Apr 25, 2006
It is becoming more and more difficult to keep track of the number of Pinot Noir Festivals that take place each year. There are at least four of them in California alone. And given the surge in Pinot’s popularity as well as the number of new Pinot producers, we expect that they all will sell out. However, one Festival, by all accounts, is the one you really should consider attending: PINOT ON THE RIVER, October 27-29, Russian River Valley This…
Apr 12, 2006
Pig. Pork. Bacon. Hocks. It really doesn’t matter what it is as long as it comes from the Pig. Tenderloin, Pancetta, proscuitto, chops, sausage…the name is usually irrelevant. If it is produced from the pig I’m gonna like it. But within the Universe of Pork, there is one cut that is the King of Pig: Ham. With Easter around the corner I can look forward to our family’s annual baking of the nice and pink, bone-in, semi-cooked country ham. From…
Apr 5, 2006
I think jazz and wine tend to go together so nicely because both have the capacity to make you think while at the same time soaking up real pleasure. It’s why art and wine are often paired. I am a jazz fan. Yet too often "jazz in wine country" turns out to be a "smooth jazz" kind of affair in which a mediocre sax player sits in with a synthesizer while bad brie is passed around. There’s nothing in that…
Apr 4, 2006
The most prestigious awards in food & wine journalism are the James Beard Awards. While the amount of attention given to wine in these awards is scant, they do manage to recognize some of the most intriquing and inspired writing on the subject. The nominations for the 2006 James Beard Awards have been announced. It struck me while looking them over that 1) wine writing gets a bit of a short shrift in these awards 2) that Internet-based journalism is…
Mar 28, 2006
Some Editorial Updates For Your Reading Pleasure: 1. Wine Sediments, the new wine blog on the WellFed Network is humming along. My most recent post, "What Next? Republican Wine"? is currently at the top of the list. 2. Taj at Cork & Demon continues her Western Wine Tour, a tour de force wine road trip that currently puts her in the Central Coast area of California. Her tour and chronicle of her adventures is well worth a read. 3. FERMENTATION…