine and food world luminaries like Hugh Johnson, Kermit Lynch and Michael Ruhlman, and closer to home fans like Jamie Kennedy, James Chatto and John Szabo. In other words, her book is a very big deal this season and I caught up with the multiple James Beard Award Winner and Ottawa native to talk about the chronicle that takes her across the world and into the parlours and caves of some of the most interesting people connected to wine.
THE INTERVIEW
Gremolata: This is a very personal book. Was that on purpose or did it just work out that way?
Natalie MacLean: Well, that's just kind of the way I write. I like first person narrative, not because of any grandiose sense of vanity, but I find that more of me goes onto the page when I'm talking personally. Then, in turn, I find that readers have always resonated more with the personal stories. So, I can write about the things to keep in mind when ordering off of a restaurant wine list, but when I write about the night I tried to work as sommelier, people like that more. It's an adventure: you still learn about wine, but it's mixed into the story. There are people involved, and some drama, and will it work out? I just think that's a more interesting way to write.
G: So what happened when you worked as a sommelier?
NM: [Laughs.] Well, I worked at a five-star restaurant in Quebec, Le Baccarat. It's in one of the casinos - they often have very good, high end restaurants.
G: To reward the high rollers, or take back their winnings!
NM: Right! So, they all wear tuxedos there...
G: How's your French?
NM: Tres mauvais, and with a Cape Breton accent, so it's no good. So I served the English speaking customers. Anyway, I got all dressed up in what looked like an undertaker's suit, and shadowed the real sommelier around for half the night. Then, at about eight o’clock I started working on my own. And I was serving very expensive wine. The bottles on their list range from the 'cheap' at $50 to $70 all the way to $10,000.
G: This what they call a "trophy cellar"?
NM: It is. There's something like 16,000 bottles.
So I'm handed the wine list, which has 400 bottles on it and they're mostly French, which is not my expertise, and I'm sent out to talk about them. Fortunately I had a fair amount of people who knew what they wanted. But I did have quite a few who asked me questions, and it was fun! I loved the interaction. It was like live theatre: very exciting. Of course, at one point, I managed to dribble red wine all over the white table cloth.
G: Ouch.
NM: So embarrassing. She didn't call over the Maitre d' but this woman was not impressed to see her cult Californian Cabernet miss the glass. But that was the worst. There were other odd things, like trying to pour from a height. When you're standing up it's hard to tell if you're pouring all the glasses at an equal level. I had to squat down. [MacLean bends down.] I had to go like this to make sure. It wasn't very dignified. I looked like a golfer inspecting the green. But I made sure everyone got the same amount of wine, and it was good fun.
I was really a way to talk about good wine service and how to choose from a restaurant list without getting really, really boring.
G: And what are those things?
NM: Well, they're integrated, but let’s talk about picking a wine from a list first. In a restaurant where there is a sommelier, or a "wine gal", or "wine dude", as they're sometimes called...
G: Sounds like California.
NM: Yeah, it's all very casual these days. But even if there's no one with that title, just say, "can I chat with the person who made up this list?" Just see if you can get some help. You know, I'm a wine writer, but sometimes there's no one who knows that list better than the person who made it: what's drinking well, and all that kind of stuff.
A lot of people are intimidated asking for help because they don't want to look stupid and that sort of thing. But you can ask in a different way. Instead of saying, "Could you suggest a red wine?" you could say, “We really like full bodied Aussie wines." And you can be quietly pointing at the wines in your price range at the same time. You don't have to declare how much you want to spend!
G: Price: that's always so awkward.
NM: Well, how much are you willing to pay for love? Or a business deal? [Laughs.] But seriously, a good sommelier will ask you what you're eating and they'll try and match. Or you can suggest it up front: "We're all having meat dishes tonight." There's a way of getting past your fear or anxiety of feeling stupid for asking for help. And this works in a wine store, too. Just think of a few questions that narrow it down.
Now, if there's no one who can really help you and you're on your own with a list, there are some good values these days worth looking for. Of course it depends on what you like. I'm a big fan of Canadian wines and I think they're some of the best values at the liquor store or on a wine list. So if I didn't recognise anything, but there were a bunch of Niagara's, that's where I'd go. Other wines that offer good value are Aussie Shirazes, or Chilean Cabernets. It also depends on what kind of budget you're dealing with. They do say you shouldn't pick the cheapest wine on the list. That it's probably just there as a whatever you call it. Everybody goes to the third cheapest one, when they don't want to spend a lot of money. But that one was probably the cheapest one last week, so... Anyway, that's kind of it: ask for help, know what you like, what you want to eat and what you want to pay.
G: What about service? What's good service?
NM: The server should be very helpful and they should guide the conversation. You really shouldn’t have to even ask those questions I just talked about. And when they come back with the bottle, it should always be presented. That’s not a pretension, that's just making sure you get the wine that you ordered. That there hasn't been any sort of bait and switch going on, or if it's a different vintage or vineyard. And when they show the bottle, they should also repeat you what you ordered: "Here's the 1992 Château Something or Other, X Vineyard." that's just another check to make sure you're getting what you wanted.
You should always be able to sample, to taste. Again, that's not a pretension, that's just making sure that bottle isn't off. That's something I write about at the end of the sommelier chapter. There was an instance in France where I was served a bottle of wine that was corked. I was alone, travelling for work - so, I was already a loser for sitting by myself. Then, I wanted to move because the next table was smoking. So the sommelier already didn't like me very much.
G: And the assumption in France is that you're lucky to even be served.
NM: Oh yeah. Plus you're a woman alone.
G: Right.
NM: And he doesn't know I'm a wine writer. I don't announce that because I don't like froufrou treatment. But the wine is corked. Now, I don't reject bottles very often, in fact I hadn't for a very long time, so my strategy was to be very quiet about it and say, "Could you try this? I think it's off." Of course, he marches it off to the middle of the room, tries it dramatically, comes back and claims it's fine!
So I kept drinking it a little bit. I was celebrating - it was actually my birthday...
G: No! That's awful!
NM: Yeah, and I was drinking a very expensive wine, that was corked. So, first I got angry, then I got upset. You know I can really empathise with people who have a hard time with wine service because by the time I had enough of this and asked for the manager I just burst into tears. People have told me that they find it hard to believe that this could happen to me: "you're a wine writer!" But you know, sometimes choosing a wine and then rejecting it comprises the full arc of a Greek tragedy: there's the shame, the embarrassment... anyway it ended up happily that night, but it can be tough.
This is actually an important point: you can send it back. And not just if it's corked or off. You have to ask yourself, do you like it? This is part of the pricing. And especially if the sommelier has recommended it and you get the wine and you don't like it, then you have the right to send it back. That option, that insurance clause - whatever you want to call it - is in the pricing. They should expect people to send wine back. Yet, even though they say between five and ten percent of bottles are corked, less than one percent of wines ordered are ever sent back, according to the sommeliers I've talked to.
G: I know that before I became seriously interested in wine, I suffered through more than one corked bottle and thought to myself, I don't think I like this wine very much.
NM: Right. Lots of notes of mouldy boxes. It's one of those social hang-ups. Ordering wine is a social hang-up, but sending it back is even worse.
G: Well, you don't want to be difficult. Especially if you're Canadian. But that's a good pint, that the return is factored into the glass. And I guess they can offer the bottle by the glass, if you just don't like it.
NM: That's right, if the wine is technically fine, but really not to your taste, they can offer what's in the bottle by the glass.
G: I'm glad you brought up France. I loved the first chapter where you go the great houses of Burgundy - talk about being intimidated! I wondered if you didn't write the book just so you go and taste Domain Romanée Conti!
NM: Well, I was going to start the book in California, but then I realised there'd be a lot left unexplained if we didn't start with the Old World. The benchmark wines are either Burgundy or Bordeaux, and I did go to Bordeaux, but I began with Burgundy because it’s a hard wine to understand and a region that is very complex. It was good place to write about how wine is grown, then we moved to the New World to talk a bit more on how it's made. And Pinot Noir is a personal favourite, so it came kind of naturally.
G: I liked your treatment of biodynamism - biodynamic wines. You seem sceptical but admit the product is often superior.
NM: Yeah. It is very strange, but it also has some sound principles concerning the effects of nature and the cycles of the Earth. And I do think we've gotten away from that, so it's good to get back to it, even if it does have a bit of witchcraft attached to it. I mean, some of the practices are pretty strange, burying bull's horns and things like that, but they all do have rationales behind them. I don't think it's so kooky to go with the moon cycles, anyway. And it's a good thing for what it's doing for wine, organic and biodynamic growing. It's about giving back to the soil and not about making wine for the marketing department. And some wines are these days: they're sprouting right from page three of the marketing plan.
G: I'm always suspicious when it looks like they spent more money printing the label than making the wine.
NM: I went through a stage where if it was a really beautiful label, then I didn't buy the wine. But then I started drinking really bad wines with ugly labels, so...
G: Where do you fall in the New World versus Old World debate?
NM: Personal preferences? I think I'm bridging the gap. I love Pinot Noir, but I love it from Burgundy, Oregon, the cool regions of California, from Canada (both regions: Niagara and the Okanagan), and especially New Zealand. So, I have a bit of a fixation on one grape. There's just nothing like a Burgundy, with its Old World earthiness, mushroom, fall burning leaves and all that stuff. Then, there's something completely different in a Pinot Noir from New Zealand, but the melody line is the same between them.
G: Red, White and Drunk All Over book touches on the Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson feud, with Hugh Johnson wading in and all that.
NM: It was great timing for my book! Actually, it was very interesting because I had done a couple of profiles of Robert Parker and had a long recorded interview, and then I also interviewed Jancis by phone. Hugh Johnson I quoted from his recent autobiography, because I did want him to weigh in briefly, thought the chapter is really about Parker and Robinson, so I didn't want too many voices there.
The feud really crystallizes the debate about what wine is about. The two of them are really at odds - more than odds - over a single bottle of wine: the 2003 Château Pavie from St. Emillion. Jancis gave it 12 out of 20 and called it a 'portly-sweet late harvest Zinfandel', or something like that. Not very nice. And Robert Parker said it was made by perfectionists and probably one of the best examples of the 2003 from the right bank and gave it a score somewhere between 96 and 100. Then it seemed like all the critics on either side of the Atlantic started lining up behind either Parker or Jancis according to where they lived. So we started to see some real palate differences, real differences in what wine should be. There's a whole debate going on now in the wine world where some are saying that alcohol is too high, the extraction is too high, that Parker has had too much influence, that wine makers are Parkerizing their wines to suit his palate. And then, now, there are other studies coming out that counter all of this. But, what I thought the feud did was really set-up the opposing poles on the views about wine and that was interesting. Of course, the debate turned into personal attacks, accusations about blind tastings and other things that got into the headlines. But, I thought, the other really valuable thing about it was that it showed how much we care about what wine is and where it's going. I can't imagine having this debate over different vodkas, or orange juice or anything like that. I think that's a good thing, it keeps wine alive.
G: This is a literary book. There are all kinds of references to the great canon of Western literature, and also classic food writers and wine writers. Who do you love to read on food and wine?
NM: I have unbound admiration for M.F.K. Fisher. I love Dorothy Parker, just for her wit and how much she liked to drink! She was a tough broad. And I love Collette. For her sensuality, but also because she came from Burgundy, her family were wine makers.
G: I didn't know that.
NM: Yeah, she wrote a little bit about wine. Her mother talks about her "rosy cheeks, showing the vineyards of France" because they were giving her wine as a kid... From Canada, I love James Chatto, John Allemang in The Globe. Jeffrey Steingarten for his wit, and Alan Richman in the States. Gina Mallet, a lovely food writer - so elegant. It's an endless list.
G: You know, I like that you're very upfront in this book, and in your newsletters, about the fact that wine has alcohol and if you drink enough of it you'll get drunk. I mean, that's a real taboo. Wine is supposed to be this ethereal thing, not some base Earthly pleasure.
NM: It is especially taboo for a wine writer to admit that he or she likes the buzz. But wine is a full sensory experience. It's not just tasting notes.
G: I think you enjoyed writing this book.
NM: It's been a real ride. I'm so glad I did it. It let me dig deeper than the writing I've done for magazines and newspapers. And I got to meet so many more people. This business, or industry, or whatever it is, is so full of charismatic, obsessive, passionate people. You know, I think what I'm really trying to do is use wine as a way into people's lives. You want to learn about wine in a wine book, of course. But I think you also want to learn about people and adventure and drama and feel some connection. Even though you may never meet any of these people, you share that passion for wine. And it's kind of neat to know what's going on all over the globe.
Guelph Mercury
April 10, 2008
By Judy Creighton
The Guelph Mercury published the same story as the London Free Press.
Halifax Herald
June 6, 2007
No more whining about wine and food pairings
Weddings, graduations, reunions and other summer gatherings often mean pairing food and wine, and Canadian wine writer Natalie MacLean’s website is full of suggestions.
At www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher the native of Lower Sackville provides more than 360,000 food and wine combinations.
"The old rules about white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat just don’t give enough guidance anymore," says MacLean, author of Red, White and Drunk All Over.
The site also offers recipes for a variety of dishes. MacLean adds more wines and foods based on readers’ suggestions, which she gets from the 71,000 subscribers to her free e-newsletter, Nat Decants.
Herald Tribune
June 27, 2007
By Linda Brandt
Would you would drink champagne with potato chips? The question interested me enough to visit www.natalie maclean.com/matcher. You can type in a food or a wine and get an idea which wine or food complements what you've got. This could be especially useful when you are trying to serve (and show your appreciation of) a gift bottle of wine.
Another click gives you recipes. Just for fun, I chose eggs, then narrowed it to bacon and eggs. The wine matcher chose semillon botrytised/sauternes. Another click turned up about 50 recipes with bacon in them that would go with the designated wine.
Curious about the champagne/potato chip thing, I next typed in Champagne, and sure enough, one of the foods that came up was potato chips, although it was listed under desserts.
The site is maintained and fed by Natalie MacLean, author of "Red, White and Drunk All Over."
Hitched Magazine
November 12, 2007
By Sara Pierce
There’s nothing like the holidays to inspire the inner host or hostess inside you to get to work. Planning a holiday party is easy; good friends, good food and good wine are all it takes to turn a cold winter evening into a night full of warm memories.
"A wine dinner is a wonderful theme for a get-together with friends," says Natalie MacLean, author of Red, White and Drunk All Over (www.nataliemaclean.com). "It can be either a fancy, multi-course meal or a casual potluck where everyone contributes. A variety of wines for the dishes is what makes it fun."
Choosing the right wine for each dish is easier than ever thanks to the accessibility of wine knowledge once reserved for sommeliers, connoisseurs and the occasional wine snob. So relax, have a drink, and try some of MacLean’s suggestions for putting together a memorable wine diner.
* Buy your bottles from regions producing delicious wines at great prices, such as Chile, Argentina and South Africa to keep the budget reasonable.
* Pour just two to three ounces of four wines instead of a glass or two of one wine so that you can try different wines with different dishes.
* Try both red and white wines to see which ones you like best (at the end of the evening, everyone can vote on a favorite wine).
* If you prefer to serve one wine at a time, start with light, dry white wines and progress to full-bodied reds so that each wine has a bolder taste than the last one.
* Finish the meal with a sweet wine, such as a late harvest Riesling or even a port, depending on how rich and sweet your dessert is. Your wine should be sweeter than the dessert so that the wine doesn’t taste bitter.
MacLean offers a food-and-wine matcher on her website with more than 364,000 food and wine combinations to help you choose the right wine to complement any dish. From appetizers to dessert, you’ll have everything you need to plan a wine dinner your friends will be talking about long after the holidays have passed.
Houston Chronicle
June 20, 2008
By Holly Ramer
His friends may call him a snob, and waitresses may give him odd looks, but David Turley isn't about to drink a beer with chunks of ice floating in it.
But that's what can happen at restaurants that insist on serving his favorite beverage in icy mugs. And so Turley has no qualms about insisting upon another, unfrosted, glass.
"I'm pretty passionate about it," says Turley, a 50-year-old information technology worker from Fredericksburg, Va. "The first thing I look at in a restaurant is the beer menu. I consider it a food."
Even casual drinkers of wine know that white wines are served cooler than reds. But few realize the difference a few degrees can make, and not just with wine.
Here's what some beverage experts say about the optimum temperatures for a variety of drinks, and the most common mistakes people make.
BEER
Most beer is served too cold, says Sang Yoon, a beer sommelier, chef and owner of Father's Office, a restaurant in Santa Monica, Calif.
But with most mainstream beers - the stuff produced by the major brand brewers - cold is fine. "Those don't have a huge aroma profile, so you can drink 'em really cold and you're not missing out on anything," Yoon says.
Aromatic beers that are brewed with more ingredients - pale ales for example -should be served around 40 F to 42 F, while beers with big flavor, such as Belgian ales, don't release their aromas until they hit about 50 F.
WINE
Wine often is served at the wrong temperature, says Natalie MacLean, editor of a wine newsletter and author of "Red, White and Drunk All Over," which explores how wine is made, marketed, matched with food and consumed.
"Too cold, and a wine's complexity and aromas are numbed; too hot, and it tastes alcoholic and flabby," she says.
The old advice about serving reds at "room temperature" comes from the days when the "room" in question was a drafty medieval castle, she says, not today's toasty, centrally heated homes.
Red wine should be served at about 60 F, though some light reds, such as Beaujolais, are better served cooler, she says. White wine should be chilled to about 55 F; the glass should feel cool but not ice-cold.
When in doubt, check the label: many bottles indicate the optimal serving temperature.
LIQUOR
There's a bit more leeway when it comes to hard liquor and mixed drinks.
Tricia Crighton of the Gin and Vodka Association of Great Britain says gin- and vodka-based drinks generally are served chilled, usually on ice, to emphasize the fresh taste.
"The dry martini should be very cold and some bartenders keep bottles in the freezer to achieve this," she says. "Usually though, a few good sized ice cubes will chill down cocktails and mixed drinks sufficiently."
Though cocktails historically have been enjoyed well-chilled, a new generation of bar chefs and mixologists are creating more complex cocktails whose flavors are best enjoyed slightly warmer.
COFFEE
The ideal temperature for coffee goes beyond taste, says Ric Rhinehart, executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America.
A brewing temperature between 195 F and 205 F is essential to achieve what he calls the appropriate "chemistry in your cup," or the right mix of soluble solids that make coffee look, smell and taste like coffee.
"When you get significantly higher than that, you tend to get some more of the bitter flavor extracted," he says. "When you get lower than that, you leave behind some of the more pleasant, interesting flavors and aromas."
The most common mistake is serving coffee that's not hot enough, he says. Frequently, the culprit is a drip coffee maker that doesn't get the water hot enough and has too long of a brewing cycle.
"And then there are still a few people - though there are very few and they are aging rapidly - who still use percolators," he says. "Percolators are just devastatingly bad for coffee because they circulate already brewed coffee and they drive temperatures over 205 degrees. It's just a terrible way to make coffee."
TEA
There are telltale signs when a cup of black tea is served at below-optimum temperature: the liquid will look clear and there will be a brown ring around the bottom of the cup.
"That's when you know you really made a mistake. If you taste it, it's going to taste like hot water," says Joe Simrany, president of the Tea Association of the USA.
"The problem is you're not extracting all the flavor that tea has to offer," he says.
Near boiling water is required to extract the most flavor from black tea. After 3 minutes of steeping, the tea should be about 185 F, he says.
For white or green tea, cooler temperatures are required, around 165 F to 185 F.
MILK
Milk's optimum temperature - 33 F to 35 F - is a matter of both taste and safety, says Gary Wheelock of the New England Dairy Promotion Board.
A temperature below 39 F is essential to prevent spoilage. His organization came up with a little rhyme for supermarkets to remind them to keep milk cold: "Below 39, it's fine."
"You also want to keep it cold just from a taste standpoint," he says. "Most people absolutely prefer to drink really cold milk, myself included."
SODA
In the Pepsi vs. Coke debate, Pepsi comes out on top (of the temperature scale). A company spokeswoman says Pepsi is best consumed at 42 F, plus or minus 3 degrees. A spokesman for Coca-Cola says Coke's ideal temperature is 38 F.
WATER
With such a basic beverage, there's a lot of room for personal preferences. But there are some common mistakes, says Michael Mascha, author of "Fine Waters: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Most Distinctive Bottled Waters."
"Americans drink water way, way too cold," he says, noting that doing so numbs the tastebuds.
Still water is best served at around 55 F - about the temperatue at which it comes out of the ground - rather than straight from the refrigerator, he says.
"Being a natural product, it's a good idea to drink it a natural temperature," he says.
With carbonated water, a slightly higher temperature mitigates the aggressiveness of large bubbles, he says, and lets the mineral content of the water come through.
Huffington Post
October 16, 2009
By Craig Goldwyn
Gourmet, the beloved 68 year old grande dame of culinaria, died on October 5, 2009. And the obits say I killed her.
Jennie Yabroff's autopsy in Newsweek blames Gourmet's elitism and people like me. To make her point, she quotes a story from the July issue of Gourmet by Alexander Lobrano: "[A]fter a stately pause, the graying waiter returned with a heavy copper casserole, which he set at my end of the table. Lifting the lid, he released a fleeting cloud of steam. The mingled aroma of wine, beef, and onions was so intoxicating it seemed an eternity before everyone had been served and I could dig in." Yabroff thinks this is a bit highfalutin, saying "Lobrano's story evokes life the way we want it to be; the way it is maybe once or twice in a lifetime," and she wonders if people like me, who write about food on the net, are to blame: "Perhaps the rise of food blogs means we're hungry for writing about food the way we actually prepare and eat it, crumpled paper napkins and all."
But Gourmet wasn't elitist even though it's name sounds snobby. It just took its subtitle, "The Magazine of Good Living", seriously. It told fascinating stories, used the best ingredients and proper cooking techniques to create memorable dishes, and photographed them lovingly. It also covered food politics intelligently, dining vividly, drink easily, culinary travel and culture thoughtfully. It covered street food and simple dishes as well as fantasy food. Subscribers kept every issue. It was not fussified. It just wasn't aimed at people who eat at McDonald's regularly or those who make macaroni and cheese from a box every week.
Chuck Townsend, CEO of Conde Nast, the owner of both Gourmet and Bon Appetit, is the one who took Gourmet to the slaughterhouse. He blamed the recession in his announcement to staff on October 5, 2009: "[I]n this economic climate it is important to narrow our focus to titles with the greatest prospects for long-term growth." Mediaweek translates: "Gourmet was the more luxury-oriented than sibling Bon Appetit, which made it an ill fit for today's budget-crunched times. Instead, those titles thriving in the space are new, celebrity-focused entries with mass appeal, like Hearst's Food Network Magazine and Reader's Digest Association's Every Day with Rachael Ray."
To make matters worse, printing and postage are usually the biggest expense items on a magazine's income statement, usually bigger even than payroll, and they have been rising like bread dough for decades.
But Gourmet's goose was cooked when 2009 ad sales shrank 43%.
Online advertising systems such as Google's AdWords had been draining Gourmet's blood. AdWords, and similar systems at Yahoo! and Microsoft Bing, allow advertisers to place their ads precisely where they need to be. No sense for mail-order steak catalogs to advertise on a page with a salad recipe. Plenty of sense for them to be on my beef recipe pages. Serving appropriate ads to people is the thing Google does best. Better even than search.
If you search Google for "steak recipes", you will probably see ads from the mail order steak companies in the right hand column. And maybe not. It changes from from day to day, and hour to hour. I just did the search and there was an ad from Dominick's, a Chicago-based grocery chain. Google knows where I live! It can tell by tracing the location of the company that supplies my internet access. AdWords buyers can get up-to-the-minute stats on exactly how many people saw their ad, clicked on it, and bought from it. No way a magazine or any other marketing medium can top that. Just another example of how the internet has ground up century old business models as if they were black pepper. Look at what it has done to newspapers, the US Postal Service, real estate sales, and travel agencies, to name a few.
Gourmet had other revenue streams and Conde Nast says it will keep the brand alive in them. It published cookbooks, and just this year put out Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen. If you buy it the book says you will get a free subscription to Gourmet. Oops! Don't wait for the sequel.
Gourmet produced an excellent television series for PBS, Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, and has another Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth debuting in October 17, but that's not going to feed many employees. Classes and festivals? Sounds like fun, but shouldn't all these spinoffs be under Bon Appetit's brand, the name they have to build?
If the internet played a role in Gourmet's demise, then some of the blame can be found in the mirror, Mr. Townsend. Gourmet's website was free and had many of the magazine articles as well as videos and user feedback. Not only that, most of Gourmet's recipes can be found alongside recipes from Bon Appetit in Epicurious.com, a wonderful free database run by Conde Nast. So why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
According to the publishing trade mag, Folio, print periodicals have been crumbling at a record pace in recent years, far outstripping startups. The score is 383 to 259 so far in 2009. Among the recently interred were the reincarnation of Life, PC Magazine, Vibe, Men's Vogue, Cosmo Girl, Town & Country Travel, Portfolio, and Modern Bride. Makes one wonder how long before Bon Appétit, Cook's Illustrated, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Food & Wine, Food Network Magazine, Saveur, and the other epicurean mags hit their expiration dates.
2009-10-16-bon_appetit.jpgSome observers suspected that Conde Nast would try to blend their two food titles, but most expected Bon Appetit would get folded into the older, more stately Gourmet, whose Editor-in-Chief was the powerful and talented Ruth Reichl. But Bon Appetit, with the less prominent Barbara Fairchild at the helm, had the larger circulation (1.3 million vs. 950,000), its readers have slightly higher household income ($82,000 vs. $80,000), and more advertising, so it was a no-brainer from the financial standpoint.
Subscribers have been asking why Conde Nast did not sell the magazine. No doubt Townsend compared the two subscriber lists and saw minimal duplication. So they have automatically transferred all Gourmet subscribers to Bon Appetit. By merging them they found a way to significantly increase Bon Appetit's subscriber base with little expense.
Although it varies per magazine, new subscriber acquisition usually costs $20-40 per, making the first year of a subscription a wash. Renewal efforts can cost as little as $5 average, including efforts to retain dropouts. No doubt many Gourmet subscribers will dump Bon Appetit when their renewal bill comes, but many will stay on. Bon Appetit, which was founded in 1956, is a very good rag and I'm betting a majority will renew.
Bon Appetit could come close to increasing its circulation by half, and get there at a much lower cost than the usual way of beating the bushes for new subs, which is buying mailing lists and sending expensive snail mailing sales pitches.
In his eulogy in the New York Times, a grieving Christopher Kimball of Cook's Illustrated magazine examines the body of his competitor and fingers another suspect: You. You and your 3x5" cards and your keyboard and your desire to see your name online. "The shuttering of Gourmet reminds us that in a click-or-die advertising marketplace, one ruled by a million instant pundits, where an anonymous Twitter comment might be seen to pack more resonance and useful content than an article that reflects a lifetime of experience, experts are not created from the top down but from the bottom up." Kimball's excellent magazine, it must be noted, has no advertising, and is sustained solely by subscriptions. Ditto for its website.
He then spreads the blame to the advertising business model prevalent on the net and argues for the subscription model his site uses. "[We need to] define our brands, prove our worth, ask to be paid for what we do, and refuse to climb aboard this ship of fools, the one where everyone has an equal voice. Google 'broccoli casserole' and make the first recipe you find. I guarantee it will be disappointing. The world needs fewer opinions and more thoughtful expertise -- the kind that comes from real experience, the hard-won blood-on-the-floor kind. I like my reporters, my pilots, my pundits, my doctors, my teachers and my cooking instructors to have graduated from the school of hard knocks."
So I Googled "broccoli casserole" and the very first recipe was in cooks.com (not related to Cook's Illustrated). Cooks.com is a humongous recipe database and it had 395 (!) broccoli casserole recipes contributed by, well, You. The very first recipe, by someone identified only as "CM" called for "sliced chicken" to be placed in the bottom of the casserole and the rest of the ingredients go on top. Then it said "brown on the top third shelf in a 350F oven for about 15 minutes or until nicely golden." It doesn't say if I'm to use bake or broil, but I'm here to tell you, if you use raw chicken, 15 minutes on either setting is not likely enough time to kill salmonella, rampant in raw chicken nowadays. You could be more than "disappointed" in the first recipe you find, as Kimball predicts. You could be serving everyone a nice case of food poisoning.
I randomly clicked on some of the other recipes. A few looked like they might be pretty good. But many had confusing ingredients lists, failing to specify what kind of cheese, and many others called for Velveeta or Cheez Whiz, officially classified as "pasteurized process cheese" that tastes more like plastic than real cheese. Other recipes had sketchy instructions. None appeared to be written by a pro, although a few did look to be cribbed from cookbooks and, perhaps, even Gourmet.
Looking closer at the search results for "broccoli casserole" from Google, I noticed that the 122nd listing was a link to a recipe in Conde Nast's Epicurious.com by someone named "hayesmd", an anonymous civilian, not even a recipe from Gourmet or Bon Appetit! I also checked out the recipe on CooksIllustrated.com. A polished recipe with precise instructions. Looks killer.
The latest thing is "crowd sourced" recipe sites like Foodista.com and the recipes section of Wikia.com. Anyone can edit any recipe they want. The theory is that the wisdom of the crowd will produce something better than any individual can. It works fairly well on Wikipedia.com, an online encyclopedia. So, if I hate cilantro, I can whip through the site removing cilantro willy nilly. If I like spicy food, I can add a splash of hot sauce to everything. It I work for Velveeta, well, you get the picture. These are new sites, so only time will tell if they produce anything useful, but I am skeptical.
Real recipe writing is hard work and it takes experience. It can take a dozen attempts to get it right. Adjust one ingredient and you probably have to adjust others. After you get it down you have to explain each step so there is no ambiguity. A serious food writer lives in fear of ruining somebody's meal with an imprecise instruction. I've been working on my recipe for the ultimate hamburger on and off for months and I still haven't published it.
2009-10-16-pioneer.jpgI had to wonder, where in Google are the recipes from chefs or experienced foodies who slave over first rate websites for few returns? Where are the links to Brigit Binns (RoadFoodie.com), Michael Chu (CookingForEngineers.com), Steve Dublanica (WaiterRant.net), Ree Drummond (ThePioneerWoman.com), Clotilde Dusoulier (ChocolateAndZucchini.com), Robin Garr (WineLoversPage.com), Jaden Hair (SteamyKitchen.com), David Leite (LeitesCulinaria.com), Nancy Loseke and Tj Robinson (TheOliveOilSecret.com), Harold McGee (CuriousCook.com), Natalie MacLean (NatalieMacLean.com), Michael Ruhlman (Ruhlman.com), Maria Rodale (HuffingtonPost.com/Maria-Rodale), David Rosengarten (RosengartenChews.tumblr.com), or Jeff Varasano (Slice.SeriousEats.com/jvpizza)? Perhaps these sites don't have broccoli casserole recipes, and that's why they weren't on the Google list.
But all too often their work is buried waaaaaay down the results list of the big search engines. Trying to find the best websites on food is like going into the library for a cookbook and finding all the books are on the floor in a pile. Clearly Google and gang have a lot of work to do. At least when it comes to food, they are bringing us quantity, not quality.
Did websites like these contribute to Gourmet's passing, as Newsweek accuses? Perhaps, but considering how hard it is to find quality food info in Google, it is doubtful that we were major factors.
So who killed Gourmet? A thorough post-mortem shows that, like Juius Caesar, Gourmet was surrounded and knifed from all sides. Clearly Brutus was Conde Nast, but conspirators were numerous: The recession, advertisers, Google AdWords, Google Search, Bon Appetit, Epicurious.com, printers, the US Postal Service, perceived elitism, websites like mine, and You.
What does the future hold? While I am mourning the passing of a great magazine, I will continue to devour Cook's Illustrated and Bon Appetit. But I won't be buying two-year subscriptions for Christmas gifts. I hope they make me eat my words.
Until Google Search gets its act together, here's my list of some of my favorite food and drink websites. Tell me about yours.
Into Wine
September 5, 2007
By Brad Prescott
Enjoying wine is as much a hands on experience as is anything. The history of the wine –- the grapes, the region, the winemaker, the vintage -- and the people with whom you drink it are the variables that shape the wine drinking experience from one of simple consumption to something of deeper impact in our daily lives.
Award-winning writer Natalie MacLean has carved out a career by skipping past the pretensions of wine and food and embracing the personalities, emotions, and simple human curiosity that make wine and food a sensual obsession rather than just basic sustenance. Into Wine recently caught up with Natalie to discuss her new book, Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass, as well as her views on wine.
What is the inspiration behind this book?
I wanted to explore issues such as what makes wine great, how to pair it with food, why we need sommeliers and others in greater depth than I was able to in my print and online journalism. A book allows you to dig deeper.
You chose a first person, "hands on", approach to this book. Why?
My book is written in the same style I use for my journalism, and both reflect the way I think and talk. I prefer to be conversational and intimate when I write as that's my "authentic" voice and allows me to connect with readers more effectively. The hands on part allows me to observe and feel more deeply, which is especially effective when you're slugging winery hoses during the harvest or dripping wine across the tablecloth as a sommelier.
You met many wine personalities in writing this book. Now that it is complete, with whom would you most like to spend an evening tasting?
I'd invite them all back for a tasting dinner because I'd want them to meet each other, and I'd love to listen to the conversation that ensues!
You are a former dancer, a Rhodes Scholar finalist, a 19th Century English Literature major, and an MBA. How did this lead you to writing about wine?
They all seem disconnected except that I have a taste for life and follow my passions. All of those endeavors now inform the way I write and see the world.
You discuss food and wine pairing both in the book and on your web site. However, your pairings go beyond the haute stylings common to gourmet wine and food pairings. You delve into everything from pairing wine to traditional food items such as poached salmon all the way to everyday foods such as Kentucky Fried Chicken or Jello. Share with us your thoughts behind this as well as some of your "less traditional" pairing suggestions.
I love shabby-chic combos of simple foods with delicious wines. It's like dressing up jeans with rhinestones. Wine doesn't have to be just for fancy meals and special occasions. And if you're a poor cook, like me, wine can save a meal.
You traveled to California and France in researching this book. What were you seeking to discover in each region?
I wanted to find the people most passionate about wine, whether they were vintners, wine merchants or sommeliers. The story of wine is the story of people.
What are your thoughts on the 100 point scoring systems popularized by Robert Parker and other critics?
Ha! Please read chapter four. I discuss the many pros and cons of wine scores in the book but here's where I net out: no subjective experience, such as the taste of wine, can be trapped in a number. That said, I do score wines because my readers find them useful shorthand to make buying decisions. My scores are a proxy for my taste. If they trust that, they use my scores.
Having sampled the working life of multiple wine professions, which did you find the most enjoyable? Who is most under appreciated by the average wine enthusiast?
I enjoyed being a sommelier most. I think it's interacting with people and sharing the passion for wine with them that was so enjoyable. And sommeliers are among the most under appreciated of the wine professions, but that's changing.
Fill in the blank: The single best part of writing this book was the ... drinking -- for research purposes, I had to be thorough.
Ithaca Journal
February 14, 2008
By Maggie Hibma
Natalie MacLean didn't start out with a love of wine. Meals with her husband, who enjoyed having a bottle of wine with dinner, are where MacLean first discovered wine.
“I always say that I didn't start drinking until I met my husband,” said MacLean. “And now that I am writing about wine for a living, I don't have a reason to stop.”
Editor of a free wine newsletter at www.nataliemaclean.com, MacLean took her love of wine and turned it into a career. Starting off by writing about wine on the Internet, she was picked up by a local food magazine who gave her a regular column.
Her vacations turned into wine-country adventures as her love of wine grew, and the thought of getting paid to write about wine became less and less outrageous.
“With my first glass of wine, I thought, ‘This tastes and smells so amazing. I want to learn how to talk about it,'” MacLean said. “Even now, I still describe myself as an enthusiastic amateur, not an expert. I don't want to preach about wine, I just want to share what I know.”
Check out Natalie's suggestions for pairing wine and food this Valentine's Day.
Steak
Steak goes well with a big, hefty red wine. The protein in the meat will “marry,” or mix with the tannins in the wine and it will make the wine and steak taste richer. Her suggestion: Cabernet Sauvignon
Chicken
Chicken is a chameleon dish, and how to match wine with it depends on how it is prepared. Chicken goes well with a lot of white wine, and you can't go wrong with a nice chardonnay or a pinot grigio. Her suggestion: California Chardonnay
Fish
When you have fish, you are dealing with iodine. Even though some foods break the “wine” rules, fish is usually not one of them. For most fish, you need a crisp, light wine. Salmon or tuna, however, are meaty dishes, and with that you could use a pinot noir. Her suggestion: New York Riesling
Pasta
Pasta is usually just a vehicle for sauce. If you are eating pasta with a regular tomato sauce, you want a wine to bring out the red-fruit flavors, like nice Chianti. In a situation like this, you can't go wrong with matching food and wine that both come from the same region. Her suggestion: Chianti
Pork
Pork is a meaty dish, and if it's served with a honey-glaze or a sweet sauce, you want dry white wine or a pinot noir to bring out the fruit flavors that will complement the sweetness of the sauce. Her suggestion: California Zinfandel
Wine and aphrodisiacs
* Asparagus + New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc: Green foods demand to be paired with green, herbal wines to match the aromas in the wine to the food on the plate.
* Fresh Fruit + New York Ice Wine: You want a wine to match the sweet, acidic flavors of the fresh fruit you are preparing.
* Truffles + Pinot Noir: You need a feral wine to compliment the earthy, wild flavors of this fungi.
* Figs, pomegranates + Vintage / Tawny Port: Both of these foods crave a nice port wine to fortify their flavors.
* Honey + Tokaji Hungarian dessert wine: This sweet dessert wine, with it’s honey and citrus flavors will compliment the honey in any dish perfectly.
James Beard Foundation
May 20, 2009
We asked sommelier, writer, and four-time Beard Award winner Natalie MacLean to tell us her favorite summertime wines that don’t cost an arm and a leg.
Best Patio Sipper: Ca’ Del Solo Vineyard Muscat 2007 (Monterey, CA): Medium-bodied and slightly off-dry white. About $17.
Best Poolside Chiller: Nobilo Regional Collection Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2006 (New Zealand): Pure grassy goodness! About $16.
Best Barbecue Quaffer: Peter Lehmann Shiraz Grenache 2005 (Australia): A full-bodied palate-whacker of a wine. About $15.
Kalamazoo Gazette
March 2, 2008
By Jeff Barr
I don't know about you, but I've always found the world of wine just a tad bit pretentious. Perhaps I label it so because it is a universe of which I am not a citizen. Fermented grapes have never done much for me, even in the days when hops and barley did.
My latest contact with the wine world came the other day at the Westnedge Avenue Meijer store, of all places. I'm walking down the wine aisle strictly as a shortcut to the Oreos, and a well-dressed woman felt the need to impart her wine wisdom on me.
"This is a wonderful chard for the price," she said, picking up a bottle that had a leaf on it. I knew nothing of the brand or the wine, but the leaf was kind of cool.
"Uh-uh," was my brilliant response, but my semi-grunt wasn't enough to let her know that she may as well have been speaking in tongues. Perhaps she was.
Whatever language she was speaking, it was clear she wasn't quite finished speaking it. "Oh, and I can't even believe they have this cab," she went on, quite impressed with herself and her discovery. "I buy a lot of wine here, and I've never seen this cab before."
Chard? Cab? I grew up in a big city. When we used words like that, we were talking about burned-up taxis.
When I'm asked about wine in public, my wife, Kelle, better be by my side giving me the wine high sign. Otherwise, my glass is half-empty. "Did you say fine? You asked if I'm fine? Why yes, I'm fine. Thanks for asking. It's pretty loud in here. Excuse me, have you seen Kelle?"
Luckily, there's a portal into the world of wine that is the common man's cup of tea. It's a book by Natalie MacLean titled, Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.
"Zinfandel with your Tex-Mex? Not a problem," she says. "A little chardonnay with your fried chicken take-out? Delicious. Pinot Noir and wild boar? Why not?"
I like this lady. She takes the pretension out of her passion for Pinot. Her Web site (www.nataliemaclean.com) even has a matching tool that enables you to pair up just about any food imaginable with the proper wine. It matches wines with pizza, eggs, cheese and even Jello.
MacLean just might keep me from feeling like I'm over a barrel the next time wine comes up in conversation.
I wonder what you're supposed to drink with Oreos?
Kansas City Star
November 18, 2007
By Lauren Chapin
Choosing a beverage to pair with the Thanksgiving turkey is as important as deciding what ingredients should go into the stuffing.
But rather than stressing about how to make just the right wine pairing, Natalie MacLean, a James Beard award-winning author of Red, White and Drunk All Over, suggests taking a deep breath and relaxing.
With a glass of wine, of course.
The Canadian wine expert is the engine driving one of the most popular, comprehensive, all-things-wine Web sites out there, nataliemaclean.com, launched in 2000.
More than 80,000 Web-surfers subscribe to the Nat Decants e-newsletter, and her Web site is visited by more than 1.3 million unique visitors a year.
“I think wine lovers are a natural fit with the Internet because wine is an info-intensive purchase that you usually can’t try before you buy the way you can with a car or a dress,” says MacLean.
“So many people seek a critic’s advice/shopping list. They want to know how it tastes, its body and food matches.”
MacLean offers weekly wine-tasting columns, recipes, food and wine pairing guides, lists of books and movies that wine geeks would enjoy, and podcasts, including one dedicated to Thanksgiving food and wine pairings.
“Thanksgiving can seem overwhelming, so just drink what you like,” she says. “If it doesn’t work out, don’t get caught up in finding the perfect wine match.”
But MacLean offers these straightforward rules to help simplify the process. (And remember that there are some rules to follow and some rules meant to be broken.)
•Pour some champagne. “It is one of the most food-friendly wines on the planet,” MacLean says. “It adds a festive note, so start the meal with a toast to friends, family and good health.”
She suggests a nonvintage Champagne, such as French Veuve Clicquot, Champagne Louis Roederer or Bollinger or American sparklers like Domaine Carneros, Domaine Chandon or Roederer Estate Anderson Valley.
•Juicy wines can help moisten the turkey. Choose juicy, generous, fruit-forward wines, such as a Beaujolais or a Gamay. “You can make up for cooking mistakes with wine,” MacLean says.
•Don’t be afraid of sweetness. Look for ones with some level of sweetness, either from fruity sweetness from the grapes or from residual sugar. She loves German Rieslings, for example, with their mouthwatering acidity and floral and pear aromas. Rieslings can handle many traditional-and-sweet side dishes, such as sweet potatoes.
•Look for wines that are middle of the road. Look for modestly tannic wines and wines that are not too heavily oaked, especially if guests are a mix of novice and experienced drinkers. A California Zinfandel would be a good example.
•Don’t forget the Pinot Noir. MacLean recommends a classic turkey-pairing wine, New World Pinots from Oregon, California and New Zealand that tend to be more ebullient and fruity.
Kansas City Star (2)
December 19, 2007
By Lauren Chapin
You can argue that winemakers were wagging the dog when they came up with a catchy name for California wines made with traditional Bordeaux grapes.
They even hosted a competition in 1988, looking for a name that would brand their high-quality blends. More than 6,000 names were submitted. The winner: Meritage, a compound of the words “merit” and “heritage” and pronounced like heritage.
The Meritage Association, which protected the name with the U.S. Department of Trademarks and Patents, established the criteria: To be a Meritage, the wine must be made from two or more Bordeaux grapes. The red grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Carmenere, Gros Verdot and St. Macaire. White Meritage can be made from Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Vert and Semillon. No more than 90 percent of one varietal may be in the blend.
The wine also must be made from the best of each winery’s varietals and be produced and bottled by an American winery from grapes grown in a designated appellation. And production must be no more than 25,000 cases.
A marketing ploy? Maybe, but one with a purpose. As Internet wine writer Natalie MacLean (natdecants.com) explains: “The intention of the Meritage Association was to simplify wine so that consumers would not have to memorize all grapes and blends. It is making its mark and was worth doing.”
Meritage wines, most made primarily with Cabernet Sauvignon, tend to be generous and elegant and benefit from breathing. And they pair particularly well with hearty winter dishes or hearthside sipping.
“A blend may not make a better wine, but it makes a different wine with different nuances,” MacLean says. “And a Meritage can be more consistent from year to year.”
Some to consider for the holiday, beyond Napa Valley giants that dominate many restaurant wine lists, include Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild’s Opus One, Valeria and Agustin Huneeus’ Quintessa, Joseph Phelps’ Insignia and Christian Moueix’ Dominus. Vintages may vary.
•Chateau Ste. Michelle 2004 Artist Series Meritage: 51 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 34 percent Merlot, 11 percent Malbec, 4 percent Petit Verdot. More feminine than others but with muscle and structure. Blackberry and blueberry nose; velvety, long finish. Mellow tannins make it particularly food-friendly. Groovy label by artist Alden Mason. Gomer’s South. Around $50.
•Clois du Bois Marlstone 2003: 69 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 22 percent Merlot, 2 percent Cabernet Franc, 4 percent Malbec, 3 percent Petit Verdot. Gomer’s, Royal Liquors and JJ’s. Closdubois.com; $50 to $74.
•Dry Creek the Mariner Dry Creek Valley 2004: 46 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 40 percent Merlot, 6 percent Malbec, 5 percent Cabernet Franc, 3 percent Petit Verdot. Wrap this one around you like a velour bathrobe. Mouthfuls of dusky dark cherry. Red X, Gomer’s South, Lukas Liquor, JJ’s. Drycreek vineyards.com; $40 to $58.
•Estancia 2004: 61 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 30 percent Merlot, 9 percent Petit Verdot. Think intense chocolate, softened with a little residual sugar and toasty oak. Gomer’s North, Gomer’s South, Red X, Classic Cup. Estanciaestates.com; $31.
•Franciscan Magnificat Red Wine 2004: 70 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 29 percent Merlot, 1 percent Petit Verdot. Supremely elegant with plums and cassis. Pierpont’s, Lukas Liquor, Royal Liquor. Franciscan.com; $54 to $70.
Love to Know Wine
October 19, 2007
By Wendy Michaels
LoveToKnow Wine had the pleasure of interviewing Natalie MacLean, author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over, a book for both wine experts and beginners alike. MacLean offers her expertise and insight in this informative and entertaining book. Grab a glass of your favorite wine and learn more about the author, her website and her book.
Could you tell our readers a little bit about your book, Red, White, and Drunk All Over?
I take my readers behind the scenes of the international wine world, exploring its history, visiting its most evocative places and meeting its most charismatic personalities. For example, while tasting sensuous pinot noir in the ancient cellars of Burgundy, I discover the mysterious tenets of biodynamic viticulture from the tiny, ferocious Lalou Bize-Leroy, part-owner of France's acclaimed Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. I work in a couple of wine stores to figure out how people can find the right bottle when faced with thousands of them. And I wade into a famous feud between Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson, two of the world's best-known wine critics to determine what those scores out of 100 really mean.
Is your book best suited for beginners or can all levels of wine lovers gain something from it?
I hope that the book will appeal to two groups. One is beginners who are just starting to learn about wine and who will pick up a lot of tips from this book but won't find it intimidating. The other group includes those who are already knowledgeable about wine, but will enjoy reading all the inside stories about people in the international wine world. (And if you're buying gifts for these people in your life, you can get a lot of your shopping done in one swoop.)
The book is also ideal for those who are part of a wine club, since it can give them new ideas for tasting themes and discussions. It's also good for members of book clubs who would enjoy a good glass of wine as they discuss this book and their favorite wines or most memorable bottles. In fact, I've included tips on how to set up an informal wine tasting with friends at home.
My book will also be useful to those thinking of traveling to a wine region: they could either read it before going or while there. That's especially true for anyone visiting one of the famed wine regions I describe, such as California, Burgundy or Champagne. Those who prefer to be armchair tourists, with a good glass in hand, can journey vicariously with me.
And finally, I think my book would make a great hostess gift for a dinner party or holiday gathering. Instead of agonizing over which bottle to bring when your host has probably already chosen the wines anyway, why not bring this book? It's a great conversation piece that will make you look cultured but with a great sense of humor.
Why did you write this book?
Although I've been exploring my passion for wine in the articles I write for magazines and newspapers, I knew that writing a book would allow me to dig even deeper, meet more fascinating people, travel to more interesting places and even spend more time thinking about just what makes us so crazy about wine.
Food and Wine Pairing
What is the hardest food to pair with a wine? Any tricky ones?
Although I addressed general food-and-wine matching principles in the hard cover edition, I decided to focus on five foods that are toughest on wine: salads and vegetables, spicy dishes, take-out and frozen food, cheese, and chocolate. So many readers have asked me about these particular pairing challenges that I thought it deserved its own chapter. As a determined hedonist, I won't admit that there's any food that can't be paired with some wine. The guidelines for pairing wine with difficult food are the same as those for traditional wine-friendly dishes: harmonize your flavor, texture, and weight.
Beyond this, there are some specific tips to keep in mind with each of these groups. For example, my theory is that green food and green wine go together. So veggies dance with wines that have herbal, grassy aromas, such as New Zealand sauvignon blanc. In fact, if there were an award for Veggie Wine of the Century, it would go to this one. Not only does it have complementary aromas of asparagus and canned peas, but it also has bright citrus notes that complement most vegetables. You'll find the real meat of the discussion in the book.
Do the old rules of wine matching still apply (red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat)?
Those are good guidelines and starting points, but food and wine have both changed so much that the key is to experiment.
Natalie’s Website
How did you develop your interactive food-and-wine matcher? Tell us about it. (We particularly love the ability to click for recipes that have a complimentary ingredient from the search as well as find your wine reviews for the recommended wines.)
Creating this tool also stems from the many questions about food and wine matching that I received from readers of my e-newsletter. I wanted to make the suggestions fast and simple, and to use the technology available to me.
What can visitors to your web site expect if they sign up for your newsletter?
Every month, I e-mail more than 80,000 wine lovers my top wine picks, tips on matching wine with food, choosing from restaurant lists and cellaring wine. On my web site, I've also posted more than a thousand links to vintage charts, wine accessories, food-matching advice, wine region tour guides, producers and retailers, clubs and courses, industry jobs, and my favorite wine books and movies.
What if a visitor can't find a particular food or wine in your matching database? Is there a way for people to contact you?
Sure! They should e-mail me via my web site and I'd be happy to suggest a match for them ... and then I'll add it to the matcher.
Favorite Wine
What is your favorite type of wine, and why?
The one someone else buys for me! Seriously, I do love pinot noir for its seductive aromas and flavors, and the way it pairs with so many dishes. That's why chapter one is all about pinot.
Luxist
February 2, 2008
By Laura Malesich
Now that it is officially February most of us are sketching out our plans for Cupid's Day and most likely that day will involve wine, chocolate or both! But have you ever chosen a wine to go with a meal or dessert that flopped because you didn't know how to properly match the two together?
Fear not, Natalie MacLean has a match-making guide (for food and wine, not love -- sorry) to make you look like a pro and seduce your lover with ease. If you need some quick ideas to get you started, here are her top 10 wine and chocolate matches you can't miss:
1. Dark Chocolate and Banyuls, France
2. Chocolate-Covered Biscotti and Recioto Della Valpolicella, Italy
3. Chocolate-Orange Cake and Liqueur Muscat, Australia
4. Chocolate with Nuts and Tawny Port, Portugal
5. Milk Chocolate and Tokaji, Hungary
6. Bittersweet Chocolate and Amarone, Italy
7. Chocolate-Dipped Fruit and Icewine, Canada
8. Chocolate Ganache Truffles and Sauternes, France
9. Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and Framboise, California
10. Chocolate Hearts with Cream Filling and Cream Sherry, Spain
In general, Natalie suggests the "creamy flavors of chocolate go best with sweet, full-bodied, high-alcohol wines" and if you are in need of recipes, she has you covered there too. No excuse now to not come through for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day.
Maclean's Magazine
September 24, 2007
By Amy Rosen
Please note: This story has been edited for length.
Jewish people around the world have something extra to be thankful for during the upcoming High Holidays: fine wines. For too long wine has been an afterthought (except for the sacramental variety) at the Sabbath table. That's changing.
Joan Nathan, the grand doyenne of Jewish cookery in North America and author of seven bestselling cookbooks, says kosher wine used to be synonymous with syrupy cough medicine -- not exactly food-friendly; really more prayer-friendly. She recently visited the Judean Hills in Israel. "I always thought of the Golan Heights as having good wine, but these wines in the Judean Hills were great -- not like the sweet sacramental wines at all." These kosher wines are, in fact, winning awards in international competition.
Natalie MacLean, the author of Red, White and Drunk All Over, notes there are many non-kosher Jews who still enjoy a traditional High Holiday meal with wine: "Brisket is delicious with rich, full-bodied red wines, such as Argentine Malbec and Rhône Valley Syrah. However, a lighter dish, such as gefilte fish, swims with crisp whites, like Pinot Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc." She says there are loads of possibilities: matzo ball soup with Chardonnay, kugel with Champagne, "and for an extra kick, when you've been sitting at the dinner table for four hours, try honey cake with ice wine."
She concurs with the other experts that Israel is producing some outstanding wines these days: "Two of my favourites are both robust Cabernet Sauvignons, one made by Saslove Winery from upper Galilee and the other, Yarden Golan Heights Winery. I've rated both of these wines 90 out of 100 and they'll both age for a decade or more -- long enough to get you through many Rosh Hashanah meals."
Over the years, the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar in Toronto has served up seasonal Jewish favourites ranging from chicken soup to latkes, and sommelier Jamie Drummond has been there with the appropriate wines to match. "Thinking of the fat present in a good chicken soup, I would tend to look toward something like a bone dry and tangy Manzanilla sherry, which may sound a little odd to some," he says, "but people seem to have forgotten just how stunning a partner this style of sherry can be with certain foods." He adds that a crisp and zesty Gruner Veltliner from Austria would also work well with the soup. "Brisket is interesting," adds the Scottish-born sommelier. "Perhaps it's just been my bad luck with the Jewish brisket I've been served, but it appears almost like a 'tradition' to burn the living daylights out of this particular cut. So I would tend to use something like a sangiovese-based Italian. A decent Chianti would be a great match actually, and since it's probably for a special occasion, a Riserva with a little barrique aging would be a great choice, and quite often worth the extra bucks."
Howard Wasserman, a partner at the wine-importing company B & W Wines, says that Israel, "after 2,000 years," is finally producing wines with "chutzpah." His company has recently put together a list of quality wines that match well with traditional Jewish foods. "Cholent, the glue of the Western Jewish world, needs a strong partner, something like an old friend, a classic deep rich Cabernet from Penley Estate [South Australia]." Israel's Tulip Winery Cabernet worked perfectly with a recent Friday night brisket, Wasserman says, while things got off to a nice start with Vitkin Winery's Viognier -- excellent with the matzo ball soup. "Along with everyday wines, there are some Israeli collectibles, such as Margalit Cabernet Franc, which have been recognized worldwide."
The fact remains, though, that historically Jews have not been big drinkers. "We have a tradition of eating and drinking together," says Joan Nathan, "but not of just drinking. I think the next generation is changing that."
Melbourne Weekly Bayside
February 14, 2008
By Matt Preston
Oops, it’s Valentine’s Day and you’ve forgotten to get a booking at your partner’s favourite restaurant, which now has more reservations than a nervous bungee jumper. You are, in common parlance, dead, or you will be if you don’t act fast.
You could just take him or her somewhere that doesn’t take bookings, such as Longrain in the city or Cicciolina in St Kilda, or go for oysters and champagne at the bar at Oyster
Little Bourke or the Melbourne Wine Room.
The danger with this is that your valentine might want to know why you didn’t book somewhere proper – and then the jig is up. If you haven’t booked, it is far better to point out that going to a restaurant on Valentine’s Day is "such a cliche´" – that’s when all the least sophisticated people have a big night out – and you didn’t want to share your beloved with a room full of strangers.
Then set a time for that evening when you can be alone. This should buy you a couple of hours organising time at least. As Shakespeare so famously wrote, "food be the music of love" – so there is no better way to celebrate Valentine’s than by feeding the one you love something delicious in
nice surroundings.
Get a rug, an ice bucket, two champagne flutes and a chilled bottle of fizz – remember Valentine’s Day is all about presentation, so those extra touches make it look like you’ve planned ahead even when you haven’t – and then head off with them to buy fish and chips from your favourite chippy to enjoy on the beach with a glass of the fizz. Or pull together a picnic as simple as smoked salmon sandwiches and take your valentine to a leafy spot in a botanic garden
– or, even better, boating at Studley Park. The boating costs $36 for two hours, but check with the boathouse (98531828) to make sure the boats aren’t already booked. Don’t forget the insect repellent.
The presence of young children obviously complicates matters. Let’s face it: few teenage babysitters are willing to admit they are free on this night of the year, especially at short notice. This means the Valentine’s Day treat
may need to be given at home, which necessitates something more focused and luxurious.
Immediately, I’m thinking chocolate – but chocolate alone is hardly enough! You need to add a sexy tipple. This is where wine whiz Natalie MacLean steps in. Natalie has compiled a list of 50 chocolate dishes, each perfectly matched with
a sexy wine or two. The dessert section of her online food and wine matching tool at www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher will reveal the right match for everything from chocolate brownies (oloroso sherry) to dark chocolate mousse (liqueur muscat or pink champagne).
When it comes to bars of the stuff, she’s equally helpful. Natalie firmly believes that the creamy flavours of chocolate go best with sweet, full-bodied, high-alcohol wines. So it’s an Italian amarone with your squares of bittersweet chocolate or a Hungarian tokaji with milk chocolate.
If chocolate is not your valentine’s weakness, fear not because Natalie’s website will also tell you what goes with
anything from asparagus to zucchini. Chocolate’s most popular valentine partner is probably flowers rather than
wine, but if you’ve left everything this late then the best bunches may have already sold out. Instead, why not give the one you love a small rose bush? Then you can attach a cheesy card about how it will "continue to grow like our love."
Alternatively, live by the very sound rule that you only give flowers when they are not expected and when you haven’t
done anything wrong. You’d better get a gift instead. Here again, there are some sound pointers on what to buy. For her this means nothing with a plug on it, nothing that relates to the home or cleaning and nothing that you want. Sadly, this usually includes saucy red lingerie and that signed photo of Tony Lockett with his greyhounds. Whatever it is, make sure it comes in folded tissue paper and is then placed in a smart box that is tied with ribbon.
For him? Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t a year’s subscription to Bacon Busters just about the most perfect present any bloke could get? I mean, what could be better than four issues packed with nothing but pig hunting. Well, other than some sexy red lingerie, a bottle of sweet nutty sherry and some brownies. Alternatively, you could just take our
most important piece of advice and try and book somewhere for dinner on Thursday night – now!
Metro News
April 10, 2008
By Judy Creighton
The Metro News published the same story as the London Free Press.
Metro News (2)
May 2008
By Brian Towie
It’s another very good year for one of the world’s most recognized wine writers.
You’d think that after winning four James Beard Awards for writing pieces about drinks, getting another nod — this year for her presentation When Food Fights With Wine — would be a case of “been there, done that” to Ottawa food and wine journalist Natalie MacLean. Not so, she says, noting that being tapped for the prize recognizing culinary professionals for excellence in their field reaffirms that she’s doing something right.
“Being nominated for a James Beard Award never becomes old hat because the competition is so stiff from writers whom I admire,” says MacLean, a member of the National Capital Sommelier Guild. “It's an honour to be named among them and a reassurance that you're still improving your craft.”
It was an unlikely start in the business for MacLean, even though wine drinking was already a passion she shared with her husband when the couple moved to Ottawa in 1996. The pair would often vacation in wine regions around the world. Her business trips also had a way of gravitating towards viticulture. Working for a computer company in Mountainview, Calif. MacLean would schedule her meetings on Fridays so she could spend the weekend in the Napa Valley.
But it wasn’t until she had her son in November 1998 that MacLean says she considered making her living from her life’s love of imbibing. Suffering from post-partum sleep deprivation, MacLean picked up a food magazine at a grocery check-out counter and noticed there were no articles about wine to accompany its vast number of recipes. She called up the magazine’s editor, who accepted her pitch for a story.
“She asked if I had been published before, and I said yes (praying that she wouldn't ask me to send samples from my high school newspaper). Luckily, she didn't; instead she assigned me a half-page article due in two weeks,” recounts MacLean. “I struggled to write that article more than I labored with the pregnancy since I was now operating on about six brain cells. But the editor was pleased with the result and gave me another assignment.”
It was the beginning of a decade that saw MacLean appear in more than sixty newspapers and magazines across the globe, among them the Chicago Tribune, Reader’s Digest, Chatelaine, Saturday Night and the Sydney Morning Herald, a trophy case worth of culinary journalism awards, including one for her book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey From Grape To Glass. She credits her success to a practice for which she has a natural ability:
“Lots of drinking!” she jokes. “Actually, like any professional, it comes down to hard work, attention to detail and persistence. It also helps to be curious (nosy) about other people when you're a writer.”
Natalie decants to Metro:
Where do you like to eat and drink wine in Ottawa?
Juniper, Beckta, Signatures and Baccara
What’s your favourite drink?
My favorite bottle is the one someone else buys. I like pinot noir especially since it's such a versatile wine with food.
What makes great food journalism?
Tell stories about people. There's only so much you can say about food or wine itself. It's what happens when we come together to share them that's interesting.
Miami Herald
March 10, 2008
By Fred Tasker
Wine fans, please permit me a small brag. Writing for Epicurious, the web site of Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines, wine author/lecturer Natalie MacLean lists my wine page, miamiherald.com/wine, as one of the top 15 in the nation.
MacLean is the author of a wine book – Red, White and Drunk All Over – and has won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards for her writing.
You can checkout her really great website at www.nataliemaclean.com
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
November 3, 2006
By Kathy Flanigan
You call it fall but Brian Rosen knows this time of year as red wine season.
"Last night, I'm not ashamed to say, I had two bottles of red wine. If it was two months earlier, it could have just as easily been a Gewurztraiminer or a Riesling," said the 36-year-old Rosen, who shared the bounty with three others.
Rosen, owner of Sam's Wines and Spirits, a longtime family business in Chicago and its suburbs, knows wines. He also knows the Midwest weather. Like Rosen, for a lot of us here, the turning leaves signal more than winter is on the way. It means it's time to switch out the bottles in the wine rack.
Fall is when many quit buying lighter, fruit-flavored Sauvignon Blancs in favor of smooth Pinot Noirs and spicy Zinfandels, much like you might trade an icy lemonade for a warming pumpkin latte. Science can't explain it but those in the wine business have theories.
"White wines have become synonymous with barbecuing," Rosen said. "Red wines, on the contrary, are heartier. As the cold gets around the Midwest, a red wine, a fuller wine, gives you that warmth, that internal heat that people kind of look for when winter comes."
With the first frost, Rosen said, "there is a mental switchover."
Indeed there is. ACNielsen studies consumer sales among Milwaukee supermarkets. The marketing researcher found that the cooler the weather in Milwaukee, the more consumers spend on red table wine. In 2005, red wine sales rose from 42% of sales of all table wines in August to 45% in September. They peaked at 47% in March and dropped again in April. By June, red wine sales were at 42% again.
Natalie MacLean, who wrote Red, White, and Drunk All Over, says she pulls out her bulky sweaters and beefy red wines about the same time.
"That's not to say you can't drink lighter wines in the winter, but if you're looking for wine and food pairings that work based on weight, taste and strength of flavor, it makes sense to drink something more robust as the temperature dips," she said.
"Perhaps it's also because robust wines are more alcoholic, and therefore warm us up faster and longer than lighter, lower-alcohol wines," MacLean wrote in an e-mail. "It's like the difference between a fur coat and a shawl; which would you turn to when there's three feet of snow on the ground?"
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2)
By Anne Schamberg
That ever-puzzling question of what wine to drink with a chocolate doughnut or two is settled at www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher, where you will find an easy-to-use tool that pairs wines with just about any dish from chicken-feta tostadas to Jell-O.
At this award-winning site you also can sign up for Nat Decants, sommelier Natalie MacLean's free monthly newsletter. And you can access her basic-level wine glossary.
But to end the suspense - and tossing coffee aside - the beverage for chocolate doughnuts is either a Banyuls, which is a fortified wine from southern France, or a tawny port.
Natalie MacLean is author of "Red, White, and Drink All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass," which includes in-depth discussion of matching food and wine, as well as a tour of wine cellars and vineyards around the world.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3)
January 23, 2009
By Kathy Flanigan
Several years ago I organized a wine tasting night, hoping to take advantage of my neighbor's expertise in that area.
Everyone brought a bottle of red wine, each one wrapped in a brown paper bag so we could taste without being influenced by the label or price.
The least expensive bottle on the table, a California Zinfandel, won raves. It surprised those of us who splurged on a $20 bottle - about twice the price of the winner - thinking that more expensive meant better quality.
That's only one of a few good reasons wine tastings exist.
Milwaukee native Michael Dorf recently opened the posh City Winery in New York, a fully operational winery with two wine bars, a cheese bar, restaurant and performance venue. Dorf thinks the best wine tastings come when the winemaker is available to show off a little bit and let you know exactly how the wine was made.
Barring that, "an expert of some kind, a great sommelier, a collector or someone who can offer some insight into wine can often put into words something that is very difficult to articulate," said Dorf, who started the Knitting Factory music club in the East Village (he left that in 2002) and opened City Winery on New Year's Eve.
Wine tastings are one of the best and least expensive ways to learn about wine, said Natalie MacLean, author of the Web site www.nataliemaclean.com and the book "Red, White, and Drunk All Over."
"It's only by comparing wines side by side that their differences in aromas and flavors jump out at you," MacLean wrote in an e-mail. "Opening this many bottles at home would be expensive, not to mention inebriating."
Wine tastings can run the gamut from informal - Whole Foods dispenses glasses of wine from what looks like a vending machine - to fancy, such as next month's benefit at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
Take advantage of all of them, said Gary Vaynerchuk, the man behind the video wine blog at tv.winelibrary.com.
"This is your absolute low-cost entry to explore," said Vaynerchuk, who has hosted tastings for the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Conan O'Brien. If you're heading to a large wine-tasting event, his No. 1 tip is to walk the room before deciding where to begin. That way you can try something new while your palate is clear.
"Most people go to the most expensive wine first," Vaynerchuk said. Try unfamiliar varietals instead. For instance, if you always drink Chardonnay, try a Gewurztraminer, or if you're a fan of Cabernets, sip a Malbec.
He recommends that tasters always spit out excess wine to keep from getting "blitzkrieged."
If spitting is a problem for you, head to any of the tastings at Balzac Wine Bar, 1716 N. Arlington Place. The bar plans to start them up again when the patio opens, said general manager Pete Brassert.
"We teach people how to spit. That's one of the first things we teach," Brassert said.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
March 22, 2008
By Bill Ward
• Men stay in their comfort zones; women are more adventurous.
• Women shop for communal gatherings, men for themselves.
• Men are geared toward impressing, women toward pleasing.
• Women buy wine for the short term (sharing), men for the long term (hoarding).
• Men buy on the basis of testimonials from experts, women on tips from friends and merchants.
• Women order wine by the glass at restaurants; men order bottles.
It started back in, well, the Garden of Eden.
In the beginning, it was Eve, inquisitive and experimental, who first sampled a "forbidden" fruit. And once she gave it history's first 90-point rating, the pedigree-oriented Adam just had to have some for himself.
Then and there, the lines of demarcation between the two genders' approaches to fruit products began to be drawn. They exist to this day.
"Men approach wine more analytically and women more holistically," said Natalie MacLean, wine-book author and purveyor of the website www.nataliemaclean.com. "Men are far more focused on the scores and women on the stories behind the wines."
The differences come into stark view at wine stores, where "shelf talkers," those slips of paper touting the wines, fall into two distinct categories: critics' scores vs. food-pairing and experiential notes.
"Men will come in and say 'I was reading about this wine in the Wine Spectator or Robert Parker,'" said Kristen Kowalski, owner of the Wine Market stores in Mendota Heights and Woodbury. "Women will want something they've seen on the Food Network, paired with a recipe. Or they'll ask for something they had on vacation, or at a restaurant.
"Women want to buy a wine that everybody likes. They will be more drawn to my shelf talker that says 'perfect for a book club.'"
These tendencies are especially prevalent in the way men and women shop for wine in a store or order it in a restaurant. Even though they have been proven to have better palates than men, women are much more likely to seek help when selecting wine, while guys ... well, we all know how they are about asking for directions.
Men also are more prone to act as though they know more about wine than they really do. A recent British study found that 22 percent of men embellish their expertise to impress peers in restaurants. "Wine is like sex," the wine writer Hugh Johnson has famously noted, "in that few men will admit not knowing all about it."
Men are from Napa. Women are from Italy.
It's not as though the wine world is vastly different from other fields. In much the same way that most self-described "Star Trek" geeks and fantasy-football geeks are men who love to immerse themselves in a topic and learn every arcane detail about it, most wine geeks are of the male persuasion.
They feed their hunting-and-gathering instincts by boning up on vintage and ratings charts. Once honed in, they tend not to stray far from their targets, experts say.
"Men seem to find a comfort zone and stay in it," said Kowalski. "They'll say something like 'I drink California cabernet, I always have, I can read the label and understand it, that's what I want.' They tend to be intimidated about venturing into other countries, where they don't understand the labels."
Within that comfort zone, though, men tend to think quantity as well as quality. Although women purchase most of the wine in this country (57 percent in 2006, according to the Adams Wine Handbook), men are more predisposed toward stocking up.
"If there's a particular wine or vintage that they like, men have a slightly stronger instinct to purchase a case of that wine," said France 44 vice president and partner David Anderson. "Women will purchase wine by the case, but it will be assorted wines, half red and half white, or 12 different bottles."
Meanwhile, the knowledge gap is dwindling. Wine classes at Surdyk's and France 44 are split down the middle gender-wise, store officials say. More books are describing and contextualizing wine in nontraditional fashion, including MacLean's "Red, White and Drunk All Over" and Leslie Sbrocco's "Wine for Women."
"It's time to quit talking about wine in terms that nobody can understand," said Sbrocco. "That's why I talk about wines as fabrics -- a great merlot is like drinking cashmere or riesling is like a spring dress -- or as people, like 'This wine is Gérard Depardieu, thick and brooding.'
"It's all about finding a way to communicate with people in a way that makes sense to them. And if numbers make sense to men and wardrobe references make sense for women, that's fine. There is no wrong in wine."
What's in a label? A lot
At the professional level, women have burst through the Riedel-glass ceiling in this longtime bastion of old-boy clubbiness -- as winery owners, winemakers and tastemakers. But the gap between how the genders purchase and consume wine has narrowed little, prompting a lot of marketing directed at women during the last decade. Most notable was a spate of Australian wines with cuddly animals on the labels. U.S. sales of these "critter wines" (led by Yellow Tail and its kangaroo) topped $600 million in 2006, according to A.C. Nielsen.
"Labels sell, let's be honest," said Sara Craft, a rep for local distributor Paustis. "And there are some great labels out there. But I think the furry critter has seen its day, knock on wood."
Others agreed that "critter labels" are on the wane, and that more sophisticated marketing -- stressing the experience of a girlfriends' night out, for example -- has emerged.
But that hardly means that gimmicks, which skirt the line between empowering and patronizing, are going away. Industry giant Beringer is proffering a low-cal chardonnay called White Lie. Local chain Haskell's has an exclusive agreement to carry a French brand dubbed Lulu B. The marketing taglines for "Mad Housewife" wines include "Award thyself" and "The dishes can wait. Dinner be damned." And don't get Kowalski started on the brand Mommy's Time Out.
Meanwhile, those plucky Aussies are back with a new twist, said France 44's Anderson: "Now you see them with wines called Bitch! and Evil. You put them side by side and it says 'Evil Bitch!'"
Again, it's not as though the wine biz has a markedly different marketing approach from other industries.
"I have no problem whatsoever with marketing to women on wine," said Sbrocco. "They do it with shoes, clothes, computers. They market everything to younger people, or African-Americans. Are women and men ever going to buy computers the same way, or cars, or travel packages? No. We are hard-wired differently.
"The point is getting people to understand and appreciate wine and making it fun, as opposed to some old guy with his pinky in the air. It is fermented grape juice, after all."
MoneySense Magazine
December 2008
By Pamela Young
Buy now, drink later
Prices for great wine are soaring. But by ordering tomorrow's best bottles today, you can ensure you'll never go thirsty.
By Pamela Young
If you are passionate about wine, well-supplied with cash, and very, very patient, now may be the right time to stock up on Château Ausone 2005. Ordering this blue-chip Bordeaux on the "futures" market while it is still aging in the barrel will set you back $1,395 a bottle, or $16,740 a case. Of course, you won't be able to collect this robust yet ethereal red at your local liquor store until 2008 — at which point you really should let it mature in a climate-controlled cellar for at least a dozen years before taking your first sip.
Why would any sane person plunk down thousands of dollars for something they won't taste until at least 2020? In many cases, it's because buyers figure they'll never have a chance to sample the most highly prized wines in the world unless they buy early. Demand for the most revered names in viniculture, especially the famed first and second growths of Bordeaux, has soared in recent years, thanks in large part to an influx of newly rich buyers from China and India. Competition for the best of the best is now both fierce and frenetic. In the spring of 2006, when the world's top critics tasted the 2005 Bordeaux vintage en primeur, or while still in the barrel, and proclaimed it an exceptionally good year, prices skyrocketed. While you could have bought a bottle of good but not great Ausone 2004 on the futures market for $395, the futures price for the stellar '05 vintage leaped a thousand dollars higher.
The irony is that the wine futures market began as a way for budget-conscious tipplers to save money. Growing and aging wine ties up capital for years, so wineries have traditionally been willing to give customers a discount if they pay up front, a couple of years before the wine is bottled and shipped. Sometimes the wine turns out to be worth more on the open market when it's released than the price that futures buyers paid. When that happens, the lucky holders of the futures can choose to either take delivery of the wine or sell it back to the agent at a profit, prior to shipping.
Problem is, you can't count on making a profit. While Bordeaux vintages during most of the 1990s yielded handsome profits for those who bought futures, the 1997 crop disappointed. Some buyers of futures in that year wound up paying more for their wine than they would have if they waited and bought their bottles when the vintage was released.
Rather than paying the price of a small car for a case of Ausone 2005, you may want to tiptoe gingerly into the world of wine futures by first trying your luck with more modestly priced Bordeaux labels, which go for as little as $35 a bottle. If you live in Ontario, you can place a futures order for as few as three bottles through the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), although in other provinces, especially if you order through a wine club, you're looking at buying at least a half a case — six bottles — and more likely a full case.
Darcy Kelley, an e-business strategist who sits on the board of the Toronto Vintners Club, has dabbled in both the high and low ends of the market. He bought a selection of 1995 Bordeaux second-growth futures for investment purposes 10 years ago. He stores those bottles — and others that he may someday choose to sell at auction — in climate-controlled security at Toronto's Fine Wine Reserve. Kelley estimates that if he sells those wines five or 10 years from now, they will fetch at least three to four times the price he paid for them.
Kelley, though, isn't tempted to repeat his 1995 success by investing in the status-label 2005s, which he thinks are already fully valued. Instead, he confined his 2005 buys to what he calls "drinkers" — wines purchased for his own consumption, at $35 to $55 a bottle, that he will store at home in a refrigerated cellar unit. Kelley's 2005 picks, based on past experience and the critics' en primeur reviews, were d'Angludet ($39), Dauzac ($52) and La Bienfaisance ($36). He is particularly looking forward to the d'Angludet, which Decanter magazine's Steven Spurrier described as a dark, dense, herbaceous offering, redolent of wild violets.
Other experts also believe that you can find the best value in 2005 futures by shopping among moderately priced Bordeaux. Shari Mogk-Edwards, director of sales and purchasing for Vintages, the LCBO's fine wine and premium spirits division, points out that many of the most revered châteaux, including Latour and Margaux, put out second wines priced at a fraction of their flagship offerings. In a year like '05, she says, "from a pure taste perspective the value in the second labels is very, very great."
One good way to find out about promising wine futures is to hang out with other wine lovers. Graeme Harris, a communications executive with a financial services company in Toronto, belongs to the Opimian Society, a national non-profit wine-ordering cooperative with 15,600 active members in chapters across Canada. He was thrilled when his very first futures buy, three cases of Château Cantemerle 1995, was worth so much upon release that he was able to cover about 80% of the cost of the one case he kept by optioning to sell the other two back to the sales agent. But turning a profit isn't Harris's main objective when he buys wine. "Ultimately, wine is like art," he says. "It's something you want to enjoy, not something you're trying to make a fast buck out of."
Best Bets
We've seen these futures — and they work.
We asked Natalie MacLean, one of North America's top wine writers (NatalieMaclean.com), and wine enthusiasts Darcy Kelley (DK) and Graeme Harris (GH) to choose their top picks in 2005 Bordeaux futures. Prices are per bottle, as quoted by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Initials beside each choice indicate who made the pick:
Under $50
La Tour Carnet, $49 (NM)
d'Angludet, $39 (DK)
La Croix de Gay, $46 (GH)
$50 to $200
Kirwan, $79 (NM)
Certan de May, $105 (DK)
Nenin, $99 (GH)
$200 to $500
Palmer, $385 (NM)
Cos d'Estournel, $299 (DK & GH)
$500+
Margaux, $995 (NM)
Haut-Brion, $750 (DK)
Pétrus, $1,295 (GH)
Montreal Gazette
March 17, 2008
By Chris Cobb
The Montreal Gazette published the same story as the Ottawa Citizen.
More Magazine
February-March 2008
Top 40 Women
She pulls corks but no punches: If you want the straight goods on good plonk, Natalie MacLean is your gal.
The author of Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass has been named the world's best drink writer at the World Food Media Awards and has won four James Beard Foundation Awards.
Now that's worth toasting!
MSN Live Today
March 11, 2008
By Natalie MacLean
In my book, seven friends come over to my home and we have an informal wine tasting. It's a great excuse to get together and chat about the wines and, as the evening progresses, life in general.
You don't need to be a wine expert to host a tasting, just as you don't need to have a doctorate in English literature to organize a book club. In fact, wine tastings work well for book clubs too, especially if you're discussing a book such as Red, White, and Drunk All Over.
I've posted lots of low-cost wines in the Wine Picks section of the site for those who want a shopping list for their tasting.
1. Invite six to twelve friends—a group size that works well both for the conversation and for dividing a bottle of wine into samples.
2. Set the date and time. Around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. works as you'll need about two to three hours at most.
3. Select a theme, such as everyone's most memorable bottle, wines from a certain region such as Australian shiraz or something seasonal, such as champagne during the holidays, sweet wines near Valentine's Day, and so on.
4. Determine how much wine you'll serve. A two-ounce pour from eight wines gives everyone a wide sampling without going overboard.
5. Choose finger foods that aren't too spicy or hot. These might overwhelm the wine.
6. On the evening of the tasting, set out the wine glasses, finger foods, bread, glasses of water, spittoons (mugs are fine) and paper and pens.
7. Serve wine in "flights": the first four wines, followed by discussion, and then the second four wines, for example. You may want to keep the bottles in brown bags and number them for a "blind tasting."
8. Sample whites before reds, light wines before full-bodied, and dry before sweet.
9. Encourage everyone to share their thoughts, which can be as simple as whether they like it or what it reminds them of. At the end, have everyone vote on their favorite wines and then reveal their identities.
10. Encourage them to "expectorate" or spit out the wine into their mugs if they choose. Call taxis for those who need one. Set the date for your next tasting.
MSN Smart Money
November 12, 2008
By Kelli Grant
There's no question that warehouse clubs offer great prices -- for some products, they're unbeatable. But in other cases, the urge to save could end up costing you.
As most penny-pinching consumers know, joining a warehouse club can result in great deals on everything from 46-inch flat-screen TVs to 12-packs of chicken-noodle soup. But that doesn't mean every product in the rustic aisles of BJ's, Sam's Club or Costco is a steal.
"You could make the argument that everything in the building is a good deal," says Michael Clayman, the editor of Warehouse Club Focus, a trade publication. Clubs make most of their profits from annual membership fees, which range from $40 to $100. That's one of the reasons why warehouse club markups are just 8% to 13% above wholesale prices, while mainstream retailers charge 25% to 50% more, he says.
But, as Clayman explains, those great prices don't always mean you're getting the best deal. Here are five of the best warehouse club buys and five to steer clear of:
Best buys
Alcohol. Wine, liquor and beer prices can be 35% lower than at supermarkets. The best deals, however, are on high-end bottles.
"Warehouse clubs sell more Bordeaux than fine-wine shops," says Natalie MacLean, the editor of NatDecants.com, a wine education site. Costco recently offered a magnum of Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes 1997 for $500 -- $300 cheaper than the price on WineAccess.com. Bonus: Some states' laws let you buy alcohol without having to pay for a warehouse club membership.
Milk, butter and eggs. In all but a few cases, you can beat warehouse club food prices at supermarkets by combining weekly store sales with manufacturers' coupons. The notable exceptions: milk, butter and eggs, which are at least 20% cheaper at warehouse clubs, says Teri Gault, the founder of The Grocery Game, a shopping Web site. At Sam's Club, for example, a four-box pack of salted butter quarters recently was priced at $8.67. At ShopRite, it was $13.96.
Electronics. More often than not, gadget shoppers will find a better deal at a warehouse club than at mainstream retailers. For instance, BJ's recently beat Amazon.com by $6 on the Olympus FE-340 digital camera. But the real draw is the clubs' generous return policies, which encompass everything from price drops to out-of-warranty glitches, says Jerry Grossman, the editorial director for tech education site DemystifyingDigital.com. Costco accepts electronics returns within 90 days of the purchase, three times longer than Best Buy's policy. Sam's Club permits returns of most computers within six months, with no deadline for other electronics.
Meat. When it comes to the meat at the warehouse club, think: Top-notch butcher-shop quality meets supermarket prices. "It's a home run every time," enthuses Phil Lempert, the founder of Supermarket Guru, a news site. Two fresh racks of lamb (no antibiotics, no hormones) were selling recently for $95 at Costco. The same quality and quantity of meat was $120 and $135 at iGourmet.com and Lobel's of New York, respectively.
Prescription medications. Warehouse clubs routinely charge 50% less than local pharmacy chains and may even beat the $4-a-month offerings at superstores such as Wal-Mart and Target, says Gabriel Levitt, the vice president of research for pharmacy-rating site PharmacyChecker.com.
Recently, you could buy 100 pills of generic blood-pressure medication Lisinopril (20 milligrams) and pay $9.53 at Costco or $10 at Sam's Club -- much less than Drugstore.com's $35.54. Better yet, most clubs even allow nonmembers to fill prescriptions at the pharmacy in person or online.
Designer clothing. Forget about finding the latest styles from the pages of Vogue. Most designers generate warehouse-only lines. The rare piece from mainstream labels graced the runways years ago.
"Pricewise, it's not bad, but you'd get the same deals at a Marshalls or TJ Maxx without paying to get in," says Kathryn Finney, the founder of The Budget Fashionista, a frugal-shopping site.
Items that won't get fully used. If you end up throwing out half of that four-pound can of tuna or still have a full tube of sunscreen after the three-pack expires, you didn't get a good deal.
"If you have 10 kids, of course, you're going to be able to eat all of a warehouse food (you buy) before it goes bad," says Tawra Kellam, the editor of frugal-living site Living on a Dime. "But that's not realistic for the average family."
Frozen foods. Lempert recently scored a free frozen pizza from a neighbor, who had returned home from a warehouse club with a 12-pack that wouldn't fit in her freezer. "You will save money on frozen goods," he says, "but most people don't have room to store them." Unless you plan to eat that 115-count of Gorton's fish sticks or five-quart bucket of ice cream in one sitting, think twice before letting it take up freezer space.
Paper goods. Save your paper plate, paper towel and napkin purchases for the supermarket. "Toilet paper is extremely expensive at the warehouse club," says Mary Hunt, the founder of money management site Debt-Proof Living. At Sam's Club, a 36-pack of Charmin Ultra was $18.32, or 51 cents a roll. A 24-pack on sale for $9.99 at Safeway works out to 42 cents per roll -- and is easier to store.
Gasoline. When gas prices are falling, deals at the warehouse club pumps are great. But when prices are rising, be more cautious, warns Clayman, of Warehouse Club Focus. The same quick supply turnaround that allows clubs to pass along lower prices can backfire. Clubs may temporarily have higher prices than surrounding stations. Compare prices before you pull up to the pump.
MSNBC
May 1, 2008
By Natalie MacLean
How to thank Mom for all those kisses, compliments and band-aids? Try a great bottle of wine with Mother’s Day brunch or dinner. As a mother myself now, I call my glass of wine at 5 p.m. “Mommy’s little helper.” Here’s to you Mom!
Veuve Clicquot Non Vintage Champagne, France
(about $45)
Many of the famous Champagnes of France bear the names of the young women or “veuves” (widows) who ran these companies at the turn of the century when their husbands died in the war or due to illness. Bollinger, Pommery and Perrier-Laurent are just a few of their names, but perhaps the most famous of all is Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin of Veuve Clicquot. She was a brilliant marketer and a tough old bird when it came to negoting export deals. This bubbly has alluring aromas ripe pears and hazelnuts, with a long toasty finish.
Meaty Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/234261
Ham, Leek, and Three-Cheese Quiche
The refreshing acidity in the bubbly cuts through the rich and creamy quiche for a perfect brunch combo.
Meatless Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/238445
Asparagus with Morels and Tarragon
The effersence in the champagne matches the exuberant flavors in this juicy green, eternally spring dish.
Peter Lehmann 2007 Eden Valley Riesling, Australia
(about $16)
Peter Lehmann is not only famous for his wines, but also for the artwork on his bottle labels. Often these feature women, such as the Queen of Clubs, who represents the gamble that Lehmann and fellow winemakers took in the 1970s to establish the Australian wine industry. An art student at the University of Adelaide, Tom Buchanan, tried to capture the intensity and youthfulness of this Riesling in his portrait of the young woman on the label. The wine has vibrant floral and citrus aromas, a product of the cool climate in the Eden Valley. A fresh, clean white that’s just the way mother wanted us turned out for special occasions.
Meaty Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/104330
Riesling-Poached Trout with Thyme
It’s easy to match wine to a dish that’s been prepared with is: both share refreshing lime notes.
Meatless Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/105276
Caesar Salad with Herbed Croutons
The zesty riesling is a terrific complement to the creamy, tangy flavors of this classic salad.
Gallo Family Vineyards Sonoma Reserve 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma, California
(about $15)
Gallo’s image as a jug wine is changing quickly, not only with terrific wines such as this one, but also with a new generation of the family taking the helm. Foremost among them is winemaker Gina Gallo, who has crafted a delicious wine at a great price. Gina, who took the renowned viticulture program at UC Davis, also learned her craft from her grandfather Julio, who started the business in 1933. This full-bodied number is bursting with aromas of dark plums, blackberries and spice.
Meaty Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/109391
Roast Racks of Lamb with New Potatoes and Mint Pesto
Cabernet sauvignon is a classic match with lamb because of its complementary dark berry and mint aromas.
Meatless Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/241753
Vegetarian Cassoulet
This crunchy, rustic cassoulet needs the full-bodied black fruit flavors in the cabernet.
Terramater 2004 Zinfandel Shiraz, Maipo Valley, Chile
(about $11)
Terramater means “Mother Earth,” and this wine marries the distinctive character of Chilean soil with grapes that are more associated with California (Zinafandel) and Australia (Shiraz). As always, mother knows what works together best. This wine has delicious flavors of blackberries, spice and smoke. It reminds me of the advice my own mother used to give me: firm but warm.
Meaty Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/108679
Slow-Braised Short Ribs, Lardons, and Baby Vegetables
The Zinfandel-Shiraz combination matches the smoky sweet flavors of the ribs.
Meatless Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/108167
Grilled Pizza Margherita
Both Zinfandel and Shiraz often make for great pizza wines because they are packed with berry flavors but not the mouth-drying tannins in a cabernet.
Merry Edwards Cuvee Meredith 2005 Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, Sonoma, California
(about $60)
Merry Edwards, the winemaker and owner of this eponymous winery, is a pioneer in the California wine industry. In 1973, Edwards, whose winemaking career now spans 33 years, was one of the first women to earn a masters degree in food science with an emphasis on enology at the renowned viticulture school at U.C Davis. Her experience and training shows in this wine, which has aromas of black raspberries and blackberries. Edwards aged it in 73 percent new French oak, adding balance and structure. It should age gracefully for 15 years.
Meaty Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/102651
Salmon with Mushroom Orzo and Red Wine Sauce
Salmon and pinot noir is a classic match in both flavor and texture.
Meatless Recipe Pairing:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/235854
Truffled Red Wine Risotto with Parmesan Broth
The silky and earthy flavors in the risotto are echoed in the wine.
Napa Valley Register
July 13, 2007
By Jack Heeger
Natalie MacLean, who has written a book, “Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass,” offers a ways to spot a wine snob but admonishes that not all wine snobs are alike and has divided them into some subspecies.
The “borus nonshutuputus” who, “when nosing the wine, will scent not only the region and winery, but also what the vintner and his wife were arguing about on the day the grapes were harvested.”
There’s the “borus technotalkatus, who is similar, but uses such phrases as “carbonic masceration,” while the most frequently heard call of the “collectorosa completeca” is “I own that wine, too.”
The “healthus maniacutus” keeps “a list of various wines’ resveratrol levels in his breast pocket. He’s recalculated his expected lifespan based on his reduced risk of heart disease from drinking 1.5 glasses of wine daily.”
For complete descriptions, go to Natalie’s Web site at www.nataliemaclean.com.
(There must be a lot of wine snobs or wannabes out there. Typing “wine snob” in Google showed 873,000 sites, including one that says it will teach you how to be a wine, coffee, tea or beer snob.)
Napa Valley Register (2)
August 25, 2007
By Jack Heeger
Trying to master the terminology of Champagne is like learning an entirely new language.
What does brut mean? Is that different from brut nature? What’s the difference between Spumonte and Champagne? What do the little tiny initials on a Champagne label, like NM, mean?
Let’s take a look.
The word Champagne can be used only on sparkling wine that comes from the Champagne region in France. In 1891 the Treaty of Madrid was signed, declaring that only wines made in that region could legally be called Champagne, and this was later reaffirmed in the Treaty of Versailles. There are a few U.S. producers who use “Champagne” on their labels, because the U.S. never signed that treaty. The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, in the midst of Prohibition, and apparently lawmakers didn’t feel signing an agreement like that was necessary, thus allowing some producers to take advantage of the loophole.
As a result the wine is known elsewhere by different names. In Italy it’s Prosecco or Spumonte, in Spain it’s known as Cava, in Germany it’s called sekt, and in the U. S. we know it as sparkling wine. But inside the bottle, it’s the same basic product, although the quality range is significant. It can cost from $2 or so up to a few hundred dollars for a current release, and much more for past releases.
The French word for dry is “sec,” but if you see “sec” on a bottle of Champagne, the wine inside is likely to be on the sweeter side. Confusing?
There are many variations on the amounts of residual sugar in Champagne. “Brut nature” is the driest, with fewer than 3 grams of residual sugar per liter, and next is “extra brut” with residual sugar levels of 0 to 6 grams per liter.
“Brut,” one of the most popular styles, has less than 15 grams per liter, then comes “extra dry,” at 12 to 20 grams, “dry” or “sec” at 17 to 35 grams, “demi sec,” at 33 to 50 grams, and finally, the sweetest, “doux,” at more than 50 grams.
You’ll often see “blanc de blancs” on a label, which means the Champagne in that bottle was made entirely from chardonnay grapes, or “blanc de noirs,” indicating that it was made from either pinot noir or pinot meunier grapes, although the juice was taken from the skins very quickly. There are some “rosé” Champagnes, which can be made from all three grapes, but the color obviously comes from the reds.
Most Champagnes are non-vintage, meaning that they a blend, or “cuvee,” from wines of different vintages, usually at least three but often more. This allows the “chef du caves,” or cellarmaster and winemaker, more flexibility in choosing wines to create a consistent product. But occasionally you’ll see “vintage Champagne” on the label, which indicates all the juice came from the same harvest.
The label also contains much more information: The name of the producer and where it was made, alcoholic content, bottle volume and the type of producer. The latter can become complicated, because there are several producer types, which are identified by initials in tiny print, followed by a number which identifies the brand owner.
NM signifies it’s a Négociant Manipulant, or a firm or person who buys grapes or juice or finished wine and makes Champagne on its premises.
RM is a Récoltant Manipulant who grows grapes and produces Champagne from those grapes on its own premises.
RC is a Récoltant Coopérateur who grows grapes as part of a cooperative, then sells the wine.
CM is a Coopérative de Manipulation, a cooperative that makes wine from the grapes of its members.
SR is a Société de Recoltants, a family business that makes wine solely from grapes grown by members of the family.
ND is a Négociant Distributeur, who buys finished Champagne and labels it himself.
MA is a Marque d’Acheteur. The producer’s name appears on the label, but the brand name belongs to a restaurant, wine shop or other re-seller — in other words, a private brand.
R is a Récoltant, a grower whose grapes are made into Champagne by someone else, usually a Négociant Manipulant who then returns the bottled wine to the grower.
The bottom line, though, is to find a Champagne or sparkling wine that you like, pop the cork and enjoy it. No need for a special occasion — sparkling wine is good anytime. Natalie MacLean, a wine writer whose Web site, nataliemaclean.com, features a Food & Wine Matcher pairing guide, indicates that sparkling wine can go with just about anything — even potato chips and nachos.
Napa Valley Register (3)
February 29, 2008
By Jack Heeger
Many people rely heavily on the information on wine labels to help them in making a purchasing decision, but what if the consumer is sight-impaired?
An item on wine writer Natalie MacLean’s Web site calls attention to several producers who are using Braille on their labels to feature the winemaker, appellation, name of the wine, vintage and whether the wine is red or white.
Interestingly, none of the wineries mentioned are in the U.S.
The senses of sight, smell and taste all play a role in wine tasting, but this adds another dimension — touch.
MacLean also said that a blind winemaker in Australia has translated the Oxford Companion to Wine into Braille.
(Is this what’s meant by a “feel good” wine?)
NatalieMacLean.com
50 Ways to Keep Your Lover this Valentine’s Day
Find wines to match 50 chocolate dishes at www.NatalieMacLean.com
“Want to seduce someone this Valentine’s Day?” asks Natalie MacLean, author of Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. “Just share a glass of wine (or three) with your sweetheart.”
“Wine is liquid sensuality: Its heady bouquet stimulates the appetite and its velvet caress soothes that desire,” she observes. “What other drink is described as both ‘voluptuous’ and ‘muscular’? And when you pair wine with the mouth-coating luxury of chocolate, the combination is impossible to resist.”
The creamy flavors of chocolate go best with sweet, full-bodied, high-alcohol wines, MacLean notes. She suggests wines to complement 50 chocolate dishes in her online matching tool at www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher. Just click on “desserts” to find pairings for chocolate mud pie to chocolate cheesecake.
Natalie’s top 10 wine and chocolate matches:
1. Dark Chocolate and Banyuls, France
2. Chocolate-Covered Biscotti and Recioto Della Valpolicella, Italy
3. Chocolate-Orange Cake and Liqueur Muscat, Australia
4. Chocolate with Nuts and Tawny Port, Portugal
5. Milk Chocolate and Tokaji, Hungary
6. Bittersweet Chocolate and Amarone, Italy
7. Chocolate-Dipped Fruit and Icewine, Canada
8. Chocolate Ganache Truffles and Sauternes, France
9. Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and Framboise, California
10. Chocolate Hearts with Cream Filling and Cream Sherry, Spain
Natalie’s online food-and-wine matcher doesn’t just focus on chocolate. The interactive tool has thousands of wines to pair with any dish: meat, pasta, seafood, vegetarian fare, pizza, eggs, cheese and dessert. You simply choose the food or wine from a drop-down menu to get the pairing suggestions. There are also lots of recipes for those planning a romantic meal. The matcher is updated regularly with new dishes and wines from the 83,000-plus readers who subscribe to Natalie’s free e-newsletter, which offers tips on how to buy, cellar and serve wine.
In Red, White and Drunk All Over, Natalie discusses how to match food and wine in greater depth, including wines for a multi-course dinner. There’s also a chapter with advice on pairing wine with five challenging foods: chocolate, cheese, spicy dishes, vegetables and fast food. Got a dish or a wine to stump Natalie? Just e-mail her via her web site and she’ll suggest a match for you.
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Natalie MacLean has won four James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. Rex Pickett, author of Sideways, says that Natalie “writes about wine with a sensuous obsession,” and is “laugh-out-loud funny.” Eric Asimov of the New York Times calls Natalie’s approach “a winning formula,” describing her as “the disarming Everywoman … she loves wine, loves drinking.” And the Financial Times of London observes: “Natalie MacLean is a new force in the wine writing world—a feisty North American answer to Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson.”
NatalieMacLean.com
A little claret with your mac and cheese?
By Natalie MacLean
The nineteenth century French gastrome Anthelme Brillat-Savarin would have choked on his foie gras had he known that tipplers today drink wine with frozen dinners. Is this the beginning of the end for the fine art of food and wine pairing? Are we losing our ability to appreciate the finer things of life?
Not according to Katie Morton who launched Stouffer’s Complete Dinner Stir-Kits with wine suggestions on the package. Morton has taken on the Quixotic quest of making frozen dinners a more “exotic meal experience.” The meal line has sold well since its launch in 1998, particularly since more people are now eating frozen meals.
In fact, sales of all frozen dinners have tripled over the last six years, with 67 percent of us partaking of these frozen repasts. According to the market research firm ACNeilsen, we eat an average of 18 “centre of plate frozen units” annually (can dinner sound any less appetizing than when stated in market research terms?). The heavy users among us are chowing down on roughly one frozen dinner weekly. Such growth is not surprising considering the evolution of the frozen meal over the last 45 years; frozen no longer means bland. Making wine suggestions on the package is another step in positioning these meals as gourmet-to-go.
The most popular dishes, chicken and pasta, are also those that go well with many wines. For its chicken primavera, Stouffer’s recommends a pinot grigio or chardonnay while szechuan beef goes well with a chilled beer, an Australian shiraz or zinfandel. For seafood paella, try a chilled Spanish white Rioja wine or chilled dry rose, while gewurztraminer or beer are appropriate for both spicy shanghai chicken or thai beef.
Morton notes that the meals are aimed at aimed at couples who want an alternative to dining out. The company researched the concept with customers extensively and then worked with a consultant to develop the wine recommendations.
While some frozen meals in the U.K. also include wine suggestions on the package, Stouffer’s seems to be the only producer in Canada so far. Here are some suggestions to jazz up your mac & cheese, or whatever you may be pulling out of the freezer tonight.
NatalieMacLean.com
A Wine Snob? Pas Moi!
By Natalie MacLean
In the vestibule of my home, the other dinner guests sweep past Sebastian as he clutches his bottle of wine like a talisman to ward off evil spirits—their wines. I have to coax him to join the group in the dining room by telling him about my antique corkscrew. While he's distracted with its mechanics, I whisk his bottle into the kitchen to decant it. Later, as we sit down to dinner, he sniffs suspiciously at my stemware, holding it up to the light to check for spots. Then he clears his palate with several conversation-silencing throat noises while ceremoniously breaking the bread. Sebastian is a wine connoisseur by conviction, a snob by reputation.
We all know a wine snob, but mon Dieu, we'd never admit to being one. It's more fashionably correct to be a champion for wine democracy, waving the banner of "all you need to know about wine is what you like." Threats to snobbery close in on all sides, from books such as Wine for Dummies to wine scores that skip the tedious nuances of aroma and palate.
While wine may be only a drink, it is also one of the most complex sensory pleasures we enjoy. It is as cerebral as it is sensual, and it requires a lifetime to appreciate it. Because of this, wine is a source of insecurity—and that makes it the ideal object for snobbery.
Since wine is part of any civilized gathering, it provides exquisite opportunities for showmanship. You rarely have an opening to show off your knowledge of eighteenth-century painting or Verdi opera, but the topic of wine doesn't need a contrived segue when a bottle is placed on the table. Simply throw off a few generic descriptors, such as "audacious" or "saucy," and then move into the esoteric: "Under an initial layer of antique cigar box, I'm sensing ephemeral nuances of spring daisies and an arc of cassis and tar notes."
(That's the beauty of wine description: no one can argue with you. It's difficult to fool people about a rare stamp, which has only two dimensions and a standard sticky taste. But wine, with its insider jargon, myriad styles and multi-sensory delights, has a greater range of interpretation.)
Since wine is interwoven with history, politics, religion, geography, art, science, sociology and other fields, there's hardly any topic that can't be used to get back to talking about wine. If conversation veers away to current events, get it back on course by referring to the Australian wine scandal involving silver nitrate. If someone mentions buying land, launch into a discussion of terroir. Even the weather can be a springboard: talk about the devastating rains during the 1974 harvest in Alsace that lowered grape sugar levels. (Penitential silence should follow this remark.)
Such encyclopedic knowledge requires years of reading, tasting and travel. Why bother? Well, start with wine itself. Beyond being a sensual pleasure, drinking is a five-senses, full-brain exercise (that is, until it becomes a foggy-brained exercise). Eighty per cent of its character is in the aroma; and smell is the only sense that conveys information directly to the brain, connecting to the areas responsible for memory and emotion.
The complexity of wine is also an exercise in memory. Take all the wine-producing countries from both the New and Old Worlds. Layer the sub-regions, appellations and quality designations onto thousands of wineries and châteaux, each of which has different winemaking methods that vary according to climate every year. Throw in hundreds of grapes, blends and styles, including red, white, rosé, sparkling, fortified, botrytized, late harvest, icewine and others. Don't forget the chemistry of aging wine, the art of matching it with food, the anthropology of its role in civilization, and the history of the great châteaux that are thousands of years old. Mastering such a subject is as rewarding as it is difficult.
Indeed, unless you were part of the wine trade, such mastery was nearly impossible twenty-five years ago. Magazines such as The Wine Spectator didn't exist and the Internet was not yet widely available as a source of information. Today, not only are there dozens of wine magazines, books and web sites, but travel is also cheaper, so you can visit those foreign wineries, not just read about them. (The real coup is dropping the first names of famous vintners with whom you shared a bottle—embroidering the story as you retell it, of course.)
The fruit of such knowledge is deeper enjoyment. Wine can be enjoyed on a hedonistic level, but as a product of the vine grower's science and the winemaker's art. For snobs, ordering a "glass of wine" in a restaurant is as déclassé as asking for a "plate of food." Most of us want to know what the dish is, how it's prepared and what sauces are used. Similarly, the difference between a wine grown on the south or north face of a vineyard slope is as great as the difference between a steak that's rare and one that's well done.
Most importantly, mastery of wine lore will make you appear to be to the manor born—even if you're from Cowpoke Corners. Like appreciation of the arts, horses and antique cars, wine appreciation has the distinct aroma of Old Money under a patina of The Right Schools. For centuries, the elite have used wine snobbery to separate themselves from everyone else. The aristocrats of the eighteenth century sipped the fine wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, while peasants swigged plonk by the hogshead.
Even among fine wines, there's always been a caste system, with first-growths and premium crus outclassing less noble growths. When Napoleon III ordered the ranking of Bordeaux wines at the 1855 World Fair in Paris, it was done according to price rather than quality—even though the two were not necessarily synonymous. Since then, various waves of nouveaux riches—from Bay Street bankers to high-tech flyers—have turned to "label drinking." If you have instant wealth, you need instant culture; and wine has long been the first-reach substitute for self-esteem and social grace.
The next time I met Sebastian we dined at a fine French restaurant, where I have a ringside seat to watch him in verbal hand-to-hand combat with the sommelier. (That's how snobs recertify their black belts.) Sebastian was in fine fighting form: after tasting the first $225 bottle, he looked as though he'd just sipped paint thinner. The wine steward eyed Sebastian suspiciously, fingering his tastevin like a Colt .44. Sebastian swatted the bottle away like a bad odour. The sommelier huffed his way back to the cellar to fetch another sacrificial offering. In all, Sebastian refused just over $500 worth of wine that night, before settling on a "whimsical little wine that he should have offered in the first place."
What distinguishes the true snob from the wafflers who call themselves connoisseurs is attitude. Connoisseurs will try new wines from new regions; snobs are convinced that only traditional châteaux can make fine wine. Connoisseurs dare not opine on areas outside their expertise, snobs know that intense conviction is sufficient, and factual support merely incidental. Connoisseurs may open a bottle of wine in the kitchen; but snobs never miss the spectacle of decanting in front of guests. Connoisseurs judge wine based on what's in the glass; snobs go by what's on the label.
The last time I saw Sebastian, we were at a friend's home. A guest turned to him and said, "I hear you know a lot about wine." Sebastian smiled with benevolent condescension, ready to help a novice learn at the foot of the master. "How is wine brewed?" the young acolyte asked. Splinters of suffering darted down Sebastian's face: it was as if he had just felt the ancient suffering of his ancestor's ghost—a feudal baron two hundred years ago, who had been forced to dine with one of his serfs.
Sidebar: Spotting the Wine Snob
The wine snob is a rare bird. His natural habitat is marked with mature Bordeaux and Burgundy. He is best approached from a distance, lest you disturb his decanting ritual. Note the way he holds his glass at the base while swirling the wine to the top rim. See how he displays his verbal plumage in the presence of cult cabernet.
Not all wine snobs are alike; there are several subspecies. Consider borus nonshutuputus. After listening to the dinner conversation for a few minutes, he will establish territory by contradicting the next-most-knowledgeable person present. When nosing the wine, he will scent not only the region and winery, but also what the vintner and his wife were arguing about on the day the grapes were harvested.
Borus technotalkatus is a related species, but note the difference in vocabulary. Just as mating calls distinguish many bird species, technotalkatus emits at regular intervals sounds such as "malolactic fermentation," "carbonic masceration" and "light carbonation."
Collectorosa completeca owns every great bottle from every great vintage. His most frequently heard call is, "I own that wine too." Any reference to France will cause him to pounce on the opportunity of telling his château story, including the nickname of the winemaker. Do not get excited if you're invited to his home: his wines are purely for display, and will not be consumed in his lifetime.
Finally there's healthus maniacutus, who doesn't necessarily like wine but takes it as medicine. Instead of a vintage chart, he keeps a list of various wines' resveratrol levels in his breast pocket. He's recalculated his expected lifespan based on his reduced risk of heart disease from drinking 1.5 glasses of wine daily. His favourite book is The French Paradox.
If you suddenly encounter any of these wine snobs at close range, retreat slowly to the beer cooler—they will not follow you there. Regroup and go in again with a few all-purpose adjectives such as "backward," "meaty" and "barnyard"; and some bon mots that hint at your world citizenship, such as "formidable" and "pas mal." (Be sure to say them with the right amount of nonchalance.) Let your listeners know that it causes you great personal pain to drink white zinfandel, the equivalent of an industrial pre-mix solution.
Much status can be gained from referring to your palate as though it were a protected archeological site—distinguishing between the forward, middle and back grids. This seriousness should be carried over to the restaurant wine list, which you can analyze like a Talmudic scholar poring over the sacred texts.
But be kind. Wine snobs are not only rare birds, they are also an endangered species. They are aesthetically assaulted by bladder boxes; systematically shocked by provincials who know nothing about terroir. Increasingly, they stay in their lair rather than venturing out into the open fields of social groupings, where they have become an easy target.
NatalieMacLean.com
A Remembrance of Things Repast
By Natalie MacLean
Breakfast in a gulp, lunch on the go and dinner on the run. Life in the fast lane seems to have bypassed the slow, ancient pleasures of the table. However, an aimable group of gastromes hopes to put an end to our nuke-it-and-eat-it culture.
With a charming chiocciolina (small snail) as its mascot and a philosophy that advocates the defence of pleasure, Slow Food, an international organization with 30,000 members in 35 countries is helping members rediscover the flavours of regional cooking and fresh local produce. The group believes that small doses of sensual pleasure preserve us from the fast and frozen food, the enemies of contemplative cuisine.
In a society that fuels our frenzy with food, what is the appeal of slowing down? Think back to memorable meals you’ve had in the past. Most likely, they were leisurely affairs with friends and family gathered around the table discussing events of the day while savoring each of the dishes. It’s that sensual spirit that members of Slow Food are trying to reawaken. In addition to slowing down, they also believe in eating traditional food and wine.
A project called the Ark of Taste names foods that are in danger of disappearing from our table such as Macedonian yogurt, Scandinavian lamb, centuries-old orange trees in Nice, red-violet skinned peaches from Provenance and Californian zinfandel vines, among others. The group also hopes to preserve artisanal food preparation by sustaining demand for these products. Without this effort, the group foresees the homogenization of foods, citing the example that at the turn of the century, there were 30,000 varieties of rice in India. Now, there are only 12.
Several trends point to the promise of the movement in North America including the emergence of microbreweries in a market long dominated by a few beer monoliths. Small wineries are also experiencing unprecedented popularity. The “cult cabs” of California such as Grace Family, Screaming Eagle and David Bruce together produce what would likely fit on one of Gallo’s delivery trucks, yet they cannot meet demand for their wines, despite stratospheric prices.
But isn’t trying to get people to spend hours preparing homecooked meals naively out of step with our time-crunched culture? There’s a trendy answer to that too: the personal chef. A personal chef may cook for ten families, depending on the size of the business. After an initial meeting to determine dietary preferences, a personal chef usually visits each family’s house every two weeks and spends the day buying the groceries, preparing the meals, labeling them for the freezer, cleaning up and setting the table.
So instead of wondering up and down the grocery aisles at 6 pm with a glazed look of hunger as you try to figure out what to cook for dinner, imagine walking into your home to the heady aroma of herb chicken and butternut squash. Your personal chef has been here today so you sneak upstairs, slip into your fuzzy slippers and read a chapter of the latest John Grisham novel before dinner.
When you and your family gather around the table, it is for an elegant meal that’s as fine as those in restaurants. The only difference is that you eat in the comfort and privacy of your own home without having to make reservations or wait in line for your table.
Who hires personal chefs? Professionals with children who not only have demanding careers, but also the added pressures of soccer practice, music lessons, after-school meetings. Given a choice, they’d rather spend their evenings with their kids than the cheese grater. According to Judith Madill, a professor at Carleton University, the growing popularity of personal chefs boils down to taste, convenience, healthfulness and priorities. “People are looking for strategies to cope with “role overload” – too little time for too many roles such as professional, father, wife, cook and so on.”
Recent studies reveal that Canadians’ interest in eating healthful food that tastes good is at an all-time high, but the time they have to cook is at an all-time low. In 1970, dual income families represented only 38 percent of all families in Canada and they spent 15 percent of their food dollars on meals prepared outside the home. By 1995, more than 51 percent included two wage earners and they spent 28 percent on out-of-home meals.
Fueled by these changes, a spectrum of “home replacement meals” has developed from high-end take-out meals from restaurants, delis and caterers to freshly prepared meals in boutique areas of grocery stores. According to Tracey Black, chef at the catering company MacKay Street Epicuria, 70 percent of the meals purchased from her take-home food store are for regular meals as opposed to special occasions and parties.
Madill adds that meals are tightly wound with family traditions; increasingly, people feel they regain a stronger sense of family life by sharing a home cooked meal -- even if they didn’t cook it. This ties into the heart of the slow food movement that says time spent in sharing a carefully prepared meal allows us to rediscover one of our lost rituals. While you can’t stop the clock, you can certainly unwind at the dinner table, savoring the timeless pleasures of the earth’s bounty and one another’s company.
Sidebar: A sampling of personal chefs across the country: Vancouver/Surrey: Dinner by Design 604-542-0808; Toronto: Dinner Belle 416-406-0648; Ottawa: MacKay Street Epicuria 613-745-7356
NatalieMacLean.com
A River of Wine Runs Through It
By Natalie MacLean
The trouble with moderation is that it's hard to get excited about it. Until now. After September 11, moderation seems to be rarer than a California cult cabernet. Finding the moderate and the civilized in everyday life has become all the rage.
Few things embody these values more than wine, and the food we eat with it. A river of wine flows through most of human history -- from the ancient clay jugs found buried beside the Nile to the glass of cabernet accidentally tipped over while visiting web sites about ancient Egypt. In the countries that make it, wine is part of the national customs, culture, literature, arts, religion, science, geography and trade.
As Californian vintner Robert Mondavi once noted: "Wine has been with us since the beginning of civilization. It's the temperate, civilized, sacred and romantic mealtime beverage recommended in the Bible. Wine in moderation is an integral part of our heritage, and of a gracious way of life." And it's also one of the last true things we consume. Despite all the genetic engineering of our food these days, wine remains deeply connected with the land.
The dinner table itself is a symbol of modern unity and tolerance. Throughout history, a person's position at the dinner table reflected the social hierarchy: the best seats -- and best food and wine - went to those with the most power. (In contrast, King Arthur's court stood - or sat - for equality, since the knights gathered at a round table.) Today, some of the best conversations happen at the table, and some of the most brilliant ideas are conceived there. Just as importantly, eating and drinking together helps us to understand people from other cultures through their wine and cuisine.
Wine has long been a closer companion to food than has hard liquor or beer. The high alcohol content of hard liquor overwhelms food - the reason it's often consumed on its own. (To paraphrase, "Wine is fine, but liquor is quicker.") Beer, though moderate in alcohol, has a narrower range of complementary aromas and flavours than wine.
Food and wine matching came into vogue in the late 1800s, when French dinner hosts started serving with multiple courses and tried matching each with a different wine to heighten the gastronomic experience. Classic matches such as foie gras and sauternes and Stilton and port soon emerged. Today, the fashion is to break the rules, but wine remains the best complement to food.
Matching food and wine calls into play all of the senses, one of the few activities that connects our minds to our stomachs - and livers. And in an age of passive entertainment, it's the only pleasure we truly consume. Eating and drinking is something we need to do, unlike attending the theatre, ballet or opera -- but when we infuse an animal need with camaraderie and creativity, we move from sustenance to cuisine. It becomes part of us, and we turn it into blood, bone and gesture, as Rilke would say. It reminds us of how fleeting life is -- no record of the food, wine or conversation is left, only memory.
Even the rituals of food and wine, such as the etiquette of which fork and knife to use or the passing of a decanter of port clockwise around the dinner table, require civility and a nod to those present, those who sat before us and those who will sit when we are gone. Fine food and wine enable us feel our capacity for joy and make us want to share that feeling with others. (Who can imagine scarfing down a pan-seared foie gras and a bottle of Chateau d'Yquem, alone?)
Wine is as cerebral as it is sensual: it begs for appreciation, reflection and conversation. Most of its character is in the aroma, connecting to the areas of the brain responsible for memory and emotion. Drinking wine is, therefore, a full-brain exercise (until it becomes a foggy-brained exercise).
The complexity of wine is also an exercise in memory. Take all the wine-producing countries from both Old and New Worlds. Layer the sub-regions, appellations and quality designations of thousands of wineries and châteaux, all of which have different winemaking methods that vary according to climate every year. Throw in hundreds of grape varieties, blends and styles, including red, white, rosé, sparkling, fortified, botrytized, late harvest, ice wine and others: wines to drink before, during and after the meal, wines for celebration (champagne) and for reflection (port). Then there are aspects such as the chemistry of aging wine, decanting it and matching it with food.
The complexity of wine's charms are why many of our great literary minds - Plato, Aristophanes, Baudelaire, Byron, Dickens, Joyce, Hardy, Tolstoy - have written more about wine than about any other type of alcohol. So powerfully can wine sharpen our feeling for life that we're also driven to quantify those feelings: we rate wine, but not orange juice; and we analyze the differences soil and climate make to wine, but no one cares where the cabbage was grown.
That complexity makes some people distain those so-called experts, "wine snobs." True, some wine lovers have an unfortunately low emotional intelligence quotient. And yet we don't dislike those who know a lot about fly fishing, for example -- we call them enthusiasts, not snobs.
But pleasure became the shadow of safety, pushed to the back of our minds when we watched the fire fighters and volunteers work their way through the rubble of the World Trade Centre Towers. In fact, September 11 caused many people re-evaluate what was important in their lives -- and what was not. And many in the hospitality industry wondered if their work still had meaning. After all, weren't wine and food now trivial?
But wine and food remain an important expression of western culture. Making wine is a western industry; drinking wine, a western habit. For instance, not one of the countries that America considers a sponsor of terrorism produces wine. Iran doesn't, and nor do Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Cuba and the Sudan. Nor do the countries where UN peacekeeping forces are stationed, such as central Africa and the Western Sahara.
So are only countries that make and drink wine civilized? Certainly not. Some don't produce wine because their climate isn't suitable, and others don't because their religious convictions don't allow it. And although practising Muslims don't drink wine because the Koran considers it a "satanic device," the devout are rewarded with it in the afterlife: in paradise there are "rivers of wine, a delight to those who drink." In fact, it's believed that Muslim alchemists first developed the technique of distillation, and later taught it to Spanish explorers. The techniques were preserved in monasteries through the Middle Ages, like much of Europe's literature and culture from that time.
But the first known civilizing influence of wine goes back to the third millennium BCE: the Sumerian epic poem Gilgamesh tells of Enkidu, a wild man, who became civilized when a temple whore gave him wine to drink. The god of wine -- Dionysus for the Greeks and Bacchus for the Romans -- was also part of ancient myth. Dionysus, like Christ, was said to be the son of an immortal god (Zeus) and a human woman (Semele); and he, Bacchus and Christ are all symbolized by the vine, which dies each winter and is reborn the next spring. In fact, in the bible Christ says "I am the true vine."
Wine's ability to civilize as well as its high price have also made it the drink of power, from the Egyptian pharaohs to European royalty. (Traditionally, peasants drank beer and hard liquor - and even today, if politicians want to portray themselves as "of the people," they share a pint in a pub with working stiffs rather than sipping an aristocratic glass of wine.)
In the New World, European explorers used hard liquor to colonize the new land instead of sharing wine to civilize it. (The name Manhattan comes from the Indian word manahactanienk meaning island of general intoxication.) Later, Thomas Jefferson -- who cultivated French vines at his Virginia home -- hoped that wine, the drink of moderation, would replace whiskey as the preferred drink of America. He commented that: "No nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage." The advocates of Prohibition ignored that wisdom to their eventual detriment a hundred years later, when they dumped wine into the same category as all demon drink.
And consider the most famous winemaking country, France, and the surprisingly important role that wine played in the second World War. According to Wine and War, by Don and Petie Kladstrup, Hitler recognized the value of French wine as plunder -- even though he considered it "vulgar vinegar." (That should have been the first tip-off about the Führer's character. As food writer A.J. Liebling has noted: "No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures; and no ascetic can be considered reliably sane. Hitler was the archetype of the abstemious man. When the other Germans saw him drink water in the beer hall they should have known that this man was not to be trusted.")
After their invasion, German "wine merchants in uniform" (or Weinführers , as the French called them) went out to the French wine regions to buy wine at arbitrarily low prices, and then sold it at a premium on the international market to fund the Third Reich's war machine. But many French winemakers resisted occupation by hiding their greatest wines in their cellars. At Domaine Drouhin, for example, the proprietor's eight-year-old son collected spiders to spin webs in front of the fake cellar wall his father had built to hide the good stuff. And Parisian carpet-cleaners donated the dust from beating rugs to restaurant owners, who used it to make bottles of young wine look older for the Germans.
Many vintners mislabelled their wines, and some went a step further: one Burgundian négotiant supplied the Germans with what they thought was gin -- but was really eau-de-Santenay, a powerful purgative. In other acts of vinous insurrection, Loire grape grower Jean Monmousseaux smuggled Resistance leaders through German checkpoints in empty wine barrels. The owner of Chateau Pichon-Lalande, May-Elaine de Lencquesaing, hid two Jewish families in her labyrinthine cellar while Germans occupied the château upstairs.
There were collaborators too, though. The Bordeaux wine merchant Louis Eschenhauer increased his fortune by vigorously supporting the wine trade with the Nazis. And most vintners continued to make wine during the occupation, rather than uprooting their vines and smashing their barrels so that the Nazis couldn't profit from them - a scorched vineyard policy of sorts. But in 1939, the year World War II began, even Mother Nature seemed to join the Resistance: the vintage was terrible. (That was the wine that the French tried most to unload on the Germans.) By contrast, 1945, the year of the victory, was a spectator vintage.
What about the Germans' own wine? After the war, the country's rieslings evolved from sweet liebfraumilch (think Blue Nun and Black Tower), into drier, more elegant wines that were more food-friendly. In Italy, chianti -- whose empty bottles were best known as candle holders -- got a makeover with the rise of Super Tuscans. It was the same with South Africa: after apartheid was abolished, its wines leapt forward in quality. And since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Hungarian and Romanian wines have also become increasingly well made.
Drinking wine for world peace is the sort of theory that comes from - well, drinking too much wine. But supporting our own hospitality industry - whether as a sommelier, a patron or even a wine writer -- has never been more important. Our wine and food culture is still as meaningful as ever: those in the industry are still the bearers of culture and comfort.
As well, wine is a vital part of the economy of any country that produces it, earning billions of dollars in revenue. The industry employs tens of thousands of skilled people, who work in wineries, restaurants and marketing companies as well as in spin-off businesses such as travel and recreation. Even when the economy shifts, the alcohol business is usually one of the least volatile: we drink in good times to celebrate; we drink in bad times to console.
But the bad times after September 11 were different from previous conflicts and recessions. First, there was the "CNN effect": people cocooning in front of their TVs to watch non-stop coverage. That translated to less dining out and more drinking at home: in New York City, retail liquor sales in the final months of 2001 were up 12% over the previous year. And in California, alcohol sales in grocery stores surpassed those in restaurants for the first time in ten years.
White-tablecloth restaurants that cater to business people and tourists are still suffering. But local neighbourhood places that serve comfort food - modestly-priced restaurants and pubs -- are busier than ever. Demographers say that people are staying longer at these places, and ordering stiffer drinks.
Is that a good thing, though? Columbia University's Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse found that four large U.S. cities, including New York, experienced a substantially increased demand for alcohol and drug treatment. Nationally, treatment admissions increased ten to twelve per cent. The Centre is tracking these trends to see if the current surge in drinking will follow the pattern of Oklahoma City, where studies showed that three times as many residents as before required treatment after the 1995 bombing of the federal building there.
The second factor that makes this downturn different from others is the new fear of travel. When people stopped flying in the weeks after the attack, they also stopped travelling to winery tasting rooms. California owners report that sales are now returning to normal - but from visitors within a three-hour drive, rather than from foreign tourists. This hurts small boutique wineries the most, since they depend largely on selling to customers who can't buy their wines at home. Wineries that depend on duty-free sales are feeling the pain too, and not just because fewer people are flying. Drinkers who still travel are reluctant to put wine bottles in their checked luggage, for fear of breakage - but U.S. airlines won't let them take bottles in their carry-on bags any more. So they just don't buy.
Tighter border security is also an issue for Californian winemakers, who often depend on undocumented labourers from Mexico to pick the grapes: some industry analysts estimate that these workers comprise as much as half the workforce. Since few American labourers are willing to tackle such gruelling work, a shortage of Mexicans could cause a dramatic rise in the price of Californian wine.
But the greatest loss for the North American hospitality industry, in both business and human terms, was one of America's most prestigious restaurants -- Windows on the World, situated at the top of the World Trade Center. This restaurant had a cellar of 50,000 bottles, sold more wine than any other in the United States, and its school educated some 15,000 people in wine appreciation.
I remember dining there back in 1999, and can still recall that soaring feeling, looking out at the city sprawled out beneath me in all its light-beaded splendour. For three hours, I was no longer an unsophisticated girl from Canada - I was New York. I drank glassfuls of Château d'Yquem, Latour, Lafite, Margaux and Haut-Brion, all in the same tasting flight -- the generous sommelier kept topping me up. Dining there was one of the high points in my life, an experience I thought I'd remember forever. And now I know I shall never forget.
On the morning of September 11, Michael Lomonaco, the restaurant's executive chef, stopped off briefly in the lobby instead of taking the elevator straight up to his office -- a few minutes' delay that saved his life. But 73 employees, including two sommeliers, were killed. Also dead were those who worked in the cafeterias and food concessions on the less-glamorous concourse level. These workers, often immigrants, only earned $10 per hour -- but many were the sole means of support for their families.
That's why the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund was established: to provide aid to more than 120 families of the victims, including some 110 dependent children. The Napa Valley Vintners Association pledged $250,000 to this fund; and on October 11, participating restaurants around the world donated 10% of that evening's sales.
Of course, the hospitality industry doesn't have a monopoly on being humane. But it does highlight the fact that wine can teach us important human values. For instance, making wine teaches us to invest in excellence. Vintners pay a premium to buy the best vineyard land so that they can plant on the slope that gets the most sunshine. And they use expensive oak barrels for more nuanced aromas, rather than just tossing in wood chips.
Secondly, making wine teaches us to be patient. Vintners must wait at least seven years before their vines produce mature fruit, and then they have to allow the wine to age in the bottle for several years. They can't rush it to market, and they can't double production by adding more line workers.
Thirdly, wine teaches us to be selective. Vintners prune the vines as they mature, so that by harvest time the remaining grapes are fewer but more concentrated. And when Mother Nature doesn't cooperate, they bottle the wine under a less prestigious label -- rather than dilute a good name.
Every step in the process of making wine is a move towards excellence, and each decision reflects the vintner's willingness not to sacrifice quality for profit. (You can't dress up a bad wine as a good one -- no matter what cute little furry creature you put on the label.)
Fine wine asks us to be more demanding of ourselves: to learn about a subject that is as cerebral as it is sensual, and to share that knowledge with confidence rather than arrogance. As the British poet Thomas Chatterton once said, "What is war and all its joys? Useless mischief, empty noise. What are arms and trophies won? Spangles glittering in the sun. Rosy Bacchus, give me wine -- happiness is only thine!"
Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund
The Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund is a charitable organization, formed to provide aid, funds, health insurance and future scholarships to the families of the victims of the World Trade Center tragedy who worked in the food, beverage and hospitality professions throughout the entire complex. To make a donation, contact: Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund, c/o Berdon LLP, 360 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Tel: 212-893-3710, fax: 212-893-4367 or visit the web site: http://www.windowsofhope.org
NatalieMacLean.com
A Delicate Balance
By Natalie MacLean
Dinner with wine used to be simple. The rule was white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat. But most of us don’t just eat meat and potatoes or drink claret and chablis these days.
With modern fusion cuisine and wines from new regions around the world, the choices – and confusion – are great. One new school of thought is that any wine goes with any dish. However, most of us don’t put ketchup on our ice cream for the same reason as we don’t drink a delicate white wine with a hearty meat dish or a powerful red wine with sole – they are mismatched flavors and textures.
When the marriage of food and wine works well, each enhances the other, making the meal greater than if you had consumed them separately. That’s why the following classic matches have survived the changes in food fashion: stilton with port, foie gras with sauternes, boeuf bourguignon with Burgundian pinot noir and goat cheese with sauvignon blanc.
It helps to start with the basic principles of food and wine pairing as they still provide a basis for experimenting with new world cuisine. One of the most important elements to harmonize between wine and food is flavor. For example, a tangy tomato-based pasta sauce requires a wine with comparable acidity. Without this balance between the acidity of the dish and the wine, the partner with lower acidity tastes flabby and dull, while the other, too tart.
To find an acidic wine, you can chose one that is made in the same area as the food. Years of matching the regional cuisine and wine as well as similar soil and climatic conditions make this a safe bet. For example, you could pair a tomato sauce fettuccine with a Tuscan chianti. Or you can select a wine from a cool climate where the grapes don’t ripen to great sweetness, and maintain their tart, tangy edge. Crisp New Zealand sauvignon blancs and French chablis serve these dishes well.
Acidic wines also work well with salty dishes. For example, oysters are both salty and briny with an oily mouth-coating texture that can smoother most wines. However, a sparkling wine from California, a Spanish cava or French champagne can both refresh and cleanse your palate when eating fish. Bubblies also work well with spicy foods. Hot spice in Asian, Thai, curry and chili pepper dishes can numb the palate. Many of these foods also have high acidity from citrus ingredients such as lime juice as well as sweetness. Therefore, you need a wine with an acidic backbone as well as a touch of sweetness such as an off-dry California sparkling wine with lots of fruit.
While off-dry, acidic wines go well with many dishes, the two most difficult wines to pair with food are also the two most popular: chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. New World chardonnays can be oaky, buttery, flavorful wines that overwhelm many dishes. But you can still enjoy chardonnay with your meal. Pair it with butter and cream sauces to marry similar textures and flavors.
Conversely, cabernet sauvignons can have bitter dark fruit flavours with mouth drying tannins (the same sensation you get from drinking well-brewed tea). Therefore, they find their happiest match in foods with juicy proteins such as a rare steak. The protein softens the tannin making the wine taste smooth and fruity. Steaks done with crushed black peppercorns sensitize your taste-buds, making the wine taste even more fruity and robust. However, the way in which the dish is prepared also has an impact. A well-done steak, for example, may taste too dry with a tannic cabernet.
Proteins are also at work with the marriage of wine and cheese, the cocktail classic. Red wines tend to go better with hard cheeses such as blue cheese as they can accommodate more tannins. However, whites suit soft cheeses such as brie and camembert as the creamier textures require more acidity for balance.
Game birds such quail, pheasant, turkey, duck, squab and guinea hen have earthy flavors that are more robust than chicken. Wild game often goes better with racy red wines that have a gamy quality to them, the classic being Burgundian pinot noir. The flavors of pinot noir -- plum, cherry, mushrooms, earth and even barnyard (that’s a positive adjective) – accentuate the same gamy flavors in the food. Other wine options for game birds include Spanish rioja, Oregon pinot noir and lighter-style Rhône Valley wines such as Côte-Rôtie.
When it comes to barbecued and grilled dishes, go for robust reds, such as shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and barolo. Argentine malbec is the Ultimate Summer Barbecue Wine. With it's fleshy black fruit, dark spices and smoky notes, malbec muscles in beautifully beside most grilled fare: it's a sizzling combination.
One of the most challenging flavors to balance is sweetness. Dishes with a touch of sweetness such as glazed pork do well with off-dry wines such as riesling and chenin blanc. However, rich desserts such as chocolate and crème brulée demand a wine that is sweeter than the dessert, or the wine will taste thin, even bitter. Sweet wines such as sauternes, Canadian icewine, late harvest wines and port will work not only for their sweetness but also for their unctuous texture.
Pair food with wine with my easy-to-use online tool. Search by wine if you're looking for meal inspirations or search by food to find great wine suggestions. In my new book, Red, White and Drunk All Over, I explore food and wine matching in more depth.
Your best source of food and wine matching is your own palate. Experiment with different combinations to discover not only what makes a perfect pairing for you, but also to broaden your range of possibilities. As the author Alexis Lichine observed, “There is no substitute for pulling corks.”
SIDEBARS
WHITE WINE AND FOOD MATCHES
Chardonnay: seafood with butter sauce, chicken, pasta with cream sauce, veal, turkey, ham, Emmenthal, Gruyeres, Port-Salut
Riesling: mild cheese, clams, mussels, Asian dishes, sashimi, ham, pork, lobster Newberg, Tandoori chicken, Coquilles St Jacques
Sauvignon Blanc: oysters, grilled or poached salmon, seafood salad, Irish stew, ham, chevre, goat cheese and strongly flavored cheeses, asparagus quiche
Gewurztraminer: spicy dishes, Thai food, curry, smoked salmon, pork and sauerkraut, Muenster, spiced/peppered cheeses, onion tart
RED WINE AND FOOD MATCHES
Cabernet Sauvignon: duck, spicy beef, pate, rabbit, roasts, spicy poultry, cheddar, blue cheese, sausage, kidneys
Pinot Noir: braised chicken, cold duck, rabbit, charcuterie, partridge, roasted turkey, roasted beef, lamb, veal, truffles, Gruyeres
Merlot: braised chicken, cold duck, roasted turkey, roasted beef, lamb, veal, stew, liver, venison, meat casseroles
Shiraz: braised chicken, chili, goose, meat stew, peppercorn steak, barbequed meat, spicy meats, garlic casserole, ratatouille
NatalieMacLean.com
“No other holiday celebrates the gift of wine like Thanksgiving,” says Natalie MacLean, author of the bestselling book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass. “Wine is a taste of the harvest along with all the delicious dishes on the table. But actually choosing a bottle can feel like a thankless task, especially with so many flavors to match.”
Relax. Have a drink. And try some of Natalie’s suggestions for great wines to pair with Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings. In Red, White and Drunk All Over, which has just been published in paperback, Natalie discusses wine and food pairing for Thanksgiving dinner. A new chapter in the book also addresses the five toughest matches for wine: vegetables, spicy dishes, chocolate, cheese, and fast food.
Natalie’s free online matching tool at www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher complements her in-depth discussion in the book by allowing you to click on “turkey holiday dinner” to find wines that accompany all kinds of dishes, from roast turkey to turducken, from creamed corn to pecan pie.
Natalie also offers five quick tips for choosing a terrific Thanksgiving wine:
1. Start with bubbly. Sparkling wine is a great aperitif to sip while you wait for the turkey to finish cooking. It adds a celebratory note to the meal and goes well with starters like soup and salad.
2. Consider the turkey. Unlike most poultry and game birds, turkey meat is very dry in texture. So you need a mouth-watering wine to complement it. Good options are crisp whites like riesling and pinot grigio. And yes you can drink red wine with white meat: pinot noir, beaujolais and zinfandel all have juicy, berry-ripe flavors that go well with turkey.
3. Look beyond the bird. The range of side dishes means that you don’t have to match your wine just to the turkey. Since Thanksgiving dinner is often a banquet-style meal, with everyone choosing the trimmings, why not do the same with your wines? Offer both red and white, and possibly more than one depending on the size of your group.
4. Complement or contrast. A big, buttery chardonnay from California or Chile can complement the roasted, smoky flavors of squash, chestnuts and pecan stuffing. But if you’d rather have a contrast to the richness of cream sauces and dressings, try a crisp New Zealand sauvignon blanc.
5. End on a sweet note. If anyone still has room left when it’s time for pumpkin or pecan pie, offer a late harvest wine or icewine. If you’re a chocolate fan, try serving a liqueur with complementary flavors such as raspberry or blackcurrant.
Natalie’s online wine matching tool isn’t just about Thanksgiving dinner: it allows you to pair wine with other seasonal fall produce, game meats, pizza, egg dishes, TV dinners, breads and desserts. Visitors simply search by wine for meal inspirations or by food to find great wine choices. The site has more than 364,000 food and wine combinations, as well as thousands of recipes for those planning holiday parties and Christmas turkey dinner.
The matching tool is updated regularly, as Natalie responds to her readers’ suggestions for more dishes and wines. Many of these suggestions come from the 78,000 subscribers to her free e-newsletter, Nat Decants, which offers tips on how to buy, cellar and serve wine. Got a dish or a wine to stump Natalie? E-mail her via the web site and she’ll suggest a match for you. Happy Thanksgiving!
Natalie MacLean has won four James Beard Journalism Awards, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award; and she was named the World’s Best Drink Writer at the World Food Media Awards. Rex Pickett, author of Sideways, says that Natalie “writes about wine with a sensuous obsession” and is “often laugh-out-loud funny.” Eric Asimov of The New York Times notes, “Ms. MacLean is the disarming Everywoman … she loves wine, loves drinking … a winning formula.” The Financial Times observes: “Natalie MacLean is a new force in the wine writing world—a feisty North American answer to Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson.”
Note: High-resolution and web-friendly screen shots of the book and online matcher are available at www.nataliemaclean.com/book/highres.asp.
NatalieMacLean.com
By Natalie MacLean
Corked doesn’t refer to bits of cork floating in your wine glass. Natural corks, made from the bark of cork trees grown in Spain and Portugal, can contain a chemical compound called “2, 4, 6 trichloranisole” or TCA. The wine interacts with TCA to create the taint and it’s estimated that 5-10% of natural corks are faulty this way, though that's improving with more careful practices and better technology. Even a mild case of taint from natural corks strips wine of its expressive aromas and a severe one makes it smell like moldy cardboard. This defect is why screwcaps are coming into vogue: you bypass this issue altogether.
NatalieMacLean.com
By Natalie MacLean
What does it mean to decant wine and how do you do it?
Pouring wine from its bottle into some other container: a carafe, a decanter, even a water jug.
Why decant wine?
Wines are decanted to get rid of sediment, the organic matter that naturally precipitates from the wine as it matures. The wines that throw the most sediment are mature, full-bodied red wines and vintage port. The second reason to decant is to let the wine breathe so that it helps to warm up a wine that’s too cold, soften any harsh tannins and open up its aromatics. This is especially true of rough-and-not-ready reds, particularly young, full-bodied ones: cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, brunello, barolo, bordeaux, rioja, shiraz, syrah and Northern Rhone wines.
Should some wines not be decanted?
Even decanting hardliners admit that some wines just aren’t made for airing out. Delicate red wines, such as pinot noir, aren’t usually decanted because their subtle aromas can quickly dissipate. The same goes for zesty whites, such as rieslings and sauvignon blanc: they can lose their crisp, refreshing edge. Others are borderline: full-bodied whites, such as oaky chardonnays and some sweet wines, may benefit from decanting, depending on the style you like.
Which types of decanters are best?
You need a decanter large enough to hold the contents of a standard bottle, with some room at the top to allow the wine to breathe. Decanters that maximize the wine-to-air surface ratio are best for young wines, while those with narrow necks that reduce air exposure are better for older wines that just need their sediment removed. For a comprehensive list of retailers that sell decanters, glassware and other wine accessories, please click here.
NatalieMacLean.com
By Natalie MacLean
How long do wines keep once opened?
The answer is a highly subjective, according to both the wine and the drinker. Generally, dry white wines have the shortest life once opened. I find they lose their character after even one or two days, especially cheaply-made, oaky New World whites. (Whites with good acidity and lots of character from Burgundy are an exception.) For reds, I think that most start to slip after two days, though again it depends on how well the wine was made. There are always exceptions.
Sweet and fortified wines, such as icewine, port and sherry, have a longer life because of their higher sweetness and/or alcohol, both of which act as a preservative. I still like most opened icewines after three to four days; ports from one week to four, depending on their quality. You can extend the life of any opened wine by giving it a few squirts of liquid nitrogen, such as Wine Preserver, a spray can sold in many liquor and wine accessory stores. Another trick is to pour your remaining wine into a clean, empty half bottle size and cork it. This also minimizes the amount of oxygen that can affect the wine. Some drinkers don't mind a wine that's still 60-80% there in terms of its character; others want the full expression or nothing. I tend to err on the latter side of the ledger.
National Post
November 14, 2009
By Amy Rosen
Pretty in pink is a common theme. As are images of stilettos, vamp red lips, long limbs and sexy cocktail parties. In a bid to corner the chick wine market while at the same time helping women overcome their supposed fear of buying wine, wineries around the globe are tarting up their labels with a wink towards debaucherous girls' nights out - rebranding or creating new blends with names such as Strut, Bitch and Pink.
"I'm always skeptical of marketing-driven wines," says Natalie MacLean, an Ottawa wine writer who also publishes the popular e-newsletter nataliemaclean.com. "Authentic wine has its roots in the ground, not in a focus group." But with more than a million wine producers worldwide she adds, "I understand a winery's need to stand out on crowded liquor store shelves."
MacLean says that the job of a wine label - be it fluffy squirrel or a castle in the middle distance - is to get us to try the wine. Then it's up to the consumer to decide whether the wine delivers beyond the label. And in terms of this new breed of grrrl friendly vino, she finds that while some of these wines are complete plonk, "I've been pleasantly surprised by the price-quality of a few, such as Strut and Girls' Night Out."
Is she insulted by the branding? "No. It's alcoholic grape juice, for goodness sakes. I call my glass of wine at 5 p.m. ‘Mommy's Little Helper' - now there's a name for a focus group to test."
Like MacLean, Courtney Henderson, restaurant manager and sommelier at the AGO's Frank restaurant, is intrigued by how wines are marketed these days. "I understand what these brands are trying to achieve," she says, "and as a sommelier, my goal is to make wine approachable and fun and I love when producers try to accomplish this as well. But who are these labels really appealing to?" she wonders. "Are they reaching out to an appropriate demographic? More importantly, is it dumbing down women's knowledge of the topic?"
Doesn't it seem like just yesterday we were happily chug-a-lugging Farnese, Yellowtail and Fuzion? It felt good - as a nation we were finally bypassing beer and enjoying affordable, drinkable wines. Sales were on the upswing. Recognizing an opportunity, Calgary sommelier Erin Rosar put together her Wine in the Kitchen kits, which launched this year - a pink hatbox that includes all the elements for a educational at-home wine party, including a DVD walkthrough of the wine tasting experience. The kits proved so popular that Rosar, through her company WG Wines, just released her latest DVD, Bubbles 101.
Even porn stars are getting in on the hot, sweet action. Upon the debut of XXX-performer Savanna Samson's Sogno Uno, with a label depicting Samson in back-arched glory, the inimitable Robert Parker gave the 2006 release a score of 90-91 out of 100. (A score of 90 to 95 denotes "an outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character.") But Samson had an ace in the hole - a winemaker, Roberto Ciipresso, who had previously worked for the late Pope John Paul II. The porn star could now add her wine accolades to the mantle, alongside the porn industry's highest award for "best all-girl sex scene." (Admittedly, Samson's wine is likely geared towards men. And lesbians.)
As a sommelier at the Platinum Club in the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Lorie O'Sullivan says that one of her roles as a female sommelier is to educate consumers, particularly women, about wine. "It's a rare treat when I have a female guest ask me about wine and how to pick a good one," she concedes, seeing as she works at one of the most male-dominated venues in the country. O'Sullivan thinks that some women who spot these new girly bottles labelled with a grape variety they know and like and priced between the magic $10-$15 mark feel confident in their purchase. "I recently had the opportunity to taste a few of these wines," O'Sullivan says, "in particular, the 2007 Little Black Dress Merlot from California really surprised me. The wine has some structure to it: The nose had notes of cocoa and plums and the wine was smooth on the finish." So would she buy it again? "Probably not," she admits, "but if marketing this way to women encourages them to buy wine and leaves them with a thirst to learn more - then perhaps it's not a bad thing."
Maybe so. Still, I can't help but think there's a double standard going on here. After all, why aren't there any vintages being called Big Guy or Fat Bastard? Oh wait. Never mind.
National Post
June 24, 2009
By Ron Nurwisah
Updated with more lists from you, our dear readers!
We got a deluge of entries for our summer giveaway and as promised we're posting some of our favorite entries. We're hoping that some of these entries spark you to add a few more books to your summer reading list. We'll add a few more of your summer reading lists tomorrow and announce the winner of our summer grab bag. Without further ado:
Sharon made us laugh with her entry.
1. Honey I've Wrecked The Kids by Alyson Schafer
2. Red, White and Drunk All Over by Natalie Maclean
3. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (do we really need to put a link to this book? really?)
To quote her e-mail:
I feel a reading list tells you a lot about a person. I'll leave it up to you to decide what mine is saying about me.
Actually I won't leave it up to you - it's saying, this is a woman in dire need of books as she has locked herself in the closet with a bottle of wine to read a tween book about vampires in order to escape the reality of her screaming children.
Nepean This Week
November 3, 2006
By Julie Fortier
Already well known in the wine world for her online wine expert website Nat Decants (www.nataliemaclean.com) and her columns in numerous magazines, Natalie MacLean has written an international hit about her journey into the world of wine.
Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass is a funny, behind-the-scenes look at the international wine industry written in a way only MacLean can write. In her book, she travels from the vineyards of Burgundy to the trendy restaurants of California.
“I always tell people, I’m not an expert, I’m an enthusiastic amateur. I really just stumbled into it,” she explained.
Her book is gaining praise from critics from all over North America for its accessible and in-depth look into wine.
“I went to Burgundy and the Champagne region in France and these were my first experiences there not only as a wine expert, but just visiting. So I was learning as I went.
Instead of just going to the places, I tried to find the most passionate people in the wine industry and then I tried to participate by going out and helping to harvest the grapes,” MacLean said. “Most of all, it was a fun journey.”
A high tech worker by trade, MacLean found her passion for wine after she took a sommelier course and became an accredited sommelier at Algonquin College.
Eight years ago she went on maternity leave after having her son and went on to launch a website in which she discussed her favourite wines. “I wanted to keep my mind active so I decided to combine my two skills, wine appreciation and high tech,” she said.
She started by sending out free weekly e-mail newsletters, with stories and notes about her current favourite wines and got feedback from her readers. That list has grown to 53,000 subscribers in 36 countries.
“I love the interaction I have with my readers on my website. I get to learn all about what they are drinking and what they think of my articles,” said MacLean, who has 800 bottles stored in her cellar.
Then, she picked up a food magazine one day and found that it did not have any articles on wine. She sent the editor a proposal, and she now writes for other magazines.
MacLean has won more than a dozen major international awards for her writing, including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award and a World Food Media Award which named her World’s Best Drink Writer for 2003. She said the key to her writing is keeping the writer entertained without bogging them down in the snobbery that so many wine articles can fall into. “The bottom line is there is no substitute for your own palette. Have fun with it. I don’t write lists about the top 20 things you have to remember when ordering wine. That’s so intimidating,” she said.
Instead, she followed around the sommelier from the five-star Le Baccara restaurant and then acted as the sommelier herself for half the night which she said “terrified” her. Although she said she ended up spilling red wine all over the place, she learned a lot.
Next on the list for MacLean is book signings and keeping her columns and website going. She plans on writing another book, but plans to take a bit more time with the next one.
New Jersey Monthly
February 13, 2009
By Sue Guerra
Here’s my idea of a holiday: a ski trip with my family to the charming little town of Sutton, just north of the U.S. border in Quebec—and an opportunity to sample the local wines.
This annual Presidents Week ski trip is also a pilgrimage of sorts to the wonderfully quirky Auberge Agnes Horth where we reconnect with friends who are also drawn to this area, a former outpost for British loyalists that later attracted artists and free spirits.
Our hosts at the inn, Ray and Carla, offer their guests a laid back, family atmosphere and a belly full of gourmet meals including my favorite butter delivery system: freshly baked, perfectly flaky, Parisian-style croissants each morning. A favorite après-ski activity is a trip to the local cheese shop, La Rumeur Affamée.
Luckily, this French-speaking area is also a wine region with gorgeous views of frozen vineyards sprinkled across the mountainous landscape like icing on a deliciously frosted cake.
In preparation for our trip, I visited the website of Canadian sommelier and wine writer Natalie MacLean (www.nataliemaclean.com) to brush up on some Canadian wine facts. Following is one that caught my attention.
Cool climates such as Canada’s produce grapes that are naturally higher in a chemical compound known as resveratrol, the anti-oxidant found in grape skins that when consumed in wine, appears to reduce fat and cholesterol in human blood.
I’ll think about this each time I bite into a baguette smothered in the local and appropriately named cheese: La Brise des Vignerons.
New Jersey Monthly 2
February 24, 2009
By Sue Guerra
Much thought is given to pairing wines with gourmet dishes or the choicest selections of meat, fish, and poultry. But what about more plebian fare like fries and gravy?
As I headed out of town last week, sommelier and wine writer Natalie MacLean (www.nataliemaclean.com) asked for my ideas on the best wine to pair with the Quebec specialty known as poutine.
Poutine is the name given north of the border to a concoction of French fries, brown gravy, and melted cheese. Of course, back home in New Jersey, we have our own name for this artery-clogging treat: disco fries, that favorite of the late-night diner crowd. With the Tick Tock Diner and Six Brothers just minutes from my house, I won’t have to drive to Canada if I have a craving for it.
But what wine to pair with poutine? An oaky, buttery Chardonnay would work, but I would probably just grab a beer. At the end of a hard day of skiing this is the kind of comfort food (and drink) that my aching body can use.
Whatever you call it, one thing is for sure: It’ll take a lot of cold climate, resveratrol-rich wine to clear out the fat content of a single serving of fries and gravy.
New Jersey Star-Ledger
November 8, 2007
By Tricia Colianne
Thanksgiving is either the most difficult meal with which to pair wine or the easiest.
Turkey and its trimmings go with everything and nothing at the same time. It's those sides that throw everything off. From sweet candied yams to mushroomy green bean casserole to tart cranberry sauce, you really can't pin down a flavor -- or even a range of flavors -- to complement.
You have a couple of options. You can stop fretting about your wine selection and drink whatever suits you (a fine course of action, if you ask me). Or you can follow a couple of tried-and-trusted guidelines. I won't provide specific bottle suggestions because, frankly, there are so many options at so many price levels that getting into particulars seems silly.
A trusted salesperson should be able to provide that guidance. Knowing your needs and flavor preferences is the crucial thing. Here's where to start:
Sparkling:
As comfortable with turkey and gravy as it is with sweet potatoes, sparkling wine is probably the most versatile type of wine you can buy. Something with a hint of sweetness, like a prosecco or most any demi-sec, does the trick. Or go for a bubbly with the slightest bit of heft, like a cremant.
Rose:
My favorite option, rose is the ultimate in-between wine. It goes with just about anything, which is why it's often known as table wine in France. If you're thinking white zinfandel, you're on the wrong track. Rose is dry. It's fruity without that Kool-Aid finish. Look for bottles from Southern California and French regions such as Provence and Tavel.
Reds:
Simple, reds. If your instinct at Thanksgiving is to reach for a big wine because the flavors on the table are so grand, consider this: Truly powerful wines are likely to compete with your meal and add weight to an already weighty spread. Think instead of simple, fruity, light- to medium-bodied reds. Grenache and gamay are ideal grapes. A fruity pinot noir works very nicely, too. Also look for Italian Dolcetto d'Alba, as well as Cotes du Rhone and Cotes du Ventoux blends from France.
Bright whites:
You'd be hard-pressed to do better than a riesling. The best ones (a Kabinett from Germany is a good bet) are perfumed, fruity and appropriately acidic. They'll clean your palate after every sip and won't weigh down your meal.
Virtual pairing:
Want more specific suggestions? Look to the free wine-pairing Web site of accredited sommelier Natalie MacLean. MacLean, author of "Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass" provides easy answers to what wines to serve with what dishes at www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher.
The site, which is a helpful plug for MacLean's book, lets you pick the food you'll be serving from series of drop-down menus, and then gives suggestions that will pair well. Or start with the wine and get ideas on what foods would go well. You can also enter your chosen wine for MacLean's specific bottle recommendations.
The easy way:
Greet guests with a cocktail, and make it a signature cocktail you chose for the holiday.
Warm rum cider or champagne with cranberries in it are among the autumnal suggestions of Lara Shriftman and Elizabeth Harrison, party planners who design movie-worthy backdrops, gourmet food and heavenly music for the poshest, most elite Hollywood, New York and Miami parties.
Make or mix the beverage ahead of time and refrigerate (or keep warm if it's cider), so that you're not scrambling when guests arrive.
It's also not necessary to fully stock a bar for Thanksgiving. Have beer and something non-alcoholic, but limit booze to wine, champagne and vodka. Keep soda, tonic and juices on hand to mix with the vodka.
Don't forget to buy ice and fresh lemons and limes. If you don't want to spend the money on bottled water, put tap water in a pitcher on the table and add a few limes or cucumbers to give it a nice flavor.
New Jersey Star-Ledger (2)
February 5, 2008
By T.J. Foderaro
When I started out in the wine business 30 years ago, no one ever talked about drinking wine with chocolate. Wine went with beef; with chocolate, we drank coffee.
Today, pontificating about what kinds of wine -- red or white, still or sparkling -- go with what types of chocolate -- milk or dark, mousse or cake -- is a hot topic among foodies and wine geeks. (Don't get me wrong: Some of my best friends are wine geeks.)
The normally sound advice "Drink what you like" doesn't quite work with chocolate, because most wines, in fact, taste awful with chocolate.
The one wine-pairing rule you never want to forget is: If the food is sweet, the wine needs to be sweeter. Try it for yourself: The next time you have a piece of cookie or candy in your mouth, take a sip of your favorite dry table wine. Your sugar-coated palate will make the wine taste painfully bitter.
In other words, no matter how much you like chardonnay or merlot, the wine will be ruined if you try drinking it with chocolate.
The fact is, your choices for chocolate are fairly limited. After all, the vast majority of wines sold in the United States are fermented dry.
The most comprehensive list of chocolate-friendly wines I know of comes from Natalie MacLean, a popular wine expert and author of the critically acclaimed "Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass."
On her Web site (www.NatalieMacLean.com), MacLean has an interactive "Wine & Food Matcher" that allows you to choose virtually any kind of food, then suggests the right wine to go with it. Under "chocolate," MacLean has wine-pairing tips for no less than 50 confections, from ice cream to fudge to Hershey's Kisses -- no kidding.
She recommends certain wines with light chocolate mousse (muscat, Sauternes) and others for dark chocolate mousse (demi-sec champagne, vin santo). There's something for every breed of chocoholic.
For Valentine's Day, MacLean selected her Top 10 Wine and Chocolate Matches:
1. Dark chocolate with Banyuls, a red-tinted dessert wine from France's Rhone Valley.
2. Chocolate-covered biscotti with Recioto Della Valpolicella, a sweet version of Italy's classic Valpolicella, made from grapes that are allowed to dry and shrivel like raisins before they're pressed.
3. Chocolate-orange cake with Australian muscat, aka a "sticky," the Australian term for an ultra-sweet wine made from the muscat grape.
4. Chocolate and nuts with tawny port, a fortified wine from Portugal that is aged in barrel until the color turns from red to tawny.
5. Milk chocolate with Tokaji, the legendary wine of Hungary, once a favorite of the kings of Europe.
6. Bittersweet chocolate with Amarone, a super-rich red wine from Italy's Veneto reigon. (Yes, Amarone is relatively dry, but so is bittersweet chocolate.)
7. Chocolate-dipped fruit with ice wine, a sweet white made from grapes that are allowed to freeze on the vine before they're pressed.
8. Chocolate truffles with Sauternes, France's most famous dessert wine, from the Bordeaux region.
9. Chocolate raspberry cheesecake with Framboise, a sweet fruit wine made from raspberries.
10. Cream-filled chocolate hearts with cream sherry -- yes, as in Harvey's Bristol Cream.
You may have trouble locating a bottle of Banyuls or Recioto della Valpolicella at your neighborhood wine shop, but it shouldn't be hard to find a good tawny port at a reasonable price. An excellent example is Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny (about $25), which the importer, Kobrand Corp., recommends serving with chocolate-nut desserts.
Another delicious, readily available and attractively priced port is Fonseca Bin 27 ($20), which is a little deeper in color and fruitier than classic tawny. It would go perfectly with a dessert combining dark chocolate and fruit, such as chocolate decadence cake with a raspberry puree.
Keep in mind that port is a lot stronger than table wine, with nearly twice the alcohol. All you want is a 3-ounce serving, about half the normal wine pour. And don't worry about the leftovers: Tawny port, because it is fortified and aged for so many years in barrel, will still be good to drink weeks after you pop the cork.
New Jersey Star-Ledger (3)
March 8, 2008
By Claudia Perry
How do you marry cheese and wine? As with any hopeful pairing, a little counseling never hurts.
"I always think you should drink what you like and eat what you like and put them together in ways that create the most pleasure for you," says Natalie MacLean, a wine expert who wrote Red, White and Drunk All Over. "But I wouldn't have a job if I didn't give more guidelines for which wines work better with certain cheeses."
Among useful features on her website, nataliemaclean.com, is the Wine & Food Matcher, which allows you to select a food -- including more than 200 cheeses -- and get wine pairing suggestions. Say you'll be serving a French cheese such as Anneau du Vic-Bilh. Punch that in and get back two white wine suggestions: sauvignon blanc or semillon.
A good rule for matching cheese and wine is to play strength to strength, says Maggie Fox, wine buyer and wine club director for Gary's Wine and Marketplace in Madison and Bernardsville.
"You want strong wines with strong cheeses and lighter wines with lighter cheeses. If you have a smoky cheese, you want a smokier wine with it. You don't want one to overpower the other. Stay away from bigger, more tannic wines if you want to be able to taste the cheese."
Tannin is the substance that makes red wine come to life. You can gauge how much tannin is in a wine by how dry your mouth gets after you drink it. On the lighter side, the acidity that's prevalent in most white wines makes your mouth water.
MacLean also points out that the worlds of wine and cheese have much in common.
"Wine and cheese both ferment, from natural yeast or bacteria, respectively. They both result in controlled decomposition, which may not sound appetizing, but it all results in an amazing range of flavors in both products."
MacLean and Fox agree that mild cheeses like goat cheese and fresh mozzarella are among the easiest to match.
"They're light flavors, they're not going to compete with the wine," MacLean says. "They go beautifully with a light, crisp, white wine like a sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio or riesling."
MacLean has guidelines for cheese and wine pairings in her book, as well as on her website. Her favorite classic matches? Blue cheese or Stilton with port and Spanish sherry with Manchego. "They go well together," she says.
For cheese tasting, Fox suggests sparkling wine as a palate cleanser. "It's a good way to go from one cheese to another. You could also pair a sauvignon blanc with goat cheese or a nice, buttery chardonnay with a more buttery cheese."
Sweet wines and cheeses are designed to go together. "Sauterne (a flavorful dessert wine) goes well with something honeyed or nutty in flavor. Lighter white dessert wines might go better with those types of cheeses than a tawny port."
Another suggestion is to pair cheeses of a region with their neighboring wines. "Take Parmesan or Borgogna, you could pair them with Italian wines. You could do a Burgundy style or merlot if it's not too tannic," Fox says. "You could even do cabernet."
The cheese buyers at Gary's, which is slated to open another store in Wayne next month, can help with suggestions, Fox says. The catering department also can plan wine and cheese events.
Above all, Fox says, don't get too wound up about pairings. "It's all a matter of trial and error," she says. "You can try to have pairings, but people are going to walk around with whatever's in their glass and pick up what's handy. You can't force them to try their shiraz with their gouda."
New York Magazine
August 17, 2007
By Josh Ozersky
Epicurious is the Web arm of the Condé Nast food empire. Gourmet’s blog, Choptalk, has writers from all over the world. But the Epi-log blog seemed to be written by only Tanya Wenman Steel. On Monday, the malnourished Epi-log will get an actual roster of contributors, with Rick Bayless writing on chefly topics, and Melissa Clark, on cookbooks and recipes.
“We decided to create this blog party months and months ago because I wanted to enhance the blog with more voices from all over,” Steel tells us.
So who else is ready to post? Neil “Alternadad” Pollack is on the baby beat, and Red, White, and Drunk All Over author Natalie MacLean will discuss the joys of alcohol. Amy Sherman is doing metacriticism and Michael J. Park on “Food News and Gossip.”
New York Times
July 25, 2007
By Eric Asimov
Price-conscious consumers are understandably a little shy of the 2005 Burgundy vintage. Praise has been nearly unanimous, and prices have shot skyward.
While most attention has been on the reds, the whites are great, too. Still, not everybody will cheerfully drop $50 on a village-level Meursault, much less $150 for a good Corton-Charlemagne.
As ever, the Mâconnais region rides to the rescue. For decades, the Mâconnais, south of the Côte d’Or but part of Burgundy, has overflowed with inexpensive whites. The best were tangy, refreshing and satisfying. The problem was that few achieved even this modest level.
But for the last decade or two Mâconnais wines have been improving significantly. Dynamic young producers who couldn’t afford more desirable vineyard sites in Burgundy flocked to the Mâconnais, where they saw untapped potential at a reasonable price. Instead of viewing grapes as a cash crop to be transformed into wine at the local cooperative, they approach grape growing as seriously as the best Burgundian vignerons.
Even some of the most renowned Burgundy producers, like Comtes Lafon of Meursault and Anne-Claude Leflaiv