Monthly Archives: April 2012

Every now and then I like to escape from the keyboard for a while and do a little fieldwork. While I’m away researching Sardinian Cannonau and Minorcan gin, I would encourage you to do a some research of your own. Go into a wine shop you like and ask for something weird but tasty. Often they’ll have some oddball gem they found at a tasting that they would love to share.

Of course, you’ve probably tried a number of odd drinks in the past already, and I would love to hear about your experiences. Feel free to send me an e-mail about an offbeat wine, spirit or cocktail you’ve tried, and I’ll post some of the stories to this blog. You can reach me at [email protected].

If you don’t have a good story, well, now is an excellent time to make one. Get out there and drink something weird!

I’ll be back on May 5. Cheers!

Last June, I wrote about Ohio’s Lake Erie Islands, which wine critic Frank Schoonmaker highlighted as an important viticultural region in a 1941 issue of Gourmet. But even then, Schoonmaker lamented the lost potential of these islands, which feature unusually favorable terroir for certain grape varieties. Prohibition killed off a number of wineries, and most of those that remained in the mid-20th century were apparently lazy or incompetent. According to Schoonmaker, “Too many – far too many – wines are falsified, are heavily dosed with sugar, or are blended with cheap California wines.”

With significantly declining acreage devoted to vineyards, I had basically written off these romantic-sounding islands. What a pleasant surprise then, to come across a bottle of 2010 Firelands Gewürztraminer from Isle St. George. Also known more prosaically as North Bass Island, Isle St. George achieved AVA (American Viticultural Area) status in 1982, and vineyards currently cover more than half the island.

(more…)

It was one year ago that I walked into In Fine Spirits, asked for their weirdest bottle, and came away with a deliciously velvety Jović Vranac from Serbia. That inspiring find pushed me over the edge into hardcore bloggery, and now, 117 posts later, I continue to milk this blog as an excuse to drink any oddball booze that catches my fancy.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you people who actually read this thing, and to also take stock and see what’s been catching your fancy. Some of my posts are much, much more popular than others, and it’s fascinating to see what drinks people are most interested in reading about.

It was a big surprise to see my post about Becherovka, an herbal Czech liquor which is tasty with tonic, rank at #11. No cocktail posts made it into the top 10, but the posts about Chicago’s Koval Distillery and the “Hidden Gems of Cognac” came in at #6 and #7, respectively.

A piece about the glories of Virginia Viognier made it to #8, but all the other top wine posts — #2, #4, #5 and #10 — were all about wines and spirits from Serbia! Who knew?

(more…)

I was about to leave a wine tasting at Rogers Park Fine Wines & Spirits, when I noticed that half the people in line to check out had at least one bottle of Massaya Classic in their hands. Recently, I saw the Massaya Classic appear again, this time in In Fine Spirits‘ “tasting tournament.” It made it to the final four, at least. This obscure Lebanese red blend seems unlikely to remain obscure for long.

I wisely bought a bottle of the 2008 at the Rogers Park tasting, and I finally decided to open it and see what the fuss was about. The nose of red fruit, red meat and black pepper seemed promising, and indeed, it won me over at first sip with big, fruity flavors of cherries and plums followed by a peppery finish. I could see why this wine was so popular.

We paired it, perhaps in error, with some homemade pork tacos topped with guacamole, salsa, black beans, rice, cilantro and cheese. The wine became almost overpoweringly spicy, the black pepper kicking into overdrive. (I’m still working on a good red to pair with spicier dishes — if anyone has had any success beyond Lambrusco, please let me know.)

So what’s going on here? Is Lebanon poised to become a real player in the international wine markets? Although nowadays it’s associated more with Hezbollah and war, Lebanon has produced quality wine for thousands of years. Most of the vineyards (including Massaya’s) grow in the Bekaa Valley, where the ancient Romans erected a temple to Bacchus. Even then, this was major terroir.

(more…)