Alcohol, Balance and Style: the Problem with Robert Parker
I first posted this piece in 2011 and the problem persists. The vast majority of the wines I taste each year are tasted blind. I only learn the name of the wine after I've made my notes. My ratings are based entirely on taste. I don't discount a wine's score if I...
April 2015 Value Wines of the Month
Mirassou, 2011 California Cabernet Sauvignon: With its plum, spice, cinnamon, clove and vanilla flavors, the 2011 Mirassou Cabernet is almost too intense (like mulled wine). Yet on the palate it has a silky texture, good structure, and a long fruit-spice-earth finish....
Tempting Tempranillo
Founded in 2003, the Grandes Pagos de España — great growths of Spain— honors single estate wines from its thirty premium member wineries. Many of them were on display at a recent tasting in San Francisco, at the Absinthe Brasserie & Bar, where the food...
Serralunga d’Alba – Classic Barolo and Food
The Barolo production zone is comprised of eleven communes that vary in size as well as style. While there are a few that are quite small, containing only a few dozen acres of Nebbiolo vines used to produce Barolo, there are five that emerge as the leading areas for...
March 2015 Value Wines of the Month
I’m taking a slight chance in recommending these wines, simply because they’re non-vintage, and therefore the batches I tried may not be the exact same wines you find on the supermarket shelf. Nonetheless, I feel that Gallo, which makes the wine, has sufficient...
Culinary Getaway to the Gervasi Vineyard
If you like to cook, drink wine, or just enjoy a fabulous meal prepared by someone else, you must plan a getaway to the Gervasi Vineyard in Canton, Ohio. Hidden away in a quiet neighborhood, you will probably think you have taken a wrong turn until you spot the...
AND THE WINNER IS: Aging California Cabernet (an update)
When I began drinking wine in 1970, Bordeaux was the standard by which all other Cabernet and Bordeaux-style blends were judged. At the time, it was understood that only the best wines benefited from age, and that aging was necessary to coax out the flavors in these...
2012 Bordeaux — a Cool Dozen
2012 was a difficult vintage by all accounts. Those wineries leaning more heavily on Merlot did better, as the Merlot ripened before the rain hit. The Cabernet Sauvignon was late in ripening; rain hit in the last week of September and continued on and off through...
February 2015 Value Wines of the Month:
2013 Geyser Peak, California, Sauvignon Blanc: A relatively simple wine with tart grapefruit and melon rind flavors, it’s refreshing and properly structured to work well as an aperitif or paired with oily foods. 86 points. $7.00 2013 Mark West,...
Marc Hébrart Champagne – Balance over Power
The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book The Essence of Champagne: In the Glass and at the Table by Tom Hyland, to be published in 2015. Text and photos ©Tom Hyland. Jean-Paul Hébrart, Champagne Marc Hébrart (Photo ©Tom Hyland) At Champagne...
Moroccan Stoup offers Warm Comfort
As defined by Rachel Ray, a stoup comes in somewhere between a soup and a stew in consistency...and that is what we have with this simple-to-assemble one pot wonder. For the vegetable you can use any leafy green or even a combination of several: kale is always...
Three Rules of Gelato: How to Order Like an Italian
“So... Italian gelato. Take the deliciousness of a regular ice-cream cone, times it by a million, then sprinkle it with crushed-up unicorn horns.” (Jenna Evans Welch, Love & Gelato) Gelato. Just thinking about it causes me to break out in a...
Guilty conscience?
Just over two weeks after the controversial opening of a McDonald’s in a Vatican-owned building just outside St. Peter’s Square, on January 16th the popular fast food chain started to distribute some 1,000 free meals to the homeless from here. Ironically, this “act of...
Holy Cow! The Holy See Rents to McDonald’s and The Hard Rock Café
I’m culture editor of the monthly print magazine Inside the Vatican. In the May 2015 issue I published an interview with Monsignor Pasquale Iacobone, the Holy See’s Special Delegate for “Expo”, the World’s Fair with a food theme hosted in Milan from May 1 to October...
CauliBroc with Spicy Mint Sauce
Broccoli and cauliflower make fine bedfellows when covered with this exceptional sauce, which can also be used to spice up other vegetables ordinarily labeled bland or boring. Quantities do not need to be exact...start with what's written here and then...
A Taste-Tempting Oasis in the Heart of St. Augustine:
At street level, A1A is indeed a bar with 11 tables and an onsite micro brewery. Upstairs, you’ll find the kitchen, another bar, a full-service restaurant with 55 tables and a banquet room complete with crystal chandeliers that can seat up to 100 diners.
Lib’s Grill: Great Food and Drink North of Baltimore
When Lib’s Grill was getting ready to open the community held its breath. Would this be a much needed improvement over the last restaurant to occupy the space? Perry Hall needed a restaurant and bar with a fun atmosphere and good food. Lib’s Grill delivered bigtime...
A French Oasis in Baden-Baden with One Michelin Star
STÉPHAN BERNHARD: An Alsatian, French, and European Chef In mid-July thanks to the Tourist Board of Baden-Baden I spent three days in this charming spa town in Baden-Württemberg. I visited several museums: Frieder Burda devoted to contemporary art, another to the...
Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse: Dining Excellence in New Orleans
Mention the name "Brennan" to residents of New Orleans, and you get immediate recognition and appreciation for the culinary accomplishments of the Brennan family. Their contributions to the dining scene in the Big Easy, a city synonymous with great food, are vast....
Rodelio Aglibot: “Food Buddha”
I first met and interviewed Rodelio Aglibot at the opening of “Me Geisha”, his restaurant in Rome, in early December 2015. Although he divides his time between Chicago and Los Angeles, he is a globetrotter so we have seen each other several other times in Rome....
Americans in Paris: Not Enough of ‘Em
The absence of tourists unsettled by the recent terrorist attacks makes this an excellent time to visit to the City of Light. ‘They must be right,’ I said. ‘The official word is that tourism’s down twenty percent, and it certainly looks it.’ I was talking to Valerie...
The Incomparable Valle de Guadalupe
Zipping southbound along the shimmering coastline mid-morning, there is a familiar feel and look. Not for long. From La Misión, La Ruta del Vino (the Wine Route) twists east to a vivid contrast of vines and olive trees, the Sonoran Desert and looming mountain...
From Top to Toe in St. Lucia
The best way to get a proper sense of the island, it seemed, was to work my way up the island by road and by boat. More than anywhere St. Lucia is best visited by being on the move. The thing to do is to change hotels every few days. For all its beauty and fecundity,...
Epicurean Puerto Vallarta
Astonishing storefronts and restaurants march up and down the Malecón, but my eyes gravitate to the art spectacles framed by the Pacific. As we meander the mile-long esplanade, from “La Nostalgia” (Nostalgia) to “La Rotunda del Mar” (the Roundabout of the Sea) to the...
Prowess in Pittsburgh
Heinz. Duquesne. PPG. Brats. Pierogi. Neighborhoods. Primanti sandwich. “Pittsburgh left.” Bridges. There’s something about Pittsburgh. It was the big city across the bridge from the little town I visited as a kid, playing and biking the “Old Road” with eight...
Jolt Your Senses: 72 Hours in San Mateo County
It’s familiar territory, I thought as the descent to SFO began. Au contraire. San Mateo County/ Silicon Valley has altered the City by the Bay and the world beyond belief, yet a visitor to the famed Bay Area might completely bypass its food, festivity and funk....
Hotels in Antigua
“Back can wait, but not belly” is a well-known Antiguan saying. Whether this refers to a massage before lunch I never found out but luxury is very much on offer in the following four Leeward Islands hotels. I flew first to Barbuda and to Barbuda North...
Thailand’s Top Wellness Spas
Spa holidays in Thailand are legendary. But perhaps not that well-known by the male fraternity. For years female visitors have been indulging in a number of beauty treatments. Aesthetic clinics abound that focus on beauty that is skin deep, while professional beauty...
Lisa Calcus and Nicolas Campus: The Perfect Match
Thanks to the generosity of the Belgian Tourist Office for Brussels and Wallonia in New York, I spent four wonderful days in the city of Mons, the capital of the Belgian province of Hainaut near the French border, and of European Culture in 2015. I had assignments...
Idaho Idyll
Until last fall, when I participated in a tasting tour of southern Idaho, I’d passed through the state perhaps half a dozen times, always on my way to somewhere else. It’s easy to forget how big the United States is, and how big the individual states are, particularly...