Food, Wine, Culture TV - Episode 7: Blind Prosciutto Tasting and Italian White Wines

No news show this week! It was lost in the taping some how…so here’s an early Episode 7!  (main page image: wikipedia.com wiki commons)

Episode 7: In what Michael refers to as episode 8, is really episode 7 (an episode was lost to the MiniDV Tape Gods!). Today we’re blind tasting three prosciuttos, and then tasting three Italian white wines. Join Michael to find out your best value Prosciutto and what wines to pair with it! Tune in to the next episode when we bring the wines back and pair it with two perfect seafood dishes!

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Food, Wine, Culture TV- Episode 6: Cooking show- Mike’s Mama’s Schnitzel & Rieslings!

Wow…already at episode 6! If you missed the first five, click on the FWB-TV link above (or here!). Today we’re back in our “still being renovated” kitchen where I prepare my Mama’s schnitzel with pommes frites and a few Rieslings. Carlos L. is back this time with his electric guitar to provide music and expert food tasting skills. The schnitzel turned out great, the wines are good and Carlos keeps the music rocking. (Main image credit: wikipedia.com)

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Food, Wine, Culture TV: Episode 5: German (and one Austrian) wines under $12 with Carlos L!

Food, wine, culture - TV: Episode 5: German Riesling! Michael Mohammadi of Foodandwineblog.com gives an overview of German wines and tastes a few Rieslings. An Austrian red wine is slipped into the mix to please the palate of guitarist and friend of foodandwineblog.com Carlos L. In this 5th episode, 2 of the Rieslings are good values, one is an OK value and the Zweigelt is a big pass. This show sets the stage for Episode 6 which features Michael’s mamas recipe for Schnitzel mit Pommes Frites and a pairing with German bier and wine!

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Food, Wine, Culture TV: Episode 3- Scallops, Pork, Wine and Beer- Cooking and wine pairing!

Foodandwineblog.com’s Food, wine, culture TV Show! In this third episode, I make two simple yet delicious dishes (one is noblepig.com inspired!) and try a few different beverage pairings in our recently (and ongoing) renovated kitchen. Carlos L is back on guitar, the dogs are wandering around and dinner turned out great. So grab a glass of wine and join me for a night of cooking and wine!
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Food, Wine, Culture TV- Episode 2: WineBloggingWednesday 48 - Back to my wine “roots” in Detroit!

Today is WineBloggingWednesday (which I talk about in the video) and the theme is taking it back to you roots. My wine “roots” began in Detroit with some cheap “wine” and slowly progressed to high end California Cabernet. Join me (and special guest Carlos L) for a tasting, beginning where I began and ending where I was 5 years ago- Drinking big Cali Cabernet and Bordeaux Blends. (Links pertaining to this episode and truncated tasting notes are below the video)
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Monday Wine Headlines: Great sushi tasting and homemade blends, Foodandwineblog to go digital, Great Grapes in Annapolis this coming weekend.

Sunday July 20, 2008 - Sushi and Wine Tasting: Yesterday’s sushi and wine tasting was more of a sushi and wine “filling.” Our group of 9 overtook a portion of Yamato Sushi in Timonium (review coming soon) for 3 hours of drinking, eating and story telling. We begin as a quiet group, with edamame, seaweed salad and a bottle of Sparkling wine from the Loire. We finished as a more vocal crowd, having devoured platters of raw fish, 9 bottles of wine from the Loire Valley (some very good wines), including a few homemade blends at the end of the night (which were surprisingly good) - pics can be found here. If you missed out on this month’s tasting, no worries, I’m already planning August. Look for something the week of August 18-25, involving grilled steaks and maybe, just maybe at our house again!

HD Camcorder Has Arrived!: Filming has begun for a new feature on this website to include wine tastings, food and wine pairings, restaurant reviews, winemaker and chef interviews, and more. Guest stars will include many familiar faces, winemakers, and more. Stay tuned over the next few weeks for the first release (once I figure out how to get my computer to recognize the camera!).

Great Grapes in Annapolis: As “Shar” pointed out in our forums, this coming weekend is the “Great Grapes” festival in Annapolis, MD. Hundreds of amazing wines will be poured over the two day event and many local and national winemakers and distributors will be on hand. For more information see the Great Grapes website.

RedWineBuzz wine Survey: To help out a good friend in the wine industry, please check out and complete this survey.

Lately, I’ve been just enjoying the wine: Why it’s nice to put down the pen from time to time.

Tonight Kim and I ordered Chinese food; hot and sour soup, steamed dumplings and beef with broccoli. We have four take-out restaurants within 1 square mile, but our favorite is Asian Taste (on 36th St. in Hampden). They have sushi, too, but it’s not always that fresh and a definite pass.

With Chinese food, I generally prefer white wine in the form of either Gewurztraminer or Riesling. Gruner Veltliner from Austria works well, too. Tonight we went with one of our favorite producers of German Riesling; Joh. Jos. Prum. Last weekend we enjoyed a pair of ‘01 Prum Rieslings which were truly outstanding wines, so we had high expectations for this 2002 Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett Riesling.

The bottle was opened, food was passed around. We ate. We drank. Everything was good with the wine again being top notch. But other than telling you that there was an interesting dill component and it’s at least a 90 point wine in my book…I didn’t take notes and don’t intend on saying much else.

For those of you who know me well, you are aware this is out of character. I am of course referring to the fact that I have multiple wine notebooks and journals (such as the one I’m with above at Pardiso di Frassina in Montalcino!). I am never without my trusty point-and-shoot digital camera, always prepared to snap pictures of wine bottles. Per my request, Kim always has a pen and paper in her purse so that I am prepared to take detailed notes on how a wine looks, smells, and tasteds as well as other miscellaneous notes on the experience the wine provides, at the drop of a hat (or pop of a cork). Even at a nice dinner or special evening out, I can be caught scribbling notes on a napkin or typing notes into my phone. Obsessive? Yes, I’ve become quite obsessive- but it’s part of the fun of drinking and collecting wine for me.

But lately I’ve just been enjoying the wines. No notepad, no pen, no interrupting a nice dinner to contemplate the multiple compenents of a wine and how it pairs with each flavor in the food. And you know what, it’s pretty nice.

It makes me remember when I was first getting into wines and just drinking everything I could get my hands on to learn more about my new hobby. I wasn’t interested in remembering what wines brought leather, plum, was racy or finished with a touch of heat. I just wanted to know whether or not the wine was something I liked so I could buy it again in the future.

A few months back I wrote a piece titled “Ignorance is bliss…” in which one of the points I tried to make was that perhaps wine is more enjoyable before you know too much or drink the “best” wines in the world. Sure it’s nice to be able to appreciate great wines on a multitude of levels, but is it really necessary? I mean, isn’t the point of drinking wine to enhance a meal and bring friends and family together?

My hiatus from formal note taking is most likely just a phase (how would I continue being an amateur wine critic otherwise!). Perhaps after a weekend away in the woods of Virginia I’ll come back and return to my diligent note-taking self. But until I feel the need to return to my rigours bookkeeping I’m going to just be “ignorant” and enjoy some wine with my friends and family. After all, these are truly the most important things in life.

Cheers!

More on the Brunello saga…

For the past two months some producers of Brunello di Montalcino, one of the premier wines in the world, have been investigated for blending their Brunello (100% Sangiovese-based wines) with Cabernet and Merlot. Amidst these allegations, the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has stepped in to ensure that the wines that reach our dinner tables are the real thing. Decanter Magazine is reporting that imports of Brunello into the United States may be delayed beginning June 9, 2008.

From Decanter: “Francesco Marone Cinzano, president of the trade body, the Brunello Consorzio, said… ‘Starting on 9 June, the US will block all Brunello imports unless the wine is accompanied by laboratory analysis proving that the wine is pure Sangiovese.”

I understand regulations on producers to ensure that Brunello is in fact 100% Sangiovese, but is this level of control necessary? Is it really feasible to ask this of all 200 or so producers that export wines to the US? What do you think: has it gone too far, or is this an important step in preserving the tradition and integrity of one of the worlds most amazing wines?

Image: Taken in Montalcino of an Enoteca on one of the main roads into town.

Wine ratings and tasting notes: Perspectives and context

A wine by any other price will smell even sweeter? Eric Asimov, writer and wine blogger for the New York Times, wrote a piece this week (”Wine’s Pleasures: Are they all in your head?”) outlining the variables that contribute to enjoying a wine, as well as the functionality and utility of tasting notes. He addressed the issue that has been the focus of recent research; that many people like or dislike a wine based on price or rating, rather than actual taste. Overall, Asimov’s article is a good read, summarizing a few recent studies that have the same basic conclusion: many people (non experts) seem to prefer less expensive wines.

In his article, Asimov stated that he feels that “consumers face an impenetrable swamp of winespeak.” At this point, he referenced a tasting note written by Wine Spectator’s James Molesworth: “Dark and rich, with lots of fig bread, mocha, ganache, prune and loam notes. Stays fine-grained on the finish, with lingering sage and toast hints.” (Moleworth responded in his blog, acknowledging Asimov’s professionalism yet pointing out that Asimov himself often uses similar writing descriptors when evaluating a wine. Molesworth also contends that as long as the reader understands the terms, they are quite useful). This got me to thinking: have tasting notes gone too far? Are they no longer useful and if anything, an antagonist in the “wine can be informal and fun” movement? I don’t think this is the case at all. Read more

The Wine World Gone Crazy: I guess wine ratings do mean everything

If you frequently visit the forums of the major wine publications, you’ve been noticing a fervor of activity as of late regarding the 2005 vintage of Bordeaux wines. As most of you are probably aware, Bordeaux is one of the premier wine regions in the world. Each year more than 700 million bottles of Bordeaux wine (both white and red) are produced while people (enthusiasts and speculators) across the world wait anxiously for their release. Bordeaux wines are so popular that you can buy them up to two years before their release (called buying “futures”). These “futures” are intended to allow wine enthusiasts to secure bottles of their favorite, highly sought after wines year in and year out at a set “release price”. The reward of buying futures is that in a good vintage, such as 2005, the wines tend to go up in cost by the time the reach the market. This is especially true when a vintage is over-hyped (again as 2005), as is even more so when the US Dollar is very weak against the Euro. Read more

Flavored Malt Beverages ARE NOT BEER! Score one for the good guys.

You may remember my reporting on the “Definition of Beer” bill that I sat in on last month in the Maryland State Senate. This topic deals with the classification of “Flavored Malt Beverages” as “Beer” versus “Spirits” or other classifications. This has implications on tax law as well as who is allowed to sell these “Alcopops” (as they are also referred to.

I, as well as state attorney general Gansler, am totally against this change in the classification of FMB’s to “beer” (again read the previous post). Unfortunately, our representatives voted in favor of the wholesalers/distributors to classify these “alcopops” as “beer” (take a look at tax records to see how much money lobbyists contributed to our representatives campaigns in the last few years…it’s sickening).

But, wait, good news!: The Baltimore Sun (and our friends at Vinotrip) reported that on Wednesday, Governor Martin O’Malley came through, delaying the signing of the bill as he considers the repercussions of such legislation. Now might be a good time to contact your local legislature or send a letter to the Governor to let him know that we citizens of Maryland won’t stand for FMB’s being classified as beer.