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 […]
Food & Wine Pairing
Slow Food/Personal Chefs
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 […]
Frozen Food Wines
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 […]
Food & Wine 5
Of 11 wines on the tasting table, the Col d’Orcia Rosso di Montalcino, a full-bodied, fruity Tuscan red, was Tom Natan’s top choice. Adam Manson hated it. Both have well-trained and -respected palates. Natan is a partner in the Washington-based importer and retailer First Vine. Manson is a co-owner of Veritas, a popular wine bar in Dupont Circle. But the physiological differences in their tongues, coupled with their varied experiences, mean that the same wine tastes different to each of them. To Natan, the big, juicy flavors are luscious. To Manson, they are overwhelming, even bitter. Neither one is right […]
Chocolate & Wine 3
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 […]
Food & Wine 2
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 […]
Chocolate & Wine 2
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 […]
Chocolate & Wine 5
Nearly half of Americans are expected to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a special night out. If money is no object and the finest wines are available which vintage should you select? Wine experts reveal what they will be sipping on Feb 14. Richard Brierley, the head of wine sales in the Americas for Christie’s auction house, said he could opt for Champagne. “I don’t want to be predictable and go down that Champagne route, but if I did, it would be Salon 1996. It is just exceptional, alluring, full of verve and there’s so much energy about it,” he said […]
Chocolate & Wine 6
Being a person of the male persuasion, I am sometimes told I don’t “get” chocolate. I’ll admit that I like a rich, complex truffle now and then, but I’m at a loss to understand the near-orgasmic moans some women produce when swallowing such sweet sustenance. I understand that I am not hormonally equipped to enjoy chocolate at all levels, a limitation I accept along with not being able to play the violin, dance the tango or give birth. Given such limitations, I thought this year, in producing my pre-St. Valentine’s Day wine-and-chocolates column, I’d call on several experts who could […]
Chocolate & Wine
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 […]
