The Dining Alternative

Two Saturday's ago we had the pleasure of dining at the home of Chef Peter Ungár with Richard from The Passionate Foodie and his wife. Several wine and food lovers were also in attendance including Dale Cruse, Mary Reilly, Keri of The Wine Bottega, and Jacqueline Church.

The food was absolutely stunning with more courses than you could shake a fork at. Chef Ungár presented every dish and how it was prepared in detail. Among the most unusual concoctions: A watermelon oyster gelee which served as the base for a blue point oyster topped with salmon roe; the white anchovy tempura on a tiny roasted shallot boat; and a tomato sorbet with aged balsamic and basil oil. (photo courtesy of The Dining Alternative)

It's hard to pick a favorite course because everything was so good, but I probably most enjoyed the way the kobe beef ball crunched like a cadbury mini egg (Thanks Keri for that analogy). I also particularly enjoyed the walnut mustard. If I did have to pick a favorite, it would be the braised bison shortrib with white peach compote. Oh, I almost forgot the amazing trumpet royale mushrooms in the seared tuna dish--they were an epiphany.

Sommelier Scott Weinstein, brought some killer wines to pair with our meal. Top picks for me were the Martinsancho Verdejo 2004 which had a certain understated quaffability combined with a Masamoto finish; the Wakatake "Demon Slayer" Daiginjo sake for the seared tuna and green tea soba noodles, which could only be described as a digital liquid chocolate-dipped banana; and finally the heady South African Sequillo Red 2003 of which Scott brought his last two bottles. What a guy. That was some kind of sacrifice I can assure you.

The whole evening was a treat and Taster A and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We both commented afterward that we felt like we were on an episode of Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie. It just felt like the kind of avant-garde scene they would feature. I think this may actually be the start of a new movement of gourmet in-home dining. Hey, Chef Ungár, when is Gourmet mag showing up? ;)

Being hep to the multi-media social 2.0 scene, The good people at The Dining Alternative put together this little vid showcasing the entire evening's menu. Take a peek, but try not to drool!

Wine and Community: Applications Now Being Accepted

Markham Vineyards, a pioneering Napa Valley winery with a history of community involvement, is looking for applicants for the 2009 Mark of Distinction, a program designed to empower individuals to make positive, tangible change across America. Building on its history of community involvement and the tradition that began with the program launch last year, Markham will again award $25,000 to two passionate and inspiring individuals to complete a project that makes a positive, visible impact on their community.

To enter, go to the Nominations page before June 30, and submit a proposal of no more than 300 words that describes the initiative, the rationale and inspiration. A brief budget detailing how project funds will be used must also be presented.

Beginning July 27, 10 finalists and their dream projects will be selected and posted on the Web site. The public will then vote to determine two winners, who will be awarded $25,000 each to make a lasting local change – a “Mark of Distinction” – in their communities.

$10 Tuesday: Taking the "Blah" Out of "Wine Blog"

Right, so this week I was supposed to post that $9 Côtes du Ventoux I couldn’t face last week, but…oops! Somebody drank it all. (wasn’t me!) As I recall, it smelled like Grenache and tasted like grapefruit. If I were tasting it blind, I may have guessed it was a white wine. Well, Côtes du Ventoux is known for being a light red so, I guess this one was right on the money. I have nothing to compare it to though as I have not had another Côtes du Ventoux. At any rate, this particular bottle was not really my style. It seemed surprisingly flabby with food but, apparently it was quaffable (judging by the now empty bottle).

Meanwhile, one week and two days after TasteCamp East, I think I’m almost ready to open another bottle of wine! In all honesty, I think I got in over my head going to Long Island with a bunch of professional wine tasters. Okay, okay…only half of them were actual professional wine tasters in the sense that wine tasting is listed in their job description—the other half totally could be professionals though. One thing they all have in common: They all got chops!

Yep, I was spitting [almost] everything at TasteCamp but, I think the wine was somehow soaking into my bloodstream through my cheek tissue or something (I believe I’ve heard of that kind of thing happening). Anyway, I have spent the last week+ just trying to dry out. Rest assured people: I’m pretty sure I will drink wine again. I am merely unable to venture a guess as to when. Soon, I’m sure! But, on that note, I would like to announce a change to the $10 Tuesday format.

Life's too short to drink cheap wine.

–Anonymous

…Cheap wine; bad wine; no matter how you phrase it, nobody wins from the Tasters A & B tossing the dice on a $10 bottle of wine and losing. It seems to me that there actually are a lot of pretty uninteresting wines available in the $10-and-under category and finding one that is worth mentioning is luck of the draw. Being as we don’t have the resources (or inclination) to taste through dozens of $10 wines every week in order to distill the field down to a weekly gem, $10 Tuesday will no longer be a weekly feature.

Worry not value-minded Reader: whenever we do run into a fun or interesting $10 wine, we’ll post a $10 Tuesday to let you know about it. I’m just not going to kill my liver trying to seek one out every single week. If you know of a producer or a region producing attention-worthy wines in the $10 price range, please feel free to pass your recommendations on to us. We’re always happy to find such values in wine. In the meantime, I’ve got a cellar full of 15-35 dollar wines that needs my attention. ;)

An Awesome Blogger Needs Our Support.

My friend Hardy is going for the brass ring and he needs your help! If you have 2 minutes to spare, please watch his application video and vote for him in the "A Really Goode Job" competition to fill a six month Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent contract.

Hardy is the man behind Dirty South Wine and is one of the most original, PR-savvy, creative wine bloggers I've met. I want him to get this job. I'm gonna be straight with you: I'll probably be a little jealous when he gets it but, really, I can't think of a better candidate. Won't you vote for Hardy? He's hilarious--and it's good karma!

A link to the voting is available from the "Dirty for Goode" badge on the right!

Eagerly Anticipating a Heady Blend of Wine Country and Bloggers

Ever since the Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma last fall, I've been looking forward to the next gathering of wine bloggers. It seems like the bloggers out in California get together all the time, but on the east coast, we are somewhat more isolated. Enter TasteCamp East: A Long Island wine country excursion planned by bloggers for bloggers! Actually, Lenn of LENNDEVOURS did all the work, and is already talking about accomodating more bloggers in another (bigger) TasteCamp East next year!

Of course, there is a full schedule of tastings designed to give us as much exposure as possible to a lesser known wine region. We'll be visiting the tasting rooms at Roanoke, Paumanok, Bedell, Lenz, Shinn Estate, and perhaps Wolffer Estate (time permitting). We'll also taste dozens of other wines over the course of a few meals. Perhaps it is also fitting to mention (given recent wine writer related maelstroms) that all the bloggers are paying their own way to travel to, and stay in Long Island, as well as for the majority of meals (I think there are two sponsored meals). Well... All, except Lenn who managed to finagle a TasteCamp in his own back yard. ...I kinda wish I was going on a junket... Anyway, I am SUPER PSYCHED about this thing and can't wait to see my old pals and meet some new ones. Look for some post-TasteCamp summary posts next week.

Tish's New Project

Don't miss the new collaborative "wine-style" site Dregs Report organized by W.R. Tish which launched today.

...okay, that's all--git over there! With forty odd contributors, there's lots to read!

Maple Sugar

My first experience with sugaring was when I was about five years old. My brother and I were staying with friends in West Pawlet, Vermont and we had an opportunity to tag along with the Nelson family on their farm and gather sap. Then it was done by a tractor pulling the sap wagon through the woods in the snow. The men would ride along until we reached a bush and would disperse through the bush and gather the sap and bring it to the wagon. I was too young to be hauling buckets of sap through the woods, so I was just along for the ride. I remember coming back to the farm and emptying the wagon into the storage tank and the grandfather was there by the evaporator sugaring.



That’s me, on the left, Steve B of SMU and Taster A of Smells Like Grape. That was my friend, Mr. Bussinger in the middle and my brother John on the right. It was the Spring of 1971. Mr. Bussinger has a small sugar bush, about forty taps. Back then pipe lines were a novelty and only the big producers used them. We had galvanized steel buckets, an open arch (fire box) and a three stage pan.

We would gather the sap by hand carrying it through the woods in five gallon buckets. It was a small sugar bush so that was all that was needed. This was a wonderful, magical time in Vermont. The slow drum beat of the sap hitting the bottom of a freshly emptied bucket meant that the sap was running and it was spring time.

Sugaring involves lots of labor even for a backyard operation like Mr. Bussinger’s. There is wood to split and put in, trees to be tapped, sap to be hauled and hours and hours by the evaporator, feeding the ever-hungry arch. We were out in the weather and one of the things that would keep us warm was drawing off part of the partially boiled sap and having a warm glass. The smell of wood burning and the steam coming off the pan is just heaven. There is nothing else like it.

It has been 35 years since I’ve sugared myself. Time flies by fast with high school activates followed by college, moving to California and then to Colorado and now back to Massachusetts. Something was calling to me this year, my third winter back in New England. Perhaps it was that there was so much snow with no break from the cold much like the winters of my youth in Vermont. Perhaps this awoke old patterns, triggering a need to get back to the sugar bush to smell the arch, taste the sap and just see and hear the drip-drip-drip into a galvanized steel bucket. Perhaps it would give me reassurance that the daffodils will be erupting through the decaying leaves and the tree buds will be coming soon. Perhaps I needed it more this year then ever before.

“B, I found a sugar house in North Andover and they are boiling today. You coming along?” Poor B, she never knows how to plan the weekend. We got into the car and off we went.

Our destination was Turtle Lane Maple Farm. When we arrived, we parked on the street as the website suggested and started walking to the back of the house where the sugar house is located. B wasn’t sure if we were on the right track, but this old woodchuck’s nose knows the smell of burning hardwood and the smell of sap boiling. I was off like a blood hound after a escaped prisoner.
Now I’ve heard rumors over the years of reverse osmosis systems, vacuum evaporators, and other High Tech aproaches to production. I have to set my purist, sentiment behind. Sugaring is energy intensive, even if it is a wood fired operation such as Turtle Lane. Using an RO system dramatically reduces the water content and shortens the evaporation time with less impact on the environment, and as long as the product is the same, I shouldn’t care.

Arriving in the sugar house, I felt right at home. This was definitely an top-notch operation, not only do they have a sugar house, but they have a good deal of wiz-bang doo-dads. Paul was conducting a tour, teaching a group of kids and adults all about sugaring, from the early history up to the latest techno-gadgets. But what comes through is that Paul and Kathy do enjoy the sugaring and the heritage. You don’t do this unless you love it. As I said before, sugaring is a lot of work, and it isn’t just what happens in the late winter and early spring. It's setting up the buckets and tube systems in the winter and packing wood in the summer and fall. Turtle Lane will go through 10 cords of wood. In my day, that would have been very low for their size operation. I'm sure that the RO helps.

The heart of the sugar house is the arch and the evaporator. The arch is a horrid task master, needing to be feed every ten minutes. The evaporator is monitored for temperature and sap level. The temperature of the sap is an indication of sugar content and as it reaches the sugar content of syrup, the temperature and density are closely monitored and when the conditions are right, it is drawn off to be finished under conditions that can be precisely monitored.


The value of Turtle Lane Maple Farm isn’t just the fine syrup products, but they are oriented towards education. Paul and Kathy open their sugar house to the public and provide informative talks sparing no detail about the history and technology of sugaring. We were very pleased to visit their sugar house on the first boiling day. I would imagine the syrup produced today will be “fancy” grade.



Sugaring will run all through March. Sap runs when the nights are cold and the days are warm. By April, the nights will be too warm for the sap to run. Until then, check the Turtle Lane website for their boiling schedule. If you are not near North Andover, you can do a search for “maple syrup, [state]” and you will find a link to that state’s maple producer’s association. This will help you find a sugar house to visit. Please do. There is so much to learn as this old Vermonter is happy to attest. If nothing else, you must smell this wonderful steam coming off of the evaporator!

Having your wine and drinking it too.

I decanted my wine for Open That Bottle Night at about 4pm. My sense of trepidation prior to cutting that beautiful foil was not lessened by the knowledge that we have one more bottle of Heitz Trailside in the cellar. I felt like I was about to destroy a valuable possession. How silly.

Coin collectors don't have this problem. There is no Spend That Double Eagle day. Luckily, I don't own any collectible wines. How awful it must be to have the ability to spend tens of thousands on one bottle of wine but, not to be able to drink it...

OTBN 10

This Saturday is the 10th Annual observance of Open That Bottle Night! Dorthy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, the WSJ's Tasting Columnists, first conceived of the event ten years ago to encourage people to go ahead and, that's right, 'open that bottle' rather than sitting on it waiting for that perfect day that may never come. We missed it last year so this will be our first. It's become a well-known event inspiring regional gatherings around the country.

Even Twitter Taste Live will be getting in on the action. If you're on Twitter, and haven't joined #ttl yet, take a moment to check out the TTL site and sign-up (or just tweet your tasting experiences with the hashtag #ttl at the appointed time (or thereabouts)).

I'm not sure what I'm going to open yet. I was hoping that Taster A would open a 2003 Barbaresco for the last WBW, but he didn't so now I have to decide whether to open that or a 2001 Heitz Trailside Cab. Maybe I'll make the Barbaresco the back-up bottle*. Or maybe we'll do Open THOSE BOTTLES Night...we'll see...

*Don't forget to check out Dorothy and John's OTBN tips.

Rioja Age Classifications

Here's Mark from Paul Marcus Wines talking to us about Rioja aging requirements. Extra credit for answering this question: Does "Reserva" really mean anything?

Down the Hatch

Are we coming up on Fat Tuesday? This weekend we went through the bottles we opened so fast, I'm not sure I even tasted them. They were good in a celebratory gluttony kind of way. Fortunately, the wines we drank have been reviewed in 100s of blogs already!

First up, bubbles. Cava is Spain's bottle fermented sparkling wine. We had 1+1=3 Brut. Brut is smack dab in the middle of the sugar content classifications (from zero to 15 grams of sugar per litre). We don't know exactly where this bottle falls in that wide range but, it seemed on the dry side.

According to the Wines From Spain site, good Cava shouldn't be more that 11% ABV. This bottle is 11.5% ABV which is close enough (we can round down). The color is light; hay-colored. There is very light citrus and pear on the nose and a nice mineral flavor. Extremely gulpable and the price was right at around $14.

Cava was Saturday. On Sunday we finally opened that bottle of Hahn Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 that I had to buy after I missed the Hahn Twitter Taste Live event. This is another good value at around $13.

What can I say? It tastes like a California Cab. A very nice California Cab. Other than that, with four people working the bottle, it only lived about twenty minutes after being dis-corked so I didn't have much of a chance to analyze it. Luckily, at that price, I didn't have to worry about trying to stretch it out. If I ever see Hahn on a restaurant wine list, I'll order it as long as it's under $30. I'm not going to mention the other bottle that we did order at a restaurant...they didn't have Hahn on the wine list.

Two happy grapes for two happy wines.

Beer!

I've been waiting so long to open this bottle of beer! It's Rogue Hazelnut Brown "Nectar" and I picked it up a couple of months ago after I saw the @winebratsf AKA Thea raving about Rogue on twitter or somewhere.

It took us a while to find the right setting for this beer. The thought of hazelnut beer conjured up Nutella-esque flavors which don't necessarily lend well to food pairings. Also, the patio has been off limits these five long months putting a big damper on our beer consumption.

So the beer: Was it naive of me to think it would taste like hazelnut? It doesn't. It smells like Guinness. It doesn't taste like Guinness. It's lighter--less molasses, but it still has a nice creaminess. It has the texture of a good micro-brewed cream soda.

Anyway, I like it. I would choose this over Guinness given the option because it's got all the flavor without the gloopiness. Actually, now that it's been in my glass a while, I can smell some toasty nutiness...almost hazelnut. Okay, yeah... I can see it. It's not overwhelming; not sweet. This beer will go just fine with bangers and mash, brisket, garlic fries, in other words, any kind of pub grub.

Celebrate Life Merlot fighting starvation

Here is a Press Release I received from CPR/Colangelo & Partners Public Relations today that I thought was worth sharing with you:
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MARCO FANTINEL, PRESIDENT OF FANTINEL AND 3RD GENERATION WINEMAKER, RINGS NASDAQ STOCK MARKET OPENING BELL TODAY

Marco Fantinel, President of Friuli based wine company Fantinel, presided over the opening of the NASDAQ Stock Market to commemorate the Celebrate Life campaign and recent launch of Celebrate Life Merlot.

The Celebrate Life campaign, which began in early 2008, donates 25% ($1.00) for each bottle of special edition Celebrate Life Merlot sold. "In Italy and, increasingly, around the world, enjoying wine is about sharing with family and friends," says Fantinel. "Celebrate Life Merlot was created as a means for sharing our family's good fortune as a wine producer with the world and encouraging generosity on a global scale."

The Celebrate Life campaign was conceived by Marco Fantinel, a UN Goodwill Ambassador, to support the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-Algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (IIMSAM), a UN Permanent Observer, in their fight to eradicate global malnutrition through the use of Spirulina. The sustainable, nutrient rich-algae used effectively in developing countries to combat severe malnutrition, which most commonly affects children. Contributions made by the Celebrate Life campaign directly supports the production and distribution of this vital nutrient to populations across the globe.

Ice Wine... (flowing through my mind)

I'm really relating to this vid today. Lots of commonality of experience and all that. Anyone care to translate?

Two Favorites: John Cleese & Wine

This is the opening clip from "Wine for the Confused" which features some wineries in the Santa Barbara area. He's funny.

So You Know Something About Wine...

You've managed to acquire some wine expertise without becoming a wine snob. Congratulations!Dodged that bullet! You're enthusiastic about wine and want to share that enthusiasm with your friends and family! Great! But, hold up a second bub: Are you letting your love of wine ride shotgun, while poor old manners gets shoved into the backseat? Avoiding these common pitfalls in social situations will ensure you don't go from wine enthusiast to wine bore/(boor):

1. The Analysis
You're visiting friends or family. They're not big wine drinkers but they always keep a bottle on hand. Your host pulls the Two Buck Chuck out of the fridge and pours you a glass. Here's where you need to resist the urge to start swirling, sniffing and listing off aromas in your wine. It's Two Buck Chuck--it smells like wine. Just drink it.By no means whatsoever, should you make the Oak Monster face--I don't care if there are oak shavings floating in the glass. Making a big show of analyzing the wine in your glass will not only make your host feel uncomfortable, it'll make you look like a tool. Granted, this can be one of the hardest behaviors to avoid, if like me, you routinely swirl and sniff your water glass out of sheer habit.

2. The Wine List
Let's say your parents are taking you out to dinner. What's the first thing we all do when we sit down in a restaurant? Open the wine list of course! It's very tempting to want to check out how the establishment has done on their wine list. Unless you're buying, try to resist. If you must look at the wine list, try to wait until after your host has chosen something and make your review brief and quiet. Whatever you do, don't pick up the wine list and start remarking on every wine on the list, as well as, the overall quality of the list aloud to the table. If you really can't stand it, offer to buy the wine up front so you can have free run of the wine list, but still refrain from deriding the quality of the list if it's a restaurant your hosts have chosen.

3. The Review
In the final scenario, you may be a guest or the host. The wine being poured is of a quality deserving your attention. Of course you are going to swirl and sniff, and all that fun stuff. Perhaps, even your hosts/guests may join in with you for a little name-the-aroma fun. Still, try to refrain from going into a twenty-minute sonnet about the wine. While your hosts will be pleased to hear that you enjoy the wine, they may not share your fondness for waxing poetic about wine in general. Just remember the reason you're there is to enjoy each other's company, and save the wine love-fest for a more appropriate venue like a tasting event.

In short, keep your head when that temptress wine enters the room and mind your Ps & Qs. Now go forth and quench your thirst; and use your wine powers for good!

NPR reports on trend toward less expensive wines

So far this month the big story circulating in the wine world is the falloff of higher end wine sales, and an increase in wine purchases made in grocery stores and under the $10 mark. Today, the story even makes NPR. K&L is featured along with one of their customers. Also mentioned is Bon Apetit's new Best Wines Under $10 list. We've begun reviewing $10 wine on a weekly basis here, as well, and so you can add our reviews to Bon Apetit's list.

What we've been up to

You may have noticed another long hiatus this past week on Smells Like Grape. Rest assured, we were tasting lots of wine (we just weren't blogging about it). We were deep in wildest California with no access to wifi or running water. We did manage to cobble together a short vlog with clips of our trip captured on the flipcam Santa left for us. (Okay, there was running water too--but the internet connection was in short supply.) Enjoy.

Well Wishes $2 You | Pistachio

At this festive time of year with so many libation choices, it's important to remember that in many parts of the world, children don't even have access to clean drinking water. Today on Twitter, @Pistachio is running the an interesting charity experiment:

I’d be so incredibly stoked to see 12,500 tiny donations from all over the web come together to make my Well Wishes dream come true… It just takes $2. Won’t you?Well Wishes $2 You | Pistachio, Dec 2008

I donated--it's easy. You should read the whole article.

Tasting Impaired.

more animals

Actually, I'm still too sick to taste wine. Please check back soon...