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Wine’s a fruitful topic for books, photos
After spending a week in Napa Valley, Calif., for the Professional Wine Writers Symposium, my reading and writing juices are in overdrive. Guests at the annual event included many of my favorite wine writers – Frank Prial and Eric Asimov of The New York Times, Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible, and Bottle Shock screenwriter Ross Schwartz – to name a few. The theme of this year’s symposium was “Telling the Authentic Story,” which reiterates the unspoken pledge of journalists. The following, instead of wine suggestions, are some of the stories from those attending the...
read moreWhat comes first? Chicken, then the wine
A friend called last week wanting to know my recommendations for the best wine to serve with chicken. When it comes to chicken, there is no easy one-wine-fitsall answer. Chicken can be prepared using a wide variety of techniques and flavors and can be as complex or simple as the cook chooses. We grill, roast, bake and fry it — all while adding an array of flavors ranging from delicate herbs, such as rosemary, to robust sauces, like hearty barbecue. That’s a lot to ask of just one wine. The only cautious advice: Consider chicken a light meat and therefore easily overwhelmed by full-bodied...
read moreQuality wines don’t have to cost a lot
In the past several months UnCorked readers have frequently asked, “Can I find quality wines for less than $15?” You may remember last summer an UnCorked column touching on the topic — wines fitting your palate as well as your wallet. The answer now, as it was then, is absolutely — tasty wines with exceptional quality are readily available for $15 or less. But before declaring any wine the next superb bottle for $10, $8 or even $5, keep in mind a few criteria. In this price range, straightforward and simple are the best places to start in assessing the quality of a wine. No matter...
read moreWine must abet chocolate’s sweet spot
Chocolate, like wine, is exciting to explore, and it can be heavenly when paired with the right partner. As a general rule, when pairing wine and chocolate, the wine should be at least as sweet – if not sweeter – than the chocolate. If the two are not compatible, many times a slight sour note will develop on the palate. A combination of chocolate with over-oaked red wine or one that is extremely dry, such as Spanish Riojas, will likely rob the chocolate of sweetness and the wine of fruitiness, resulting in an unpleasant, dry, dustlike flavor. Light-bodied wines matchup best with...
read moreTop off the tomato pie with a nice Chianti
Man has been eating pizza in one form or another for hundreds of years, but the first pizzeria in the United States didn’t open until the turn of the 20th century. Gennaro Lombardi started selling pizza in his New York grocery store on Spring Street in the late 1890s. Lombardi’s paper-wrapped tomato pies quickly became a neighborhood favorite, and in 1905 he was granted a mercantile license to operate a pizzeria. What began as a humble bread and tomato dish has become a vast canvas for the culinary world. Today, pizza is available fresh at a multitude of pizza eateries and can be bought...
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