Vinitaly: Volcanic Italy Wine Tasting

Vinitaly, the international wine and spirits exhibition touring the United States, stopped in New York for a day to showcase, naturally, Italian wines and, to a much lesser extent, spirits. I had the good fortune to be invited by The Feisty Foodie to accompany her on a rainy Wednesday. In addition to the wineries, distributors, and wine stores displaying and offering their wines on the main floor, tastings and educational seminars were held upstairs, and we were almost immediately invited to join one: “Volcanic Italy – an Exploration of the Explosive White Wines of Soave and Etna”. Essentially, we tasted [...]

Cafe Frida: Wine & Food Festival Kickoff

Recently I was invited to attend the official launch for the 2012 Cancun-Riviera Maya Wine & Food Festival, to be held in Cancun next March. The event, four days of special celebrations and dozens of tasting opportunities, will honor chefs both in Mexico and abroad for their culinary accomplishments, centered around a tribute to Ferran Adriá, the world-famous godfather of molecular gastronomy at El Bullí in Spain. But this night wouldn’t be about meeting Adriá (boo!), it was to introduce the New York press and blogging community to the richness of Mexican cuisine and, yes, tequila and wine (yay!) at [...]

Chateau Ste. Michelle Wines, Pt. 2

Last week I discussed a couple of white wines from Chateau Ste. Michelle labels. This week, it’s two red wines from the Pacific Northwest, a pinot noir from the Willamette Valley, and a red table wine blend from the Columbia Valley. The Erath, a 2008 Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, was uncorked first. As you might have noticed — and if you didn’t, the bottle will tell you — Erath is an anagram of both HEART and EARTH. Yep. As the wine’s philosophy of sorts is spelled out on the label, Grapes from the EARTH, wines from [...]

danny brown wine bar & kitchen

After Eddie’s, Beer Boor left to go about his own business, leaving Hungry, TC, MadJac and I to wander the few blocks over to Danny Brown Wine Bar.  I first heard of this place years ago from Avenue Food, and I’ve always meant to get over there but never had the chance.  I’ve gone in for a glass of wine before a movie, but that was the extent of it… and then, late last year, news broke: Queens had its first Michelin star, and Danny Brown had brought it home for us.  Wow.  So I was even more excited to [...]

Finger Lakes Region Wine Excursion – Quality Wine Tours

A while back, darling StB and I were chatting about taking a brief weekend trip with the girls to taste wines in the Finger Lakes region.  After a bit of back and forth, I managed to pull together 7 girls to rent a house in Penn Yan.  I rented a ginormous SUV – consider that I currently drive a small Japanese car – and managed to figure out how to drive it.  Sort of.  That thing was heavy… no acceleration whatsoever!  While we were up there, I wanted to go wine tasting, but I didn’t want to be or need a [...]

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