Grüner Veltliner

Not sure if you had the opportunity to have a glass of "Gruener" but if you see it by the glass on a wine list, go for it and try a glass of this nice acidic, cool climate white wine.  The grape varietal calls its home in Austria. Gruener Veltliner goes well with Asian cuisines just like Riesling and truly deserves more recognition!  So, my wine loving friends - Go out there and ask for a glass of Gruener or buy a bottle at a wine store near you and have it with your sushi or asian take out! 

Prost

National Drink Wine Day

My dear wine lovers,

How much better can it get?  Today, February 18th marks the "National Drink Wine Day".  What a great reason to open a bottle of wine with friends and enjoy a glass or two or three...

Maybe you rather open a nice bottle of wine and share with your significant other to celebrate an extended Valentine's Day.  Or take the healthy approach - drink wine for health reasons, as most of us know, wine certainly can have positive impact on our health, often not as much as we read or would hope for, but nonetheless, it can have health benefits.  Whatever the reason, it is always a good reason to enjoy a glass of white or red wine and today more than any other day!

Prost | Cheers | Cin-Cin | Slainte | Salute | Skål | Santé | Kampai

In flight wine

Did you ever order a wine while flying somewhere?  If you did, you properly know where I am going with this.  The offering is usually awful at best.  Since we can't get any wine thru the security check points, you really don't have another choice but to settle for something else or drink wine with little to no enjoyment.  But that era is coming to an end.  Some airports these days have wine bars with retail licenses.  Brilliant!  Simply marvelous.  Have a nice glass of wine prior to boarding, and take a split, half bottle or the rest of your bottle of wine, on board with you.  Trust me, I first did that a couple of years ago on a flight to Hawaii, and while I was flying economy, I sure had the best wine and others, including business class, envied me.

To all these wine retailers in airports, kudos to you and I hope that there will many more airports that have somebody like you in the near future.  Just do me one favor; have more 375ml (half bottles) available!  There are perfect for a 2-3 hour flight.  

Wine and Dine my Valentine

Most people will go out for Valentine's Day.  This year you have some options, as most restaurants are prepared to give you and yours the special St. Valentine's Day experience today (February 11th), Valentine's Day itself or on the 18th of February.  With that, the pressure of ensuring that you made your dining reservations at her favorite restaurant way in advance, but forgot it anyways, should be at ease. 
But now what?  Do I arrange for special flowers for the dinner table?  Do I pre-order a nice bottle of Champagne?  I would.  It is Valentine's Day for crying out loud.  Might as well go all out and have lasting, memorable evening with your significant other.  Or stay home and cook a special dinner and pull a nice wine out of your collection (or if collection is nonexistent), buy a nice couple bottles of wine.
In regards to the Champagne selection, see my New Year's Eve blog for recommendations.


Want to know more about Saint Valentine? Click the hyperlink.

A new Era of Food and Wine | The Wines

As promised, here is part 2.  New, or I should properly say, old and refurbished grape varietals are on the move.  Have you ever heard about Altesse, Insolia, Verdejo and Viura?  Or Teroldego, Nero d’Avola, Monastrel?  These are just some examples of different grapes that produce stunning white and red wines out of Spain and Italy.  Wines that haven't really been around for a while or were produced in such small quantity that nobody really knew about it. All that is changing as a different and mostly younger generation of wine makers continues to take over and challenge the old/new way of varietal selection, wine making and the works.  Elisabetta Foradori from the Trentino region is one of those examples and her wines are just absolutely amazing.  She re-introduced the usage of Amphora's for wine fermentation.  Below is a picture of her wine cellar where the Amphora style wine is made. 

A new Era of Food and Wine | The rising continues

I am currently in San Antonio and had the great opportunity to assist with the opening of a stunning new hotel called Eilan Hotel Resort & Spa.  An absolute gem and one of a kind in San Antonio.  A place, were a new restaurant by the name of Sustenio had its Grand Opening yesterday.  A restaurant, were food is being taken to the next level of modern cooking!  The Executive Chef, David Gilbert who is a phenomenal Culinarian leads the charge in this Stephan Pyles inspired restaurant concept of modern southwestern cuisine.  Not that New York, Chicago and other great food destination don't have such great restaurants already, however San Antonio didn't until Saturday when 500+ guests experienced a Grand Opening like no other.