WINE

This story originally appeared in California Winery Advisor. When we go wine tasting, so much of what we remember are the experiential tastings. A walk in the vineyard, a barrel tasting, one-on-one with the winemaker and food and wine pairings are all experiences that one will recall once they get home. I found two memorable wine tasting experiences in Santa Barbara that took food and wine pairing to another level. Cheese is the most common wine pairing at a winery. There are also pairings with tapas and chocolates, as well as with molecular gastronomy spoon bites in which an entire meal is deconstructed and then reconstructed into one bite that mimics the dish. I once found a pairing with snack foods. The common theme with most wine and food pairings is that the wine is paired with savory bites. But the key with wine and food pairing is to have fun and try different things to see what will work. So, if you have a sweet tooth, here are two fun wine tasting Santa Barbara experiences - with cookies and cupcakes.
19 October, 2017
This story originally appeared in Drizly. Jammy, fruity, earthy, bold…these are some common words associated with red wine. There are hundreds and hundreds of different varieties of red wines, each one different from the next. Not all red wines are alike and there is a style for every palate. You may say that you do not like red wine, but perhaps you have not had the right one yet. So, let's go over some basics of red wine and perhaps help you find one you will like.   How Is Red Wine Made? Red wines get their color from the grape skins. White wine can be made from either red or white grapes but red wine cannot be made from white-skinned grapes.  The juice of all grapes is clear. The color comes from the skins. Once the grapes are picked, they are fermented with their skins. This means that the yeast is added to the grapes and the sugar in the grapes is converted to alcohol. As the process takes place, the juice leaches color from the skins. The longer the juice spends with the skins, the darker the color of the wine. Red wines are typically fermented at a warmer temperature than white wines.
18 October, 2017
This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
The 2017 harvest is well under way in the Northern Hemisphere, and Puligny-Montrachet in the Cote d’Or in Burgundy, France is no exception. According to their website, at Domaine Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet, harvest took place from Aug. 29-Sept. 5. And the 2017 harvest marks the first vintage with a new winemaker at this historic winery.
Domaine Leflaive was created by Joseph Leflaive in 1910 but the Leflaive family has been established residents in Puligny-Montrachet since 1717. Joseph’s children, Vincent and Joseph-Regis, inherited the property upon his death in 1953 and in 1990, Vincent’s daughter Anne-Claude Leflaive and Joseph-Regis’ son Oliver became co-directors. Upon Anne-Claude’s death in 2015, Brice de la Morandiere, great grandson of the founder Joseph Leflaive took charge.
Under Anne-Claude’s control, famed Burgundy winemaker Pierre Morey made the wine at Domaine Leflaive from 1988-2008, followed by Eric Remy from 2008-2017. In January 2017, under Brice de la Morandiere, oenologist Pierre Vincent became the new general manager.
11 October, 2017
Having made it a personal mission to go to Maude almost every month since they opened in 2014, when October brings a "Greatest Hits" from the past four years, it should not come as a surprise that the Maude October 2017 menu is the Please The Palate pick of the week. This dinner marked my thirty-seventh meal at Maude (out of a total of forty-six seasonal menus in total). Maude's October 2017 menu offered a fourteen-course tasting of some of their Greatest Hits! With almost 500 dishes to chose from, they whittled it down to the top twelve. Although I am sure that there are many more dishes that could qualify, some dishes could not be included because the featured ingredient is not currently in season. The diverse menu played homage to four years of creative, diverse and distinct menus and it was yet another great meal shared with friends and good wine.
07 October, 2017
This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
Last week, I wrote about the dry riesling found in Nahe, Germany and the fact that 90 percent of German wine is dry. But fruity, sweet wines do still exist in Germany, specifically produced in the Mosel, Nahe and Rhinegau regions.
When we talk about “sweet” wine in Germany, we are not talking about overly sweet, cloying wines. We are talking about wines of finesse. These are wines with fragrance, fruity acidity and a mineral undertone. We are talking about riesling, considered the king of wine grapes in Germany. Of all the white wine grapes, riesling grapes produce the most intense and flavorful wines.
Unlike the dry riesling which is categorized under the VDP (“Verband deutscher Prädikatsweingüter”) system, the sweeter wines are classified under the traditional Pradikatswein. The levels of sweetness will vary and are dependent on when the grapes are picked. There is trocken (dry), kabinett (off-dry), spatlese (late harvest), auslese (select harvest), beerenauslese (berry select harvest) and trockenbeerenauslese (“dry berry select harvest”).
To differentiate between these different styles, it was best described to me by a winemaker who likened these styles to bananas. Kabinett is described as the perfectly yellow banana whereas spatlese is a banana with brown spots. Auslese is the banana that is almost entirely brown and trockenbeerenauslese is a dehydrated, concentrated banana.
04 October, 2017
Ever since Chef Bruce Kalman opened Union in Old Town Pasadena in 2014, it had been at the top of my list of restaurants to visit. I had tried his fresh, home made, delicate pasta dishes at various food and wine events around town but just could not seem to get myself across town to Pasadena. But finally I did and it was everything I anticipated and more. Union is a 50-seat restaurant and bar located in a stripped-down storefront on Union Street. Brick walls, large windows looking out at the street and minimalist decor create an intimate and casual atmosphere similar to restaurants in San Francisco, Brooklyn and beyond. 
03 October, 2017
Each week I look for the one thing that stood out, be it a glass of wine, a particular dish or a unique experience as the Please The Palate pick of the week. A couple things came to mind this week but in the end, one of the coolest things was to visit San Antonio Winery in downtown Los Angeles. Celebrating their 100th birthday, San Antonio Winery is the Please The Palate pick of the week. I am a third generation Los Angeleno on both sides. My mother's mother was born in Los Angeles. My father's father was born in Los Angeles. My mother and father were both born in Los Angeles. I was born and raised in Los Angeles and have always felt that I know this city. But somehow, while I knew it existed, I had never been to San Antonio Winery located in Lincoln Heights, just east of downtown Los Angeles. Finally, as they celebrate their 100th birthday, I spent an afternoon there.
30 September, 2017
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