As the new year begins to unfold, I ponder with great anticipation all of the upcoming wine-related fun that 2010 holds.  Many dinners, tastings and special events come to mind, but to be a part of all of this, a little pre-planning is needed.  Get your calendars out and consider attending these affairs, many of which are in your own back yard. 

Krewe of Cork Parade (February 5)

            The Krewe of Cork is a Mardi Gras event that combines the three things I love most- wine, food, and fun!  The day begins with the check-in party and continues as a parade through the French Quarter, with krewe members donning wine and grape-related costumes.  The event culminates with a King and Queen’s party that evening.  In between, there is wine, food of course, then wine and a brass band, and then more wine.  Don’t miss this one.  To find out more, visit www.kreweofcork.com for information about membership and to see some pictures (as above)...

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 … and my personal prescription for jolliness is to have a delicious libation to celebrate the season.  Champagne and wine are wonderful on their own, but they are even better when mixed with other spirits and ingredients to create real holiday cheer.  Following are some of my tried and true recipes for making the holidays bright at all of the fun events that the season brings. 

Mulled Wine - This is a holiday tradition that has been enjoyed for hundreds of years.  It’s simply wine that has been slightly sweetened, spiked and spiced.  When it’s cold outside, this is a great drink to enjoy around a bonfire or at any outdoor event.  Here’s what you need:

2/3 cup sugar

(1) 750ml bottle red wine

1/2 cup brandy

6 to 8 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

Orange peel from 1/2 orange

Pour the wine into a saucepan and place over low heat.  Cut the zest off the orange peel with a sharp paring knife or vegetable peeler (if some of the bitter white pith is still attached...

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            Thanksgiving is the biggest wine holiday of the year.  You might expect that, because with all that yummy food, – you of course need a great wine to wash it down.  Every November I write about what I would drink and recommend for the big feast.  I thought I’d add a twist this year and get some opinions from others on the subject.  With that in mind, I surveyed some of my northshore wine and foodie friends to find out what they might be drinking at their tables on turkey day. 

            Roslyn Prieto, owner of Rips on the Lake, usually makes a traditional turkey with cornbread dressing, but sometimes cooks a crown of pork.  She’s a big fan of Bouchaine winery and recommends their Chardonnay with the turkey and Pinot Noir with the pork.  “Their wines go so well with food,” says Roslyn.

            Tony Bosco, owner of Bosco’s Italian Restaurant, thinks that an Italian Pinot Grigio is the perfect accompaniment to a Thanksgivng meal.  His family does a turkey with their favorite Italian...

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            When people find out that I’m in the wine business, I am usually peppered with questions ranging from the very basic to the very obscure.  Also, I do wine tastings and seminars for wait staff and consumers, and I encourage questions at these.  Most of these questions have fairly simple, understandable answers. After all, wine is just grape juice, with a twist - no ostentatious mysterious hoopla, just juice.  Some of these questions are asked more frequently than others, so I thought repeating a few of these with brief answers might make for interesting reading.

 There is so much information out there about wine; where do I start?

            There’s a ton of information about wine available, from the ABC’s to the trivial details.  The internet is a great place to start your search.  There are videos and pictures from different regions, grapes and wineries that are available right at our fingertips.  I am such a “Google nerd” that when I type in any question, wine-related...

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 Bob and Lelo Kerivan started sharking up the wine industry in 1986.  They converted a 75-acre field in Oregon’s Southern Illinois Valley to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Gewertztraminer, and Pinot Gris grapes using new planting and pruning techniques that were unheard of in the United States.  “You’re crazy!” exclaimed the experienced growers of the region, but the Kerivans ignored the criticism and marched forward.

            As you pull the cork from your favorite bottle of wine, have you ever thought about how the stuff is made? Why it has the taste it does, where it got its brilliant color, how mashed fruit turned into alcohol? Winemaking is one of the oldest, most pervasive and popular of human activities. To make what is essentially high-octane grape juice is pretty easy; making it taste good, however, is a good bit more difficult. It requires the right grape, growing in the right soil, in the right weather. 

What is Wine?

            The answer to this basic question is that wine is fermented grape juice, but with a few extra twists. Fortunately for mankind, it was found early on that if you leave any fruit containing sugar alone for a while it will turn into booze. In the fermentation process, yeast converts any sugar in the fruit into alcohol. Yeast is found naturally floating around everywhere. So if you left some grape juice sitting outside, yeast would probably eventually mix with it and ferment...

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I have been in the wine trade for over twenty years. I’ve visited numerous wineries, attended countless lectures, and most importantly have tasted many wines over the years. I have dealt with a limited amount of distilled products and know the ABC’s of spirit items, but not like I understand wine. As for beer, I drank a few in college, at the beach, and at crawfish boils. It’s cold, goes down easy and is refreshing when you’re hot. But that’s the extent of my experience - end of story.

 

I recently started a new career venture that involves beer – not just big name domestic beer, but hand-crafted, artisan-style beers from around the world. The only thing is I don’t know much about beer, the terminology, styles, tastes, etc. I felt the same way at the beginning of my wine journey and it’s all pretty intimidating.  Just as there are know-it-all wine geeks out there, there are beer geeks trying to stump you all the time.

 

Micro-brews and international beers are part of the trendy...

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I was tasked by this year’s New Orleans Wine and Food Experience (N.O.W.F.E.) to spearhead one of their many annual entertaining and educational seminars. Last year we had the executive chef from the famous Hershey Company pair chocolate with wine. We had so much success with this seminar that we decided to carry through with the “sweet” theme and create a seminar around pastries. 

It was suggested that we serve them with Port wines and call the seminar “Port and Pastries Paired to Perfection.” Great idea, but we needed a little more diversity, so we added Sherry wines to the mix. We then rounded up some of the best New Orleans pastry chefs and asked them to taste through samples of Ports and Sherries and select ones to use in the creation of their signature dishes. As expected, the Ports we chose for the chefs were absolutely beautiful, but the Sherries totally blew my mind. To be quite honest, it had never occurred to me before to drink these luscious Spanish beauties. What have I been missing? That’s...

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Southern France has long been a draw for artists and the jet set.   Vincent Van Gogh painted “Starry Night” there, Cezanne was stirred to paint the awe-inspiring “Mont Sainte-Victoire” and Brigitte Bardot hung out in Saint-Tropez, popularizing the French Riviera for males who maybe didn’t know anything about art, but did know what they liked.  With its beautiful terrain coupled with the sunny weather – who wouldn’t want to be there?  Today it is attracting wine lovers as well.  Producers have moved beyond making over-produced, cheap Rosés to making serious wines with lots of character.

I recently had the privilege of being invited to a wine-tasting trip to Provence, focusing on Rose wines.  My first thought was, “How can you put together a week-long trip focusing on only one type of wine?”   I knew that Rosé wines were rapidly growing in popularity in the United States, but shouldn’t we be looking at some reds and whites on the trip too?  Boy was I wrong.  There was so much to see and learn … so much passion...

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There are many reasons for people to celebrate New Orleans as their home.  Our unique culture includes a passion for food and an insatiable need to find occasions to celebrate.  We have festivals for each of our major local food groups: alligator, strawberries, catfish, and gumbo - you name it.  We consume and name festivals after anything that isn’t poisonous or endangered, and even these we’re probably working on recipes for.  We find joy in food and celebrations!  That’s why it should not surprise anyone to learn that we are home to one of the nation’s most prestigious culinary festivals, The New Orleans Wine and Food Experience (NOWFE).