Omnivore Atlanta

The snooty side of food pairings preaches “no wine with salad.” I fed on this falsehood for years, following the widely-held mantra like an evangelical wino. Then one day a miraculous salad and vino combo made me rethink my reliance on traditional not-so-wisdom.

Not that I was always so cool and contrarian. Before my re-awakening, I lapped up all the drivel wine magazines and writers spit out. But, like a rebellious teenager, I slowly realized it wasn’t adding up. Salads are simply another dish with sauce slathered on it. Match the sauce with the wine and you win. To give tradition some credit, back in the day salad dressings mostly contained robust vinegars like distilled white or cider that rendered wine lifeless and dull; it made sense to teach wine-with-salad avoidance. Times have changed, however. Now that less acidic rice or sweeter balsamic vinegars and lime and lemon use are common, wine and dressing can snuggle up and make sweet, tart love.

Continue reading Pairing Wine with Salad

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Here’s a scene from a meal I had this week at a new-ish, high end restaurant in town.

Me: “I’d like to know about a couple of wines.”

Waiter: “OK, which wines were you interested in?”

Me: “This German pinot blanc, and this white Burgundy. What can you tell me about them?”

Waiter: “I’m not familiar with either of those wines. Let me go check for you.”

The waiter left for around 10 minutes, and when he came back he said “The French wine is going to be a little bit dry, like a chardonnay. And the German wine will be fruity.”

I bit my tongue. It’s tempting, in these type of situations, to say something like, “You mean like a chardonnay because it IS a chardonnay? Yes, I knew that, what can you tell me about it?”

But really, is it even the waiter’s fault? Shouldn’t the restaurant be training, and even testing its servers on wine knowledge? Or, just as acceptable to me, if the waiter doesn’t know the wine, shouldn’t there be someone on hand who can give me more information than a broad description of what wines from that country generally taste like?

Unfortunately, this experience is not uncommon in Atlanta restaurants. And I’m talking expensive restaurants, the kind where you’re paying a premium for touches like … wine service! Apart from general lack of knowledge, I’ve recently had a waiter pour for my husband when I ordered, another waiter bypass the tasting altogether (on the one bottle of the year so far that I’ve had to send back — a real pain when everyone at the table already had full glasses), many waiters who don’t even recognize the name of a wine I’m ordering off of relatively short lists, and many, many waiters who, if they do know anything about wine, assume that I don’t and lecture me about how I probably won’t like the French chardonnay I’ve ordered because it isn’t buttery. Or something equally insulting.

In fact, wine service is so bad in Atlanta, that for all the meals I eat out, I can remember more vividly the ones where the wine service was decent, because it’s so uncommon. Craft. Repast. A former sommelier from Floataway Cafe who I still remember three years later just because she was enthusiastic and recommended something I wouldn’t have picked otherwise but loved nonetheless.

What’s up Atlanta? Why is this one area of service that so often falls apart? My challenge to you: step it up! I’m thirsty!

(Image courtesy sxc.hu)

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In January of last year, Star Provisions stopped selling wine, using the space instead for upscale handbags and linens. I was pissed. Today I stopped by and was delighted to see that they are carrying wine again, in the space across from the bakery counter where they used to sell candy and chocolate. The selection is small but really well chosen, and there’s a lot of space dedicated to half bottles.

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On Sun. Feb. 22, Athens will host its 16th Annual A Taste of Athens while celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Community Connection—the beneficiary of the event.

From 5-8 p.m. at the Classic Center (300 N. Thomas St.) more than 50 local restaurants will provide wine and beer tasting, food and a silent auction. There will also be a birthday cake competition showcasing local restaurants and bakeries.

General Admission is $45 and VIP access costs $75. That gets you access to the VIP Taste Garden, early entrance, special gifts and more. Proceeds benefit the Community Connection. It is an organization that links those in need of social services and the services they need.

For more information visit the Taste of Athens or call 706-208-0900. Also check out Community Connection for details on the organization.

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I had an interesting email exchange last week after posting my first wine find of the week. Our friend Hardy over at Dirty South Wine was horrified that I would send folks to the Tinder Box in Lenox Mall – he felt as though I should be promoting local, locally owned wine merchants rather than chains that have no connection to the community. Point taken, but part of my goal here is to give people all kinds of options from all kinds of retailers. I had to admit, as much as I’d love to get to the smaller shops for all my wine, I buy a lot of wine at the supermarket – I’m there already, it’s convenient, it’s on my way home. I think a lot of people shop like that.

It was not my intention to blaspheme even more outrageously this week, but it turns out the wine I decided to feature is only available in one spot in Atlanta right now – WalMart. I know – reprehensible (since when did WalMart sell booze, anyway?), but again, I think that’s part of the problem of writing about wine without a retail component. I didn’t buy this wine, I tasted it randomly, and I wanted to write about it. If it’s only available at WalMart I’d rather say that straight up than leave you with no way to find a bottle. Next week, a local retailer, I promise…

2006 Espiritu de Chile Carmenère

$11, Available at the Howell Mill Road WalMart

Wines from Chile are some of the best deals around these days, and this one is no exception. Carmenère is a grape traditionally used in Bordeaux blends, but on its own it makes for a meduim-bodied red with soft tannins. The Espiritu de Chile would make for a great Christmas wine because it’s round and fruity but also has enough black pepper and darker accents to keep it lively and balanced. At $11 this is one of the better deals I’ve come across recently.

(Photo courtesy Espiritu de Chile)

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Here’s what always annoys me about wine writing: babbling about floral notes and up-front fruit is all good and well, but for those of us who don’t have an encyclopedic memory, it very rarely matters – not because we don’t care, but because we aren’t likely to stumble upon the bottle in question. I’ve read about wines that sounded so good I wrote them down and kept my eye out for them, but that is not the norm. What I want to know is, what great, affordable wine should I be looking for at the nearest wine shop? Where can I actually find a wine worth buying?

In an effort to address that need, I’m launching “Wine find of the week,” a regular spot on the blog where I’ll tell you exactly where you can go to get a certain, decent bottle of wine. Because my budget is limited (as I’m assuming yours is – if not, bully for you), I’ll be keeping my finds in the under $20-range.

A couple of disclaimers before we get started: while I hope to cover a broad range of wines in this spot, the wine find of the week will reflect my personal tastes a bit, which come with some prejudices. I hope to challenge many of those prejudices – perhaps there is a huge, buttery California chardonnay that I’ll come to love (I doubt it). I’m a bit of a Francophile, so be forewarned. Very bold red wines with huge tannins give me migraine headaches. I’m talking, like, after one sip. So I probably won’t be covering too many of those here.

Beyond that, I’ll try to be as broad as possible. If you have tips for me – especially if you’ve found a fantastic bottle at a local store that you think I should feature here, please email me about it: besha.rodell@creativeloafing.com. And now to this week’s find:

Chateau Cantelaudette 2006 Graves – $16

Available at Tinderbox Vino 100 in the Lenox Mall

Lord, it’s mall season – I swear, every year I promise myself I’m not going to end up at the mall for holiday shopping, and every year I do. This year, I came across Vino 100, which is in the Tinderbox store (near Urban Outfitters). The store’s premise is that they have 100 wines for under $25. I didn’t find a whole lot there that excited me, but I did find this – a white Bordeaux that’s a blend of Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. I was pretty surprised – this would be a wine to stump someone in a blind taste test. Big, tropical, almost over-ripe – it reminded me of some Australian Semillons – but then it finishes dry and almost smoky, without any unpleasant lingering oak. This is a fairly rich white, and would stand up to a lot of food, even some game dishes. If you get dragged to the mall this year, sneak away (”It’s a secret” actually works quite well this time of year) and grab a bottle.

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The wine industry’s embrace of screw-tops and synthetic corks doesn’t just threaten the livelihood of wood cork-makers, it apparently threatens cork forest ecosystems.

From Audobon Magazine:

“If consumers and the wine industry turn their back on cork, then these forests will lose their viability and risk facing the axe,” says Grahame Madge, an RSPB spokesman. “If you’re not drinking wine that’s been in touch with a cork, then it is like felling the trees yourself.”

Note to the person who received a bottle of Two Buck Chuck (with natural wood cork) from me last week: I’m not a cheap dinner guest. I was simply doing my part to save ancient Portuguese cork groves.

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I’ve heard rumors that the City of Atlanta is enforcing laws that prohibit restaurant sales of half-price bottles of wine. At least one restaurant has been fined a hefty fee.

The half-price special is a common incentive restaurants offer to increase trade on slow nights, typically Mondays and Tuesdays.

I’ve been unable to confirm this, although it comes from a very reliable source.

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I stopped by Star Provisions today for a sandwich, cup of coffee and a bottle of wine, which are the three things I usually go to Star Provisions for. In fact, when driving up Marietta and trying to decide whether to continue up Howell Mill to Star Provisions or stop at Octane, the toss up was between Octane’s cappuccino and Star Provisions’ wine selection. Both places have good sandwiches (although, to be fair, Star Provisions has REALLY good sandwiches as opposed to Octane’s decent ones). Anyway, wine won out over cappuccino today. But alas, I was thwarted. Star Provisions has stopped selling wine! The whole wine room was just sad, empty shelves.

The woman I spoke to who works there said it is a permanent business decision, based on the fact that they “just can’t compete” with the large wine retailers. Even if their wine sales don’t make up a huge portion of sales, I do wonder how many people, like me, stop in for wine and do other shopping and lunching there as well.

Luckily for me, Toscano and Sons, across the street from Octane, has a good Italian wine selection. So now I guess I’ll be able to have my wine and cappuccino, too.

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What is it about an Academy Award that inspires some of America’s finest to change their medium from reels of celluloid to food? Here is an example theory: Paul Newman, disgusted with the tasteless oil and vinegar of his post-Oscar dinner salad, thought to himself, “I can do better” — thus whole-heartedly delving into the market of prepackaged culinary delights. This phenomenon remains a mystery, yet one of the newer members of the famous-name food scene is highly acclaimed filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who personally brought a promotional “taste” of his entrepreneurial efforts to Atlanta last weekend.

On May 13, the legendary Italian-American stepped out onto a small stage at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead to unveil the newest addition to his growing list of wines. In the past, Coppola has grown, fermented and marketed mainstream grapes such as merlot and cabernet. He is now taking an Old World Italian approach to the new selection by creating simple white and red table wines aptly named Rosso & Bianco. This new line of “Vino da Tavola” is to be enjoyed with any and every meal.

Coppola invited his patrons to enjoy several (dozen) bottles of each while he mingled and shared tales of his heritage and fame. While the “Bianco” is a crisp, fruity pinot grigio, Coppola mixed things up a bit with a blended “Rosso.” Consisting of mostly zinfandel with smaller quantities of syrah and cabernet, this red packs all the jammy spice that one might expect from such a combo of grapes. Few partiers ever saw the bottom of their glasses, as Coppola’s entourage of staff kept refilling with abandon.

(more…)

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