FineWineCountry.com
Nov 10 2008
Wine Bread Cheese Grapes Coffee Gift Basket is measuring 9x9x4. Contains 15oz mug, BONUS free set of 4 coasters, biscotti and 5 blends of gourmet coffee. French Vanilla, Kenya AA, Decaf Colombian Supremo, Chocolate and Italian Roast Espresso elegantly presented in our signature black planet coffee gift box. A very nice and thoughtful gift for any occasion.
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Nov 10 2008
Customer Review: Burgundy...Made a Little Easier
As a former Burgundy buyer/expert for a huge retailer, I found this to be the most complete book on Burgundy to date. The information is well laid out and decently up to date (2004 edition). The producer bios are all very in depth.
Not for beginners by any means, but a must read for anyone developing advanced wine education.
Pros: well written, great information, superb bios
Cons: paperback (at least mine is), lacks good maps (but the World Atlas of Wine helps so have it handy)
Customer Review: Burgundy
I found the information, the review, the opinion of this book is not that useful, because the information content is out of date. An updated version will be helpful.
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Nov 09 2008
Associated Press - November 8, 2008 2:04 PM ET MONROE, La. (AP) - West Monroe is the site of 1 of Louisiana's five commercial vineyards. Landry Vineyards and Winery moved from Folsom...
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Nov 08 2008
As those who knew him will attest, Francophile and food writer Richard Olney was one of a kind—a writerly cook who had a tremendous influence on American cooking via his well-worn cottage on a hillside in Provence. Born in the Midwest in 1927 and drawn to France at the tender age of twenty-four, Olney was unapologetically attracted to the style, flavors, and tastes of French cooking when most Americans were smitten by the wonders of the new prepared foods in their markets. With unrelenting passion and precision, Olney studied and explored the cuisine, carefully documenting all he had learned for future generations of chefs, cooks, and food lovers. His first of several landmark works, THE FRENCH MENU COOKBOOK was well ahead of its time with its authentic French recipes and then-unheard-of seasonal approach to cooking. Little did we know then that THE FRENCH MENU COOKBOOK would provide inspiration for Alice Waters and her compatriots as they built the groundwork for a culinary revolution in America. Brimming with the honest and enlightening explanations of how the French really cook and the 150-plus authentic recipes, this book is a masterful resource that is a must for every serious cook.
Customer Review: A great supplement to Simple French Food
This book is a great addition to Olney's classic Simple French Food.
Customer Review: Possibly the most sophisticated cookbook in English
Looking back to 1970, the year this book was first published, puts its sophistications in context and underscores the enormity of its contributions. America was deep in culinary ignorance, eating out of cans and supplementing that metal-tinged blandness with gut-busting mountains of artificial 'foods'. America was lost somehwere between the post-war meat-and-potatoes era and the chemical concoctions of the 80s and beyond. Small glimmers of possibility illuminated the occassional suburban cocktail party, when hostesses under the influence of Julia Child trotted out a few hotel-food hors d'oeuvres, and a few ethnic enclaves still held up a candle of flavor, but America was largely a culinary wasteland. Servings were large, everything was bland, and mealtime had become TV time. Without flavor or family, American meals were effectively dead.
It was into this lunar food landscape that Richard Olney introduced several revolutionary ideas at once in The French Menu Cookbook. I should say that he RE-introduced these ideas, because they had existed, with varying degrees of sophistication, for as long as people had eaten, but an industrial food system had interrupted that great cultural memory. This book's structure is its message: the food is introduced not by category, but by course within menus, and the menus themselves are organized by season. For those of us who have heard the gospel of seasonality and regional availability and freshness from Alice Waters and Paul Bertolli, at al, it can be easy to forget that this idea is still, 36 years after The French Menu Cookbook, radical, and so against the grain of the industrial food complex as to be almost an act of treason. But Richard Olney's way with food started that revolution at possibly the most inoportune moment in Americna history.
A sample menu says it all:
An Informal Spring Dinner
Hors d'oeuvre of Crudites
Shrimp Quiche
Coq au Vin
Steamed Potatoes
Wild Green Salad
Cheeses
Flamri with Raspberry Sauce
all of the above matched with appropriate wines.
Notice the careful development through the courses, the constant shifts of flavor to keep the palate alive, the seasonal ingredients... All of this was deeply shocking at the time.
But there's one more big surprise: this book is every bit as good today as it was in 1970. It doesn't feel even remotely dated, like Julia Child's books do. Maybe, in hueing so faithfully to the principles of freshness, seasonality, and regional availability, Olney tapped into something timeless. And so this book was a classic the day it was published, and remains one of the most sophisticated, satisfying, and inspiring cookbooks ever published.
Very highly recommended.
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Nov 08 2008
Gift box includes 3.75 ounces each of Merlot Cheddar, Chardonnay Havarti, Cabernet Sauvignon and White Zinfandel Havarti pasteurized process cheese spread. Mille Lacs popular wine-flavored cheese spreads in a boxed set. Shipping Notes: Expedited shipping required May through September. During the summer months, a portion of the product price includes special packaging.
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Nov 08 2008
It was while enjoying a friend's bottle of out-of-state wine that renowned Napa Valley wine photographer Charles O'Rear and his wife, Daphne, decided to embark on the ultimate wine road trip. Two years and 80,000 miles later, WINE ACROSS AMERICA presents the fruits of their journey, documenting the passion and pride of winegrowers, winemakers, and wine drinkers from New England to Florida, Alaska to Hawaii, and everywhere in between. The first photography book to showcase American wine country, this lavishly illustrated tribute will inform, entertain, and inspire readers to see and taste the American wine revolution for themselves.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT WINE ACROSS AMERICA
* The number of wineries in America has more than doubled in the last decade.
* America's first wine was made in Florida in 1564.
* Wine cellars in Missouri that were dug in 1880 are still in use.
* The most visited winery in the United States is in North Carolina, and the second most visited is in Hawaii.
* Besides grapes, wine is also made from blueberries, rhubarb, plums, oranges and pineapple.
* Wine is made in converted barns, stables, churches, schoolhouses, fire stations, and even a bordello.
Customer Review: Coffee-table picture book, not a travel guide to wineries!
Somehow I didn't fully grasp from the Web page that this is a coffee-table picture book of photos of wineries across America--it is NOT a guide or travelogue you could use to visit wineries as you drive across country, which is what I wanted. I allowed myself to be misled by the words "Road Trip" in the title. It's not even a narrative of the authors' driving around the country visiting wineries!
In fact, you can't *use* this book at all, you can only look at the pictures, because there is no map of where these wineries are, or addresses to find them. Not what I had in mind, and this mismatch is why I give it a low score. (As a picture book, though, it's pretty.)
Customer Review: Wine Across America book
Great book, wonderful pictures and nicely done. If you make homemade wine, I think you will love this book, as much as we did.
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Nov 07 2008
Evangelia's traditional Greek Cookies are named after Esther Luongo Psarakis' mother-in-law who runs the family farm on Crete. It is her picture on the box. She shared with Esther all of her favorite recipes,and these were among the first. These healthy cookies contain No Trans Fats, No Cholesterol, No Eggs or Butter and No Preservatives - just Unbleached Wheat Flour, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, White Wine, Sugar, Orange Juice, Sesame Seeds, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Cinnamon. They have a lovely fragrance and delicate flavor. They are not too sweet and are a nice compliment to cheeses, tea and coffee. Try them with goat cheese and heather honey.
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Nov 07 2008
A four-year dispute between a Temecula-area winery and Riverside County is before the county Planning Commission, which wants to see how the winery conducts itself before taking action.
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Nov 06 2008
IT STANDS TO REASON THAT IF OUR FOODS ARE NOW LIGHTER AND MORE DYNAMIC, OUR WINES SHOULD BE ALSO.
A longtime champion of the victimized wine consumer, Willie Gluckstern debunks the myths and misinformation surrounding the (allegedly) complex subject of wine. His straightforward advice includes:
Plus, the straight poop on oak, "the MSG of wine," a few well-chosen words for greedy restaurants and retailers ("Those bastards!"), and an unprecedented expose of mass-market Champagne, including how to find the good stuff by cracking the secret label code.
Irreverent, informative, and controversial, The Wine Avenger is indispensable for beginners as well as enthusiasts.
Customer Review: Good reading.
Very good reading for beginners. This little book will teach you a lot in less than 200 pages. Its strength relays on the tips for picking wine and how to match it with food. The author is very enthusiastic about whites, yes, especially for German whites, but since they are not the most popular or well known, the information turns out to be valuable. If you don't feel confident about what you know, keep this book close and open it any time you have to make a decision. It has a helpful index.
One mistake, though, in page 168. Ceviche is not Mexican, but Peruvian in origin, though it's true that a Proseco, like any other sparkler is good match for it. Most Peruvians eat their ceviche, and their amazing seafood, with beer, when the perfect company is near by: the Blanc de Blancs from Tacama (from Ica, in the southern coast of Peru).
The Wine Avenger is a very accessible book and will be enjoyed by beginners and people who want to avoid a sophisticated vocabulary (i.e. most of us).
Customer Review: Best and most easy to understand book and very witty!
This little book is a gem and a real bargain. In a small space it manages to cover the whole gamut of the wine world including European wines. It also cuts through the jargan and delivers what you really need to know in a straightforward and very witty manner.
I own a number of books on wine and if I had to choose between this book and keeping all of the other ones, I would keep this ONE book! It's really that good. It has saved me money in terms of buying good inexpesive wines, increased my enjoyment of wine with food by learning how to pair food and wine correctly. It also gave me the knowledge I needed to discuss wine intelligently with anyone.
This author is NOT out to be politically correct or to make friends in the wine industry. I think the same is true of the restuarant industry because he is very blunt in his criticisms, particularly of over-priced restaurant wine. His use of words along these lines accounts for much of the humor in his writing.
If you know of anyone who has wine as a hobby they will enjoy reading this. If you are intimidated by the world of wine, you wouldn't be after you finish this book. It will also save you money and open up new worlds in terms of differnt types of wine from all over the world.
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