Canlis: A Seattle Food and Wine Oasis

Canlis is so much more than a place to eat and drink well in Seattle.  A combination of the scintillating year-old menu rejuvenation driven by ex-Eleven Madison Park Chef Jason Franey and the Canlis family’s sustained approach to warmth and hospitality leaves diners with nothing less than a spa-like afterglow on each visit.  Last year [...]

Sake Mastery, Prosecco Fun, and Independence Day

Saké and Prosecco occupy my brain’s vinous lobe on this independence day, shoving aside thoughts of domestic barbecue reds, rosés, and celebratory sparklers as swiftly and completely as South Africa’s American-less pitches vacated our nation’s collective mindset.   Last year at this time, I added a caveat to Alder Yarrow’s thoughts of wine independence with a serious look [...]

Menton: Reaching For the Stars (Michelin?) from Boston’s Fort Point

Menton’s team would be discovering and learning in only their third week of service, and we would be celebrating a full and exact 25 years of marriage; an intriguing juxtaposition of experience.  Still, I decided to ring up Eli Feldman, Director of Operations at Barbara Lynch Gruppo, to squeeze into their newest project for our [...]

2004 Dumol Syrah: A Country Club Wine?

American country clubs and their wine lists are simpatico; boring, nondescript bottles of wine punctuated by a few “has been”, overpriced, tired Cabernet and Chardonnay brands served up to a homogeneous pool of status-subscribing members willing to pay for social standing.   Apologies for these harshly extreme generalizations, but my memory banks were recently refreshed at a [...]

Wine and Food at Troquet: Half of Uncanny New York Analog

On August 26, 2009 Frank Bruni inked his last New York Times Dining column answering a group of questions that follow around restaurant critics with pulpits as authoritative as his.   Finding great value is on everyone’s minds these days, and his “top value spot” answer to New York foodies neatly covered two of my favorite [...]

Fantasy Wine Fiction: Dinner for One

via drinksareonme.net
Last week Dale Cruse, the irreverently astute and bright mind behind www.drinksareonme.net asked if I was interested in playing along with a new game he cooked up called “crowdsourcing wine fan fiction”.  I knew it had to be some neat way to legitimize or make sense of the sensually interesting and edgy wine inclusive photos Dale has shared [...]

Zen, Hot Dogs, and Albarino

Yes, as the post’s title reflects, there is wine involved.  But this simple, value infused story of Willy completely transcends the bottle of Rias Baixas  blended white varietals I presented to him a few mornings ago in our annual Christmas gift exchange (I always get his wife’s heavenly spiced papaya dish) on a beach we ritually retreat to near San Juan, Puerto Rico.
At the end of [...]

Courting Mencia: How Have I Lived Without You?

Bear with me, I am falling in love again.  I have been peripatetically traversing the Ribeira Sacra and Bierzo regions by tasting every Mencia wine I manage to unearth and then blabbering away about the new discoveries here at WineZag.   A byproduct of utter submission to my new Mencia tick, I recently met up with Joe Austekewicz, wine director at Yankee Spirits, who just returned from a foray through these very regions alongside Eric Solomon .
Traveling [...]

Gastropub Victory: The HORSESHOE

I finally had my chance to check out the London gastropub scene.  Staying out in Northwest London’s handsome, tree-lined, Victorian row house street defined village of Hampstead, I booked us into The HORSESHOE, a welcome gastro/microbrewery rebirth of an old, dreary run down pub on Hampstead Street which years ago convinced me that there were better places to sip ale.  Fresh paint, smart lighting, [...]

Declaring Mencia King

My love affair with the Mencia grape is officially out of control.  Tasting through more of these wines at Toro (which is by the way Ken Oringer’s restaurant serving very serious food in a relaxed but energy charged atmosphere…sitting on my top ten all-time list for “simply delicious” and a winning choice for Beantown foodie indulgence) convinced me that my first [...]

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