When you think French wine, you probably think expensive. And you might think of French cuisine or expensive fancy food.
When we got the prompt for this month’s French Winophiles — to go cross-cultural– we started thinking about the wonderful and surprising pair of lamb curry with Grenache and Cab Franc from Meeker Vineyard. We decided we wanted to try a spicy food with an inexpensive (under $20 red wine).
And that led us to something similar but different for this week’s prompt: Mexican mole sauce with French wine. Continue reading →
— Gwendolyn Alley, Art and Wine Predator (@ArtPredator) April 6, 2017
For me, that’s when I call my spouse, or he calls me, and says, “Put the pasta water on!” and we pick up either fresh pesto from Trader Joe’s or meat sauce from our favorite local Italian restaurant, Ferraros, and sometimes both! The person at home throws together either a caesar salad (do a three minute boil on the eggs in the pasta water! surprisingly easy!) or a green salad with Sue’s Simple Gorgonzola Dressing, and we have a delicious, inexpensive dinner in less time than it would take to go out and with only a very few dishes.
The key of course, is to have good quality sauce and pasta plus the right wine! And for us, another standard is to eat and drink as sustainably and organically as possible, something that we care about every day, but we will be pointing out this month because
What does Easter look like to you? For Sue, it’s friends and family gathering around a great meal with Easter bread, plenty of wine and Torrnone candy!
At first, we weren’t going to join this month’s Italian Wine Food Travel edition of Italian Easter Traditions hosted by Vino Travels because we had too much going on and with spring break activities, we didn’t think we’d be around. But then Sue started talking about her Italian family’s tradition of a special Easter Bread, and I told her that of course she had to make this so we could participate!
Italian Easter bread is full of parmesan goodness!
Italian Easter bread was always present on Sue’s family’s table for Easter dinner, and so that was the start of our inspiration, then when we had lunch with Lisa Anselmi and she started talking about her family’s tradition of asparagus risotto at Easter and how well it paired with their Capitel Foscarino wine, we knew what else had to be on our menu. Continue reading →
According to the Seattle Times, Jessica Munnell and her husband Juan Munoz-Orca make the most wine in the state of Washington: in 2016 Munnell was responsible for 60K cases at Mercer while her husband produced 2 million at Columbia Crest where they met in 2001. Mercer has the capacity to expand to 100k cases.
That’s a lot of Washington wine! That made Jessica Munnell a natural for us to feature for Women’s History Month here on Wine Predator. Well that, and we love her wine! And the commitment to sustainability professed by Mercer too!
Plus isn’t Sharp Sisters a great name for a wine to toast women winemakers during Women’s History Month?
This week, lift your glass to Cesar Chavez who was born on March 31! And do so with a wine from Ordaz!
As wine drinkers, we reflect often on the accomplishments of winemakers; see for example, my recent post about Merry Edwards.
But as winemakers are quick to remind us, wine is not made in the winery, but in the vineyards. Without excellent fruit, the wine will not be as wonderful.
While many winemakers do tend their own grapes (again looking at you Merry Edwards, and you Bruce Freeman!), the bulk of the work lands on the shoulders of those field hands who toil throughout the year to help each vine produce each precious grape. Continue reading →
Today we turn our attention to women in wine in the US starting with winemaker Merry Edwards who began her career in wine in 1974 making her one of California’s first women winemakers.
Now that spring has sprung, it is officially festival season! No matter where you live, there are great festivals about! Coming up this Sunday April 26 is Essentials in downtown Los Angeles and the following weekend March 30-April 2 is the Garagiste Festival in Santa Ynez!
ESSENTIAL : top 99 restaurants as determined by LA Weekly
GARAGISTE Syn: Rule-breakers, pioneers, renegades, mavericks, driven by passion.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 