Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, #MWWC3 Winner, The Way You Pour, Wine and Shutdown, and more
Meritage time!
As usual, let’s start from the answer to the wine quiz #75, grape trivia – Marsanne. In the quiz, you were supposed to answer 5 questions about white grape called Marsanne. Here are the questions, now with the answers:
Q1: Name the grape, typical blending partner of Marsanne in Northern Rhône
A1: Roussanne.
Q2: True or False: Plantings of Marsanne in Australia far exceed Marsanne plantings in France.
A2: True. Actually, about 80% of worldwide plantings of Marsanne are located in Australia
Q3: Solve the riddle and explain: Part of 8, but not part of 18
A3: Marsanne is one of the 8 white grapes officially allowed in the Rhône appellations. At the same time, Marsanne is not a part of the 18 grapes officially allowed to be used in Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation
Q4: Marsanne is known in Switzerland under the name of …
A4: Ermitage [blanc]
Q5: Name major wine producing country which doesn’t make any Marsanne wines of notice
A5: Italy. Yes, Italy makes no wines out of Marsanne – at least no wines which can be easily accessible or found on the internet.
I’m glad to report that we have a winner! Jeff of the drunken cyclist fame correctly answered all 5 questions, so he is our uncontested winner and he gets the coveted prize of unlimited bragging rights. Well done!
And now, to the interesting stuff around the web and the vine!
First of all, we have a winner for the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #3! The Wine Kat wrote the winning story, which you can find here. Congratulations to the winner! Now we are all eagerly waiting to learn the theme for the challenge #4 – hopefully it will be announced soon…
Do you know that the way you pour the wine affects how much you drink? Here is the link to the post on the subject. Weather you hold the glass, tilt the glass, pour red or white – all of this factors affect the amount you consume – according to this study, of course.
Wondering about the connections between US Government shutdown and wine? I had no idea there is one, until I read this post by Dr. Vino. TTB, the government agency which approves all the new labels, is part of the shutdown. On one side it makes perfect sense as it is seemingly not-essential. At the same time, as opposed to many other parts of the government, this one actually makes money… Anyway, read the article for more details.
Actually, there is another small post by the same Dr. Vino, which I want to bring to your attention. Before you read it, I have a question for you. Which country do you think might request to put the words “wine kills” on the labels? No, it is not United States. Interestingly enough, it is France, which is concerned with the fact that people drink wine, so this was one of the proposals as a way to reduce wine consumption. Another, similarly bright proposal, was suggesting to ban all the internet writing about the wine – brilliant, isn’t it? You can read the post here – it is short and interesting.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but refill is on its way. Until the next time – cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #75: Grape Trivia – Marsanne
Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!
We are continuing our grape trivia series, still focusing on the white grapes, and today’s subject is grape called Marsanne.
Marsanne seems to originate near the town of Marsanne in Northern Rhône, hence the name. The grape is known at least from the 17th century (but could’ve been used in winemaking before). Marsanne is a foundation for the white wines of Northern Rhône appellations of Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage, St.-Joseph and St.-Péray, but it is also used in the white wines throughout the whole Côtes du Rhône region and in a few other regions in France. White wines of Northern Rhône are typically full bodied and powerful, known for its great longevity (might be some of the longest living dry white wines). It is not just the longevity which matters – Northern Rhône whites also known to improve with age.
Marsanne made it to Australia in the 1860s, where it became quite popular. It is interesting that considering the fact that Marsanne wines improve with age, one of the best known Australian producers of Marsanne, Tahbilk, makes two releases per year, offering both current and older ( 6 years older or so) vintages of the wines.
Marsanne also made it to California, however, it is not very clear when. Based on some of the internet sources, Marsanne made it to US in the 1870s and was used in some of the red blends, paired with Syrah to replicate Northern Rhône wines. However, it appears that Marsanne started to be actively used in California wines some time in 1980s, and today it is offered by many producers in California and state of Washington.
And now, to the quiz!
Q1: Name the grape, typical blending partner of Marsanne in Northern Rhône
Q2: True or False: Plantings of Marsanne in Australia far exceed Marsanne plantings in France.
Q3: Solve the riddle and explain: Part of 8, but not part of 18
Q4: Marsanne is known in Switzerland under the name of …
Q5: Name major wine producing country which doesn’t make any Marsanne wines of notice
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
Italian Tapas? Sì, Signore!
Can’t tell you why, but this local Stamford restaurant, called Zaza Italian Gastorbar, had been on my “must try” list for a while. Something in that name, Zaza Gastorbar, is utterly attractive – the same way as you look at the creative wine label and say “wow, cool label, wonder how it tastes like”, the name “Zaza Gastrobar” had that effect on me. I guess it was a promise of a unique experience hiding in a word “gastrobar“. Finally, the convenient occasion presented itself, and off we went.
While it is hard to say that Stamford has its culinary Mecca section of the town, if anything, an intersection of Broad, Bedford, Summer and Atlantic streets can be designated as one – this is where lots of restaurants are located. The good thing in Stamford is that you don’t need to worry about the parking. Unlike many towns nearby, where you need to run circles looking for the street parking, downtown Stamford has plenty of parking garages to accommodate all the hungry people. Well, okay, enough about parking, let’s talk about the restaurant.
Zaza doesn’t accept reservations, but we had no problems finding the table for 6 on Thursday at 6:30. From the moment we walked in, I liked the way the restaurant is decorated, it felt modern but comfortable. One thing you need to be aware of – the place gets noisy. But, when the restaurant is good and busy, which doesn’t?
I love trying food as opposed to just eating. Whenever available, my strong preference is tapas, chef tasting menu, dim sum, or any variation on the theme of small plates. Now, when you think of an Italian restaurant, do you think of it in terms of the small plates? I’m sure first thing which comes to mind is a full plate of pasta, or pizza, or mozzarella sticks. But Zaza, to my absolute delight, has a whole menu section, which is called… yes, Italian Tapas! Luckily, our friends share the same outlook on food, so this was an Italian Tapas night!
Before we get to the food ( mostly in pictures), few words about the wines. I would call the wine list somewhat limited – however, considering that it contains the options starting from $25/bottle, I can’t really complain. We started with 2012 Honig Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley, which is one of the best examples of Napa Sauvignon Blanc – just enough citrus notes, with some fresh grass and delicate finish, very round – that was definitely a great start to our meal. At $46 on the list, it was also a relative bargain (about triple retail).
And then, there was food. In no particular order:
Calamari Fritti, lightly fried, tomato sauce – very well done, light, crispy:
Calamari Fritti
Potato Gnocchi, Butternut Squash, Cream Sauce – not only it was a butternut squash sauce, but butternut squash was perfectly present in the dish. Lightly sweet and delicious together.
Potato Gnocchi
Tuscan Beans, Spicy Tomatoes, Garlic, Pancetta, Olive oil – pancetta makes everything taste better, right? I’m a sucker for white beans, and this dish was perfectly balanced, great flavor profile with a light crunch of crispy fried pancetta.
Tuscan Beans
Lamb Sliders, lamb, polenta, Barolo wine sauce – you expect to see a bun on the traditional sliders – but not on this Zaza slider. Polenta cake was topping off the lamb patty, resembling bun in the appearance -but of course it was no bun at all. Excellent herbal flavor profile on lamb, not overpowering, but working together – this dish just transports you to Mediterranea…
Lamb Sliders with Polenta Cake
Next up – Tuscan Tuna Tartare, fresh Tuna, tomato, capers, basil, balsamic. Love tuna tartare, but I’m typically very dreadful when ordering it. My problem is that a number of tuna tartare dishes I tasted had the same issue – flavor is only on the outside, and once you dig in, the flavor is gone and you are one of one with fresh, but almost tasteless fish. This time, the dish was perfect. Every little morsel was tasty, in and out – a great combination of refreshing lemony acidity, balsamic, saltiness – very successful dish.
Tuscan Tuna Tartare
Next up – Baby Lamb Chop, rosemary, olive oil, arugula, balsamic. I have to admit – I’m a snob when it comes to the lamb chop. About 15 years ago, I was spoiled back in Montreal – the lamb chop I had there was a surreal perfection. Now I measure everything against that experience. I’m glad to report that Zaza’s lamb chop was very close to that perfection – succulent and delicious.
Baby Lamb Chop
I need to mention another wine we ordered. We wanted to drink something red, and I had a problem selecting the wine, both in terms of what I want to drink and what I want to pay. I asked for the taste of the two wines I didn’t know – Montepulciano and red blend from California. While the red blend was not perfect, it was still better than Montepulciano. Thus our choice of red was 2009 Lost Angel Mischief Red Wine, California (13.5% ABV), a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel.
Lost Angel Red Wine
My goal was to find an inexpensive, but palatable wine. At $35, it was definitely inexpensive as the wine list prices are concerned. Had I known that you can find this wine in retail for about $8 – $10, I would probably not ordered it. However, to be entirely honest, it was drinkable – while it was clearly the fruit forward with almost a sweet finish, it carried enough weight and balance to be pleasant (didn’t have any of that over-extracted fruit, which I personally can’t stand). I would not buy this wine to drink at home, but if this would be my only “budget” choice on the wine list, I will drink it again.
Almost as an afterthought, but at the same time very apropos, we ordered a cheese sampler platter right after we were done with the most of the meal. The Cheese Sampler included Buffala Mozarella, Burrata, Stracciatella and Scamorza. Burrata is one of my all time favorite Italian cheeses, and then there was creamy and spreadable Stracciatella – wow, the word “delicious” does only half justice to the way this cheese tastes.
Cheese Sampler
And then of course there was the dessert – everything was very tasty, and I’m not going to inundate you with the details – you can drool on your own:
It is time to conclude the report on this culinary extravaganza. The food was delicious, service was excellent – prompt, attentive, with the smile – the way you want to be treated in a restaurant. I will gladly come back to Zaza at any time. My only concern is the limited selection on the wine list, so next time I might come back with my own bottle – but this is not the wine bar, after all, it is a Gastrobar – and I think it suits this description perfectly.
And we are done here. Until the next time – cheers!
Zaza Italian Gastrobar
122 BROAD STREET
STAMFORD, CT
PHONE: 203.348.2300
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, #MWWC3 Vote, Greenwich Food and Wine Festival, [In]decent Wine Labels, and more
Meritage time!
First, let’s start with the answer for the wine quiz #74, grape trivia – Trebbiano.
In the quiz, you were supposed to answer 5 questions about the white grape called Trebbiano (known in France as Ugni Blanc). Here are the questions, now with the answers:
Q1: Ugni Blanc is a main grape in the production of what famous spirit?
A1: Cognac.
Q2: Name the wine, in which Trebbiano was a required part of the blend, and it was considered to be the reason for a bad, flabby quality of that wine (it is no longer required to be used in that wine).
A2: Chianti. For the long time, Trebbiano was a mandatory part of the Chianti wines, rendering them dull and uninteresting.
Q3: Trebbiano is often a foundation for the popular food product (containing no alcohol). Do you know what food product it is?
A3: Balsamic Vinegar! Yes, of course when you look at the literally a black-colored balsamic vinegar, it is hard to imagine that it is made out of the white grape juice – but all the color comes from the ageing in wood. Trebbiano is a popular choice due to its neutral taste characteristics.
Q4: Contrary to the name, Trebbiano di Lugano is not considered to be a part of the Trebbiano family, but rather related to another Italian grape. Do you know what grape is that?
A4: Verdicchio. Based on genetic analysis, it is established that Trebbiano di Lugano is a close relative of Verdicchio grape from Marche region in Italy.
Q5: When used for the wine production (as opposed to the distilled spirits), Ugni Blanc is rarely used on its own – it is typically a part of the blend. Name 3 grapes, traditional blending partners of Ugni Blanc.
A5: Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadelle, Sémillon. While other combinations are possible, I was looking for classic Bordeaux lineup, which are these three grapes.
Now, when to comes to declaring the winners (or not) of this quiz, the becomes somewhat of a challenge. Both Michael (who has no web site) and Eat with Namie answered first 4 questions correctly, and provided a different answer to the question #5, compare to what I was looking for, but I can’t fully disqualify their answer. So we don’t have an absolute winner this week, but both Michael and Namie get an honorable mention. Well done!
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web!
First and foremost, 3rd Monthly Wine Writing Challenge (#MWWC3) concluded with 15 entries, taking on a difficult theme “possession”. Now it is your time to chose the host for #MWWC4, a.k.a. The Winner of #MWWC3. Here is the post from Sally, the winner of #MWWC2 and the host of #MWWC3, which summarizes all the entries. Your job is simple: 1. Get glass of wine. 2. Read. 3. Vote. Yes, don’t forget to vote!
Now, if you live in a close proximity of Greenwich , Connecticut, or plan to visit the area, here is the event you don’t want to miss – Greenwich Food and Wine Festival, taking place over 3 days, October 3 – 5. In its third year, the festival brings together more than 90 restaurants and vendors, chefs, musicians, sommeliers. You will find great food, great wines, cooking demos by celebrity chefs such as Duff Goldman, live music, BBQ, beer, competitions (had enough?) and more. For the schedule of events and tickets please click here.
Next – do you think some wine labels are going too far? Too suggestive, too sensual, simply indecent? May be some are. Take a look at Tyler Colman’s, a.k.a. Dr. Vino, blog post on the subject. Make sure to check the link to his article in the Details magazine – you will find some interesting labels there.
And the last one for today – another installment of Wine in China is available for your reading pleasure on the Wine Economist blog. This time you can learn about Chinese government involvement and its role in shaping up the Chinese wine industry.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but refill is on its way. Until the next time – cheers!
And All The Fuss About Wine Reviews…
Few days ago I read an article by Joe Roberts, talking about wine reviews. The article, called “Does The Wisdom Of The Crowd Provide Better Wine Reviews Than The Experts?“, and the subsequent comments were evolving around the role of the “crowd-sourcing” in the wine reviews from the sites such as Cellar Tracker versus traditional wine critics and wine experts, the value of wine ratings and all the other critical analysis of wine. Instead of commenting in the thread, I decided to express my thoughts in the form of this post.
Warning – this might be long. You might want to arm yourself at least with one glass of wine. Or more…
It is very interesting to observe “are the wine reviews and wine critics relevant” discussions to periodically flare up all over the blogosphere and all of the digital media. Some of those discussions and opinions are quite antagonistic, from “death of Wine Advocate predicted” to “the number of wine bloggers will decrease dramatically” to “blind tasting puts wine experts to shame again”. Some of them are supported by some facts and findings which authors deem indisputable. And some are written just purely for the entertainment or quick publicity purposes.
For all of us obsessed with wine, the subject of wine ratings and wine reviews is near and dear to the heart. The world seems to rotate around those 98s, A and B, 4 stars and all other metrics. Meanwhile, majority of the wine consumers couldn’t care less. Based on the number of studies, people buy wine based on the label, advice of the store associate and the price. By the way, the price factor is funniest of all (should be a subject of a separate post) – when we buy for ourselves, we always want to find $10 wine which will taste like a $100; when we need to bring a present, we ask for the advice to find the best wine at the top of our budget, and then spend a few extra bucks just not to look cheap. In any case, very few consumers concern themselves with the ratings which are abundantly displayed in many stores (interestingly enough, there are quite a few stores nowadays which are doing away with all those rating displays). Yes, the people who buy more expensive wines are interested to know what the experts think about the wine they are about to shell $50, $80, or a $150 for. Of course wine collectors track all those ratings as they are stock tickers (well, they kind of are). But considering the world of wine, those people are an absolute minority (okay, don’t bring up the 80/20 or 90/10 – that is not the subject of the post).
So Joe Roberts argues that Cellar Tracker ratings might replace all the expert opinions simply because they are the crowd sourced and it is proven by many sources, which Joe is citing, that crowd-sourcing is the way to go in today’s world. It is stated that the crowd-sourcing works because it is proven by TripAdvisor, Yelp, Amazon and thousands of other sources soliciting people opinions. Well, may be, but it depends. Let’s look at Yelp, as the food world is probably more related to the wine world than travel or gadget shopping.
Different people review restaurant on Yelp, and for the most of the cases the reader of the review doesn’t know anything about the writer. But if you think about an average restaurant, a lot of aspects of the review are based on the common sense. The understanding of the “good service” is pretty much universal. The understanding of “clean” versus “dirty” is also quite universal. “Run down” is pretty well understood. When the food is served cold, or you have to wait for 30 minutes for a cup of coffee, you don’t have to be an expert to universally recognize it. And if you ordered steak in a restaurant, I have reasonable expectations that you know how good steak tastes like.
No, you can’t take the ratings on Yelp for granted. People get upset, people get unreasonable – true. But this is where crowd-sourcing works the best. If a restaurant on Yelp has four stars out of five, based on the average of a 150, or 300, or better yet, 1000 reviews, you know that your chances of good experience are pretty high. If the restaurant has five stars based on 3 reviews, you know that means nothing in terms of your potential experience. The fact that that restaurants are judged on the multitude of factors, many of which are universal and even independent of the type of restaurant (clean Thai restaurant with good service is not any different from clean steakhouse with good service), gives you a certain level of reliability of the crowd-sourced ratings.
Wine is different. There is no foundation to all those ratings, outside of smell, taste and ability to deliver pleasure. But – “tastes good” is highly individual. If someone only likes to drink California Cabernet, convincing the person that this Sagrantino was a great wine might be difficult. Now, if you look at the crowd-sourced ratings, like Cellar Tracker offers, it means nothing, as based on the rating alone you can’t align your base with the people who wrote the reviews. You don’t know if the person who rated that St. Joseph Syrah at 78 simply doesn’t like barnyard undertones, or the wine is actually bad. You have to read the review to try to figure out what is wrong with the wine, and why the reviewer didn’t like it, may be he was just in a bad mood or had the wrong food with it.
When it comes to the wine critics, the situation is different. Yes, I know, the most famous of them are periodically accused of bias and various forms of dishonesty, but this is not relevant here. As the critics, they are able (and expected) to judge the wine objectively. Also, wine critics typically have their area of expertise, like James Suckling focusing on Italian wines, Steve Heimoff on California or Allen Meadows on Burgundy. I’m not trying to say that if a critic rated the wine at 95, it means that this will be a great wine for you no matter what – but at the same time, that objective persistency, consistency of the ratings and narrow focus of the critic allows you to align the base, and then have a quick opinion, a probability of liking the wine based on the given rating by a known critic. I don’t buy my wines based on the ratings, and I’m not willing to pay $100 more for the bottle of Cabernet only because Parker gave it 96 versus the wine next to it with only a 90 rating – but that rating allows me to establish a frame of reference.
Let’s look at the big picture. We can see an increased interest to wine all over the world. We also see an increased wine production all over the world. People “en mass” are increasingly more comfortable and more knowledgeable about the wine, especially if we are talking about Millenials and younger generations. And that does lead to the reduced role of “The Wine Critic” (Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, etc). But – the need for the critical information about the wine is increasing, and as people gain more knowledge and learn to trust their own palates, they are willing to take wine advice from the lesser figures than Parker or Suckling, and they are willing to take it from many different sources – blogs, twitter, web sites and other digital media outlets. People are building their own tribes. This is where Cellar Tracker comes to play – but only for the people who are inside, only for the people who uses the service and is able to align the base. My personal “wine experts” tribe consists of many bloggers I started following over the years, one by one. Reading their posts, tasting the wines they are talking about, having a dialog, I was able to build my alignment, little by little, one glass at a time. I know that I can rely on and willing to take Jeff’s (the drunken cyclist) advice for the Pinot Noir, or Oliver’s (the winegetter) for German Rieslings, Julian (VinoInLove) and Stefano (Clicks & Corks) for any of the Italian wine, or Alissa (SAHMmelier) for the wines of Texas. This is not my unique experience – I truly believe this “tribe concept” works for everybody, more and more so.
Are you still with me? Wow, I really have to thank you for sticking along. Let’s round this up. No, the wine world is not going to rotate around Cellar Tracker. Yes, the role of The Wine Critic will decrease, but in the end of the day we will still have more of them. There will be ever increasing number of people who will be willing to share their experiences (and sometimes put it in the form of numbers), and there will be ever increasing number of people willing to take that advice. Crowd-sourcing? Kind of, but very different. May be “Tribe-sourcing” is the word. The world of wine is big, and it is only getting bigger – I think we all can perfectly get along.
Don’t know about you, but I need a glass of wine. Cheers!
Foodies Get Together at Nola Oyster Bar in Norwalk, CT
Since its opening in March of 2013, Nola Oyster Bar in Norwalk, CT was a subject of multiple blogger reviews, so I will not inundate you with the details which you can easily find online. This was our first visit to Nola, and I can tell you – we had the best time. The reason? Simple. Yes, the restaurant has a very good food, drinks and service, but what makes your restaurant visit special is the company. We visited Nola with the group of food bloggers! We only knew a few people at first, but you know, when you share a passion, the connection sparks faster than the lit match can fire up a stack of dry hay. From the moment we got at the table, we were in the company of the old friends – the conversation was flowing, and uncomfortable silence never took place. It was a great pleasure to share this experience with Wendy and Greg from Connecticut Bloggers, Bonnie from Home Place, Kaitlin from the For Love of Carrots, Jeff and Cristina from Cooking with Jeff and Cristina, Jenn from That’s So Jenn, Alicia The Natural Princess, and Linda from MaxExposure, who got us all together.
It is very interesting to see 8 cameras pointing at the same dish – when nobody would yell at you to stop using the flash (yep, this was my experience a few weeks ago). When the food is served, you almost feel as a judge on Chopped with all the comments like “hmmm, interesting, I think this is a bit too acidic”, “I would slightly reduce the sweetness”, “ahh, the regular waffle would become too soggy, this is why the corn flour is used”, “I would make this dish a bit differently”. I can tell you, despite this level of attention, there was not a single dish which we didn’t like, so I think it tells something about the mastery of Chef Kardos.
Let me tell you about the dishes.
I started from the tiny cocktail – as it was called on the menu, “soon to be famous” oyster shooter. Think of it as a shot of Bloody Mary with a fresh oyster right inside, perfect combination of spiciness, saltiness and freshness:
“soon to be famous” oyster shooter
We started with Crab & Artichoke Fondue (bacon, smoked Gouda, sriracha, crackers) – perfect texture, nicely put together without being too heavy, as some of the artichoke dips do:
Crab and Artichoke Fondue
Next up – Beer Braised Mussels – smoked ham broth, chipotle butter, toast. Tasty, flavourful broth is a key to this dish – and we got it. Glad we also had enough pieces of bread, not to leave any goodness on the plate.
Beer Braised Mussles
Our next dish was Cornmeal Fried Oysters & Braised Pork (creamed spinach, pearl onion jam, aleppo chili flakes):
Oysters and Pulled Pork
This was definitely an unexpected combination for someone used to the New England seafood style – I’m sure this dish has New Orleans roots. Cornmeal fried oysters were delicious, and so was the pulled pork. Just enough spice without overpowering. I probably could live without creamed spinach in this dish, but all in all it was very tasty.
Meal is not a meal without a vegetable, right kids? Our vegetable was a side of Fried Brussels Sprouts (bacon, maple, coder vinegar, pistachio):
Fried Brussels Sprouts
Very tasty, and again very unusual. Definitely unique texture, due to deep frying instead of pan frying – crispy flakes, with some sweetness of the maple syrup , cut through by the cider vinegar. I have to admit that I love Brussels sprouts and could’ve eaten the whole dish just by myself.
A culmination point of the meal – Poached Lobster & Cornbread Waffle (butter-poached lobster, griddled scallions, Queso Fresco):
Poached Lobster & Cornbread waffle
In my book, lobster is a very difficult ingredient – yes, of course it is considered a luxury, but in a lot of cases, it simply doesn’t taste well, no matter how expensive the restaurant is. This lobster was excellent. Tender, very flavorful, and it worked very well with the cornbread waffle. This cornbread waffle was the one which solicited the discussion as to why the cornbread ( heavy and dense) and not the regular waffle (which would become too soggy). Needless to say, this dish was devoured in a blink.
We finished the main course with Blackened Shrimp & Pork Fried Rice (soy, sprouts, egg, scallion, sesame):
Blackened Shrimp with Fried Rice
Perfectly cooked shrimp (some of the best I ever had), very tasty rice, overall very successful dish – this was a nice to finish our main course.
For dessert we were served Maple and Pistachio Panna Cotta (apple jam, pistachios) and Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pot Pie Cream (whipped cream, roasted peanuts):
Chocolate and peanut butter tasted almost like Nutella, only with a slightly different texture. Panna Cotta tasted very light – both dishes were quite successful, and I would gladly have them again.
That is all I have for you, folks, as an account of our great evening. Nola Oyster Bar is definitely recommended as a place where you will find the New England traditional seafood with the New Orleans, southern twist. If you live in the area or visiting, take the opportunity to try it for yourself.
Disclaimer: I attended the dinner as a guest of management. All opinions are my own.
Nola Oyster Bar
68 Washington Street
South Norwalk, CT 06854
Phone: 203-957-3352
http://www.nolact.com/
Weekly Wine Quiz #74: Grape Trivia – Trebbiano
Ugni Blanc grapes, as shown in Wikipedia
Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!
We are continuing our grape trivia series, still focusing on the white grapes, and today’s subject is Trebbiano.
Have you had Trebbiano wines? How about Ugni Blanc? Before you answer no, think again. There is a very high degree of probability that you had the wine made either from Trebbiano, a.k.a. Ugni Blanc, or at least with Trebbiano being a part of the blend, as Trebbiano is second most planted grape in the world. Ugni Blanc is the most planted grape in France, spanning from Bordeaux to Provance to Corsica. In Italy, Trebbiano is allowed to be used in more than 80 different DOCs and has 7 DOCs of its own.
The grape’s historical (as well as genetical) roots are still not fully established yet. It seems that the first mentions come from the area of Bologna in Italy in 13th century. In the 14th century, the grape made it to France together with the Papal court, where it became known as Ugni Blanc. Starting from 16th century, the plantings of the Trebbiano increased quite substantially, but the grape practically never made it on its own. Trebbiano’s main characteristics include high acid, low sugar, minimum aromatics and vigorous growth, which are not the star quality when we are talking about the wines. At the same time, these very characteristics make it an excellent foundation for producing all kinds of distilled spirits – this is where majority of the Trebbiano/Ugni Blanc grapes are used today.
And now, to the quiz!
Q1: Ugni Blanc is a main grape in the production of what famous spirit?
Q2: Name the wine, in which Trebbiano was a required part of the blend, and it was considered to be the reason for a bad, flabby quality of that wine (it is no longer required to be used in that wine).
Q3: Trebbiano is often a foundation for the popular food product (containing no alcohol). Do you know what food product it is?
Q4: Contrary to the name, Trebbiano di Lugano is not considered to be a part of the Trebbiano family, but rather related to another Italian grape. Do you know what grape is that?
Q5: When used for the wine production (as opposed to the distilled spirits), Ugni Blanc is rarely used on its own – it is typically a part of the blend. Name 3 grapes, traditional blending partners of Ugni Blanc.
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Chinese Terroirs, #MWWC3 Last Chance, [again] Wine Reviews and more
Meritage time!
First, let’s start with the answer for the wine quiz #73, grape trivia – Sémillon.
In the quiz, you were supposed to answer 5 questions about white grape called Sémillon. Here are the questions, now with the answers:
Q1: Name a grape, primary blending partner of Sémillon
A1: Sauvignon Blanc. While Muscadelle is also allowed as part of the blend in Bordeaux, the most popular combination worldwide is Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc.
Q2: Below is the list of years. There is something common between all of them (and of course it has a relationship with Sémillon) – do you know what is common among those years?
1930, 1952, 1964, 1974, 2012
A2: This is a partial list of years when Château d’Yquem Sauternes, the most famous Sauternes wine, was not produced. Since 1825, there were only 10 years when d’Yquem Sauternes was not produced: 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1974, 1992 and 2012.
Q3: Ture or False: Sauternes produces only sweet wines
A3: False. Dry wines are also produced in Sauternes, under a designation of Bordeaux Supérieur. Example – “Y” by Château d’Yquem, 50% Sémillon and 50% Sauvignon Blanc.
Q4: Name a key factor for the great tasting dry Sémillon wines
A4: Bottle age. While acidity is important, dry Sémillon wines, such as those produced in the Hunter Valley in Australia, are known to fully develop and really blossom after about 10 years of age in the bottle.
Q5: What is Semageddon?
A5: Semageddon is a new annual event in Napa Valley, created to celebrate Sémillon grape. You can read more about the event here.
This was somewhat of a difficult quiz. We don’t have a winner, but we have three people who get an honorable mention – the drunken cyclist, EatwithNamie and Vinoinlove.
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web!
What do you know about wine in China? Do you think China will be able to produce the wines we will all crave? Well, can’t tell you about the craving yet, but the hard work already started. Here is an interesting blog post from The Wine Economist blog, talking about the Chinese Terroir quest which is already under way.
Another interesting post is coming from the Joe Roberts of a 1WineDude fame. Joe is bringing up a well beaten subject of the wine reviews, relevance of the wine critics, collective wisdom of the crowd-sourced wine reviews (yep, of course the CellarTracker) and more. You can read the post here, and of course please make sure to read through all the comments. I personally don’t understand why is it so popular and necessary to return to this subject over and over again. I might respond with the rant of my own – if I do, you will be the first to know.
Next important subject: Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #3 is almost over! You need to make a final effort to convert your obsession into possession, and finally publish that blog post. Submission deadline is September 23rd, and for more details please check this formal announcement with all the rules and dates.
As I mentioned last week, Spanish Wine Festival is coming to New York City. If you love Spanish wines and want to taste something amazing, don’t miss this event! For more details and tickets please click here.
And one more event I want to bring to your attention. If you love (or at least like) whiskey, this is the right event for you. WhiskeyFest is coming to New York on October 11-12. For more details and tickets, please use this link.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but refill is on its way. Until the next time – cheers!
How Possessive Are The Wine Lovers?
If you are following wine blogs, you might have noticed the theme “possession” showing up here are there. Yes, this is no accident – the common linking factor is the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge (MWWC for short), in its third incarnation.
The theme for the first challenge was “transportation” – it was relatively easy to tie up to the wine both directly and allegorically. The theme for the next challenge was “trouble”, which sent me home scrambling – “trouble” is not the first thing which comes to mind when you are looking at a glass of wine. In the end of the day, many bloggers successfully found the connection and produced a lot of interesting posts. The current theme, “Possession”, is a whole different game. On one side, it has a direct connection to the wine – but it is too direct for the nice intricate piece. “I possess wine. Sometimes, wine possesses me. The end”. On another side, it is almost forcing you to go into pretty much the exorcism route, which can be played, but this is not necessarily pretty (need examples? Do a google search for “wine possession” – you will find some stuff which might make you afraid to visit your cellar when it is dark).
So as you can deduce from my rant, I don’t have a good play on the theme. What you will find below is rather a collection of random thoughts, centered on the wine appreciation, with the nod towards the “possessive” relationship of wine lovers with the subject of their love.
So how possessive the wine lovers are? We can find few different types of “possessiveness” among the wine lovers as such. First, there are wine collectors (of course, that is an obvious one). But even among wine collectors there is one extreme group which I would like to exclude from the actual category of the wine lovers. That is the group which rather collect the money than anything else. Wine is strictly an investment for them, and they never think about bottle of wine in terms of the actual content. For this group, the wine is only an object which will appreciate in value, and at some point it will be exchanged for cash and profit. This group also includes the worst possible type – the wine-possessive ego-maniacs. For this group the wine which they stock in their cellars is intended to be an ego-booster – “I spent on that bottle 10 times more than you did”, and “my bottle is bigger and more round than yours”. In the end of the day, I’m not even sure if this group even belongs to the true wine lovers category.
Then there are those who love wine, but don’t care to possess it at all. Folks in this group happily drink the wine at any occasion, they serve the wine at their parties, and they buy a bottle on the way home when they feel like it. But they really don’t “possess” wine, as they don’t keep much wine in the house, and most importantly, they don’t assign any special attributes to any bottles.
And then comes the rest. The group of wine lovers who possesses the wine and actually, is possessed by the wine at the same time (I’m including myself in this group, so I’m continuing here from the collective of “we”). We keep the wine. We make the wine special by associating special mementos with those bottles – “ahh, this is the year we got married”, “remember we had this wine in Tuscany”, “this is the year our son was born”, “remember that winery visit”. We do our best to keep those bottles cool, quiet and comfortable. And then we wait. While buying the wine with mementos, we are also investing, of course. We are investing into exciting anticipation of how special this wine will taste when we will finally open it. While we hold on to the bottle, we can re-live that future moment over and over. We are possessed with finding the right moment for that special bottle. But what is important, that right moment also includes the right people. How many times have you thought “ohh, if they (whomever “they” are) are coming over, I got this special bottle we have to open”. Yes, we are possessed with wine. But we don’t buy it just to enjoy by ourselves. We are also possessed to share. We want to share the experience. We want to share the special moment. We don’t want to keep it to ourselves. Without special moment or a special company, that bottle never gets to be opened.
And that is what I want to leave you with. Possessed by wine. Possessed to share.
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