ShopEatDrink

Have you finished your Christmas shopping?  Most of us will wait ’till the last minute.  Thought a few more wine gift ideas would be helpful.

The hottest wine accessory, gadget…Vinturi.  It is a wine aerator that you use while pouring a glass of wine. That means it acts like a mini decanter -  it gets air into the wine and opens up bouquet and flavors. It is a two-handed operation. Uncork the wine, hold the Vinturi over the glass and pour. You’ll hear a sucking sound — that’s the wine being aerated. Best for red wines, but can be used for white wines too.  I’ve seen wineries use it in their tasting rooms so what you taste is the true wine.Comes with rubber stand and a travel pouch and retails for about $30.  You can usually find this at a wine shop, or you can order online.

I did my own taste test on a Cotes du Rhone that was really tannic.  The wine, once it passed through the Vinturi, was much softer and drinkable, where it wasn’t before.

Another gift idea — Govino wine tumblers.  Plastic wine glasses get a bad rap, but these are really cool. Govino glasses look like a famous stemless brand, but won’t break, can be used again and are recyclable.  There’s an indention for your thumb that makes the glass easy to hold [although I recommend holding by top of glass when you swirl so as not to warm the wine up too much].  One set is 4 in a box that retails for about $12,  and again you can find at most wine shops or online.

There are 100 point wines, wines that age beautifully and cult cabernets.  But I’d rather drink a wine with soul — one that stirs my soul, one that is expressive and a delight to drink. Nothing’s better than discovering a new soulful wine.

In this case, I found two! over dinner with friends at Wood Tavern in Oakland.  The restaurant is a great place — always packed but it still feels so comfortable.  And the food as it turns out is soulful too.

On to the wines.  The first, a Priorat, 2004 Joan Gine´ from Spainish producer Buil Gine’.  I love Priorats, they are fragrant, fruity (think lush red cherry) with minerality and well-balanced and just delicious.  You don’t see many Priorats on wine lists, but I always order it when I see it.  The Joan Gine’ does not disappoint!  It’s made from Grenache (Garnacha), Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon. [retail $32]

Wood Tavern's pork belly

The second wine is an ’07 Lewis Syrah.  Rhone varietals are my favorites, and Lewis has an outstanding bottling here.   The nose just bursts out of the glass.  This is a rich, voluptous wine.  You’ll definitley notice the deep, inky color.  You may think it’s too big and powerful, but paired with a dish like pork belly, you really can’t go wrong.  It’s smokey and chewy and intensely soulful. [retail $70]

What are your soulful wines?

Hanukkah has begun. It’s time for lighting the menora, 8 nights of gifts and best of all latkes and jelly donuts.  But the wine? Manishevitz doesn’t do it. My pick is bubbly. Sparkling wine pairs terrifically with crisp latkes (fried potato cakes) or sufganiyot(fried donuts filled with jelly) which are traditional Hanukkah foods.  Actually bubbles go with ANY fried food and this is a holiday that celebrates oil.  Go ahead, try a glass with French fries or potato chips.  Why sparkling?  The bubbles help cut through the oil and refresh the palate.  Plus sparkling wine is versatile and goes with both sweet and savory dishes, so you only need one wine.

Yes, French Champagne is expensive, but the American sparkling wines are more affordable and equally fantastic, if not better in some cases. For every day value you can’t go wrong with Domaine Ste. Michelle, a producer in Washington state. You’ll find bottles of their blanc de blancs for $10 – $12. Another good one is Mumm Napa’s brut prestige that goes for about $15 – $18.

For a little splurge – it is the holidays – two of my favorites. Iron Horse makes a wonderful classic vintage brut ($33) and Schramsberg’s blanc de blancs ($36) is a nice choice too.

What about kosher sparkling wine? I haven’t had it, but Baron Herzog offers a brut. I’d love to know if you’ve had a kosher bubbly and what you think of it.

What to get the wine lover in your life who has everything?  Here’s a gadget (we all know how wine geeks love their toys!)  Nuvo Vino is an infrared thermometer you use to check your wine’s serving temp.  Super easy to use, you push the top button down and the other end opens up to reveal the thermometer.  You don’t dunk this in the wine.  Instead the infrared collects the surface temp.  

In my homegrown experiment, I had a white wine I wanted to open.  In the bottle the unchilled wine temp was 74 degrees Fareheght.  A little too warm to drink in my opinion.

After chilling in ice for about 25 minutes, the wine poured into a glass was at 49.5  degrees.  That’s in the optimal range of serving temps for this wine, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier.   After sitting in the glass for about 10 minutes, the wine was at 55.5 degrees.  Double checked with an instant read thermometer dipped into the wine, it read 54.6 degrees.  Close enough for me.

The Nuvo Vino comes with a serving temperature chart.  Sells for around $40.

Yes, it’s true, I’ve been a Top Chef fan from day 1. Some times the show irritates me, but mostly it’s entertaining. Are you like me, when you see what the quickfire challenge is, you try to come up with what you’d do? I’m always amazed at what (most) of the cheftestants create. My biggest question has always been, how does it REALLY taste?  Well last night I got to find out. 

There’s a new Top Chef cookbook out, The Quickfire Cookbook, and there was a book signing event at Purcell Murray, the fabulous kitchen showroom.

 Three local San Francisco cheftestants were there —  Jennifer Biesty and Ryan Scott from season 4 and Jaime Lauren from season 5.  Each made one of their quickfire challenge dishes.  They were ALL good.  I think the crowd favorite was Ryan’s lamb patties.  I also loved Jaime’s chickpea soup, with vadouvan spice, and Jennifer’s shrimp and scallop beignets.   And we dished about behind the scenes — and sorry, I can’t reveal the juicy stuff…just know that things don’t happen in the timeline you see on the show.  And stew room sessions can last 6-7 hours, ending around 2 am. 

If you watch the show, you’ll know there’s a new wine label out there — Quickfire wines.  We’ve seen the cheftestants drink them in the stew room.  The ’08 Chard and ’05 Cab were being poured.

I really wanted to like these wines, esp. at the 20 dollar price point.  But I just didn’t like them. Both wines over oaked, and very little fruit comes through, plus they are thin and flabby.  I’m told they were made to highlight the wide variety of quickfire dishes.  Well if that’s the case, I can definitely say the wine does not overpower or compete with the dishes.

One of the hottest jewelry designers around happens to be in wine country.  Robindira Unsworth’s studio is based in Petaluma, CA (Sonoma Co.). Her jewelry was just featured on the cover of The New York Times Style Magazine and also in the editorial feature.  But Robindira made it big time when her jewelry was worn by the model on the cover of this year’s Sports Illustrated.

Happily I can say I knew her when.  I met Robindira at Wine Women & Shoes three years ago.  That lead to shooting a feature of her for In Wine Country.

Now you can shop at her studio.  She’s just opened the Atelier at Robindira Unsworth and oh is it ever stocked with goodies!  Lots of great scarves, the most beautiful leather jackets from Blur, and tees, cozy sweaters and fab leather bags from Calleen Cordero — all lines that Robindira just loves.  And of course, you’ll find her jewelry here too.  It’s definitely worth the trip, especially if you’re in wine tasting in Sonoma.

Who doesn’t love learning the latest makeup tricks and backstage secrets?  That’s what Ricky Wilson, makeup artist extrordinaire, was dishing out at his master class for Dior at the Valley Fair Nordstrom.   Ricky has worked on everyone from Beyonce to Sharon Stone.  Top model Jessica Stam is one of his regulars.

Having a front row seat was great.  He showed us step by step his techniques.  One of the best trick – using a highlighter under the eyes and above the eyebrows.  Really gives a lift and brightens your face.

I’m already a Dior fan — the DiorShow Iconic mascara changed my life.  Before, I always used Maybelline’s iconic Great Lash, you know the one with the green top and pink tube.  I didn’t think it was worth it to spend more than a few bucks on mascara.  But once I tried DiorShow there was no going back.  Lashes appeared out of no where.

Then it was hands-on time, replicating the techiques on our own, with supervision from Ricky and his team of makeup artists.   What I learned:  1. Foundation doesn’t have to go all over your face .  2. Let first coat of mascara dry before applying second coat.  This help avoid clumping.  3. You can do a smokey eye in any color.

Of course all of this is done in the name of ringing up purchases at the register.  My new can’t live without product…the brow styler, a foolproof pencil and brush.

Wine is made in all 50 states of the USA, in Mexico, in Canada, South America, Europe, China, Africa. And now you can add Georgia to that list, although we’re 7000 years behind in recognizing this country as a wine producer. One winery wants to change that and held a debut party of sorts in San Francisco.

Bagrationi is a sparkling wine producer, making bubbly since 1882 when they became the first winery to do so in the Georgia region. The winery’s representatives in the US were pouring 4 wines.

Two of them, the classic brut and classic extra dry are made in the methode Charmat, from three grape varieties I’m pretty sure you’ve not heard of: Chiuri, Mstsvane and Tsitska. Methode Charmat means the wine goes through the 2nd fermentation — which is responsible for the bubbles — in big tanks. If you drink Prosecco then you’ve had a sparkling wine made the same way. I prefered the classic brut, which was crisp and light.

Bubblies made in the methode Champenoise have a second fermantation that happens in the bottle. Bagrationi was also pouring two wines made in the methode Champenoise, a reserve and royal cuvee. Both are 2007 vintage wines, while the brut and extra dry are both non-vintage. I really liked the reserve, also made with the same three grapes. The royal cuvee grew on me, especially after tasting it paired to a hamachi appetizer. Both were fruity and crisp with a nice complexity in the nose and on the palate.

Where can you get a taste?  Right now these wines are available at a handful of restaurants and retailers in the San Francisco Bay area and the Los Angeles area.  Online you can go t0 www.barclayswine.com

I just thought that this dish was photo-worthy. It’s a char siu marinated Alaskan black cod. The red color is amazing and yes, the dish tastes as good as it looks. It’s on the menu at The Red Crane in Cupertino, CA – and at lunch it’s $12 with miso soup, and garlic noodles and bok choy.

What’s char siu you ask? It’s a type of cooking and seasoning. According to Wikipedia, char siu is a method of barbeque or roasting, and the seasoning or marinade is responsible for the red color. Red miso is typically used, along with honey, five spice powder, soy and hoisin sauce. All I know is that the cod was buttery and a little sweet and absolutely delicious.

Do you get subscription offers like this?

I just got two letters from Lucky magazine - which is a magazine about shopping, natch. Take a look at the photos. One envelope says “Thank you. We’re pleased to have you with us!” Very nice, right? Inside is a form to renew my subscription for $9.97. But wait, didn’t I just already renew? Oh but at $9.97 I’ll save 72% off the $35.88 cover price.

The other letter from Lucky comes in an envelope that says “Expiration Notice.” Inside there’s a form saying that if I reply by 12/13/09 I can save 79% off the cover price of $71.76 for $15 including a gift subscription. Wait, isn’t that a better deal? But what if I don’t want to send a gift subscription? Looks like I still pay $15. Not such a deal then.

On both forms it states my current subscription expires in Nov ’10. A year away and they want to get more money now. Being a journalist, I know how bad the magazine industry is right now, with ad dollars way down. Subscriptions are the other main revenue stream. But what am I to think with these mixed messages of “Thank you” and “Expiration notice”? One thing’s for sure, I’m waiting until next year to renew. Who knows what the offers will look like then.