Friday night was a big night; the Sox game was on, and we had a dinner of grilled zucchini, mashed sweet potatoes, and steak. What better accompaniment than a nice big Cabernet Sauvignon. We happened to have a ten year old bottle that I got from work (retail value $90) that I was eager to try. It's not everyday that I drink $90 wines, so I had rather high hopes. The one thing that worried me was Bryan's quick research online, revealing reports of it being past its prime...

Every Saturday morning I make the trip out of the city to Russos to buy fresh produce. I wish I could say that I go there for the inexpensiveve fruit and veges, the great Italian deli, the freshly baked bread, or the selection of imported olive oil. And I can say this, because it's true. But the real reason why I drive out of the city to shop instead of finding a more convenient place in the city is to visit Mark, the head cheese guy at the front of the cheese counter.

Mark is passionate about his cheese. Every week I show up, and even when he's busy, he invites me over. "Hey, I got something really cool in, you gotta try this," he'll say.

Continuing my wine pairing education, I attempted to do the (near) impossible by cooking a spicy Asian seafood dish and pairing it successfully with a wine of my choosing.

I am happy to admit that I failed miserably.

Buon giorno! (or buona sera, depending on when you're reading this.) Another month, another wine tasting over the Tubes. This month's tasting, brought to us by good Dr. Vino, focuses on indigenous grape varieties, grown on their native soil.  We're talking about grapes that are not "The Big Six" -- Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. We're talking ancient wines from ancient places.

A couple of weeks ago I was at loose ends after work and decided to head to a rose tasting at Club Cafe sponsored by Boston Wine Tasters . It was free, there were twenty wines to choose from, and I love rose, so it was an easy decision.

I am bored. I have not uttered these words in months!  But I have found something to occupy myself, as there always a wine that needs tasting.  I just cracked open a bottle of Figuero del Duero, a tempranillo from the Ribera del Duero region of Spain, and it was a pleasant surprise. 

A couple of weeks ago I was at loose ends after work and decided to head to a rose tasting at Club Cafe sponsored by Boston Wine Tasters. It was free, there were twenty wines to choose from, and I love rose, so it was an easy decision. I took the approach that I have just christened "strategic snobbery"; I aimed to try the more expensive wines so I would know whether or not to purchase them in the future. As for the less expensive ones, I'm willing to take a gamble and just grab a bottle in the store without having tried it before. I also avoided the few names that I recognized and knew I could easily find in most any wine shop. And thus, my epic tasting began.

The past couple of weeks, our wine class has covered Germany and Austria. One of our instructors, Sandy Block, MW (the VP of Beverage Operations for the Boston culinary institution Legal Seafoods) shared his opinion that Grüner Veltliner isn't his favorite white variety. After tasting a flight of Riesling from Germany and Austria, I can understand why.

Depending on who you ask and when you ask it, the line German-French border is either the Rhine river or the Vosges mountains, 25 km west. German winemakers believe that a greate wine achieves a natural balance between the residual sugar and the its acidity. They tend to be on the low side when it comes to alcohol content. And though grape varieties and the town names -- in fact, much of the region's language -- may be German, the wine is most definitely French. That is, it's made with more lusciousness and body that pairs it well with food.

In 1985, a few unsavory Austrian wine producers were found to have added diethylene glycol to their wines in order to give them more body (a heavier feel in the mouth). While not illegal, this action was a huge scandal, considering that diethylene glycol is not a wine additive, but a coolant.

It takes only one second to make a reputation, but it can take a lifetime to break it, something that the Austrian wine industry has tried very hard to do since. Thanks to some talented and perspicacious winemakers like Willi Bründlmayer from the Kremstal and Emmerich Knoll from the Wachau, whose Riesling I will discuss post-haste, Austrian wine now is regarded as some of the best in the world.