Recent Blog Posts

Calimocho

Lisa P. Sutton — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:25:00 GMT

This is how it happens. You have a dinner party. It goes well. It goes so well that you and your guests plow through all of your bottles of decent wine. When you come home from work the following Monday, your eyes bloodshot from too many hours in front of a computer screen and your nerves frayed, you're desperate for a drink but the pickings are slim.

You pass over the abandoned Midori in the back of your pantry. (How the hell did that get there anyway?) There's some tequila that you haven't been able to go near since that last trip to Puerta Vallarta. You've got a six-pack of beer that looks good but you took it out of the fridge to make room for the roast you cooked up for the dinner guests, and you can't wait the hour it will take for the beer to get cold. You spot on your kitchen counter the one bottle of wine you purposely didn't serve. It was a host gift from your cheap friend (there's always one in every crowd), and it is entirely unidentifiable except for the inscription claiming it to be "Quality Red Table Wine."

You uncork the bottle, trying not to smell it. Smelling it will only make drinking it more difficult. You dump a few mouthfuls into a glass and take the plunge. You swallow once. You cannot take another sip. It's as bad as you expected.

What's a stressed out but enterprising young professional to do? Grab soda. Lots of it. Mix one part "Quality Red Table Wine" with one part cola and serve in a tall glass over ice. Call it a Calimocho because only in Spanish does your bastard of an emergency drink sound hip and intentional. Pour the rest of the "Quality Red Table Wine" into a pitcher with the rest of the cola, and take it outside to share with your neighbors on the front stoop. (If you don't have a stoop, because stoops never made it this far west, gather around on the sidewalk and pray that the police don't drive by.) Call this sharing part a botellon because again, everything sounds classier if it's foreign. Get your neighbors to bring out their own collection of undrinkable reds re-gifted by their own cheap friends. Send someone's kid to the corner store for more cola. Drink, share, repeat.

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Lisa P. Sutton earned an MFA in writing from University of California, Irvine and a JD from Boston University School of Law. She lives and drinks in Los Angeles.

And Then There Was Shandy

Lisa P. Sutton — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:22:00 GMT

Like most women, I wasn't born a beer fan. I came of age drinking whatever tasted least like alcohol: fruit-flavored wine coolers, mimosas, forgotten bottles of coffee liquors my parents received each year as Christmas gifts. Drinking then was frequently an excuse to eat whatever salty snacks could be paired with the drinking, and I thought of beer only as a man's drink. Its bitterness was something that manhood required getting used to but from which I was pleasantly excused.

Sometime in my early twenties though, my attitude toward beer began to change. It was a matter of simple economics. As a student, I could splurge on a Tecate or two but a Veuve Clicquot with fresh squeezed orange juice was clearly beyond my budget. I started slowly, on the gateway drink: the Shandy.

Equal parts beer and lemon-lime or ginger soda, the Shandy is a summer drink. In Los Angeles, that meant I could drink a Shandy year round. I found a dive bar with a sense of humor that served 32 ounce "mini" Shandies for $3, and I learned that a light lager or pilsner wasn't just men's territory. In time, I cut back on the soda and ordered my Shandies with just a splash of diet-7Up. Once I got to grad school, I left behind the soda entirely, ratcheted up my quotient for hops, and joined the boys for IPAs after classes.

Though I've outgrown Shandies, bars throughout Los Angeles seem to be bringing them back. The beer cocktail resurgence has every third hipster in skinny jeans sipping a Shandy or Michelada (beer, lime juice, tomato juice, and hot sauce) over eggs benedict at brunch. Gastropubs are dressing up classic beer cocktails with everything from anejo tequilas and small batch bourbons to hibiscus juice and agave syrup. One of my favorite new Westside bars is gaining traction on the Stag Hag, basically a cousin to the Tijuana Manhattan, if only said cousin arrived dressed in a cherry beer reduction instead of sweet vermouth.

Will Shandies and Micheledas one day steal the spotlight from worn out trends like Cosmos and Appletinis or even something like the time-tested Gin & Tonic? Probably not. But the beer cocktail buzz throughout the city tells me Shandies are well on their way to indoctrinating the next generation of female beer drinkers.

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Lisa P. Sutton earned an MFA in writing from University of California, Irvine and a JD from Boston University School of Law. She lives and drinks in Los Angeles.

Make up Your Freakin' Minds, Researchers!

Zack Jenkins — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:05:00 GMT

Is wine good for me or not?!

A recent study by Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that women who drink just two glasses of wine a day are 50% more likely to get breast cancer than those that don't drink at all. And even if they have one glass, they're still 15% more likely to develop breast cancer. The study also indicates one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. But wait, wasn't wine supposed to be good for your heart?!

Literally hundreds of studies have been done on red wine and resveratrol, and the general presumption is that the alcohol and antioxidants help increase the levels of "good" cholesterol in the heart and brain and prevent artery damage.

So wait a minute, let's get this straight. If you drink a glass of wine a day (or even a couple times a week) you reduce your risk of heart issues, but you're more likely to develop tumors in your breast. This just seems like a no-win situation and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Let THE TASTING PANEL know your thoughts and feelings about the health issues surrounding moderate alcohol consumption. It's something that doctors on all sides of the argument are reticent to hand out advice on.

But until then, I'm going to keep enjoying my reds. I've got more of a history of heart related issues in my family than of breast cancer. What about you?

Any Excuse to Shoot Lasers, Right, Scotland?

Zack Jenkins — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:05:00 GMT

Researchers at Andrews University in Scotland have figured out the best way to test scotch-whisky authenticity-fire a laser at it! It sounds like a perfect Star Wars moment for alcohol lovers, doesn't it? But no, they're serious. It was all developed to prohibit scotch counterfeiting.

By placing a drop of whisky on a thin plastic chip and then illuminating it with a fiber optic laser and analyzing the drop with another, the scientists can observe the fluorescence as the whisky scatters the light. This is known as the Raman signature. (It would be some Star Wars aficionado stuffed with ramen noodles that would name it the Raman signature, don't you think?!)

Anyway, that fragmentation and range of light will be indicative of the age, brand and cask of the whisky. And since all that's needed for the test is a drop, that means the rest of the bottle is going to waste . . . or is it? Can I join the team?

Although great for the eventual compilation of a database of whisky fragmentations, the laser test is geared for stores and distributors who would be purchasing in bulk and want to ensure quality, instead of the average consumer. That being said, it does help ensure quality for consumers by making sure the bottles we're throwing down our piggy-bank savings on are actually quality.

I'm all for a good whisky and laser shooting, especially if they are together. If you happen to see a guy running around with a bottle of Jack and a Clone costume on firing lasers everywhere (even though it's after Halloween already), you know what's up.

Whisky and lasers . . . just too cool!

It's Not Okay, It's ArKay . . . and It's Alcoholic-Free!

Zack Jenkins — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:58:00 GMT

It's not just beer and wine that can be non-alcoholic anymore. Whisky has entered the sober game. The $40 billion dollar non-alcoholic beverage market is experiencing a first: ArKay Alcoholic -Free Whisky Flavored Drink. Available for purchase on December 1 this year, ArKay is an artificially flavored drink for those with medical conditions or religious beliefs that prohibit the consumption of alcohol.

It looks "exactly like traditional whisky," according to ArKay Beverages, Inc.. The beverage has also been approved by the FDA and is Halal certified by the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of North America.

You can drink it straight up from the bottle or can, on the rocks or add any mixers you want. How perfect would that be for the parties or cocktails when you have to drive home later that night, right? You can keep sipping away until you need to leave. Too perfect!

As soon as it hits the shelves you'll have to comment and let THE TASTING PANEL know what you think!

ArKay's 32 oz. non-alcoholic whisky flavored drink is expected to cost $10 per bottle or $4 per 12 oz. can. Designed to be the perfect party drink, the whisky-flavored drink was designed for mass consumption and hits shelves across the country in December.

It's guaranteed to mix up the whisky market a bit, and it's completely ArKay to drink and drive!

ArKay's 32 oz. non-alcoholic whiskey is expected to cost $10 per bottle or $4 per 12 oz. can. Designed to be the perfect party drink, the whiskey-flavored drink was designed for mass consumption and hits shelves across the country in December.

It's guaranteed to mix up the whiskey market a bit, and it's completely ArKay to drink and drive!

Muscadet May in Boston

Becky Sue Epstein — Fri, 06 May 2011 18:35:00 GMT

Actually, I don’t think about Muscadet wine a lot. I’d rather it simply showed up in a glass so I could just drink it. So when I was given a chance to sample several Muscadets with oysters, of course I said yes. The SecondGlass people combined forces with Loire Valley Wines at a lunch in Boston recently, at the Island Creek Oyster Bar.

It’s a medium white wine, ranging from somewhat crisp to a bit fruity — elements in common with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, meaning it can have tropical fruit, honey or grassy aromas. It’s not super-crisp, but has a strain of limestone citricity (is that a word?) running through it at the best of times, which makes it lively on the palate.

A classic pairing is Muscadet and oysters – which really works. It was even more fun to have the Island Creek oysters with three choices for the first course, all in the $12-$14 range: 2009 Guy Saget “Les Clissaes d’Or” Muscadet Sèvre et Maine; 2009 Domaine de la Quilla Muscadet Sèvre et Maine; 2010 Domaine de la Louviere Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie.

“Sur lie” means the wine is left on the lees, or the dregs of the yeast cells and other grape particulate matter – which sounds awful but imparts a depth of flavor to the wine. Until now, it was common to leave the wine on the lies for no longer than a few months. Now, there’s a movement to leave the wine there for 17 months, and new regulations have recently been proposed (expect an update in a year or so).

Muscadet, by the way, refers to an appellation, an area of the Loire region. It’s not a grape, but so many more people know the word Muscadet and so few people know the name of this wine’s grape (Melon de Bourgogne) that Muscadet is now a stand-in name for the grape.

Three more wines were served with bright green pea soup with poached oysters. These, all under $18, were Michel Delhommeau “Cuvée Harmonie” Muscadet Sèvre et Maine; 2009 Domaine de l’Ecu “Expression de Granite” Muscadet Sèvre et Maine; and 2009 Domaine les Hautes Noëlles Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu. The best pairings for me were the first and third wines. The Michel Delhommeau started super-crisp, with the flavor almost disappearing on the palate, then finishing with lingering limestone. The Domaine les Hautes Noëlles had a big body that somehow lightened up with the food. Interesting.

For the final course, we had a few beautiful Scituate scallops with a sprinkling of gnocchi in brown butter sauce. The food was minutes old; the wines were at least a decade old. Most people think of Muscadet as a wine to drink young, but they aren’t all like that. We had three – and all were under $25 – each one a different hue of bright gold: 1995 and 1999 L d’Or de Luneau-Papin “Cuvée Medaillée” Muscadet Sèvre et Maine; and 2000 Domaine du Haut Bourg Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu.

The 2000 Domaine du Haut Bourg was a combination of youth and evolution with a cantaloupe nose, crispness, chalk and limestone throughout. The 1995 was calm and serene, with butter and vanilla-yeast notes, while the 1999 was hearty, reminiscent of wet beaches on the nose, and a big, long finish. Each one brought out different notes in the food.

I guess that means I need to keep trying more Muscadets. It shouldn’t be too difficult. At least in Boston the whole month is Muscadet May.

Becky Sue Epstein is a Contributing Editor for The Tasting Panel. Find her work at www.beckysueepstein.com .

Amarone from any year? How about 1980!

Becky Sue Epstein — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:08:00 GMT

One of my favorite things about Bertani, the Amarone producer, is that they make available their vintage Amarones from just about any year in the last half-century. Anyone can order one through the distributor, and the prices are in the $$ hundreds, not $$$ thousands – great for celebrating special occasions.

Recently, soft-spoken Bertani winemaker Cristian Ridolfi stopped in Boston for lunch, on his way back to Italy. Bertani produces a total 1.5 million bottles (125,000 cases) of about a dozen different wines all from their own vineyards. They don’t buy and they don’t sell fruit, emphasized export manager Stefano Mangiarotti, who was also at this lunch. But they could easily produce more than twice this amount of wine from their vineyards, if they weren’t so highly selective.

Bertani has not made any major changes in their winemaking since they started producing Amarone in the mid-twentieth century. Ridolfi still dries the grapes for 120 days, not just the required 90. He is convinced that this is what accounts for the longevity of the Bertani Amarone wines. Incidentally, he has also found that the anti-ageing compound resveratrol doubles in these grapes in the 120 days.

He is doing one bit of experimentation, this with the large wooden casks the Amarone matures in for six years. The winery is in trials with chestnut, acacia, and possibly more cherry wood, all sourced locally.

Ridolfi brought several Bertani wines, and several vintages of Amarone della Valpolicella DOC: 2003, 1998, 1980 and 1967. His favorite, he admitted was the 1967. Mine was the 1980. Bursting with life, this 30-year-old wine had huge fruit aromas. It actually smelled young. There was some minerality, a hint of bitterness to show that there was some structure here. The wine’s fruit flavors were well developed, continuing with prune and plum into the finish. Later, I found fresh herbs and a bit of eucalyptus coming out. Suggested retail price is $230.

The most astounding thing happened at the end of the meal. We had just finished our espressos when someone called for a toast. After raising a glass, a sip from it is required, so I did. And this wine from 1980 flashed out its flavors, firm with fruit, even after the coffee. I was impressed.

Bertani is imported by Palm Bay International.

Becky Sue Epstein is a Contributing Editor for The Tasting Panel. Find her work at www.beckysueepstein.com .

View from a Bar: Te Tiare Beach Resort

The Armchair Oenophile — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:22:00 GMT

Huahine, French Polynesia

After having been evacuated from my over-the-water bungalow at 5 a.m. because of a tsunami warning, I found myself spending most of my remaining time on the islands of French Polynesia sipping Hinano ("The Beer of Tahiti") and just watching the water closely.

Two Sicilies – Wines from Etna and Ragusa

Becky Sue Epstein — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:22:00 GMT

Having just returned from the annual Sicilia en primeur event, I find myself swimming in impressions about what’s happening on this island. Or is it a continent on its own? The further from the mainland you get, the more you feel you’re on a separate continent, a crosswind of cultures set out in the Mediterranean Sea, the center of the ancient world. Every province has its own character, and the wines are no exception.

The newest standout is Etna, the province around the volcano, where wineries are springing up in this unique terroir, the winemakers lured by altitude, independence and potential. With red wines, producers make a range from international to modern unoaked to ancient styles.

The white wines of Etna really stood out to me, their aromatics, crispness and minerality providing a vivid expression of the volcanic soils the grapes are grown in.

Nearby is Sicily’s only DOCG: Cerasuolo di Vittoria, the wine a blend of nero d’Avila and frappato, two indigenous red grapes. The DOCG was created in 2005, and the wines I was tasting were well thought out, and well made. Nicely balanced. This blend is traditional to this part of Ragusa, in southeastern Sicily, but now that’s been made official, it’s changing – inevitably, I suppose.

From a native wine that was on the light side, ready to drink within a year, with the “cherry” notes its name evokes, the gravitas of the DOCG label is beginning to weigh the wine down, causing producers to think and rethink, to work on making it bigger and heartier. Instead of a wine that may age, pretty soon we may find this wine requires ageing.

Is this a good idea? Not necessarily. But it might be necessary if producers want to charge more now that they have that DOCG label around the neck of the bottle.

Becky Sue Epstein is a Contributing Editor for The Tasting Panel. Find her work at www.beckysueepstein.com.

View from a Bar: Café Fiore, Ventura, CA

The Armchair Oenphile — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:17:00 GMT

A few sips of Banfi grappa.

PHOTO: ANTHONY HEAD

She offered gelato, too. Such a fine pair they are.
But only for lingering.

And lo, I must go.

Provence with a Dynamic Blonde – and Wine

Becky Sue Epstein — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:35:00 GMT

Just caught up with Château Roubine's Valerie Rousselle today at the "Provence in the City" aka rosé wines tasting in Boston.

Valerie Rousselle of Ch. Roubine

In addition to her "new name" (as she describes her divorce), she has several new wines and a charmingly renovated, rentable house on the property, "in the midst of the vines," she says. And there are cooking classes on Tuesdays.

Or if you only have a day in the area, feel free to bring your own picnic and spend a few hours on a self-guided tour of the vineyard, including the ancient Roman road that runs through the property.

I recall a wonderful dinner there some years ago, with guests as charming as the wine. The vineyards are sustainable, and to further cut down on the necessity for sulfites, they harvest at night, beginning at 2 a.m. in order to finish before the early fall heat of Provence takes over during the day.

Valerie is also planting more of the indigenous Tibourin grape, which is featured in her 2010 "Inspire" Cru Classé Côtes de Provence - 80% Tibourin, 10% Clairette, 10% Rolle - a touch smoky, deepening garden aromas, and plenty of body with lemony finish, a good food wine.

Château Roubine is imported by Ideal Wine and Spirits, Medford, MA.

Becky Sue Epstein is a Contributing Editor for The Tasting Panel. Find her work at www.beckysueepstein.com .

View from a Bar: Harry Carry's Seventh Inning Stretch, Chicago

The Armchair Oenophile — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:15:00 GMT

Hopping across the country, airport to airport, isn't the same kind of fun it used to be. If you can't travel light and efficient it's hardly worth making the effort to get to the airport. Plus, our society's ongoing mallification brings the same stores and restaurants to the same gallery-style cattle chutes we call "airports."

PHOTO BY ANTHONY HEAD

As a frequent flyer, I'm just saying that I'd like to encounter some authentic character sometime. Even though Harry Carry's doesn't really feel like the original River North steakhouse, and even though I know I'm paying about three bucks too many for my Maker's and rocks (because there isn't time to get to the original location on West Kinzie), it's always good to be somewhere that feels local. The real wood bar is a noble surface to rest an elbow and sip a pre-flight cocktail, as well as a refuge from that flying nursery school we call "coach class."

Clear, Non-fat Chocolate Dessert

Becky Sue Epstein — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:22:00 GMT

It's Godiva. The vodka, not the truffles.

Well, we might have had the truffles, if there had been any left. But we ate them as soon as we opened the box. The Godiva people sent over chocolate and chocolate-raspberry truffles with samples of their chocolate infused and chocolate raspberry infused vodkas. Often, when a company does this — sends over fruit to match the flavor of their new vodka — it backfires, highlighting the differences between the real thing and the flavored vodka. This time, it worked. We sipped the vodkas, we nibbled the truffles, and it was great.

So when I was looking for a chocolate dessert the other night, preferably non-fat, I poured small shots of the two clear Godiva vodkas, on ice. How to choose which one we wanted - the chocolate or the chocolate raspberry? We couldn't choose. So we each had two glasses in front of us as we sat back and watched a hometown movie: Ben Affleck's The Town.

Becky Sue Epstein is a Contributing Editor for The Tasting Panel. Find her work at www.beckysueepstein.com .

View from a Bar: Restless Wind, San Marcos, Texas

The Armchair Oenophile — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This Texas bar is much too marvelous for words. It's more about the concepts.

PHOTO: ANTHONY HEAD

The crazy rum that's nothing more than bloody murder.
One of the Gibbs is singing, but she ain't one of them Bee Gees.
Someone is gonna be Canadian, if the jukebox has anything to say about it.
Smoke. Jack. Tequila.
Draft beer and a Dirty Martina.
You take the dollar bills; I'm keeping the quarters.

Thanks, Rebecca, Queen of Valentine's Day. Next time you'll remember us.

A Dinner Party Hosted by a Great Scot

Becky Sue Epstein — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:41:00 GMT

I like the way marketing spirits and wines is changing. Instead of summoning the press to a morning seminar or mid-afternoon comparison tasting, some companies are demonstrating the way their wines or spirits fit into our lifestyle. They’re doing this especially for younger bloggers, I think, but it works for me.

Last week I went along to a dinner at Mooo in Boston, where the menu said we were “Guests of The Macallan Scotch.” And we were – guests.

Upon arrival, we were offered glasses containing small pours of The Macallan 17-year-old. We stood and chatted, nibbling appetizers, meeting the other guests. After a time we sat down to dinner, and several entrée choices. We drank red or white wine with our meal, depending on our own preferences. We ate, we conversed, we sipped our wines: it was a dinner party.

After the meal, there was another offering of several Macallan single malts — each in a different glass to avoid confusion. Along with more of the 17, a few mouthfuls each of the 12-year-old, 18-year-old, and finally the 25-year-old.

Instead of spending the evening analyzing and scribbling tasting notes, I relaxed and got to know some of the other people at the table. Then I sipped and considered the scotches.

The sum total of my notes for the evening was a short observation from early in the meal: “When I think of Scotch I think of earthtones, of mushrooms and brown things."

My favorite? The smooth 25-year-old. I can remember that without copious jottings in a notebook.

A good lifestyle lesson, I’d say.

Becky Sue Epstein is a Contributing Editor for THE TASTING PANEL. Find her work online at www.beckysueepstein.com .