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Amarula Throwdown at Tales of the Cocktail

Becky Sue — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:55:41 +0000

What’s more fun than a cocktail competition? In New Orleans I stopped in at the Amarula Experiment Throwdown at Arnaud’s, to see the top 5 bartenders from around the country, winnowed down from 300 entrants. An interesting flavor combination won: fig with coffee. The cocktail was created by Emilio Tiburcio, from Fusion Bar from the Palazzo Hotel Casino in Las Vegas

Emilio Tiburcio’s “Anxiety Fig Dream”
1oz Amarula Cream
1½ oz vanilla vodka
1 whole fig
1½ oz fresh brewed coffee

Muddle the fig. Add the Amarula, vanilla vodka, fresh brewed coffee and ice and shake.
Double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with figs and sprinkle with coffee beans.

Double Cross Vodka and Chef Michael Schlow at Via Matta, Boston

Breathless Greek Wines

Becky Sue — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:44:01 +0000

Came back from a presentation of Greek wines last night that left us so excited we all went home to check Orbitz for cheap flights to Athens. It’s not just that the wines were all well-crafted and made sense to our palates, it’s that the presenter was incredibly enthusiastic: Theresa Paopao, wine director of Oleana Restaurant in Cambridge MA.

Recently returned from a trip with Diamond Imports, she led us through several whites and reds from the Peloponnese, Macedonia and Santorini regions, finishing with a traditional Santorini vinsanto.

Theresa was the first in the new Sommelier Series at Gordon’s Fine Wine & Culinary Center (Waltham MA). We tasted Sigalas, Alpha Estate, Karydas and Skouras, and this was by far the best collection of Greek wines I’ve seen in one place. Hope the next sommelier can live up to Theresa’s thorough prep and confident food pairing notes – as well as the passion to communicate that left her practically breathless at times.

Winetasting at 35,000 feet

How does she do it?

Becky Sue — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:57:42 +0000

Say you meet one of the scions of a great wine-producing family that also distributes great Italian wines – and fine wines from many other areas of the world. I don’t know about you, but it’s kind of not fair for this scion to be thin, blond, have a husband and several adorable children AND be running the Boston Marathon.
Really!
So Cristina Mariani-May of Banfi Vintners comes to lunch – which she barely has time to eat while she does a presentation of the Banfi company and its wonderful winery hotel in Montalcino, offers us a tasting of the wines before and with the meal, and leaves us all in the dust. And yet, I can’t hate her…

Price blind match: high-end food with non-high-end wines

Yellow Tail Reserve wines: Nice Whites, Reds too Similar

Becky Sue — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:37:55 +0000

Yellow Tail Reserve Pinot Grigio

I like to think I’m not a wine snob. So when I heard about mega-popular [yellow tail] ® wines’ Reserve line of course I wanted to try it Luckily, I learned about it through the US distributor, and WJ Deutsch & Sons delivered a sample of all 5 wines.
This is a relaunch of the Reserve, and the marketing campaign is clever: regular label Yellow Tail for ‘any night” and the Reserve for “Date Night” – backed up by their statistics that 90% of Americans like a wine upgrade for special events. Sounds reasonable.
So, what is the wine like? The Pinot Grigio is light and lively, with a hint of tangerine and plenty of lime in both flavor and finish. Fine as an aperitif wine, but too sweet when I kept the glass and tried it with dinner.
More of the self-confessed, unsophisticated wine-drinkers in the house liked the Chardonnay, favorably identifying with both its look (a medium-pale tan-yellow) and its flavors; this Chard is somewhat fruity but is not over-oaked or overly sweet. And it did work with the chicken we had for dinner that night.
The reds were a problem for me because all three were astoundingly similar to each other. So much so that I went back and checked the glasses against the bottles several times. The labels identify them as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, but the visual, aromatic and flavor elements were hard to tell apart.
When drinking one of the reds, if someone accidentally poured you a refill of one of the others, would you notice the difference? Maybe not. But does this matter? Maybe not, at the time, if all the wines are pleasant enough: some fruit, little tannin, berry flavors, non-acidic finish. The Merlot’s fruit is a touch more restrained than the Cab’s; the Shiraz is a tad more exuberant. The wines did benefit from air – I would suggest opening them about a half hour before serving to let the flavors develop – though they remained very similar.
The PR stuff that came with the wines maintains that each wine is made with 100% of the grape on the label, which further mystified me because I had thought their similarities might be explained if the wines were blends. In the US, single-varietal wines must contain 75% of the varietal named on the label; the other 25% can be any other wine grape. The wines I sampled are vintage 2008.
The grapes are sourced from various parts of Australia, then blended. Perhaps that’s the issue. In looking for consistency of flavor for the line, the winemakers have gone too far over the edge and made them all the same, instead of allowing for each grape’s varietal expression in the wine.
If you have a different experience when trying these wines, I’d love to hear about it. The line’s suggested retail price is $12 but I found it heavily discounted online.

the Buzz about Agwa de Bolivia

Becky Sue — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:50:40 +0000

Agwa de Bolivia, Coca Leaf Liqueur

Coca-leaf liqueur from Bolivia? Of course I had to try it. The first time I heard about Agwa de Bolivia the producer seemed conflicted: they openly stated it was made with coca leaf, but they seemed to want to soft-pedal the coca/cocaine references. (Of course there is no actual cocaine in the bottle, but still…)
A few months later, that was all over. I got a promotional package with Agua de Bolivia Coca-Leaf Liqueur terrycloth wristlets – that a visiting school teacher immediately scooped up. Then there’s the bookmark-shaped promo which actually proclaims “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Nose.” The liqueur itself is a green color, reminiscent of Jagermeister – as is its digestif-like flavor. Best taken over ice, or used as a cocktail mixer.
Wait, I just noticed another card that says to add lime “which activates the alkaloids of the coca leaf to produce an oxygen buzz.” Heading back to the kitchen right now!

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Stop Bottling Wine — at the estate

Becky Sue — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:01:47 +0000

Climate project and wine guru Pancho Campo suggested this week that we might want to go back to the olden days of wine commerce. In order to avoid the tremendous amount of emissions caused by transporting crates of heavy wine bottles, we might want to return to the time when wine was shipped in bulk from the producer, and bottled in the city where it would be sold. Of course Campo didn’t put it exactly like this when speaking at Vinoble, the biennial sweet wine fair in Jerez, Spain; he simply put out a general call to rethink the wine industry’s carbon footprint.
Remember that only a few decades ago wine was still being shipped from France and Portugal to England, where it was bottled by local merchants like Harveys in Bristol (Sherry) and Berry Bros & Rudd in London (Bordeaux, etc.) before being sold their customers. Shipping was handled this way for hundreds of years. So now, do we really need to ship bottles that can weigh up to two pounds each? Except for Champagnes and sparkling wines which are finished in the bottle, maybe not.
For centuries, wine merchants — such as Berry Brothers and Harveys — were the guarantors of authenticity for the wines they sold. The custom of estate bottling wines which gathered steam during the 20th century is supposed to be a guarantee of authenticity. It also became a mark of prestige when in the 1920s Baron Philippe de Rothschild first used it to set his Bordeaux wines apart from the rest – and soon everyone followed his lead.
With the current technology for temperature-controlled, non-reactive shipping containers, would we now be better off bottling our wines at least in the country they are shipped to, if not in each individual city? Lighter bottles, screwcaps, tetrapaks and bulk wine in restaurants: all these methods of conveying wines to consumer can now be put in play. It’s started already. Champagne producers are cutting their bottle weights by 7% this year. In the UK, Berry Bros & Rudd is (again) supplying their labeled “Own Selection Wines” while in the US a few restaurants on the east and west coasts are reported to have wine on tap. Now, it’s up to the rest of us to decide how to save the planet – while sipping the wines of our choice, of course.

Oxley? Yes, please

Becky Sue — Fri, 21 May 2010 01:21:32 +0000

Just got back home, changed into shorts and flip flops, and made a drink.
It’s a good thing I like Oxley gin. I mean Oxley Classic English Gin. We have a whole bottle of it and my husband decided he likes Tanqueray better. I think they’re similar; he doesn’t. There’s a clarity and brightness to the cold-distilled Oxley. And for me, there’s that herbal spiciness that’s just perfect in a gin-and-tonic on a summer evening. With or without lime.
I get the whole bottle, now.
Thanks, PR people, for sending it to me.

Barrel of Red Truck (1)

Sherry with New England Clam Chowder this week at MOOO

Becky Sue — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:46:58 +0000

I’m intrigued at the brininess of excellent Manzanilla – perfect with seafood. Why don’t we have sherry with our oysters + chowders more? Maybe we will if the Secret Sherry Society expands. http://www.secretsherrysociety.com/
I also love the fact that Oloroso and Amontillado are not abstract names from literature but real sherries you can drink.
Sherry in general: some is bone dry, some pungent and fascinating, and some sweet as fig syrup.
Who would have guessed that sweet, dark Pedro Ximinez sherry goes with one of my favorite New England desserts, Indian Pudding. If I can’t have whipped cream or vanilla ice cream with Indian Pudding, give me the PX sherry!

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The recession is old news, according to sommeliers at New York’s fine restaurants.

Becky Sue — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:00:42 +0000

I wonder if this is true elsewhere? Apparently, recession mentality bottomed out for NYC fine dining customers in the 4th quarter of 2009. Now diners are not afraid to show off anymore, if they have money.

Last week, Wine + Spirits’ Joshua Greene moderated a panel with top NYC restaurant sommeliers Levi Dalton of Alto, Beverage Director Juliette Pope of Gramercy Tavern and Head Sommelier Rajeev Vaidya of Restaurant Daniel.

High-end sommeliers are busy rearranging their winelists and letting some of the less expensive wines fall off. That’s not to say everything is sky-high: summer is coming, and typically people want lighter wines which are often less expensive. Vaidya will be looking toward Chablis, Riesling and other German whites, Italian whites and Rhone reds and whites. Dalton and Pope are expressing seasonality in their wine lists with moderately priced wines, too.

Price blind match: high-end food with non-high-end wines

Becky Sue — Wed, 19 May 2010 01:57:32 +0000

This spring I had lunch at 2 high end restaurants, with NON-high-end wines: and it works surprisingly well. Very good to know.
More specifics? Wine importer Pasternak thought this up.
Cave de Lugny’s white Burgundy wines ($11-$20) very nicely paired with 3 courses at lunch at one of Boston’s top classic restaurants, L’Espalier.
Also in Boston, lovely Loire wines ($12-$30) from Guy Saget at uber-chef Jean-George’s Market at the W Hotel.
OK, we don’t have to break the bank with our wine choices at the finest restaurants.

Puglia: Ancient Land, Simple Dishes, Wines Re-energizing.