Archive for July, 2008

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Drinking wine from…a PLASTIC wine “glass”…

Monday, July 14th, 2008

One of the places I went out to over the weekend was a rooftop bar.  It is outdoors, gets pretty hectic, and they DO have more than just red & white wine.  OK, it was only Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc for white OR Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir for Red, but hey, that is an improvement over much of the typical “sure we have wine, what would you like, red or white?”.

But what i thought was most weird about the night was WHAT they were serving the wine in.  No, it wasn’t bad stemware…it was PLASTIC stemware!

plastic cup

OK, I understand how an outdoor  rooftop might warrant plastic stemware, but when this “bar” was serving no-name wines at $11 per glass….I mean cup…a few people I was with wondered out loud.  We thought that one of the justifications for charging so much $$ for drinks was the breakage or pilferage.  These hard plastic cups can not break, and who is going to want to pilfer one?

Again, given the circumstances, not a BIG SIN, but a bit tacky, don’t you think…???

Happy NICE STEMWARE wine tasting!

WTG

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bizarre/antiquated state laws overturned

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

I must admit that I was at a loss for things to write about today and turned to a trusty site, Wine & Spirits Daily, for some fodder.  Luckily, Megan wrote about some wine/spirits related state laws that have recently been repealed.  The days full report (where the following excerpt was taken) can be found here.

Beer Prayer

From Wine & Spirits Daily, July 10th:

Colorado became the 35th state this week to allow residents to buy alcohol on Sundays, reports the Associated Press. The new law replaces a 1933 statute requiring liquor stores to close on Sunday, and also allows Coloradans to buy normal-strength beer on Sundays. Before, residents could only purchase reduced-strength, 3.2 percent alcohol beer at grocery stores on Sundays.

In Idaho, residents can now purchase spirits on Election Day, with a new law that replaces a 1939 measure intended to prevent the trading of alcohol for votes. (more…)

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Wine bar rants

Friday, July 11th, 2008

Went out to a bunch of places with different friends last night. Fun but exhausting.

I want to talk about the wine bar/restaurant I went to. The place is in my neighborhood and while I have walked passed it many times this was my first time in. A very nice spot. This clearly was not a traditional wine bar, but the front part of the space was in fact much like a wine bar, while the back was a more traditional dining area. The front section had a long bar, a long COMMUNAL TABLE and some smaller spots scattered around.

communal table

One weird thing that seems to drive the help nuts and was a bit of a bummer for me was the wine list and its two columns. The first being the glass price and the second being the bottle price…right? WRONG! (more…)

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How COOL is your beverage?

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

When looking to chill your favorite beverage, what temperature do you choose? How vague is it to say serve at “room temperature”? What is room temperature? 70 degrees (21 Celsius)? 75 degrees (24)?

Most people are familiar with the adage that one should drink red wine at room temperature. Given today’s central heating (and cooling as the case may be) this room temperature rule of thumb is simply not accurate.

I bring up temperature as I have been trying to give my reds some chilling time before serving lately and many people are surprised by this. I’m not as good about doing this in the winter time, but in the summer, drinking a HOT red wine is just NOT FUN (not that hot wine is fun in the winter, but…).

I have seen countless articles the past few weeks about beating the heat with cool beverages.

wine beach
(more…)

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Tonights Wine & Cheese tasting

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Boy were some of the people at this wine tasting idiots…

GWBush toast

KIDDING!!!  No really I AM KIDDING.  I actually had a lot of people from tonight’s tasting (which had a very nice turnout) tell me that they will be visiting our blog for the first time.  So I thought I’d mess with them a bit.  You don’t think any of them will take it personally….do you?

Seriously though, there was a great turnout at tonights tasting event.  (more…)

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Steak & wine – a match made in heaven

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Those who know me well know that there is little in this world that I enjoy more than a good rare steak and a fine bottle of red. As a matter of fact I have a bunch of friends I might never see if not for our steak & wine nights. Forget that, I have friends who might not actually be friends if not for the steaks I grill & the wine I bring (kidding fellas – I hope).

steak & wine But seriously, I was elated when I read an article recently in the Economist “Of Sommeliers and Stomachs”. Scientists from my beloved Israel have determined that compounds in red wine “thwart the formation of harmful chemicals that are released when meat is digested”. Is that unbelievable or what!?!! The research was led by Joseph Kanner of the Hebrew University (my new favorite person!). Not being scientifically inclined, I’d encourage you to read the article for yourselves. But in essence, toxins found in high fat foods (such as a nice rare steak) are combated by the polyphenols found in red wine at the moment that they meet in the stomach. This seemingly prevents the “toxic materials from getting any farther into the body” – he knows, he did some nasty experiments with rats that you can read about in the article.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen. Steak & red wine is good for you. Cheers & eat up!

Happy wine & steak tasting!

WTG

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Posted in Israel Wine, wine health | 1 Comment »

Prince Charles’ car runs on wine

Sunday, July 6th, 2008

Hope you have all enjoyed (are still enjoying) a fabulous July 4th weekend.  I squeezed in a quick camping trip and some hanging out with friends in between various work efforts.

In the meantime a real quick post.  Saw this news piece last week on CNN.com about Prince Charles having his Aston Martin converted to run on biofuel made from “surplus wine”.  Pretty cool huh.   Energy crisis averted.  Let’s all plant vines and convert OUR cars to run on wine.

Wine Car

Happy Wine leftovers for your car…

WTG

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Where on earth is Aragon?

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

OK, maybe it is just geographically challenged Wine Tasting Guy who doesn’t know where Aragon is. But I found out today. It is in Spain. And I was lucky to be able to attend a tasting of Aragon wines at the NY Metropolitan Pavilion.

Aragon map

A varietal that was planted in abundance at one point is Carignan, (AKA Carignana), which got its name from the subregion on Aragon “Carignena”. A great page about wines of Aragon can be found here. Also of note, as long as we are discussing Carignan, is that it is the most widely planted grape in France today (according to winepros.org – bet you didn’t know that – I sure didn’t). (more…)

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NYC Wine & Cheese Tasting

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

A quick heads up. I will be co-leading a wine tasting at Bacchus Wines on Broadway (off 70th St) in Manhattan next Tuesday night, July 8th at 7PM. The event is open to anyone and is being held to raise money to help elect a special friend, Ari Hoffnung, who is a candidate for NY City Council 2009. I’d love to meet YOU there…

Details below…

Hoffnung wine & cheese tasting

You can sign up here.

Hope to meet some of my local NYC readers there.

WTG

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The Fancy Foods Show!

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Living in NYC has its trade offs.  I live in a tiny place (and pay through the nose for it), the humidity is brutal, I miss nature…I can go on & on.  But don’t cry for me, it ain’t ALL BAD.  One of the perks of NYC are the wine/food conventions at the Jacob Javits Center.  And today I attended the 3rd day of the Fancy Foods Show at the Javits center.  On 3 (or 4) massive floors, over two thousand exhibitors came out for this 3 day convention.  And to be able to attend was truly a treat!

As a wine guy I know I should be more of a foodie.  And while I appreciate fine food, I am not an expert (although I do know what I like!).  That said rather than review the food, I want to write about some observations, and then a quick wine review of some wine I tried.

Observation #1 – Olive Oil is in.  There were A LOT of people showing off their olive oil.  There was olive oil from many countries, in MANY different shaped bottles, infused with lots of flavors.  If I could invest in olive oil, I would.

Observation #2 – Cheese is in.  Wow was there a lot of cheese there.  Soft cheese, hard cheese, stinky cheese, fake cheese (Dr. Seuss anyone?).  Name it, it was there.  And there is so much to learn about cheese.  Just all the names.  Quick tip I learned; apparently Europeans say that one should start the day with soft cheeses and eat progressively harder cheese as the day goes on.  Interesting, huh…

Observation # 3 – Chocolate is IN!!  (more…)

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