Yes, it could be one of those double-take inducing headlines from the Onion, but then it wouldn’t be true and Jane Anson says it is. Anson is a Bordeaux-based wine and travel writer who blogs about the world’s most interesting wine region at newbordeaux.com. Her site also offers essay-length treatments of subjects no one takes…
Well, we smelled it . . . and we liked it
Mary Orlin (aka The Wine Fashionista), had a little tutorial on the Huffington Post yesterday entitled “The six aromas you don’t want to smell in your wine.”. According to the author, the post had its origin in a course T.W.F. took at the Culinary Institute of America called “The sensory analysis of wine,” where students…
What was Bernie thinking?
We may never know what what fraudmaster Bernie Madoff was thinking as he systematically fleeced his investors of millions, but thanks to the asset recovery project run by court-appointed trustee Irving H. Picard we can at least know what he was drinking. On May 18, Morrell Company Fine Wine Auctions will bring down the hammer on…
Functional food / functional wine
Two New York Times stories put the spotlight on so-called “functional foods” this weekend. One (Dessert, Laid-Back and Legal) reported on processed snacks containing melatonin; another (Foods with Benefits, or So They Say) attempted to shed light on the murky world of health claims on food labels. Does its oatmeal really help reduce cholesterol, as…
World class wine where you might least expect it
Driving the back roads of Maine’s mid coast last week brought us to Harpswell, population 5300, one of Casco Bay’s sweet spots. We saw charming white churches and quite a few homes with lobster traps stacked in the yard. Here and there a bend in the road yielded a magnificent view of the bay and…
Why sweet wine at Passover?
Over at The Atlantic, Brandeis historian Yoni Applebaum is speculating on why sweet wines are favored for Passover. He tells an intriguing story involving homemade (or at least locally-produced) raisin wine and the gradual emergence of the native Concord variety as the grape of choice for a series of New York wineries catering to the…