NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
WHAT I'M DRINKING NOW
By John Mariani
❖❖❖
BRITTANY By John Mariani
Dinan
When speaking of Brittany it is
wise to remember that the Breton language is
Celtic, not French. Even though Brittany has
been battled over and changed sides dozens of
times since the Middle Ages, Bretons retain an indelible link
to their ethnic heritage. Bagpipes are still
played to their folk songs, and their most
beloved hero is the cartoon character Asterix (right), a
kin to Hagar the Horrible.
Brittany has never had much
political clout, even within France. Its destiny
is tied to the sea, its coastline rippled and
dimpled with inlets and harbors that have made its
ports ever the envy of competing powers. Of course, its cuisine
is based on what is drawn from the sea. The
favorite drink is not wine but cider. Buckwheat
crêpes are preferred to loaves of bread. Their
desserts are butter cakes and galettes.And if
you find a pizzeria in a Breton town, the pizza
will be inedible.
The two cities of distinction
to visit along Brittany’s shoreline are Saint-Malo
and, less than an hour away, Dinan. The former
dates back to the 1st century B.C. under Roman
control, taking its name from a 6th century abbey,
and the inhabitants even considered themselves
“Malouines,” rather than Bretons.Jacques
Cartier, who explored Canada under the French
flag, is probably the only Malouine to have name
recognition.
The city’s privateers—pirates
to the British—wreaked havoc on shipping in the
18th and 19th centuries, and in 1944 the Allies
all but bombed the walled city into rubble. The
result was that Saint-Malo has been re-built in
bits and pieces, with some reconstructed timbered
structures alongside faux-Neoclassic and modern
architecture. Still, a walk around the walls of
the compact city and a visit to the 12th century
Cathedral of St. Vincent (whose 15th century
steeple was destroyed in the bombing and took
three decades to restore) will give you a very
true idea of its heritage.
My wife
and I stayed at the very modest, and very
reasonable, hotel Armoricaine
(€90 per night), on the Rue de Boyer, but spent
all our timewalking through the city’s old center,
which is lined with cafés, restaurants and
crêperies. The center is especially lovely at
night, when colored lights are artfully arrayed
against the buildings. The Musée de la
Ville will give you a good overview of the
city’s history.
On our first evening we dined
at a beautiful restaurant set right on the
seashore, La
Brasserie du Sillon (3 Chaussée du
Sillon), whose marine décor put me in mind
of fine seafood houses in New England, with its
polished wood and brick columns, roomy tables and
soft overhead lighting. Quiet jazz music plays in
the background. There’s a
first-rate wine list with fair-minded pricing, as
is the food. I enjoyed an excellent first course
of foie gras terrine with preserves (€19.50) and a
glistening carpaccio of raw scallops (right) with
lemon and oil (€18). Hearty oxtail parmentier
was a French form of shepherd’s pie with a
gratinéed topping of both white and sweet potatoes
(€17.50). Sweetbreads with just-picked morels
(€28) was a wonderful autumn dish, and best of all
was roasted leg of lamb braised for seven hours
till it melted from the bone, accompanied by fried
potatoes and chestnuts(€21.50).For
dessert we enjoyed some of the best profiteroles
(€7) of our trip (left).
Stéphane
Brébel is one of the most creative chefs in the
city at his restaurant L’Absinthe
(1 Rue de
L’Orme), cooking in a modern style by using
spices rarely tasted in Breton cuisine.The
three-story restaurant is located in a rehabbed
17th-century building. Downstairs is prim, with
rustic stone walls, while the mezzanine and the
slightly more intimate upstairs feature walls and
rafters of bright vermillion, hung with modern
portraits and gold-framed, tilted mirrors (below).
The fixed-price menu is a
remarkable bargain at €38, with wine €22 more.
There’s another at €29 and a locavore menu at €47,
as well as one à la carte.We
began our meal with a tapanade amuse on
buttery wafers, then a fine vegetable broth with
small ravioli. Tuna and smoked swordfish
carpaccio were next, served with a tangy orange
sherbet (below).There
was also a sashimi of spiced dorade with seaweed,
yogurt and crystallized ginger and cider vinegar.
Stuffed quail and a
confit of its legs came in a wine-laced butter
sauce, and
scallops were poached in cider. We opted for both
a selection of local cheeses and two desserts—a
poached pear and a sponge cake with
pistachio—neither wonderful.
Dinan is
a much better preserved medieval town than
Saint-Malo, set on the meandering River Rance and
largely undamaged by the Allies, so many extant
buildings actually date back 700 years. It is ideal for long
strolls along the ramparts and through narrow
streets of somewhat tilted timbered buildings,
around the Place des Merciers, with its corbel
extensions of the buildings second floors held up
with wooden pillars. This and several good-sized
plazas enjoy outdoor cafés into November. If you
have the time, The Old Quarter clock tower can be
reached up a 158-step trudge. And if you’re a
railroad aficionado, the Rail Museum
has an extensive collection of model trains. For
hundreds of years Thursday has been when the
outdoor market opens at the busy Place
Du-Guesclin, named after military hero Bertrand Du
Guesclin, who still sits atop his steed as a
bronze commemorative; the buildings date from the
18th and 19th centuries. One can only marvel at
the panoply of local products (left), from
seafood to mushrooms, from cheeses to fruit., with
stalls for children’s clothes and toys. The
tourist office for the town is just down the
street.
Because of Dinan’s quaint
beauty, it has become a popular tourist
destination for the French, British and Spanish,
who can easily reach it in a day, and it matters
little if the fog rolls into the town, topping the
battlements, or the snow falls, but in spring and
fall Dinan shows its darling best.
For finely
wrought and presented but unfussy cuisine, try Le
Cantorbery (6 Rue Sainte-Claire) in a 17th
century building, where you can eat well for a
modest €30. For lunch any of the myriad crêperies
in Dinan will do.
❖❖❖
NEW
YORK CORNER
By John Mariani
MANHATTA
28 Liberty Street(near Maiden Lane)
212-230-5788
Photo
by Emily Andrews
Whew!
For a while there I hesitated
going to Manhatta because little I’d heard or
read about made it sound particularly appealing,
save the fact that it’s on the 60th floor of a
Financial District tower with a 360° panorama of
daunting beauty.
In particular, Pete Wells, in
a NY
Times review entitled “At Danny Meyer’s
Manhatta, Only the View Tries to Dazzle,” wrote,
“You can’t blame Mr. Meyer for not wanting to
open a mediocre splashy restaurant, but Manhatta
flirts dangerously with being a mediocre
unsplashy restaurant.” Ouch! If
anyone
is considered restaurant royalty in New York, it
is Danny Meyer (left),
whose Union Square Hospitality Group more than two
decades ago set a standard for casual but cordial
hospitality at Union Square Cafe that has had
enormous influence on American restaurants
everywhere. He followed up with a series of
first-rate concepts that included The Modern,
Gramercy Tavern, Maialino and Eleven Madison Park
(now owned by others). He also changed the image
of American hamburger stands with Shake Shack,
whose branches are now spread from here to
California and on to China, Russia and throughout
the Arab Middle East.
For all that time, I’ve known
Meyer as a professional friend and, I believe, we
enjoy mutual respect. (One of my sons was long ago
a cook at The Modern.)So I’ve always been candid
with him about his restaurants, many of which made
it onto my annual lists of best new restaurants in
America.I
wasn’t crazy about North End Grill (soon to close
due to “a combination
of declining profitability and rising costs”),
was never a big fan of Blue Smoke barbecue, and
found it difficult to overcome the noise factor at
Marta to ever want to go back.
So I
approached Manhatta anticipating another
grand Danny Meyer concept, an evocative aerie like
The Rainbow Room and the sadly missed Windows on
the World. (By the way, the restaurant's odd spelling
that sort of refers to the island’s Native
American name, Manahatta, as well as to its
standard borough name, but without the final n,
actually references a 1921 documentary film by
Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler.)But aside from the Times
review, I was put off by the posted website menu
(still up as of this writing), which included
several dishes Wells dissed along with
less-than-enticing items like chilled cucumber
soup; heirloom tomato and burrata; baby lettuces
with tahini and mimolette cheese; chicken paillard
with cassoulet; and scallop amandine. Oddly, no
beef, no lamb, no pork, no veal. The menu reads
like something from an abstemious corporate dining
room somewhere else in the building. Yet,
keeping an open mind and a faith in Meyer’s and
Chef Jason Pfeifer’s experience at Per Se,
Gramercy Tavern and Maialino, I made my way
through the maze of streets in the Financial
District into a mundane ground-floor lobby to be
shown to an elevator that soars to the 60th floor,
where we were flanked by a lounge on one side and
a very busy bar on the other.Beyond
that was a main dining room centered by a brightly
lit open kitchen and counter (right), all
of it surrounded by a view no other city in the
world can match for its variety, its sweep, its
carousel-like bridges and its grandeur.You
can’t help but gasp at what looks like a moving,
teeming, beautiful garden of light.
So the large dining room itself
need not—cannot—try to compete, and it doesn’t.
There’s not much color or décor to discern in the
low-lighted room—some navy blue leather and dark
wood—and the decibel level is high, particularly
because Manhatta drawsa booming, boastful downtown
crowd. One woman at a nearby table spoke with such
stridency that, upon leaving, I was tempted to
tell her, “I enjoyed your conversation all night.”
Without
tablecloths to help, attempts have been made to
tamp down the din: Slide your hand under the
wooden tables and you’ll feel sound-absorbing
plastic sponge.
Believe me, no one who's had success snaring a
table at Manhatta in the coming weeks would balk
upon arriving to find a nice, soft tablecloth.
With slight trepidation I
opened the remarkably moderate $78 fixed prixe
menu (which, as in all Meyer's restaurants,
includes the service charge, so there is no need
to tip) to find that next to nothing of the posted
website menu remains.I asked a waiter about this
and he said it changes all the time, depending on
what Pfeifer finds in the market, so the menu
might be printed daily. Nevertheless, chefs never
change menus on a whim—cooks have to be taught how
to make a dish—so I suspect the lackluster Times
review pushed Pfeifer to make a radical change.
Gone are the chilled cucumber soup, the tomato and
burrata, and the baby lettuces. Added now are
wagyu beef and duck, foie gras and lobster
quenelles. I became very hopeful. Beverage
Director Matt Whitney stocks what is already one
of the finest wine lists in New York, especially
commendable for the scores of excellent, often
singular, labels priced under $100.Thank
heavens our sommelier did not go in for
dithyrambic descriptions of the wines, and he was
cordial enough to ask if we wished the chilled
white wine to be left on the table or in an iced
bucket. Cocktails were well rendered.
You receive a paper bag of
terrific little baguettes, though for our table of
four, a ramekin of butter about the size of a
silver dollar was hardly enough. You may receive
an amuse
or two: We got a delicious sunny side up quail's
egg with ham on toast (left) to pop in the mouth, along
with various vegetable crudités.
From the first taste of the
first appetizer I was won over. Instead of using
bland, sometimes fishy pike as the base of a
quenelle, Pfeifer uses chunks of lobster bound
with egg whites and poached, then napped with a
rich Nantua-like sauce dotted with scallions,
onions and mushrooms that set me back
against my chair.It’s a magnificent dish.
Meyer has always put emphasis
on eggs as a dinner dish, and Manhatta’s fluffy
scrambled eggs with crispy sweetbreads and chives
(right)
proves why it’s such a great idea.Very
fine foie gras as a starter comes as a slender
block glazed with Concord grapes, gelée, a dash of
sesame and a small brioche (below).
Sea scallops were sweet and
just cooked through, complemented by the acid
sweetness of apple and buoyed by crème fraiche and
radish.
Turbot is a fish that rarely
makes it across the Atlantic in good shape, but
obviously Pfeifer has obtained a pristine example
of velvety texture, dressed with a very creamy
brown butter, grapes and the crunch of almonds.
Chicken is done in a welcome Cordon Blue style
with oozing cheese and ham and pickled peppers for
pop. That continental canard,
duck à l’orange,
can be a wonderful dish in the classic tradition,
but Pfeifer’s version tastes little of the citrus
fruit except for a few orange segments on the
plate. It needed heft and a balance of sweetness
and tartness to make a claim for a comeback.
Still, the duck itself and its confit were finely
cooked.
The bavette is a bistro-favored
cut of steak with a commendable chewiness, so
making a dish with wagyu bavette does little to
improve the idea. At least you’re not paying extra
for that wagyu. It comes with a butter-rich potato
puree, Brussels sprouts and mushrooms.
Jennifer Bretania and Vanesa
Beltran are co-patîssiers. And I heartily advise
you to order the vanilla soufflé with butterscotch
sauce (right)
in advance (it only takes twelve minutes). It’s
exactly the texture and lightness a soufflé should
be.Also
recommended is a chocolate crèmeuxcrumble on a brittle pâte au choux
with caramel-miso ice cream.Warm
date cake is lavished with crème fraȋche ice cream
and an almost Christmas-y whiskey sauce.Strawberry
sorbet doesn’t really gain anything from an olive
oil sable, basil and a creamy sabayon.
I need hardly mention how
genuinely friendly and knowledgeable the entire
staff is at Manhatta, even pretending to chuckle
when I asked if they could open a window.They
are young and they all seem very committed to the
Meyer Doctrine that if the customer is not always
right, everything will be done to make him happy.
Manhatta
is at the moment booming and reservations are made
a month in advance. Its sky high location easily
explains its allure as a bar and lounge, but now,
as the kitchen hits its stride and its menu
reflects a needed corrective, this may yet become
the Windows on the World for our time.
Open for lunch Mon.-Fri., for
dinner nightly.
❖❖❖
NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
WHAT I'M DRINKING NOW
By John Mariani
A lot of new releases come
into the market after Labor Day, and I've been
doing my best to keep up with them. As
I've noted before, I never sample wines without
food, so here are several I've been enjoying at
lunch and dinner both at home and out and about.
CASTELLO
DI
ALBOLA ACCIAIOLO 2013 ($62)—Here is
abundant evidence that the simplistic I.G.T.
appellation for Italian wines is fast becoming a
badge of honor.This Tuscan of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and
30% Sangiovese is not an innovation but it shows
how well
Sangiovese can add luster and tame down a big
Cab and still stay at 13.5% alcohol. It’s a
truly luscious wine and worth every penny.
VIETTI
LANGHE
NEBBIOLO PERBACCO 2015 ($26)—I was
disappointed in the most recent vintage of
Vietti’s Barolo—rather thin and
one-dimensional—made from the Nebbiolo grape, so
I was doubly delighted with this 100% Nebbiolo
from the Langhe region, within the Barolo area.It’s
a pretty powerful reason to consider Nebbiolo,
which at least in this case, delivers a great
deal in terms of complexity for a very
reasonable price.
BADIA
A
COLTIBUONO CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA 2013
($35)—A classic Chianti Classico that shows the
appellation takes age well, smoothing out the
components of organically grown grapes,
principally Sangiovese, with excellent
aromatics, color and concentration. It’s quite
ready to be enjoyed right now with everything
from pasta with mushrooms and truffles to stews
of rabbit and beef.
BERONIA RIOJA
CRIANZA 2015 ($16)—A Crianza,
within the Rioja appellations, indicates the
wine has been aged for at least two years, at
least one in oak.This one was bottled in September 2017
and aged for three months more.Alcohol
is 13.5%, a blend of 91% Tempranillo, 8%
Garnacha and 1% Mazuelo (elsewhere called
Carignan). This is a very versatile wine,
especially with simply prepared grilled or
roasted meats and poultry.
DRY
CREEK
VINEYARD OLD VINE ZINFANDEL 2015
($35)—Zinfandels, by and large, tend to be big,
even inky wines, and those made from old vines
have a fine balance of spice and tannins. Their
alcohol levels can be high, but Dry Creek’s, at
14.5%, isn’t over the line of drinkability, and
you get all those good Zin flavors like nutmeg,
black pepper and dark berries. At three years
old, it’s loosened its tannins, and this is a
very good wine with roasted game.
MICHTER’S
US*1
TOASTED BARREL FINISH BOURBON ($55)—A
very limited release,
coinciding with Bourbon Heritage Month, had been
out of the market for three years, and I’m glad
it’s back. It is double aged, that is, in two
successive barrels, the second made from
18-month air-dried wood toasted but not charred,
so, while it’s not a mild flavor, neither is it
harsh or too oaky.I can certainly imagine it
in a bourbon Manhattan, but it’s ideal for
sipping either before or after dinner.
SUNTORY
HIBIKI
JAPANESE HARMONY WHISKY ($100)—No one
any longer seriously debates whether Japan can
produce superior whisky in the style of Scotch,
and this new holiday release in a gorgeous
bottle (as is favored by the Japanese)
embellished with the tabane-noshi
symbol of celebration used on special gifts
shows just how amazingly the distinctions have
lessened.It’s a blend of grain and malt whiskies
that results in what its name implies—harmony,
with a touch of sweetness and a little Japanese
oak called Mizunara.
❖❖❖
ANNALS OF EXCESSIVE BEHAVIOR,
NO. 2,466
The
German website the Local reports thatbodybuilder and Ironman
triathlete Jaroslav Bobrowski paid just 15.90
euros ($18.49) for the "Bottomless Meal" at
Running Sushi in the city of Landshut. The
owner said Bobrowski ate five people’s worth
of food — “not normal.” Bobrowski apparently
follows a strict diet where he fasts for 20 hours
per day, then eats his entire allotment of
calories within the remaining four hours.
THE NEW NAPA VALLEY CHURCH OF CULINARY
EVANGELICALISM Meadowoodrestaurant of Napa Valley
"Mission Statement": "We strive for
seriousness, for meaning, and for permanence in our
cooking. We attempt to cook in service to the place in
which we find ourselves--hoping that, if we succeed in
doing so well, that we may cement our legacy within
this greater thing. We hold the thread of the
multitudes of collaborators and of a history shared by
chefs and cooks that have preceded us. We try to do things
right in how we shop and cook; how we approach the
sanctity of the products that we grow and procure; how
we teach and mentor and support our team. We are
relentless in trying to make the food better, more
delicious, more relevant, more singular, more personal.
We are smart enough to know that this is a forever task,
yet impetuous enough to try to still do it all today.
Our food is what we give of ourselves. It is at once our
daily efforts and their culmination."
❖❖❖
Wine
Column Sponsored by Banfi Vintners SANGIOVESE
Wine is a joy year-round but
in cooler weather one
grape varietal has really taken center stage in
my daily activities – that most Italian of
grapes, Sangiovese, and its ultimate expression
– Brunello di Montalcino. From mid-September through mid-October,
the Sangiovese grown for our various styles of red
wines are be harvested, culminating with the top
selection for Brunello di Montalcino.
Second, cooler weather here means
it is time to start enjoying more red wines and
especially Sangiovese based wines.That
includes Banfi’s cru of Brunello, Poggio alle Mura,
literally the cream of the crop of our Sangiovese
vineyards. Alongside our Poggio alle Mura Brunello di
Montalcino, this year we introduced two more wines
from the cru Poggio alle Mura – a Rosso di Montalcino
and a Riserva of Brunello.Rosso is sort of like the
younger brother of Brunello, also made from 100%
Sangiovese grapes but usually a selection from younger
vines and the wine is aged only two years compared to
the four required for Brunello.The
Riserva, on the other hand, is an even more selective
harvest of Sangiovese, and ages for an additional year
before release.
What is so special about this cru
Poggio alle Mura?Well, it is the result our over 30 years of
ongoing research at my family’s vineyard estate,
Castello Banfi.When we first began planting our vines there in
the late 1970s studies from the University of Bordeaux
indicated which strains of many varietals we should
plant, based on the soil type and microclimate of each
vineyard.But
when it came to the region’s native Sangiovese, there
was only local lore, no scientific research.So we took
it upon ourselves to figure out this vine, and set off
on three decades of incredibly detailed research.
We started
with 600 apparent variations on Sangiovese, because it
is so susceptible to variations in weather and soil,
and narrowed that down to 160 truly genetically
different clones.We planted a vineyard with two rows of each
type, made wine from each of them, and charted the
differences – remember, you only get one chance a year
to make wine, so this took time.
It took about ten years to get some
concrete results, though we continue to experiment
today and always will – you never stop learning in
science and nature!Once we determined which were the best,
complementary clones that could be planted together to
make the best Brunello, we chose to plant them in what
we determined to be the optimal vineyard sites.Coincidentally,
the best soils and climate conditions are in the
slopes surrounding the medieval fortress today known
as Castello Banfi, known since Etruscan times as
Poggio alle Mura – the walled hilltop.Hence the
name of our most special “cru” of Brunello,
representing a synthesis between tradition and
innovation.
Though the focus of this study was
our Brunello, all of our Sangiovese-based wines,
including the super Tuscans SummuS, Cum Laude, and
Centine, benefitted from this work.And that’s
the third reason for celebrating Sangiovese this
month, for the range of wonderful reds that usher us
into autumn!One
wine in particular was inspired by our research – the
BelnerO, a Sangiovese dominant blend with what I like
to call a kiss of Cabernet and a whisper of Merlot.We grow the
grapes a little differently for BelnerO than for
Brunello, make the wine with less oak aging and
released it earlier from the winery, providing a
counterpoint to Brunello and a lovely terroir-driven
wine in its own right. If you
know Italians, you know that by nature we are
multi-faceted, varying in mood, and always passionate.As a
nation, we span from the hot sunny beaches of Sicily
near the African coast to the rugged mountains and
Alpine ski slopes of Trentino-Alto Adige in the north.Sangiovese
is grown in almost all of Italy’s regions and reflects
the unique nature of each; it is most famous
(rightfully so) in Tuscany, yet even there it reflects
the nuances of each hilltop, valley and subzone.It has
something a little different to say in Brunello than
Chianti, Morellino than Vino Nobile di Montepulciano,
Rosso di Montalcino than Super Tuscan blends.
Here is a smattering of
Sangiovese-based wines that you may wish to get to
know better, reflecting a spectrum that appeals to
every occasion, every taste, and every budget.We can
assure you that the conversation will never become
boring.
Recommendations for Celebrating
Sangiovese
BelnerO Proprietor’s Reserve Sangiovese
– A refined
cuvée of noble red grapes perfected by our pioneering
clonal research. This dark beauty, BelnerO, is
produced at our innovative winery, chosen 11
consecutive years as Italy’s Premier Vineyard Estate.
Fermented in our patented temperature controlled
French oak and aged approximately 2 additional years.
Unfiltered, and Nitrogen bottled to minimize sulfites.
Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino –
Rich, round, velvety and intensely
aromatic, with flavor hints of licorice, cherry, and
spices. Brunello di Montalcino possesses an intense
ruby-red color, and a depth, complexity and opulence
that is softened by an elegant, lingering aftertaste.
Unfiltered after 1998 vintage.
Castello Banfi Rosso di Montalcino –Brunello's "younger brother," produced
from select Sangiovese grapes and aged in barrique for
10 to 12 months. Deep ruby-red, elegant, vibrant,
well-balanced and stylish with a dry velvety
finish.
Poggio all’Oro Brunello di Montalcino
Riserva – A single vineyard selection of our most
historically outstanding Sangiovese, aged five years
before release, the additional year more than that
required of Brunello including 6 months in barrel and
6 months more in bottle to grant its “Riserva”
designation.Incredible
elegance and harmony. Intense with lots of fruit and
subtle wood influence. Round, complete, well balanced
with hints of chocolate and berries. Unfiltered after
1998.
Poggio alle Mura – The first tangible result of years of
intensive clonal research on Montalcino’s native
Sangiovese grape.Estate bottled from the splendidly sun drenched
vineyards surrounding the medieval Castello from which
it takes its name.The Brunello
di Montalcino is seductive, silky and smoky.Deep ruby
in color with an expressive bouquet of violets, fruits
and berries as well as cigar box, cedar and exotic
spices. The Rosso
di Montalcino is also intense ruby red.The bouquet
is fresh and fruity with typical varietal notes of
cherry and blackberry, enriched by more complex hints
of licorice, tobacco and hazelnut.It is full
bodied, yet with a soft structure, and a surprisingly
long finish. The Poggio alle Mura Brunello di Montalcino
Riserva is deep ruby red with garnet
reflections and a rich, ample bouquet that hints of
prune jam, coffee, cacao and a light balsamic note.It is full
and powerful, with ripe and gentle tannins that make
it velvety and harmonious; this wine is supported by a
pleasing minerality that to me speaks soundly of that
special hillside in southern Montalcino.
SummuS – A wine of towering elegance, SummuS is an
extraordinary blend of Sangiovese which contributes
body; Cabernet Sauvignon for fruit and structure; and
Syrah for elegance, character and a fruity bouquet.An elegant,
complex and harmonious red wine.
Cum Laude – A complex and elegant red which graduated
“With Honors,” characterized by aromas of juicy
berries and fresh spices.
Centine – A Cuvee that is more than half
Sangiovese, the balanced consisting of equal parts of
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.Vinified in
a firm, round style that easily accompanies a wide
range of dishes, this is a smooth and fragrantly
satisfying wine with international character, and a
perennial favorite at my own dinner table.
Banfi Chianti Superiore – The “Superiore” designation signifies
stricter government regulations regarding production
and aging requirements, as compared to regular
Chianti.An
intense ruby red wine with fruit forward aromas and
floral notes.This
is a round wine with well-balanced acidity and fruit.
Banfi Chianti Classico – An enduring classic: alluring
bouquet of black fruit and violets; rich flavors of
cherry and leather; supple tannins and good acidity
for dining.
Banfi Chianti Classico Riserva – Produced from select grapes grown in the
"Classico" region of Chianti, this dry, fruity and
well-balanced red has a full bouquet reminiscent of
violets.
Fonte alla Selva Chianti Classico – This is our newest entry into the Chianti
arena, coming from a 99 acre estate in Castellina, the
heart of the Chianti Classico region.The wine is
a captivating mauve red that smells of cherry, plum
and blackberry with hints of spice.It is
round, full and balanced with very good
acidity.
Col di Sasso – Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon.Luscious,
complex and soft with persistent notes of fruit and
great Italian style structure.
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
The Hound in Heaven
(21st Century Lion Books) is a novella, and
for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance,
inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find
this to be a treasured favorite. The story
concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and
their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their
barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise.
But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and
the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring
his master back from the edge of despair.
“What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was
completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its
message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw
“He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight,
soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani
pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing.
Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James
Dalessandro, author of Bohemian
Heart and 1906.
“John Mariani’s Hound in
Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an
American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise
event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a
voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A
page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote
for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann
Pearlman, author of The
Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister.
“John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a
literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and
the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas
tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children,
read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly
recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling
author of Pinkerton’s War,
The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To
Woodbury.
“Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an
animal. The Hound in
Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that
is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and
his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can
enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara
Royal, author of The
Royal Treatment.
Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but
let me proudly say that it is an extensive
revision of the 4th edition that appeared more
than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular
cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and
so much more, now included. Word origins have been
completely updated, as have per capita consumption
and production stats. Most important, for the
first time since publication in the 1980s, the
book includes more than 100 biographies of
Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat
and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to
Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller.
"This book is amazing! It has entries for
everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more
than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and
drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe.
"Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit.
Now in Paperback,
too--How Italian Food Conquered the
World (Palgrave Macmillan) has won top prize from the
Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards. It is
a rollicking history of the food culture of
Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st
century by the entire world. From ancient Rome
to la dolce
vita of post-war Italy, from Italian
immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from
pizzerias to high-class ristoranti,
this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as
much about the world's changing tastes,
prejudices, and dietary fads as about
our obsessions with culinary fashion and
style.--John Mariani
"Eating Italian will
never be the same after reading
John Mariani's entertaining and
savory gastronomical history of
the cuisine of Italy and how it
won over appetites worldwide. . .
. This book is such a tasteful
narrative that it will literally
make you hungry for Italian food
and arouse your appetite for
gastronomical history."--Don
Oldenburg, USA Today.
"Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.
"Mariani
admirably dishes out the story of
Italy’s remarkable global ascent
to virtual culinary
hegemony....Like a chef gladly
divulging a cherished family
recipe, Mariani’s book reveals the
secret sauce about how Italy’s
cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David
Lincoln Ross,
thedailybeast.com
"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com.
"A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia.
"John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square
Cafe, The Modern, and Maialino.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:
I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK:
Eating Las Vegas
JOHN CURTAS has been covering the Las Vegas
food and restaurant scene since 1995. He is
the co-author of EATING LAS VEGAS – The 50
Essential Restaurants (as well as
the author of the Eating Las Vegas web site: www.eatinglasvegas.
He can also be seen every Friday morning as
the “resident foodie” for Wake Up With the
Wagners on KSNV TV (NBC) Channel 3 in
Las Vegas.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani,
Robert Mariani,Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish,
and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical
Advisor: Gerry
McLoughlin.