Boris_A

What time frame do you think of? At a certain point, a double investment (for prelim now AND final later) economically doesn't make sense. BTW, Is there a list of the most hatred elements in your present kitchen?

Like those mags?

4 kids? Varmint, you're my hero!

Here in Europe more than 50% of newly built kitchens are integrated in the living room (or vice versa). I've never met anyone who regretted it. From what I've seen on your pictures - it would make sense. A lot.

Victor, what book? I'm a big fan of traditional, regional cooking.

A.R. Valdespino could be available too. Note: Finos and Manzanillas should be freshly bottled. Your suppplier should have a sufficiently high turnover. Anyway - Jerez is a hot candidate for the title of a most underrated wine region. In my private sensoric wine map, Port and Fino are the opposite poles. Dry whites are near the Fino pole, fruity, alcoholic modern reds are near the Port pole.

If the other source I found is correct and any further (re-)plantation of Petit Meslier and Arbane (together around 0.2% of the total plantation surface) is no longer allowed, then this kind of Champagne is living history.

Yore are in the best company. Some of the greatest chefs of all times showed (at least off record) their private love for simple ingredients and basic preparations. Get the best pig's feet you can find around and try to improve on and on the way to prepare them. There's no more culinary delight possible in this world.

I just tried to find out something about the characterisitics of these old grapes. I think the digging out of old, forgotten grapes is a fairly big trend in Europe. Some of them are incredibly confined, sometimes to a single hill side of a village. Many of them are by no means 'great' or so. But after having seen wines made by global varieties (CS, Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay, ...) from all over the world, many consumers feel attracted by the 'indigenous' (autochthones) varieties having existed maybe for centuries around the corner.

I found this description here: " I went straight to my Terry Theise grower Champagne handbook. It means “the old vines of the countryside” and the Aubry brothers are about the last family to have these old, arcane varietals and certainly the fi rst to reintroduce the world to them. I quote from Terry Theise…“Arbanne, (10%; it gives the “herbs and honey” fl avors), Petit Meslier, (30%; it gives the “orange and lemon” fl avors), Fromenteau! (30%; it gives the Pinot Gris fl avors, I guess!), plus 15% Meuniers, 10% Chardonnay and 5% Pinot Noir! Anyone who loves Champagnehell, anyone remotely curious about WINE-owes it to him/herself to slurp into this 1-of-a-kind wonder.”" On a French site, I found something like "replantation (of Petit Meslier, Arbanne) is no longer allowed", but no reason was given Regards

Redeeming factor yes - but maybe only for the one who paid for the commercials.

Vespaiola, Garganega and Tocai Here I found Maculans wine descriptions.

No no, you're absolutely right, the greatness of GV ist not widely recognized. And when I think of WineSpectator ratings, I guess among US wine aficionados "Grüner" or simply "GV" is already better known than in Europe (except in Austria, of course). There's a thread over there about (Canadian) Icewine. Maybe those (except famous Inniskillin) are examples for an underrated North-American wine type. Opinions?

The problem with Grüner Veltliner is his popularity for 15 years now in Austria. The quality revolution didn't go unnoticed there and now we have prices up to $40 for the best bottles in retail. Underrated, but not way underpriced, as LOS said. A truly underrated region is something where improvements had just begun with some producers and where only some of their clientele know it. A place where journalists and writers are still caught in prejudice and behind the knowledge of smart customers. There's a kind of the 'institutional lemming' factor at work: You can't be wrong when writing what others write. And don't stick your neck out by some risky judgement. Finding underrated regions is labour intensive grassroot work. The price you get is the pride of having been among the first to notice it. If you're wrong, you're only ridicoulous.

The Michelin Guide is a money loosing venture. Obviously they don't feel strongly tempted to enlarge the scope of the Guides to other continents. Does Michelin sell tyres in the US? Market share?

And please don't forget to boycott truffles from Perigord, foie gras, Châteauneuf, Clos de la Roche, whatever as well. It's so expensive here in Old Europe.

I suggest Austrian "Grammelknödel" two pounds potatoes, cooked, cold, finely grated ('floury' type of potatoes, as we say) 7 ounces of flour 1-2 eggs salt Prepare a dough form balls (a bit smaller than a tennis ball) fry the Grammeln very shortly, add parsley if you like it fill the balls in the center with about a teaspoon of Grammeln boil them until they start to swim serve preferrably not with Schlag (rather with leaf salad)

I use the Victorinox Rex potato peeler. Made from alu and stainless steel, at 2 greenbacks you can buy it in half dozens. This item is fabricated unchanged for about half a century. Couldnt locate an US source though. A bit more expensive (8 dollars) is the Kuhn Rikon All Stainless Steel peeler

Oh, you're on the way to become an 'affinateur'! Unfortunately, I have no idea about cheese storage, what is always cheese maturing at the same time. And an utmost complex and fascinating world. I advocate your proposition.

Varmint, you mentioned a six burner range. A simmer plate large enough is not really fancy, but great for all cooking on low heat. You can crowd there a lot of pans and casseroles at the same time. But please don't ask me where to find such apparatus in the US.

Me too, but cooking is inherently troublesome I use to cut the isolated stems very finely and fry them for 30 seconds in hot, foamy butter. They have a very nice light greenish colour and an elegant parsley flavour. I use them on lightly fried or poached fish of delicate taste (pike, perch, etc.).

Seems that those smart producers found way to get good ratings and to satisfy their old customer base at the same time. I never had any doubt about Parkers sincerity. It's the inherent mechanism of his success what's causing trouble.

Do ratings help consumers? Early in my vino career, I found Parker quite helpful to develop a deeper understanding of wine taste. Later on, searching in the unchartered aka unparkerised wine regions, I was able to place his reviews in a larger spectrum of parameters like concentration, acidity, fruit, etc. Today, I find ratings decently helpful for wines displaying a stable style charachteristic and I'm somewhat familiar with. I tend to buy more bottles of higher rated vintages expecting more aging potential. I dont believe his comment coming out of jealousy. I think the bitterness in his indescretion is more aimed at the factual amount of influence of Parkers preferences on wine style. For a true wine lover, alining of taste is a doubtful development. Body? Too loaded? A typical element with high rated tasting wines?

Grivelet Cusset and Patriarche are running negociant businesses in Burgundy today. (They buy young wine and vinificate and bottle it.) Until today, some Burgundy negociants have southern Rhone operations. In general, Id expect wine meant to be consumed in the first several years after bottling.

As I said, for wine and sprits the origin rules are essentially undisputed. The problem for Cheddar (or Gruyère or Emmentaler for that matter) is that these are nor recognized designators of origin in their homebase. You can produce Emmental not only in the Emmental, but all over in Switzerland. If theres no clear origin defined in the home country, you cannot request such a protection outside of your country. Same for "Bourbon". If US law doesnt require Bourbon to be from Bourbon, Kentucky, then everyone is allowed to use it for indicating a type of liquor. In the US and elsewhere. Again, the basic idea is the indiscriminating use (protection) of such identifyers.